The relationships between subjective status and perceived legitimacy are important for understanding the extent to which people with low status are complicit in their oppression. We use novel data from 66 samples and 30 countries (N = 12,788) and find that people with higher status see the social system as more legitimate than those with lower status, but there is variation across people and countries. The association between subjective status and perceived legitimacy was never negative at any levels of eight moderator variables, although the positive association was sometimes reduced. Although not always consistent with hypotheses, group identification, self-esteem, and beliefs in social mobility were all associated with perceived legitimacy among people who have low subjective status. These findings enrich our understanding of the relationship between social status and legitimacy.

American University of Beirut

Cardiff University

CeRCA Université de Poitiers CNRS

Charles University

Chonnam National University

Civil Politics

College of DuPage

Czech Academy of Sciences

Department of Psychology Faculty of Philosophy University of Novi Sad Novi Sad Serbia

DePaul University

ELTE Eötvös Loránd University Budapest Hungary

FernUniversität in Hagen

Florida State University

Gwangju Welfare Foundation

Hamburg University

Institute of Criminological and Sociological Research Belgrade Serbia

Jagiellonian University

Leiden University

MEF University

National University of Singapore

Northumbria University

Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences

Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Sabanci University

Slovak Academy of Sciences

Sopot Faculty of Psychology SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities

The Australian National University

The College of New Jersey

The University of Newcastle Australia

The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus

Tilburg University Tilburg The Netherlands

Universidad de la República Montevideo Uruguay

Universidad de los Andes

Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia

Université catholique de Louvain

Université Clermont Auvergne et CNRS

Universite libre de Bruxelles

Université Paris Nanterre

University of Auckland

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University of Copenhagen

University of Economics Prague

University of Exeter

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University of Granada

University of Groningen

University of Illinois Chicago IL USA

University of Lausanne

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University of New South Wales

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University of Padova

University of Presov

University of Queensland

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University of Toronto

University of Warsaw

Ural State Law University

Utrecht University

Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Wroclaw Faculty of Psychology SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities

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