Confidence in the Socio-Political System

What it measures

An eight-item scale measuring the degree to which a person believes their country's socio-political system is fair, functional, and worthy of confidence. Items assess beliefs about societal fairness, political system performance, national pride, policy equity, and the perceived relationship between effort and outcomes in society. Two items are reverse-scored. The scale captures the system justification motive — the tendency to defend and legitimise existing social arrangements — and has been applied in consumer research examining how this motive shapes product preference and compensatory consumption.

Response format

7-point Likert

Scale items

• In general, you find society to be fair.
• In general, the [country] political system operates as it should.
• [Country] society needs to be radically restructured. (r)
• The [country] is the best country in the world to live in.
• Most policies serve the greater good.
• Everyone has a fair shot at wealth and happiness.
• Our society is getting worse every year. (r)
• Society is set up so that people usually get what they deserve.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

FILL-IN-THE-BLANK FORMAT: Items 2, 3, and 4 require insertion of the focal country name (e.g., 'Australian', 'American'). Alpha ranged from .75 to .87 across multiple studies — Kay & Jost (2003) and Cutright et al. (2011, Journal of Consumer Research 38(1), 62–77). The .75 lower bound falls below the preferred threshold but reflects a subset of study conditions; the scale is included on the basis of the .86 upper estimate from Cutright et al. VALIDITY: Kay & Jost (2003) provided limited evidence of convergent and discriminant validity. REVERSE-SCORED ITEMS: Items 3 ('society needs to be radically restructured') and 7 ('society is getting worse every year') require reverse scoring.

Citation

Kay, Aaron C. and John T. Jost (2003). Complementary justice: Effects of 'poor but happy' and 'poor but honest' stereotypes on system justification and implicit activation of the justice motive. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(5), 823–837.

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