We investigate the phenomenon of complementary stereotyping of ethnic minorities in Poland and its relationship to system justification. Using results from a nationally representative survey we test the hypothesis that complementary stereotypes—according to which ethnic minorities are seen as possessing distinctive, offsetting strengths and weaknesses—would be associated with system justification among Polish majority citizens. For four minorities, results indicated that stereotyping them as (a) low in morality but high in competence or (b) high in morality but low in competence predicted greater system justification. These results suggest that even in a context that is low in support for the status quo, complementary stereotyping of ethnic minorities is linked to system justification processes. For the three minority groups that were lowest in social status, complementary stereotyping was unrelated to system justification. It appears that negative attitude towards these groups can be expressed openly, regardless of one’s degree of system justification.
AllportG. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books.
2.
BaryłaW.WojciszkeB.CichockaA. (2014). Legitimization and delegitimization of social hierarchy. Manuscript submitted for publication.
3.
BemS. L.BemD. J. (1970). Case study of a nonconscious ideology: Training the woman to know her place. In BemD. J. (Ed.), Beliefs, attitudes, and human affairs (pp. 89–99). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.
4.
BilewiczM.MarchlewskaM.SoralW.WiniewskiM. (2014). Hate speech in Poland 2014. Summary of the national opinion poll. Warsaw, Poland: Stefan Batory Foundation.
5.
BilewiczM.WójcikA. (2010). Does identification predict community involvement? Exploring consequences of social identification among the Jewish minority in Poland. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 20, 72–79. doi:10.1002/casp.1012
6.
Bill on Ethnic and National Minorities, 17/141. (2005). Ustawa z dnia 6 stycznia 2005 r. o mniejszościach narodowych i etnicznych oraz o języku regionalnym [The 6 January 2005 Act on National and Ethnic Minorities and the Regional Language].
7.
BrambillaM.SacchiS.RusconiP.CherubiniP.YzerbytV.Y. (2012). You want to give a good impression? Be honest! Moral traits dominate group impression formation. British Journal of Social Psychology, 51, 149–166. doi:10.1111/j.2044-8309.2010.02011.x
8.
Central Statistical Office. (2012). Narodowy Spis Powszechny Ludności i Mieszkań 2011. Raport z wyników [National Census of Population and Housing 2011. The report]. Warsaw, Poland: GUS.
9.
CichockaA.JostJ. T. (2014). Stripped of illusions? Exploring system justification processes in post-Communist societies. International Journal of Psychology, 49, 6–29. doi:10.1002/ijop.12011
10.
CisłakA.WójcikA. (2011). Jasne strony legitymizacji – pozytywne aspekty przekonania o słuszności systemu w kształtowaniu relacji międzygrupowych. [The bright side of legitimization – The positive aspects of system justification in shaping intergroup relations]. In KoftaM.BilewiczM. (Eds.), Wobec obcych. Zagrożenia psychologiczne a stosunki międzygrupowe [Towards others: Psychological threat and intergroup relations] (pp. 103–114). Warsaw, Poland: PWN
11.
ClarkR. D.MaassA. (1990). The effects of majority size on minority influence. European Journal of Social Psychology, 20, 99–117. doi:10.1002/ejsp.2420200203
12.
CuddyA. J. C.FiskeS. T.GlickP. (2007). The BIAS map: Behaviors from intergroup affect and stereotypes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 631–648. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.92.4.631
13.
CuddyA. J. C.FiskeS. T.KwanV. S. Y.GlickP.DemoulinS.LeyensJ.-P.… ZieglerR. (2009). Stereotype content model across cultures: Towards universal similarities and some differences. British Journal of Social Psychology, 48, 1–33. doi:10.1348/014466608X314935.
14.
de LemusS.BukowskiM. (2013). When interdependence shapes social perception: Cooperation and competition moderate the implicit activation of gender stereotypical associations. Spanish Journal of Psychology, 16, e96. doi:10.1017/sjp.2013.96.3
15.
de OliveiraP.DambrunM. (2007). Maintaining the status quo and social inequalities: Is stereotype endorsement related to support for system justification?Current Research in Social Psychology, 13, 101–121. Retrieved from http://www.uiowa.edu/~grpproc/crisp/crisp13_9.pdf
16.
DixonJ.LevineM.ReicherS.DurrheimK. (2012). Beyond prejudice: Are negative evaluations the problem and is getting us to like one another more the solution?Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 35, 1–17. doi:10.1017/S0140525X11002214
17.
EaglyA. H.MladinicA. (1994). Are people prejudiced against women? Some answers from research on attitudes, gender stereotypes, and judgments of competence. European Review of Social Psychology, 5, 1–35. doi:10.1080/14792779543000002
18.
EaglyA. H.SteffenV. J. (1984). Gender stereotypes stem from the distribution of women and men into social roles. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 735–754. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.46.4.735
FiskeS. T.CuddyA. J. C.GlickP.XuJ. (2002). A model of (often mixed) stereotype content: Competence and warmth respectively follow from perceived status and competition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 878–902. doi:10.1037//0022-3514.82.6.878
21.
GlickP. (2002). Sacrificial lambs dressed in wolves’ clothing: Envious prejudice, ideology, and the scapegoating of Jews. In NewmanL. S.ErberR. (Eds.), Understanding genocide: The social psychology of the Holocaust (pp. 113–142). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
22.
GlickP.FiskeS. T. (2001). An ambivalent alliance: Hostile and benevolent sexism as complementary justifications of gender inequality. American Psychologist, 56, 109–118. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.56.2.109
23.
GwiazdaA. (1994). Poland’s policy towards its national minorities. Nationalities Papers, 22, 435–444. doi:10.1080/00905999408408338
24.
HayesA. F. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. New York, NY: Guilford.
25.
HenrichJ.HeineS. J.NorenzayanA. (2010). The weirdest people in the world?Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33, 61–83. doi:10.1017/S0140525X0999152X
26.
HoffmanC.HurstN. (1990). Gender stereotypes: Perception or rationalization?Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 197–208. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.58.2.197
27.
JackmanM. (1994). The velvet glove: Paternalism and conflict in gender, class, and race relations. Berkeley: University of California Press.
28.
JaśkoK.KossowskaM. (2013). The impact of superordinate identification on the justification of intergroup inequalities. European Journal of Social Psychology, 43, 255–262. doi:10.1002/ejsp.1946
29.
JostJ. T.BanajiM. R. (1994). The role of stereotyping in system-justification and the production of false consciousness. British Journal of Social Psychology, 33, 1–27. doi:10.1111/j.2044-8309.1994.tb01008.x
30.
JostJ. T.BlountS.PfefferJ.HunyadyG. (2003). Fair market ideology: Its cognitive-motivational underpinnings. Research in Organizational Behavior, 25, 53–91. doi:10.1016/S0191-3085(03)25002-4
31.
JostJ. T.KayA. C. (2005). Exposure to benevolent sexism and complementary gender stereotypes: Consequences for specific and diffuse forms of system justification. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 498–509. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.88.3.498
32.
JostJ. T.KivetzY.RubiniM.GuermandiG.MossoC. (2005). System-justifying functions of complementary regional and ethnic stereotypes: Cross-national evidence. Social Justice Research, 18, 305–333. doi:10.1007/s11211-005-6827-z
33.
JostJ.van der ToornJ. (2012). System justification theory. In van LangeP.KruglanskiA.HigginsE. (Eds.), Handbook of theories of social psychology (pp. 313–344). London, UK: Sage.
34.
JuddC. M.James-HawkinsL.YzerbytV. Y.KashimaY. (2005). Fundamental dimensions of social judgment: Understanding the relations between judgments of competence and warmth. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 899–913. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.89.6.899
35.
KayA. C.CzaplińskiS.JostJ. T. (2009). System justifying effects of victim-enhancement and victim-derogation: The moderating role of political ideology. European Journal of Social Psychology, 39, 290–298. doi:10.1002/ejsp.500
36.
KayA. C.JostJ. T. (2003). Complementary justice: Effects of “poor but happy” and “poor but honest” stereotype exemplars on system justification and implicit activation of the justice motive. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 823–837. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.85.5.823
37.
KayA. C.JostJ. T.MandisodzaA. N.ShermanS. J.PetrocelliJ. V.JohnsonA. L. (2007). Panglossian ideology in the service of system justification: How complementary stereotypes help us to rationalize inequality. In ZannaM. (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 39, pp. 305–358). San Diego, CA: Elsevier.
38.
KayA. C.JostJ. T.YoungS. (2005). Victim derogation and victim enhancement as alternate routes to system justification. Psychological Science, 16, 240–246. doi:10.1111/j.0956-7976.2005.00810.x
39.
KervynN.YzerbytV. Y.DemoulinS.JuddC. M. (2008). Competence and warmth in context: The compensatory nature of stereotypic views of national groups. European Journal of Social Psychology, 38, 1175–1183. doi:10.1002/ejsp.526
40.
KervynN.YzerbytV. Y.JuddC. M.NunesA. (2009). A question of compensation: The social life of the fundamental dimensions of social perception. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96, 828–842. doi:10.1037/a0013320
41.
KluegelJ. R.MasonD. S.WegenerB. (Eds.). (1995). Social justice and political change: Public opinion in capitalist and post-communist states. New York, NY: Aldine de Gruyter.
42.
Konstytucja Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej, Dz. U. 1997, nr 78, poz. 483. (1997). [The Constitution of The Republic of Poland as published in the Polish Journal of Laws No. 78, Item 483].
43.
LernerM. J. (1980). The belief in a just world. New York, NY: Plenum.
44.
NijakowskiL. (2006). Domeny symboliczne: konflikty narodowe i etniczne w wymiarze symbolicznym [Symbolic domains: National and ethnic conflicts on the symbolic dimension]. Warsaw, Poland: Scholar.
45.
OldmeadowJ. A.FiskeS. T. (2007). System-justifying ideologies moderate status = competence stereotypes: Roles for belief in a just world and social dominance orientation. European Journal of Social Psychology, 37, 1135–1148. doi:10.1002/ejsp.428
46.
PhaletK.PoppeE. (1997). Competence and morality dimensions of national and ethnic stereotypes: A study in six Eastern European countries. European Journal of Social Psychology, 27, 703–723. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1099-0992(199711/12)27:6<703::AID-EJSP841>3.0.CO;2-K
47.
Public Opinion Research Centre (CBOS). (2005). Tożsamość narodowa polaków oraz postrzeganie mniejszości narodowych i etnicznych w Polsce [Polish national identity and perception of minorities in Poland]. Retrieved from http://www.cbos.pl/SPISKOM.POL/2005/K_084_05.PDF
48.
RosenbergS.NelsonC.VivekananthanP. S. (1968). A multidimensional approach to the structure of personality impressions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 9, 283–294. doi:10.1037/h0026086
49.
SnyderT. (2003). The reconstruction of nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569–1999. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
50.
Van der ToornJ.BerkicsM.JostJ. T. (2010). System justification, satisfaction, and perceptions of fairness and typicality at work: A cross-system comparison involving the U.S. and Hungary. Social Justice Research, 23, 189–210. doi:10.1007/s11211-010-0116-1
51.
WenzelM. (2004). Obcokrajowcy w Polsce. Komunikat z badań [Foreigners in Poland. The research report]. Warsaw, Poland: CBOS.
52.
WiniewskiM. H. (2009). Ambiwalentny stereotyp Żyda w Polsce [Ambivalent stereotype of the Jew in Poland] In CisłakA.HenneK.SkarżyńskaK. (Eds.), Przekonania w życiu jednostek, grup, społeczności [Beliefs in the life of individuals, groups and communities] (pp. 187–203). Warsaw, Poland: Academica.
53.
WiniewskiM. H. (2010). Warmth and competence as a structure of stereotype content. Modification and application of BIAS map model to individual-level cognitions (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Warsaw, Poland.
54.
WiniewskiM. H.BilewiczM. (2014). Emergence of anti-Semitism in times of rapid social change: Survey results from Poland. In GuesnetF.JonesG. (Ed.), Anti-Semitism in an era of transition: Genealogies and impact in post-communist Poland and Hungary (pp. 187–214). London, UK: Peter Lang.
55.
WojciszkeB. (2005). Morality and competence in person and self-perception. European Review of Social Psychology, 16, 155–188. doi:10.1080/10463280500229619
56.
WojciszkeB. (2007). Przekonania delegitymizujące porządek społeczny w Polsce [Beliefs that delegitimize social order in Poland]. In BrzezińskiJ. M. (Ed.), Psychologia. Między teorią, metodą a praktyką [Psychology: Between theory, method and practice] (pp. 317–322). Poznań, Poland: Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM.
57.
WysieńskaK. (2010). Organizacje społeczności wietnamskich i chińskich w Polsce [Organization of Vietnamese and Chinese communities in Poland]. Warsaw, Poland: Fundacja Instytut Spraw Publicznych.
58.
YzerbytV. Y.KervynN.JuddC. M. (2008). Compensation versus halo: The unique relations between the fundamental dimensions of social judgment. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34, 1110–1123. doi:10.1177/0146167208318602
