The Importance of Material Status for Electoral Chances and Perception of Politician: Delegitimization of Wealth as Post-transition Specificity?

Authors

  • IWONA ŚWIĄTEK Warsaw Univesity of Social Sciences and Humanities, Poland
  • MAGDALENA ŻEMOJTEL-PIOTROWSKA University of Gdansk, Poland
  • JAROSŁAW PIOTROWSKI University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Poznan Faculty, Poland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15503/jecs20132.361.374

Keywords:

legitimating myths, delegitimization of wealth, cross-cultural research

Abstract

In presented research the impact of a politician’s economic status on his/her assessment and electoral chances was tested. In study 1 (N= 90) a politician with a high status was as-sessed as less moral and more competent than a low-status politician. In study 2 (N = 120) participants from Ireland and Poland were compared. Irish participants assessed a low--status politician as more moral and competent than the high-status one, whereas Polish participants assessed a high-status politician as more competent than the low-status one. Polish subjects generally assessed politicians’ morality lower than the Irish. The results sug-gest higher legitimization of wealth among Polish participants than the Irish, contrary to predictions. These results are discussed in reference to the system justification theory (Jost, Banaji, & Nosek, 2004) and legitimating myths (Jost, & Kay, 2003)

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Published

2020-01-10

Issue

Section

LOCAL CULTURES AND SOCIETIES

How to Cite

ŚWIĄTEK, I., ŻEMOJTEL-PIOTROWSKA, M., & PIOTROWSKI, J. . (2020). The Importance of Material Status for Electoral Chances and Perception of Politician: Delegitimization of Wealth as Post-transition Specificity?. Journal of Education Culture and Society, 4(2), 361-374. https://doi.org/10.15503/jecs20132.361.374