System Justification
A theory within social psychology where people have underlying needs, which vary from individual to individual, that can be satisfied by the defense and justification of the status quo, even when the system may be disadvantageous to certain people.
Origin
Social psychologists John Jost and Mahzarin Banaji proposed the theory in a 1994 paper in the British Journal of Social Psychology, originally to explain why members of disadvantaged groups often hold negative stereotypes about themselves and defend the systems that harm them. Drawing on cognitive dissonance research and Marxist concepts of false consciousness, Jost and Banaji argued that viewing existing social arrangements as fair and legitimate satisfies a basic psychological need — one that operates independently of both personal and group self-interest.