Does TV Viewing Cultivate Meritocratic Beliefs? Implications for Life Satisfaction

Abstract

The purpose of this article was to explore the cultivation effects of television viewing on meritocratic belief systems (particularly, system justification) and ultimately on perceived life satisfaction. Results of a cross-sectional survey (N = 276) reveal that genre-specific TV viewing cultivates system-justifying beliefs. More specifically, findings suggest that heavy viewing of competition-based reality TV viewing shapes viewers' economic system-justifying beliefs (i.e., the belief that the economic system is fair and legitimate, rewarding those who put in the effort and hard work). Economic system justifying beliefs, in turn, were shown to enhance viewers' perceived life satisfaction.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The author thanks Ran Wei and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions. Appreciation is also extended to Srividya Ramasubramanian and Chris Gamble for their constructive feedback on a previous version of this manuscript.

Notes

Note. The overall amount of TV viewing per day reported in this sample is slightly less than the national average of nearly 5 hours/day or 33 hours/week, as reported by Nielsen (2012). SDO = social dominance orientation; GSJ = general system justification; ESJ = economic system justification.

^a 0 = male, 1 = female.

*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001. †p < .10.

Note. GSJ = general system justification; ESJ = economic system justification; SDO = social dominance orientation.

*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001. †p = .07.

*Items were reverse-scored.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Carmen D. Stavrositu

Carmen D. Stavrositu (Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University, 2007) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at University of Colorado Colorado Springs. Her research interests include the social and psychological effects of mass and new/social media.