Teresa María García Muñoz & Juliette Milgram Baleix & Omar Odeh Odeh, 2022. "System Justification Beliefs and Life Satisfaction. The role of inequality aversion and support for redistribution", ThE Papers 22/15, Department of Economic Theory and Economic History of the University of Granada.
Abstract: This study tests the effect of the palliative function of system justification beliefs on life satisfaction with both aversion and support for redistribution, in serial, as mediators among Europeans. We use 30900 observations for 27 countries from the ninth wave of the European Social Survey. Consistent with predictions, individuals, who have higher system justification, are less inequality adverse, exhibit lower support for redistributive policies, and have higher life satisfaction. Serial mediation analysis reveals a significant mediating effect of inequality aversion and support for redistribution in the sequential positive nexus between system justification and life satisfaction. We also investigate whether the palliative effect of system justification holds in more (un)equal societies and whether it holds (un)equally among various social groups. The results show a non-significant difference between unequal and equal countries regarding the palliative function. Using OLS regressions, we find that individuals with low social status benefit more from the palliative function than those with high social status, especially for those in more equal countries.