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This study aims to examine how high school students, living in a fiercely competitive educational environment in a meritocratic society, form their beliefs and attitudes towards society. The analysis focused on the influence of students’ meritocracy beliefs on their attitudes toward Affirmative Action, with an emphasis on the mediation effects of system justification beliefs and social dominance orientation. The data was retrieved from 638 students in various types of high schools nationwide. Multiple regression analysis results showed that endorsing merit-based distribution was associated with a more negative attitude toward affirmative action, but perceiving merit-based distribution did not have a significant impact. Further analysis based on the type of merit definition revealed that only endorsing merit-based distribution in terms of talent and competence had a significant negative impact on attitudes toward affirmative action. In addition, in the relationship between meritocracy beliefs and attitudes toward affirmative action, system justification beliefs and social dominance orientation were found to complete mediation effect. This complete mediation effect was also significant when analyzing meritocracy beliefs based on the type of merit definition. Lastly, in the relationship between realistic perceptions of meritocracy beliefs and attitudes toward affirmative action, system justification beliefs were found to complete mediation effect, while social dominance orientation did not play a mediating role. Analyzing realistic perceptions of meritocracy beliefs based on the type of merit definition also revealed that system justification beliefs did not mediate the relationship.This study contributes by considering the diversity of ‘merit’, reconceptualizing meritocracy beliefs and its sub-factors that were often overlooked in previous research. It demonstrates that meritocracy beliefs, when manifested through system justification beliefs and social dominance orientation, can intensify negative attitudes toward affirmative action.
Han et al. (Tue,) studied this question.