Following a global economic collapse in 2008, the Irish accepted economic hardship in the years immediately following the financial downturn without demonstrating. Why did not the Irish protest in response to the economic collapse, especially when other countries hit by the economic collapse did? Here, we empirically test ideas put forth in previous qualitative work: that a culturally ingrained moral principle, in life, “you reap what you sow,” helps explain why the Irish passively accepted austerity without protesting. We predicted if Irish acceptance of austerity occurred because of the belief their own actions caused their plight, then reminding them of this culpability should decrease support for civic engagement and protest and increase acceptance of austerity. Across a large sample of Irish participants (N = 570), we found no evidence that experimental induction of culpability affected support for protest or acceptance of austerity. However, we found interindividual variation in the extent to which participants did not support the protest and saw austerity measures as fair was associated with several psychological mechanisms that might underlie a “reap what you sow” mentality, namely with an increased tendency to support system justifying policies and endorse the belief the world is an inherently fair place. Our contribution highlights the importance of conducting ecologically valid research into unfolding social, economic, and political phenomena, and integrating qualitative with quantitative methods to gain a holistic and psychologically rich understanding of contemporary phenomena.