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All Outputs (42)

Re‐Examining Buchel et al.’s (2021) Test of the Status Legitimacy Hypothesis (2025)
Journal Article
Owuamalam, C. K., Caricati, L., Tan, C. M., Matos, A. S., Bonetti, C., Rubin, M., Spears, R., & Marinucci, M. (online). Re‐Examining Buchel et al.’s (2021) Test of the Status Legitimacy Hypothesis. European Journal of Social Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.3173

The status‐legitimacy hypothesis posits that low‐status groups more strongly endorse social hierarchies and disadvantageous systems (i.e., engage in system justification), particularly under extreme societal inequality. Buchel et al. (2021) found sup... Read More about Re‐Examining Buchel et al.’s (2021) Test of the Status Legitimacy Hypothesis.

Re-examining Büchel et al.’s (2021) Test of the Status Legitimacy Hypothesis (2025)
Journal Article
Owuamalam, C. K., Caricati, L., Tan, C.-M., Matos, A., Bonetti, C., Rubin, M., Spears, R., & Marinucci, M. (online). Re-examining Büchel et al.’s (2021) Test of the Status Legitimacy Hypothesis. European Journal of Social Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.3173

The status-legitimacy hypothesis posits that low-status groups more strongly endorse social hierarchies and disadvantageous systems (i.e., engage in system justification), particularly under extreme societal inequality. Buchel et al. (2021) found sup... Read More about Re-examining Büchel et al.’s (2021) Test of the Status Legitimacy Hypothesis.

Positive temporal comparison facilitates a hope-induced system justification amongst women (2024)
Journal Article
Caricati, L., Owuamalam, C. K., Bonetti, C., Moscato, G., & Monacelli, N. (2024). Positive temporal comparison facilitates a hope-induced system justification amongst women. Current Psychology, 43, 24252-24266. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-06077-3

We examined whether women’s support for gender-based pay inequality (i.e., system justification) might be explained by hope. In particular, we considered whether such hope is likely prompted by positive temporal comparisons: It is entirely possible (... Read More about Positive temporal comparison facilitates a hope-induced system justification amongst women.

A Large-Scale Test of the Reality Constraint and Ingroup Bias Accounts of Women's Support for Male Privilege (2023)
Journal Article
Owuamalam, C. K., Caricati, L., & Bonetti, C. (2024). A Large-Scale Test of the Reality Constraint and Ingroup Bias Accounts of Women's Support for Male Privilege. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 48(1), 38-55. https://doi.org/10.1177/03616843231176222

Why do women sometimes support systems of male privilege that clearly undercut the interests of their gender group? According to some explanations from the social identity model of system attitudes, they do so: (a) due to a preference for their count... Read More about A Large-Scale Test of the Reality Constraint and Ingroup Bias Accounts of Women's Support for Male Privilege.

Right-leaning egalitarians are just as susceptible to social justice-induced product patronage! Evidence from the US and Malaysia (2023)
Journal Article
Wong, R. M. M., Owuamalam, C. K., & Stewart-Williams, S. (2023). Right-leaning egalitarians are just as susceptible to social justice-induced product patronage! Evidence from the US and Malaysia. Acta Psychologica, 237, Article 103935. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2023.103935

We investigated the impact of egalitarianism on consumers’ inclination to support fair-trade products and examined whether this effect was observed among individuals with different political affiliations. In four experiments featuring a fictional cho... Read More about Right-leaning egalitarians are just as susceptible to social justice-induced product patronage! Evidence from the US and Malaysia.

A social identity model of system attitudes (SIMSA): Multiple explanations of system justification by the disadvantaged that do not depend on a separate system justification motive (2023)
Journal Article
Rubin, M., Owuamalam, C. K., Spears, R., & Caricati, L. (2023). A social identity model of system attitudes (SIMSA): Multiple explanations of system justification by the disadvantaged that do not depend on a separate system justification motive. European Review of Social Psychology, 34(2), 203-243. https://doi.org/10.1080/10463283.2022.2046422

System justification theory (SJT) assumes that social identity theory (SIT) cannot fully account for system justification by members of low-status (disadvantaged) groups. Contrary to this claim, we provide several elaborations of SIT that explain whe... Read More about A social identity model of system attitudes (SIMSA): Multiple explanations of system justification by the disadvantaged that do not depend on a separate system justification motive.

Social identity explanations of system justification: Misconceptions, criticisms, and clarifications (2023)
Journal Article
Rubin, M., Owuamalam, C. K., Spears, R., & Caricati, L. (2023). Social identity explanations of system justification: Misconceptions, criticisms, and clarifications. European Review of Social Psychology, 34(2), 268-297. https://doi.org/10.1080/10463283.2023.2184578

In this article, we reply to Jost et al.'s (Citation2023) rejoinder to our article reviewing evidence for the social identity model of system attitudes (SIMSA; Rubin et al., Citation2023). We argue that (1) SIMSA treats system justification as the ou... Read More about Social identity explanations of system justification: Misconceptions, criticisms, and clarifications.

Further evidence that system justification amongst the disadvantaged is positively related to superordinate group identification (2022)
Journal Article
Owuamalam, C. K., Caricati, L., Spears, R., Rubin, M., Marinucci, M., & Ferrari, A. (2023). Further evidence that system justification amongst the disadvantaged is positively related to superordinate group identification. Acta Psychologica, 232, Article 103813. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2022.103813

Members of disadvantaged groups sometimes support societal systems that enable the very inequalities that disadvantaged them. Is it possible to explain this puzzling system-justifying orientation in terms of rational group-interested motives, without... Read More about Further evidence that system justification amongst the disadvantaged is positively related to superordinate group identification.

Confidence in COVID‐19 vaccines moderates the association between vaccination status and mental distress (2022)
Journal Article
Tan, C. M., Owuamalam, C., Sarma, V. J., & Ng, P. K. (2023). Confidence in COVID‐19 vaccines moderates the association between vaccination status and mental distress. Stress and Health, 39(4), 744-752. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.3216

Previous research has demonstrated that becoming vaccinated with the Coronavirus vaccine may lower mental distress. However, it remains uncertain whether this relationship holds amid concerns of vaccine side effects and doubts of the vaccine's protec... Read More about Confidence in COVID‐19 vaccines moderates the association between vaccination status and mental distress.

Cultural group norms for harmony explain the puzzling negative association between objective status and system justification in Asia (2022)
Journal Article
Owuamalam, C. K., Tan, C. M., Caricati, L., Rubin, M., & Spears, R. (2023). Cultural group norms for harmony explain the puzzling negative association between objective status and system justification in Asia. European Journal of Social Psychology, 53(2), 245-267. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2901

Why do poorer and less educated Asians trust their institutions of governance more than their richer and well educated counterparts, despite their disadvantaged position within society? System justification theory (SJT) assumes that this trust is dri... Read More about Cultural group norms for harmony explain the puzzling negative association between objective status and system justification in Asia.

Strongly identifying Italian women support their gender system because they accept their Italian way of doing things (2022)
Journal Article
Caricati, L., Ferrari, A., & Owuamalam, C. (2022). Strongly identifying Italian women support their gender system because they accept their Italian way of doing things. Psicologia sociale, 3, 427-439. https://doi.org/10.1482/105496

In a cross-sectional survey, we measured the extent to which 256 Italian women, (a) identified with Italy, (b) justified broader systems in Italy, (c) justified their gender system, and (d) held ambivalent sexist ideologies. Supporting predictions de... Read More about Strongly identifying Italian women support their gender system because they accept their Italian way of doing things.

Brexit and Trump: Which Theory of Social Stasis and Social Change Copes Best With the New Populism? (2022)
Journal Article
Owuamalam, C. K., Rubin, M., & Spears, R. (2022). Brexit and Trump: Which Theory of Social Stasis and Social Change Copes Best With the New Populism?. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, Article 797139. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.797139

Why do voters seek to change the political landscape or to retain it? System justification theory (SJT) proposes that a separate system motive to preserve the existing order drives support for the status-quo, and that this motivation operates indepen... Read More about Brexit and Trump: Which Theory of Social Stasis and Social Change Copes Best With the New Populism?.

Improving vaccination intent among skeptics through confidence in governments' handling of the COVID-19 pandemic (2022)
Journal Article
Tan, C. M., Owuamalam, C. K., & Sarma, V. (2022). Improving vaccination intent among skeptics through confidence in governments' handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Acta Psychologica, 225, Article 103556. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2022.103556

Scientific evidence suggests that individuals vaccinated with COVID-19 vaccines are less likely to require hospitalization, possibly lowering the burden on the healthcare system. Despite such benefits, substantial segments of the world's population r... Read More about Improving vaccination intent among skeptics through confidence in governments' handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Do Superordinate Identification and Temporal/Social Comparisons Independently Predict Citizens’ System Trust? Evidence From a 40-Nation Survey (2021)
Journal Article
Caricati, L., Owuamalam, C. K., & Bonetti, C. (2021). Do Superordinate Identification and Temporal/Social Comparisons Independently Predict Citizens’ System Trust? Evidence From a 40-Nation Survey. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, Article 745168. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.745168

Do superordinate ingroup bias, temporal and social comparisons offer unique standalone explanations for system justification? We addressed this question using the latest World Value Survey (7th Wave), combining the responses of 55,721 participants fr... Read More about Do Superordinate Identification and Temporal/Social Comparisons Independently Predict Citizens’ System Trust? Evidence From a 40-Nation Survey.

Heterosexual men in Trump's America downplay compassion more for masculine (than for feminine) gay victims of hate crime: Why? (2021)
Journal Article
Owuamalam, C. K., & Matos, A. S. (2022). Heterosexual men in Trump's America downplay compassion more for masculine (than for feminine) gay victims of hate crime: Why?. European Journal of Social Psychology, 52(2), 280-304. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2787

Why would heterosexual men downplay their compassion for masculine (vs. feminine) gay victims of hate crime? Two social identity-inspired explanations provide contrasting answers to this question. The reactive distinctiveness thesis (RD) assumes that... Read More about Heterosexual men in Trump's America downplay compassion more for masculine (than for feminine) gay victims of hate crime: Why?.

Stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives! Confidence in government moderates the negative effects of staying at home on mental health (2021)
Journal Article
Tan, C. M., Owuamalam, C. K., & Ng, P. K. (2021). Stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives! Confidence in government moderates the negative effects of staying at home on mental health. Personality and Individual Differences, 179, Article 110948. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.110948

How might confidence in government shape the negative association often found between stay-home mandates and mental health? Using a nationally representative sample of UK residents (N = 32,108), we showed that although the stay-home order during the... Read More about Stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives! Confidence in government moderates the negative effects of staying at home on mental health.

Comparing Classic and Novel Approaches to Measurement Invariance (2021)
Preprint / Working Paper
Magraw-Mickelson, Z., Hermida Carrillo, A., Weerabangsa, M. M., Owuamalam, C. K., & Gollwitzer, M. (2021). Comparing Classic and Novel Approaches to Measurement Invariance

Measurement invariance (MI) is vital to any comparison of heterogeneous groups. With multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis (MG-CFA), which is the standard practice for testing MI, there are widely acknowledged limitations, especially with a lar... Read More about Comparing Classic and Novel Approaches to Measurement Invariance.

Subjective status and perceived legitimacy across countries (2020)
Journal Article
Brandt, M., Kuppens, T., Spears, R., Andrighetto, L., Autin, F., Babincak, P., Badea, C., Bae, J., Batruch, A., Becker, J., Bocian, K., Bodroža, B., Bourguignon, D., Bukowski, M., Butera, F., Butler, S., Chryssochoou, X., Conway, P., Crawford, J., Croizet, J.-C., …Zimmerman, J. (2020). Subjective status and perceived legitimacy across countries. European Journal of Social Psychology, 50(5), 921-942. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2694