Evidence of decreased system justification among extreme conservatives in non-American samples

Do extreme rightists criticize the system, or do rightwing extremists exhibit the higher system justification? These competing alternatives were tested across three studies. In Study 1 (<i>N</i> = 38,168), I examined the linear and quadratic relationship between political orientation and satisfaction with the existing national system across 23 nations. In Study 2 (<i>N</i> = 1,206), I investigated the linear and quadratic relationship between political orientation and confidence in the national institution in a representative sample of Italian people. In Study 3 (<i>N</i> = 190), I considered general system justification and investigated its linear and quadratic relations with political conservatism as measured with different indexes. In all the studies, I found some evidence of a positive linear relationship between political conservatism and system justification. Moreover, a quadratic and negative relationship emerged so that system justification appeared to <i>decrease</i> at the extremes of the political continuum.