Belief in school meritocracy as a system-justifying tool for low status students.

Virginie Wiederkehr,Céline Darnon,Virginie Bonnot,Silvia Krauth-Gruber

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01053

Abstract

The belief that, in school, success only depends on will and hard work is widespread in Western societies despite evidence showing that several factors other than merit explain school success, including group belonging (e.g., social class, gender). In the present paper, we argue that because merit is the only track for low status students to reach upward mobility, Belief in School Meritocracy (BSM) is a particularly useful system-justifying tool to help them perceive their place in society as being deserved. Consequently, for low status students (but not high status students), this belief should be related to more general system-justifying beliefs (Study 1). Moreover, low status students should be particularly prone to endorsing this belief when their place within a system on which they strongly depend to acquire status is challenged (Study 2). In Study 1, high status (boys and high SES) were compared to low status (girls and low SES) high school students. Results indicated that BSM was related to system-justifying beliefs only for low SES students and for girls, but not for high SES students or for boys. In Study 2, university students were exposed (or not) to information about an important selection process that occurs at the university, depending on the condition. Their subjective status was assessed. Although such a confrontation reduced BSM for high subjective SES students, it tended to enhance it for low subjective SES students. Results are discussed in terms of system justification motives and the palliative function meritocratic ideology may play for low status students.

Highlights

The belief in meritocratic ideology is the belief that, in a given system, success is an indicator of personal deservingness—namely, that the system rewards individual ability and efforts (Young, 1961; Jost et al, 2003)
The results showed that, for high subjective status students, the presence of selection information led to a lower endorsement of Belief in School Meritocracy (BSM) than the “success for all” condition but the reverse occurred for low subjective status students
In line with the hypotheses, for students who perceived themselves to be of a low SES, this selection information increased their adherence to BSM

Summary

Introduction

The belief in meritocratic ideology is the belief that, in a given system, success is an indicator of personal deservingness—namely, that the system rewards individual ability and efforts (Young, 1961; Jost et al, 2003). Everyone has experienced the promotion of meritocratic messages, such as in common proverbs (e.g., “If at first we don’t succeed, try, try again”; “when there is a will, there is a way”), books or movies (The Little Engine that Could; The Pursuit of Happiness), and political discourses (Democratic National Convention, “Renewing America’s Promise,” 2008, see Ledgerwood et al, 2011; American President Investiture speech, 2012; French presidential election, 2012) These examples illustrate how Western societies focus efforts on maintaining the belief that we live “in a just world where everyone gets what he deserves—or deserves what he gets” At school, when students want to provide a positive image of themselves to their teachers, they prefer explaining their successes and failures in terms of internal characteristics (especially efforts) rather than with external explanations (Pansu et al, 2008; Dompnier and Pansu, 2010)

Methods

Results

Conclusion