System-justifying ideologies moderate status ¼ competence stereotypes: Roles for belief in a just world and social dominance orientation JULIAN OLDMEADOW 1 * AND SUSAN T. FISKE 2 1 Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK 2 Princeton University, USA Abstract High-status outgroups tend to be stereotyped as competent, while low-status groups tend to be stereotyped as incompetent. These stereotypes provide legitimacy to hierarchical social systems. However, research to date has tended to focus on the socio-structural correlates and cross-cultural stability of these stereotypes, emphasising universality over malleability. The current research demonstrates that, although strong, the association between status and competence, but not status and warmth, is moderated by ideological beliefs and attitudes towards inequality. In two studies, participants high in belief in a just world (BJW) or social dominance orientation (SDO) were more likely than those low in BJW or SDO to view a high-status target as more competent than a low-status target. Findings support the view that status stereotypes justify social inequalities, and demonstrate that they are sensitive to ideological orientations. Implications for theory and research on status and power stereotypes are discussed. Copyright # 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. One of the major psychological payoffs of social status is perceived agency and ability. Considerable evidence in social psychology shows high-status individuals and groups credited as agentic: capable, ambitious and intelligent. Low-status individuals and groups allegedly lack those qualities (Fiske, Cuddy, & Glick, 2007; Fiske, Cuddy, Glick, & Xu, 2002; Fiske, Xu, Cuddy, & Glick, 1999; Glick & Fiske, 2001; Jost, Burgess, & Mosso, 2001). Moreover, agentic stereotypes—combined with warmth stereotypes — map onto specific forms of prejudice, providing moral and intellectual support to various forms of discrimination (Glick & Fiske, 2001). To date the majority of research concentrated specifically on these stereotypes has emphasised their socio-structural correlates and universality, while paying less attention to motivational or ideological processes. Other theories focused on legitimation processes more generally (e.g. Jost & Banaji, 1994; Jost et al., 2001; Pratto, Sidanius, Stallworth, & European Journal of Social Psychology Eur. J. Soc. Psychol. 37, 1135–1148 (2007) Published online 3 May 2007 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.428 *Correspondence to: Dr Julian Oldmeadow, Washington Singer Laboratories, School of Psychology, University of Exeter, Perry Road Exeter EX4 4QG, United Kingdom. E-mail: j.oldmeadow@ex.ac.uk Copyright # 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Received 27 June 2006 Accepted 1 February 2007