Influence of Intergroup Inequity on Supportive Attitudes Toward Policies to Reduce the Inequity, and Causal Inferences Concerning Companies While Job Hunting: Focusing on Achieved-Status Inequity

Abstract

This study examines the effect of intergroup inequity on supportive attitudes toward government policies to reduce this inequity, as well as causal inferences of individual negative results toward companies in job hunting, focusing on the inequity that results from achieved status. We presented vignettes depicting a job-hunting situation to undergraduates, followed by an interuniversity inequity scenario. The results showed that for high in-group identifiers, intergroup inequity enhanced supportive attitudes toward government policies that address inequity; however, for low in-group identifiers, intergroup inequity did not influence these attitudes. The results also showed that for high in-group identifiers, intergroup inequity enhanced causal inferences of individual negative results toward companies, but for low in-group identifiers, intergroup inequity did not influence the inferences. We discuss the psychological responses to intergroup inequity from the perspective of achieved status, which has not been addressed in previous intergroup inequity studies. In addition, we constructed a new model and expect that future studies will confirm the importance of intergroup inequity and achieved status on attitudes and causal inferences.