In Defense of Meritocracy: The Narrative Neutralization of Luck (and Structure)

• In Event: 30612 - Culture I: On the Infrastructures and Politics of Belief

Abstract

What are the social processes that allow people to accept and maintain ideological beliefs even when they are not supported by their own everyday experiences? This paper identifies the cultural scripts individuals use to defend meritocratic ideology from external threats. Drawing on a large interview study, vignette experiments, and a content analysis of media sources, we make the case for luck as a distinctive and viable threat to meritocratic ideology, highlighting the different ways in which luck has the potential to affect life chances and social outcomes. We present new evidence that demonstrates how luck is perceived by the general public and identifies five distinctive defense mechanisms—denial, minimization, qualification, transubstantiation, and compartmentalization—that people use to neutralize the effects of luck and, in doing so, protect meritocratic ideology. Finally, we show how these mechanisms can be generalized to help us understand how these cultural mechanisms are applied in other realms (i.e., ideas about health) and applied to other threats to meritocracy (i.e., structural factors such as race, class, and gender).

Authors

• Michael Sauder, University of Iowa

• Hannah W Espy, Lycoming College

• Freda B. Lynn, University of Iowa