It has been shown that disadvantaged groups who endorse system-justifying beliefs tend to internalize their state of inferiority by expressing ingroup derogation and opposing collective action for change. In the present research, we recruited women – as disadvantaged group – from different countries (the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy) and examined whether their moral conviction against gender inequality, as an absolute stance that does not tolerate any violation, may interact with and overpower system-justifying beliefs. Results from three studies provided support for our hypotheses. First, when women held strong moral conviction, they expressed higher identification with their disadvantaged ingroup and, in turn, higher collective action intentions, independent of system-justifying beliefs. Second, when women held weak moral conviction, higher system-justifying beliefs reduced women’s ingroup identification and, in turn, undermined their collective action intentions. This support is found across different contexts of gender inequality (the gender leadership gap, the gender pay gap, and the gender power imbalance), using different methodological approaches (online survey, online experiment, laboratory experiment). Implications, limits, and future directions are discussed.

中文翻译：

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反对性别不平等的道德信念能否压倒系统的正当性？检验道德信念与系统正当性之间的相互作用

已经表明，支持系统证明信念的弱势群体倾向于通过表达内部贬低和反对集体行动来内化他们的自卑状态。在目前的研究中，我们招募了来自不同国家（美国、英国、意大利）的女性——作为弱势群体，并检查了她们反对性别不平等的道德信念，作为一种不容忍任何侵犯的绝对立场，是否可能相互作用用并压倒系统证明的信念。三项研究的结果为我们的假设提供了支持。首先，当女性持有强烈的道德信念时，她们对处于不利地位的内群体表现出更高的认同感，进而表现出更高的集体行动意图，独立于系统正当性信念。其次，当女性道德信念薄弱时，更高的系统证明信念降低了女性的内群体认同，反过来又破坏了她们的集体行动意图。这种支持是在不同的性别不平等背景（性别领导差距、性别薪酬差距和性别权力失衡）中发现的，使用不同的方法论方法（在线调查、在线实验、实验室实验）。讨论了影响、限制和未来方向。