Addressing evidential and theoretical inconsistencies in system justification theory with a social identity model of system attitudes

System justification theory (SJT; Jost & Banaji, 1994) proposes that people have an inherent motive to support societal systems, even at the expense of their personal and group interests. However, the evidence for this system justification motive is mixed, and a close examination of the relevant propositions yields some important theoretical inconsistencies. To address this mixed evidence and theoretical inconsistency, we introduce a social identity model of system attitudes (SIMSA). SIMSA integrates a cluster of different social identity processes and proposes that system justification can occur among members of low-status groups (a) due to a passive reflection of social reality, (b) as a form of ingroup bias (at the superordinate level), and (c) in the hope that ingroup advancement is possible in the future within the prevailing system. It is concluded that SIMSA provides a more comprehensive and theoretically-consistent explanation of system justification than SJT.