Political orientation and system justification: the moderating role of national identity in a Spanish sample

espanolLos simpatizantes de la derecha politica tienden a justificar el sistema en mayor medida que los partidarios de la izquierda. Desde el enfoque de la identidad social se sugiere que la justificacion del sistema podria constituir un sesgo endogrupal a nivel predominantemente nacional y que las diferencias entre partidarios de izquierda y de derecha podrian estar vinculadas a las diferencias en las normas politicas relacionadas con la identificacion nacional. En este estudio se aplico un diseno transversal con una muestra de 192 participantes (64.6% hombres, media de edad de 35.61 anos). Se recabaron datos sobre su orientacion politica, identificacion nacional y justificacion del sistema, tanto en general como del sistema economico. Los resultados del modelo de ecuaciones estructurales indican que los simpatizantes de la derecha, comparados con los de la izquierda, muestran un nivel mas elevado de identificacion nacional y de justificacion del sistema, en ambas variantes (general y economica). La identificacion nacional mediaba en gran medida la relacion entre la orientacion politica y la justificacion general del sistema, mientras que la mediacion en la relacion entre la orientacion politica y la justificacion del sistema economico era menos marcada. Por tanto, se confirma la expectativa del enfoque de la identidad social respecto al vinculo entre las diferencias en la justificacion del sistema y el grado en que las personas se identifican con su categoria social general. EnglishRight-wing people usually justify the system more than left-wing people. The social identity approach suggests that system justification may be an ingroup bias at overarching national levels and that differences between leftists and rightists could be linked to differences in party norms in promoting national identification. A cross-sectional design was used in which 192 adults (64.6% men, mean age of 35.61 years) were enrolled. Political orientation, national identification and general and economic system justification were collected. Results from structural equation modelling indicated that rightists, as compared with leftists, were higher in national identification and both general and economic system justification. National identification mostly mediated the relationship between political orientation and general system justification, while mediation on the relationship between political orientation and economic system justification was less marked. The social identity approach expectation that differences in system justification could be linked to the extent to which people identify with their overarching social category appears to be supported.