Social Inequality and System-Justifying Function of Compensatory Judgments in Person Perception

Abstract

This study addressed the system-justifying function of compensatory judgments in person perception. We hypothesized that compensatory judgments of competence and warmth would create an illusion of equality, thereby fulfilling system-justifying motives in the economically unequal society. An experimental vignette study was conducted with 188 Japanese university students. Results indicated that evaluating target persons in a compensatory manner enhanced the perceived legitimacy of the current social system when participants were led to believe that a significant economic gap exists in Japan between the rich and the poor. This suggests that compensatory judgments serve to system justification through restoring the impaired belief in equality. We discussed the implications of our results for system justification theory and the literature on compensation effects in social judgments.