System Justification
We defend and bolster the status quo even when it may not be in our personal interest.
System justification theory proposes that people have a motivational tendency to defend, bolster, and justify the status quo — existing social, economic, and political arrangements — even when those arrangements are harmful to the individual or their group. The psychological need for order, stability, and predictability drives people to rationalize inequities as fair and natural.
What it looks like in the wild.
- Politics Poor Voters Against Their Interests Economically disadvantaged voters sometimes support policies that further disadvantage their own group because the existing system feels legitimate and familiar, and alternatives feel threatening.
Recognising a definition is not the same skill as spotting it.
Two scenarios from the app, with distractors drawn from the same family of biases — which is what makes them hard.
An employee sees that their company's hiring process is biased toward certain schools, but they argue it's effective because those schools produce reliable graduates, so the system works.
A citizen believes the country's complex tax system is fair and beneficial, despite not understanding it and paying high fees for help.
Biases rarely arrive alone.
Understand more. Assume less.
188 biases, 18,869 scenarios, and a record of how you actually decide.
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