The merit of meritocracy

Area of Science:

• Social Psychology
• Political Psychology

Background:

• The merit principle suggests rewards are based on ability and effort.
• Hierarchy-legitimizing ideologies, such as system justification, prejudice, and social dominance orientation, maintain social inequality.
• The relationship between merit principle endorsement and support for existing social hierarchies requires further clarification.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether preference for the merit principle is a distinct construct from hierarchy-legitimizing ideologies.
• To examine if prescriptive beliefs about merit influence reactions to the status quo differently based on the strength of hierarchy-legitimizing ideologies.
• To test the hypothesis that prescriptive merit beliefs have a stronger impact when hierarchy-legitimizing ideologies are weak.

Main Methods:

• Four studies were conducted involving participants assessing their preference for the merit principle and endorsement of hierarchy-legitimizing ideologies.
• Participants evaluated organizational selection practices that either upheld or challenged the existing social status quo.
• Beliefs about merit were categorized as prescriptive (how things should be) and descriptive (how things are).

Main Results:

• Prescriptive and descriptive beliefs about merit were found to be separate constructs.
• Descriptive beliefs about merit, but not prescriptive beliefs, predicted endorsement of other hierarchy-legitimizing ideologies.
• When hierarchy-legitimizing ideologies were weakly endorsed, a stronger preference for the merit principle led to opposition of merit-violating practices and support for merit-restoring practices.
• Conversely, strong endorsement of hierarchy-legitimizing ideologies consistently predicted support for the status quo, irrespective of merit principle preference.

Conclusions:

• Preference for the merit principle is conceptually independent from system-justifying ideologies.
• The impact of merit beliefs on status quo evaluations is contingent on the strength of one's commitment to existing social hierarchies.
• Individuals with weak support for social hierarchies are more sensitive to merit principles when judging organizational practices.