‘I Don't Care, So I Don't Participate’: Exploring the Role of Empathic Concern and Prosociality in the Relationship Between System Justification and Collective Action Intentions

ABSTRACT In recent years, researchers have investigated the relationship between the tendency to justify the system and the collective action intentions; in particular, justifying the status quo has a detrimental effect on the intentions to undertake progressive collective action. In the present research, we explore this relationship, hypothesizing a possible role of empathic concern and prosocial orientation as key factors in explaining why justifying the system may lead people to avoid participating in collective actions. We explored the role of empathic concern (Studies 1–3) and prosocial orientation (Study 4) in the relationship between system justification and collective action intentions in different social domains (i.e., migrants and LGBTQ+ rights, economic inequalities, and gender pay gap). Results from these studies support our hypothesis: justifying the system seems to be indirectly associated with lower intentions to participate in collective actions by lowering empathic concern and prosocial orientation. Implications, limits, and future directions are discussed.