System justification in communication: a study of imagined dialogue receptivity

According to system justification theory, system-threatening messages decrease the legitimacy of the status quo. Thus, individuals who endorse system justice beliefs will employ a variety of system justification behaviors when encountering such messages. In this study, we hypothesized that such behaviors include resisting dialogue with an interlocuter who propounds a system-threatening message. To test this, a sample of MTurk respondents was randomly assigned to listen to one genuine testimony of an African-American male (either system-threatening or neutral in content) and then completed a nine-item measure of imagined dialogue receptivity. Results demonstrated that participants with above-average justice beliefs reported less dialogue receptivity toward the speaker with system-threatening, compared to neutral, testimony. We interpret these findings to indicate that system justification does indeed play a significant role in people’s attitudes toward communication.