Editing Sidanius Pratto 1999 (section)

====Legitimizing Myths====
*“Attitudes, values, beliefs, stereotypes, and ideologies that provide moral and intellectual justifications for the social practices that distribute social value within the social system” (Sidanius and Pratto, Chapter 2). Abbreviated LM.
*LMs have two independent characteristics:
**'''Functional type''': Does a particular LM justify group-based social INEQUALITY or EQUALITY?
***'''Hierarchy-enhancing LMs'''': LMs that justify group-based social inequality
****Ex. divine right of kings, manifest destiny, sexism
****Authors assert a lot of assumptions of political conservatism fall into this category (ex. individual responsibility over social responsibility)
***'''Hierarchy-attenuating LMs''': LMs that support greater levels of group-based equality
****Ex. universal rights of man, humanism
**'''Potency''': Does an LM help “promote, maintain, or overthrow a given group-based hierarchy?” (Sidanius and Pratto, Chapter 2). They have four factors:
***'''Consensuality''': The degree to which LMs are shared across the power continuum in both dominant and subordinate groups.
****Ex. The belief that women were subservient to men was a shared belief across sexes in Victorian England. 
***'''Embeddedness''': How anchored an LM is in other parts of culture or ideology.
****Ex. An embedded LM like anti-Blackness is well entrenched in U.S. culture. The caste system in Indian culture.
***'''Certainty''': Does an LM appear to have “a high degree of moral, religious, or scientific certainty, or truth?” (Sidanius and Pratto, Chapter 2)
****Ex. The way white supremacy was bolstered by racist scientific research in 19th century Western Europe
***'''Mediational strength''': Does an LM serve as a link between the group-based social hierarchy and HE or HA policies?
****Ex. The belief that one is responsible for their own economic reality and can achieve success through hard work alone can funnel into disapproval of social safety net policies in the U.S. This increases group inequality.