System-justifying beliefs buffer against psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic

Ronghua Xu; Yi Ding; Yongyu Guo; Jan Willem van Prooijen

doi:10.1111/bjso.12779

System-justifying beliefs buffer against psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic

Ronghua Xu, Yi Ding^*, Yongyu Guo, Jan Willem van Prooijen

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a detrimental effect on people's mental health. Drawing on the palliative function of ideologies, we suggest that people rely on system-justifying beliefs to mitigate psychological distress during the pandemic. We conducted three studies with correlational and experimental designs to examine whether and how system-justifying beliefs can buffer against psychological distress during COVID-19, and whether this effect may vary across social classes. The results indicated that (a) system-justifying beliefs alleviated psychological distress during the pandemic, (b) personal control mediated this relationship and (c) this effect was consistent across all social classes. This study provides robust evidence for the palliative function of system-justifying beliefs during a massive global health crisis (i.e. COVID-19).

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1-22
Journal	The British journal of social psychology
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12779
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 24 Jun 2024

Keywords

COVID-19
palliative function
personal control
social class
system-justifying beliefs

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10.1111/bjso.12779

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title = "System-justifying beliefs buffer against psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic",

abstract = "The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a detrimental effect on people's mental health. Drawing on the palliative function of ideologies, we suggest that people rely on system-justifying beliefs to mitigate psychological distress during the pandemic. We conducted three studies with correlational and experimental designs to examine whether and how system-justifying beliefs can buffer against psychological distress during COVID-19, and whether this effect may vary across social classes. The results indicated that (a) system-justifying beliefs alleviated psychological distress during the pandemic, (b) personal control mediated this relationship and (c) this effect was consistent across all social classes. This study provides robust evidence for the palliative function of system-justifying beliefs during a massive global health crisis (i.e. COVID-19).",

keywords = "COVID-19, palliative function, personal control, social class, system-justifying beliefs",

author = "Ronghua Xu and Yi Ding and Yongyu Guo and {van Prooijen}, {Jan Willem}",

note = "Funding Information: This research was supported by The National Social Science Foundation of China (grant No. 19CSH053), The Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (grant No. BK20220374) and The National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant No. 71971120). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2024 British Psychological Society.",

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doi = "10.1111/bjso.12779",

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AU - Xu, Ronghua

AU - Ding, Yi

AU - Guo, Yongyu

AU - van Prooijen, Jan Willem

N1 - Funding Information: This research was supported by The National Social Science Foundation of China (grant No. 19CSH053), The Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (grant No. BK20220374) and The National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant No. 71971120). Publisher Copyright: © 2024 British Psychological Society.

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Y1 - 2024/6/24

N2 - The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a detrimental effect on people's mental health. Drawing on the palliative function of ideologies, we suggest that people rely on system-justifying beliefs to mitigate psychological distress during the pandemic. We conducted three studies with correlational and experimental designs to examine whether and how system-justifying beliefs can buffer against psychological distress during COVID-19, and whether this effect may vary across social classes. The results indicated that (a) system-justifying beliefs alleviated psychological distress during the pandemic, (b) personal control mediated this relationship and (c) this effect was consistent across all social classes. This study provides robust evidence for the palliative function of system-justifying beliefs during a massive global health crisis (i.e. COVID-19).

AB - The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a detrimental effect on people's mental health. Drawing on the palliative function of ideologies, we suggest that people rely on system-justifying beliefs to mitigate psychological distress during the pandemic. We conducted three studies with correlational and experimental designs to examine whether and how system-justifying beliefs can buffer against psychological distress during COVID-19, and whether this effect may vary across social classes. The results indicated that (a) system-justifying beliefs alleviated psychological distress during the pandemic, (b) personal control mediated this relationship and (c) this effect was consistent across all social classes. This study provides robust evidence for the palliative function of system-justifying beliefs during a massive global health crisis (i.e. COVID-19).

KW - COVID-19

KW - palliative function

KW - personal control

KW - social class

KW - system-justifying beliefs

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JF - The British journal of social psychology

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System-justifying beliefs buffer against psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Keywords

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