A test of the flexible ideology hypothesis: System justification motives interact with ideological cueing to predict political judgments

•System dependence and accessibility of equality or meritocracy were manipulated.•Fairness judgment of an equal or meritocratic system was measured.•Participants evaluated the equal (meritocratic) system as more fair when equality (meritocracy) was primed, but only when they were in the system dependence condition.

We hypothesize that the system justification motive increases individuals' susceptibility to ideological priming effects. We tested this hypothesis in a sample of 308 participants in which system justification, accessibility of meritocratic or egalitarian ideology, and judgment of a meritocratic or equal funding system were manipulated. As predicted, when the system justifying motive was activated, participants primed with meritocracy (egalitarianism) judged a meritocratic (equal) funding system as relatively more fair. The same pattern was not found when system justification motives were not activated. Theoretical implications are discussed.