Economic System Justification [2018]

A Politico-Psychological Analysis

Report generated

March 23, 2026

1 Study Characteristics

1.1 Items: Economic System Justification

1.2 Sample

N=TBD

Sample description for the 2018 PPBS CINT Post-election study to be added.

2 Descriptives

2.1 Means, SD, Range, & SE

Table 1: Descriptives

Descriptives for Economic System Justification Items
	mean	sd	median	se
Econ_SJ1	5.55	2.39	6.00	0.05
Econ_SJ2	4.08	1.89	4.00	0.04
Econ_SJ3	4.35	2.25	5.00	0.04
Econ_SJ4	3.71	2.01	4.00	0.04
Econ_SJ5	5.80	2.36	6.00	0.04
Econ_SJ6	3.81	2.24	4.00	0.04
Econ_SJ7	4.97	2.36	5.00	0.04
Econ_SJ8	4.93	2.41	5.00	0.05
Econ_SJ9	4.90	2.23	5.00	0.04
Econ_SJ10	4.69	2.18	5.00	0.04
Econ_SJ11	5.15	2.32	5.00	0.04
Econ_SJ12	5.14	2.15	5.00	0.04
Econ_SJ13	4.60	2.14	5.00	0.04
Econ_SJ14	4.98	2.39	5.00	0.05
Econ_SJ15	3.86	2.31	4.00	0.04
Econ_SJ16	4.40	2.49	5.00	0.05
Econ_SJ17	4.97	2.31	5.00	0.04
Mean	4.70	1.08	4.88	0.02
Note:
All items: n = 2759, min = 1, max = 9. Mean: min = 1, max = 8.29

2.2 Response Distribution

Figure 1: Proportion of each response categories for Economic System Justification Items

Figure 2: Distribution of reponses for Economic System Justification Items

2.3 Correlations

Figure 3: Bivariate Spearman’s correlations for Economic System Justification

Note. Upper triangle shows Spearman’s rank-order correlations. *** p < .001, ** p < .01, * p < .05.

Figure 4: Bivariate Spearman’s correlations for Economic System Justification

Note. Upper triangle shows Spearman’s rank-order correlations by party identity. *** p < .001, ** p < .01, * p < .05.

Figure 5: Correlation Matrix of Economic System Justification items, Spearman’s rank correlations

3 Demographics

3.1 Social Class

Figure 6: Economic System Justification as grouped by SES

Note on the Raincloud Plots

Statistical summary (top): Welch’s t-test (or ANOVA) results, effect size, confidence intervals, p-values, and sample sizes are shown above each plot.
Bayesian analysis (bottom): Log Bayes factor and credible intervals are reported below each plot.

Table 2: Economic System Justification as grouped by SES

SES	N	Mean	SD
Poor	116	-0.30	1.02
Lower Middle Class	470	-0.15	0.95
Middle Middle Class	1249	0.11	0.95
Upper Middle Class	924	-0.03	1.07

3.2 Gender

Figure 8: Economic System Justification as grouped by Gender

Figure 9: Raincloud Plots showing Economic System Justification grouped by Gender

Table 3: Economic System Justification as grouped by Gender

Economic System Justification as grouped by Gender
Gender	N	Mean	SD
Female	1370	-0.07	0.98
Male	1389	0.07	1.01

3.3 Age

Figure 10: Economic System Justification as grouped by Age

Figure 11: Raincloud Plots showing Economic System Justification grouped by Age

Table 4: Economic System Justification as grouped by Age

Economic System Justification as grouped by Age
Age	N	Mean	SD
18-24 years	295	-0.18	0.94
25-34 years	494	-0.15	1.03
35-44 years	451	-0.03	1.01
45-54 years	458	0.03	0.87
55-64 years	470	0.05	1.11
NA	591	0.17	0.98

3.4 Education

Figure 12: Economic System Justification as grouped by Education

Figure 13: Raincloud Plots showing Economic System Justification grouped by Education

Table 5: Economic System Justification as grouped by Education

Education	N	Mean	SD
Less than High School	312	0.01	0.91
High School	767	0.15	0.83
Some College	779	0.00	1.00
Bachelor or higher	901	-0.13	1.14

3.5 Income Levels

Figure 14: Economic System Justification as grouped by Income Levels

Figure 15: Raincloud Plots showing Economic System Justification grouped by Income Levels

Table 6: Economic System Justification as grouped by Income Levels

Economic System Justification as grouped by Income Levels
Income Levels	N	Mean	SD
Less than $15,000	310	-0.17	0.97
$15,000-$24,999	275	-0.15	1.05
$25,000-$34,999	260	-0.12	0.97
$100,000-$149,999	384	-0.03	1.06
$35,000-$49,999	351	0.03	0.96
$75,000-$99,999	355	0.04	0.95
$50,000-$74,999	495	0.13	1.00
$150,000 +	329	0.15	0.98

3.6 Ethnicity

Figure 16: Economic System Justification as grouped by Ethnicity

Note on the Okabe-Ito color palette. The Okabe-Ito color palette (seen above) is a set of colorblind-friendly categorical colors available in R. We are using this palette for graphs with non-ordered variables (e.g., groups, categories) for accessibility.

Figure 17: Raincloud Plots showing Economic System Justification grouped by Ethnicity

Table 7: Economic System Justification as grouped by Ethnicity

Economic System Justification as grouped by Ethnicity
Ethnicity	N	Mean	SD
Black/African American	501	-0.22	0.89
Asian/Pacific Islander	87	0.03	0.83
Native American	14	0.10	1.21
Other	35	-0.73	1.16
NA	1976	0.08	1.02
NA	140	-0.18	0.91
NA	6	-0.09	0.86

3.7 Occupation

Figure 18: Economic System Justification as grouped by Occupation

Figure 19: Raincloud Plots showing Economic System Justification grouped by Occupation

Table 8: Economic System Justification as grouped by Occupation

Economic System Justification as grouped by Occupation
Occupation	N	Mean	SD
Employed	1334	-0.02	0.98
Retired	634	0.20	1.01
Unemployed	273	-0.09	0.98
Parent	126	0.08	0.94
Disabled	201	-0.31	1.04
Student	153	-0.17	0.99
Full-time caregiver	38	0.05	0.88

3.8 Area

Figure 20: Economic System Justification as grouped by Area

Figure 21: Raincloud Plots showing Economic System Justification grouped by Area

Table 9: Economic System Justification as grouped by Area

Economic System Justification as grouped by Area
Area	N	Mean	SD
Urban	723	-0.16	0.98
Rural	658	0.08	1.06
NA	1378	0.05	0.97

3.9 Religious Affiliation

Figure 22: Economic System Justification as grouped by Religious Affiliation

Figure 23: Raincloud Plots showing Economic System Justification grouped by Religious Affiliation

Table 10: Economic System Justification as grouped by Religion

Economic System Justification as grouped by Religious Affiliation
Religious Affiliation	N	Mean	SD
Catholic	573	0.19	0.86
Protestant	1237	0.16	0.91
Jewish	72	-0.40	1.12
Muslim	22	-0.39	0.80
Atheist/Agnostic	420	-0.54	1.24
Don't know / refused	435	-0.08	0.93

3.10 Section Summary

	Economic System Justification
Predictors	Estimates	CI	p
(Intercept)	4.35	4.16 – 4.54	<.001
Age	0.09	0.06 – 0.11	<.001
Income	0.07	0.05 – 0.09	<.001
Education	-0.17	-0.21 – -0.13	<.001
Gender (Male)	0.12	0.04 – 0.20	.002
Observations	2759
R² / R² adjusted	.045 / .044

4 Political Behavior

4.1 Political Orientation

Figure 25: Political Orientation (Controlled for Demographics)

Note. The y-axis shows residuals after regressing the outcome on demographics (Age, Income, Education, Gender). This illustrates how much the focal construct explains beyond demographic factors.

Figure 26: Correlation Matrix - Political Orientation

Table 11: Models of Political Orientation (SPRI) & Economic System Justification

	Political Orientation			Social Political Orientation			Economic Political Orientation
Predictors	Estimates	CI	p	Estimates	CI	p	Estimates	CI	p
(Intercept)	51.52	50.57 – 52.47	<.001	49.15	48.11 – 50.18	<.001	54.08	53.11 – 55.04	<.001
Economic System Justification	15.66	14.71 – 16.60	<.001	16.11	15.07 – 17.15	<.001	16.48	15.52 – 17.45	<.001
Observations	2759			2759			2759
R² / R² adjusted	.276 / .275			.251 / .251			.288 / .288

Table 12: Models of Ideology and Economic System Justification with Controls

	Political Orientation			Social Political Orientation			Economic Political Orientation
Predictors	Estimates	CI	p	Estimates	CI	p	Estimates	CI	p
(Intercept)	-21.97	-27.90 – -16.04	<.001	-21.96	-28.44 – -15.48	<.001	-28.93	-34.98 – -22.89	<.001
Economic System Justification	13.95	13.05 – 14.84	<.001	14.25	13.28 – 15.23	<.001	14.73	13.82 – 15.64	<.001
Age	1.57	0.99 – 2.14	<.001	2.12	1.49 – 2.75	<.001	1.47	0.89 – 2.06	<.001
Income	0.67	0.20 – 1.14	.005	0.23	-0.29 – 0.74	.387	1.00	0.52 – 1.47	<.001
Education	-1.30	-2.33 – -0.26	.014	-2.55	-3.68 – -1.42	<.001	-0.15	-1.20 – 0.91	.785
Gender (Male)	1.72	-0.17 – 3.61	.074	1.54	-0.53 – 3.60	.144	2.64	0.71 – 4.56	.007
Observations	2759			2759			2759
R² / R² adjusted	.286 / .285			.267 / .265			.302 / .301

4.2 Partisanship

Table 13: Mean Economic System Justification by Party Identity

Mean Economic System Justification by Party Identity (raw means)
Party Identity	N	Mean	SD
Democrat	1100	4.24	1.03
Republican	819	5.34	0.79
Don't Know/Other	104	4.45	1.09
Independent/Moderate	736	4.71	1.06

Table 14: Model of Economic System Justification & Party Identity (7-point)

	Economic System Justification
Predictors	Estimates	CI	p
(Intercept)	3.69	3.60 – 3.78	<.001
Party Identity (7-point)	0.28	0.25 – 0.30	<.001
Observations	1919
R² / R² adjusted	.253 / .252

Table 15: Model of Economic System Justification & Party Identity with Controls

	Economic System Justification
Predictors	Estimates	CI	p
(Intercept)	3.84	3.63 – 4.06	<.001
Party Identity (7-point)	0.27	0.24 – 0.29	<.001
Age	0.04	0.01 – 0.06	.005
Income	0.02	0.00 – 0.04	.025
Education	-0.14	-0.19 – -0.10	<.001
Gender (Male)	0.02	-0.07 – 0.10	.680
Observations	1919
R² / R² adjusted	.268 / .266

4.3 Religiosity

Figure 29: Religiosity (Controlled for Demographics)

Note. The y-axis shows residuals after regressing the outcome on demographics (Age, Income, Education, Gender). This illustrates how much the focal construct explains beyond demographic factors.

Figure 30: Religiosity - Correlation Matrix

4.4 Candidate Preferences

Table 16: Candidate Preferences (centered)

Candidate Preferences and Economic System Justification [centered]
Candidate Preference	N	Mean	SD
Donald Trump	770	0.58	0.75
Hillary Clinton	714	-0.28	0.86
Bernie Sanders	592	-0.71	1.03
None	243	0.02	0.78
John Kasich	88	0.29	0.88
Ted Cruz	83	0.79	0.81
Ben Carson	82	0.61	0.70
Jeb Bush	44	0.27	0.64
Gary Johnson	43	0.14	0.77
Marco Rubio	38	0.35	0.61
Jill Stein	32	-0.82	1.13
Rand Paul	30	0.86	0.78

Table 17: Candidate Preferences (raw means)

Candidate Preferences and Economic System Justification [raw means]
Candidate Preferences	N	Mean	SD	Range
Donald Trump	770	5.32	0.81	1-9
Hillary Clinton	714	4.40	0.93	1-9
Bernie Sanders	592	3.93	1.11	1-9
None	243	4.72	0.84	1-9
John Kasich	88	5.01	0.95	1-9
Ted Cruz	83	5.55	0.87	1-9
Ben Carson	82	5.35	0.75	1-9
Jeb Bush	44	4.99	0.70	1-9
Gary Johnson	43	4.85	0.83	1-9
Marco Rubio	38	5.08	0.66	1-9
Jill Stein	32	3.82	1.22	1-9
Rand Paul	30	5.63	0.84	1-9

4.5 Party Preferences

Table 18: Party Preferences (centered)

Party Preferences and Economic System Justification [centered]
Party Preference	N	Mean	SD
Green Party	68	-1.18	1.08
Democrat Party	1251	-0.40	0.95
None	321	-0.08	0.89
Libertarian Party	150	0.41	1.05
Republican Party	898	0.55	0.72
Tea Party	71	0.78	0.78

Table 19: Party Preferences (raw means)

Party Preferences and Economic System Justification [raw means]
Party Preferences	N	Mean	SD	Range
Green Party	68	3.42	1.17	1-9
Democrat Party	1251	4.26	1.02	1-9
None	321	4.61	0.96	1-9
Libertarian Party	150	5.14	1.14	1-9
Republican Party	898	5.29	0.77	1-9
Tea Party	71	5.54	0.84	1-9

4.6 Voting Preferences

Table 20: Voting Preferences

	2016 [Trump vs. Clinton]			2012 [Romney vs. Obama]			2008 [McCain vs. Obama]
Predictors	Odds Ratios	CI	p	Odds Ratios	CI	p	Odds Ratios	CI	p
(Intercept)	648.62	359.37 – 1201.99	<.001	766.64	412.44 – 1465.06	<.001	474.81	263.32 – 878.34	<.001
Economic System Justification	0.30	0.26 – 0.34	<.001	0.32	0.28 – 0.36	<.001	0.35	0.31 – 0.39	<.001
Observations	2759			2759			2759
R² Tjur	.157			.058			.130