Longevity bias is the tendency to assume that longstanding states of the world are better and more right than their more recent (but otherwise identical) counterparts. In the current study, we take an individual differences approach by directly measuring people’s endorsements of the assumptions underlying longevity bias and consider several downstream implications of this bias for the perpetuation and maintenance of inequality. Specifically, we test the idea that the assumptions underlying longevity bias correspond with intrinsic explanations for social inequality, the justification of inequality as good and right, and thus prevent or subdue moral outrage and reduce motivation for meaningful social change. Our findings indicate that people vary in their susceptibility to conflate longevity of existence with goodness and rightness, individual variation in longevity bias predicts explanations for and the perceived legitimacy of social inequality, and this translates into psychological barriers for enacting social change.

长寿偏见是一种趋势，认为世界上长期存在的国家比最近的（但在其他方面相同）的国家更好，更正确。在当前的研究中，我们采用个人差异方法，直接测量人们对长寿偏见的假设的认可，并考虑这种偏见对不平等的长期存在和维持的若干下游影响。具体而言，我们测试了以下观点：长寿偏见所基于的假设与对社会不平等的内在解释，对不平等的正当理由的正当解释相对应，从而防止或制止了道德上的愤怒，并减少了进行有意义的社会变革的动力。我们的研究结果表明，人们在将生存的长寿与善良与正义相结合的敏感性上存在差异，