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Infrahumanization and Socio-Structural Variables: The Role of Legitimacy, Ingroup Identification, and System Justification Beliefs

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Abstract

As there is a robust tendency to support system-legitimizing beliefs by appealing to stereotypes or ideologies, we examined the role played by the perception of the status quo in relation to the infrahumanization bias. We compared this bias in high versus low-status group members and tested the mediating role of system justification beliefs and ingroup identification. The results of a moderated-mediated regression model (N = 238) showed that the perception of legitimacy of one’s own status had differential effects on the infrahumanization bias: The perception of legitimacy was positively associated with the endorsement of system justification beliefs and negatively associated with ingroup identification among low-status group members, whereas the perception of legitimacy was positively associated with ingroup identification among high-status group members. In both groups, ingroup identification was positively correlated with the tendency to infrahumanize the outgroup, while the endorsement of system justification beliefs was linked to the infrahumanization among low-status group members only. The findings highlight that the Social Identity Theory and the System Justification Theory can be fruitfully combined to explain infrahumanization tendencies.

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Notes

  1. In the pre-test, we used a composite measure of social distance, namely whether the respondents thought it was acceptable, on a scale from 1 to 9, to have members of different immigrant groups as neighbor, colleagues, or spouse. The immigrant groups considered were the largest groups of immigrants from Latin America in the city were the study was carried out (Colombians, Peruvians, and Ecuadoreans). We also included social distance measures for other large immigrant groups (Moroccans, Romanians, and Albanians). Results of this pre-test showed no significant differences in perceptions of social distance between Colombians and Peruvians, t(20) = − 0.058, p = .954, and between Colombians and Ecuadoreans, t(20) = 0.666, p = .513, and significant differences between Colombians and Moroccans, Romanians, and Albanians (lowest t test, t(20) = 3.684, p = .001).

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by PRIN grant from the Italian Ministry of Education and Research (MIUR, Prin 200974XYL2_003). The grant supported the research project on “Legitimizing discrimination: psychological strategies to maintain social differences. The role of moderators by ideologies, identification and intergroup ambivalence”. The authors would like to thank Ximena Cortes Gaviria and Caterina Paiano for their support during the data collection.

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Torino, Via Verdi 10, 10124, Turin, Italy

    Silvia Russo & Cristina Onesta Mosso

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  1. Silvia Russo
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Correspondence to Cristina Onesta Mosso.

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Russo, S., Mosso, C.O. Infrahumanization and Socio-Structural Variables: The Role of Legitimacy, Ingroup Identification, and System Justification Beliefs. Soc Just Res 32, 55–71 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-018-0321-x

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