Belief in School Meritocracy and the Legitimization of Social and Income Inequality

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State: Public
Version: Final published version
License: CC BY-NC 4.0
Serval ID
serval:BIB_18C77861903C
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Belief in School Meritocracy and the Legitimization of Social and Income Inequality
Journal
Social Psychological and Personality Science
Author(s)
Batruch Anatolia, Jetten Jolanda, Van de Werfhorst Herman, Darnon Céline, Butera Fabrizio
ISSN
1948-5506
1948-5514
Publication state
Published
Issued date
07/2023
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
14
Number
5
Pages
621-635
Language
english
Abstract
Educational institutions are imbued with an institutional meritocratic discourse: only merit counts for academic success. In this article, we study whether this institutional belief has an impact beyond its primary function of encouraging students to study. We propose that belief in school meritocracy has broader societal impact by legitimizing the social class hierarchy it produces and encouraging the maintenance of inequalities. The results of four studies (one correlational study, Ntotal = 198; one experiment, Ntotal = 198; and two international data surveys, Ntotal = 88,421 in 40+countries) indicate that belief in school meritocracy reduces the perceived unfairness of social class inequality in society, support for affirmative action policies at university and support for policies aimed at reducing income inequality. Together, these studies show that the belief that schools are meritocratic carries consequences beyond the school context as it is associated with attitudes that maintain social class and economic inequality.
Keywords
Clinical Psychology, Social Psychology
Pubmed
Web of science
Open Access
Yes
Funding(s)
Swiss National Science Foundation / P1LAP1_164890
Create date
04/11/2022 15:39
Last modification date
15/07/2023 5:48
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