Date: 2023
Type: Article
Belief in school meritocracy and the legitimization of social and income inequality
Social psychological and personality science, 2023, Vol. 14, No. 5, pp. 621-635
BATRUCH, Anatolia, JETTEN, Jolanda, VAN DE WERFHORST, Herman G., DARNON, Céline, BUTERA, Fabrizio, Belief in school meritocracy and the legitimization of social and income inequality, Social psychological and personality science, 2023, Vol. 14, No. 5, pp. 621-635
- https://hdl.handle.net/1814/74913
Retrieved from Cadmus, EUI Research Repository
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.
Additional information:
Published online: 17 August 2022
Cadmus permanent link: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/74913
Full-text via DOI: 10.1177/19485506221111017
ISSN: 1948-5506; 1948-5514
Publisher: Sage
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