The present research aimed to examine how perceivers' system-justifying beliefs moderate the way they evaluate high- versus low-status targets on assertiveness and competence. In three experimental studies, we manipulated a target's hierarchical position within his company's organization. Participants rated the target on traits reflecting assertiveness and competence. Their system-justifying beliefs were assessed in an ostensibly unrelated study. Results consistently showed that participants inferred assertiveness from the target's hierarchical position regardless of system justification, whereas the relationship between social status and competence was consistently moderated by system-justifying beliefs: only participants high in system justification ascribed more competence to the high-status target than to the low-status target. These findings are in line with the hypothesis suggesting that inferring competence from high-status positions could rely on the tendency to justify social inequalities, whereas inferring assertiveness would not.
Keywords: assertiveness; competence; social judgement; social status; system justification.
© 2023 The Authors. British Journal of Social Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Psychological Society.