APA Dictionary of Psychology

a general model of the development and maintenance of social dominance and oppression that assumes societies minimize group conflict by creating consensus on ideologies that promote the superiority of one group over others. Ideologies that promote or maintain group inequality are the tools that legitimize discrimination. To work smoothly, these ideologies must be widely accepted within a society, appearing as self-apparent truths called hierarchy-legitimizing myths. [first formulated by U.S. social psychologists Felicia Pratto, James Sidanius (1945–  ), and colleagues]