Why Society Doesn’t Change: The System Justification Bias

Have you ever wondered why society hardly ever changes?

humans have a mental bias towards maintaining the status quo.
They tend to go with what they know rather than a new, unknown option.

Poor people don't strongly support the sorts of political policies that would make them better off.
Surveys find that low-income groups are hardly more likely than high-income groups to want tax changes that mean they will get more money.
Generally people's politics doesn't line up with their position in society.

 Oddly, the more disadvantaged people are, the more they are likely to support a system that is doing them no favours. This is because of cognitive dissonance. In one US example of this low-income Latinos are more likely to trust government officials than high-income Latinos.

 Most disturbing of all: the more unequal the society, the more people try to rationalise the system. For example in countries in which men hold more sexist values, women are more likely to support the system.


http://www.spring.org.uk/2012/07/why-society-doesnt-change-the-system-justification-bias.php