System justification

Biological Parallel

Worker honeybees defend the reproductive monopoly of their queen despite being sterile themselves—an extreme form of system justification. When queens fail (low egg production, poor pheromone signals), workers often suppress their own ovarian development and attack worker-laid eggs to maintain the queenright system rather than transitioning to democratic egg-laying. This colony-level conservatism persists even when queen replacement would improve fitness, because the existing social structure has become self-reinforcing through punishment of defectors.