The Relationship Between System Threat Perception And System Rational Belief And Its Psychological Mechanism

In the current research,we focused on the relationship between perception of system threat and endorsement of system justification belief during the COVID-19 pandemic.System justification theory holds that people are motivated to defend,justify,and bolster aspects of the societal status quo following system threat.However,some researches have also found that system threat could negatively predict one's systemjustifying belief.Thus,the current research aimed to test how and why system threat may predict system-justifying belief in the context of COVID-19.Specifically,we predicted that individuals would less likely to endorse system-justifying belief when they perceive more system threat(i.e.,criticism of the government).Importantly,we predicted that individuals' responsibility attribution for the government's response during the pandemic could mediate the negative relationship between perceived system threat and system-justifying belief.Furthermore,we also predicted that positive government behavior aiming at control the epidemic would moderate the mediation model.We conducted three studies to test our hypothesis during the COVID-19 pandemic.Study 1 aimed to investigate the correlation between perceived system threat and system-justifying belief,and the mediating role of responsibility attribution for the government.Accordingly,we used questionnaires to measure all variables with a national survey(from 31 January to 1 February 2020)including 1575 participants in China.Study 2 aimed to replicate the results of the first study and to examine the moderating role of positive government behavior.Thus,we conducted another national survey(from 20 to 24 March 2020)including 1137 participants in China and measured all variables.In the study 3,an online situational simulation experiment was used to further verify the "repair" mechanism of the system-justifying belief,that is,to explore the moderating effect of positive government behavior.In that we recruited 212 participants online.The results demonstrated that responsibility attribution for the government partially mediated the negative relationship between perception of system threat and system-justifying belief.Moreover,our moderated mediation model was also confirmed.Specifically,the mediating effect of responsibility attribution for the government was significant only when people perceive less positive government behavior.Taken together,the present results confirmed our initial hypothesis,but the moderating effect of positive government behavior needs to be further verified by future studies.Based on the perspective of social cognition,combined with system justification theory and situational crisis communication theory,the current research potentially clarifies mixed reports regarding the associations between system threat and endorsement of system-justifying belief.Meanwhile,the results of the study also have policy implications for the government's epidemic prevention and control.