System justification theory explains why individuals rationalise and defend existing social, economic and political arrangements, often to their own detriment. Ideological beliefs function as ...

Why do we stick up for a system or institution we live in -- a government, company, or marriage -- even when anyone else can see it is failing miserably? Why do we resist change even when the system ...

In the middle of the 16th century, a 22-year-old law student in France named Etienne de la Boétie wrote an essay entitled "Discourse of Voluntary Servitude" that was circulated among academics for ...

A Theory of System Justification: Major Tenets According to system justification theory, people are motivated to defend, bolster, and justify the social, economic, and political systems on which they ...