System justification as conscious and nonconscious goal pursuit.

In attempting to understand why acquiescence in the face of injustice is so prevalent and why social change is so rare and difficult to accomplish, system justification theory posits that -- to varying degrees, depending on both situational and dispositional factors -- people are motivated to defend, justify, and rationalize the status quo (e.g., Jost, Banaji, et al., 2004; Jost & Hunyady, 2002, 2005). In this chapter we focus on the motivational basis of system justification, the palliative function it serves, and the implications of the theory for the dynamics of social change. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)