Psychology of Personal Political Engagement in Russia: Unpacking Perceived Community Culture, Pluralistic Ignorance, and System Justification

This study explores the relationship between Russian citizens’ self-reported political engagement and their system justification beliefs, perceptions of the system justification beliefs of other citizens, and perceptions of their community culture. We assessed personal political engagement through self-reported past behavior of 1,143 participants. The results revealed a negative relationship between individual personal system justification scores and political engagement. However, the analyses suggested that this relationship emerged because of pluralistic ignorance among the citizenry—their tendency to assume that others hold stronger system justification beliefs than they do. This possibility seemed especially likely among those who perceived themselves to inhabit vertical collectivist communities. These results suggest that beliefs about the system justification beliefs of others (second-order beliefs) may shape personal system justification beliefs (first-order beliefs). More generally, the findings emphasize the substantial role of cultural factors in political engagement in Russia.