高社会阶层者的财富分享行为及其促进

高阶层者有着较高的权利感和较低的同情心,从而在社会互动中表现出较少的促进他人福祉的财富分享行为。在实践中,可以通过符合能动性目标、匹配动机需求、降低权利感与激发同情心等个体层面策略以及缩小经济不平等与培育关注他人的社会氛围等社会层面策略促进高阶层者的财富分享行为。未来研究应努力探寻促进高阶层者财富分享行为的长效激励机制,并有针对性地将现有研究结论应用到我国重大社会实践中去。     

越富有越不支持再分配?——社会阶层与再分配偏向的关系及其心理机制

社会阶层是影响再分配偏向的重要因素。研究发现, 与低阶层者相比, 高阶层者再分配偏向更低。基于以往研究, 提出高社会阶层者低再分配偏向的作用机制及干预模型。依据该模型, 动机方面的经济自利与系统合理信念, 认知方面的经济不平等感知、贫富差距归因与刻板印象, 情感方面的同情心与地位焦虑是影响高阶层者再分配偏向的中介因素; 培育谦卑心态、进行反刻板印象干预、利用不平等框架效应、提高同情心、改变阶层文化价值观有助于提升高阶层者的再分配偏向。未来研究可对高阶层者的慈善行为及部分低阶层者拒绝再分配的现象加以关注, 深入考察和完善该模型的作用机制, 探索提升高阶层者再分配偏向的策略。     

不患不均？容忍和支持经济不平等的心理学解释

不断加剧的经济不平等问题对个体和社会有着巨大危害,然而人们对经济不平等却有着较高的容忍性。基于个体心理的研究证据,本文提出认知和动机双重路径模型来解释个体容忍和支持经济不平等问题。在认知路径上,个体倾向于低估当前社会的经济不平等程度和将经济不平等评价为公平的;在动机路径上,个体预期经济不平等将带来自我利益的增加。未来研究应进一步整合多重心理机制间的关系,并探索有效干预手段以增加人们对减少经济不平等的支持。     

Social Contact,Loneliness, and Mass Media Use: A Test of Two Hypotheses1

The possible connections between social variables such as frequency of social activity and subjective loneliness on the one hand, and extent of mass media use on the other, have received relatively little empirical attention. In this investigation, two related hypotheses concerning such links are proposed. The compensation hypothesis holds that persons with little social contact or greater loneliness will be more likely to utilize mass media to compensate for social impoverishment. The buffering hypothesis more specifically predicts that such compensation is effective; that is, persons “at risk” for loneliness because of diminished social contact may be at least partially protected from subjective loneliness due to heavy use of mass media. The hypotheses were tested in two samples: college students and a group of adolescent males attending a summer camp. Little support was found for the compensation hypothesis. While limited support was found for the buffering hypothesis, analyses also revealed an unexpected opposite effect; for the music variable, heavy media use actually intensified the association between social deficits and subjective loneliness. Some limitations of this study are discussed, and issues related to the unexpected “intensification” effects are presented.     

Rethinking Economic Inequality

Secular discourse about problem of economic inequality rests on two foundational premises that are problematic from a theological point of view. First, individuals enter into society with the aim of bettering their own condition. Second, bettering one's own condition entails accruing more wealth and power so that one can fulfill more of one's desires. In this paper I argue that insofar as these premises shape market behavior, they actively promote excessive economic inequality. Ethical responses to the problem of economic inequality that do not challenge these assumptions are unlikely to effectively promote justice. A theological response to the problem of economic inequality should work to promote cultural change by reminding us that genuine human flourishing depends on communal ties and the higher human goods that material wealth is properly meant to support.     

Social Norms and Cooperation in Social Dilemmas: The Effects of Context and Feedback

Drawing from research on social norms, we proposed and tested the hypothesis that people behave more competitively in social dilemmas involving economic decisions compared to those involving noneconomic decisions. We also proposed that people would compete more if they see that others have unexpectedly competed in a prior situation and cooperate more when others have unexpectedly cooperated in a previous situation. Further, we hypothesized that if others behave consistently with expectations, such behaviors (either cooperative or competitive) would not affect subsequent behavior. One hundred ninety-five under graduate students participated in an experiment in which they made choices in two different social dilemma games. Results support the hypotheses, and the discussion addresses the implications of the study for research on social norms and decision making.     

Economic inequality and the rise of far‐right populism: A social psychological analysis

It is argued that far‐right (FR) populism in the West is fuelled by inequality. In this paper, we argue that three social psychological processes are central to explaining these phenomena. We suggest that these processes are recursive although we do not specify their temporal order. Drawing on the social identity tradition, we first examine how inequality is linked to reduced social trust and cohesion, which has consequences for both low‐ and high‐income groups. We examine the known effects of perceived threat in amplifying tensions between groups and consolidating identity positions. Second, we argue that national identity consolidation is a particularly likely response to inequality, which, in turn, reduces tolerance of cultural diversity as an associated consequence. Finally, we consider the value of these strengthened national identities to those who harness them effectively to gain political ground. In this way, those who offer FR populist rhetoric aligned with nationalism can blame immigrants, “foreign” powers, and mainstream politics for both the lack of social cohesion and reduced economic circumstances of many. We conclude that FR populist leaders not only tap into the negative social consequences of inequality, their policy positions also fail to address and may even compound the situation.     

Economic inequality enhances inferences that the normative climate is individualistic and competitive

In addition to the negative effects of economic inequality on a range of health and social outcomes, we propose that inequality should also affect how people perceive the broader normative climate in society. We predicted that people living in a more unequal (vs. equal) society are more likely to appraise the social context as one where individualism determines people's behavior. We tested this idea in three experiments by manipulating the degree of economic inequality in a fictional society. We showed that, compared to the low-inequality condition, participants in the high-inequality condition were more likely to project individualistic norms onto society. Furthermore, Experiments 2 and 3 showed that in the high- (vs. low-) economic-inequality condition, participants inferred more competition and less cooperation between people. Our results are discussed in light of the importance of the perception of a broader normative climate to explain the consequences of economic inequality.     

Fighting inequalities in times of pandemic: The role of politicized identities and interdependent self-construal in coping with economic threat

During the COVID-19 pandemic, institutions encouraged social isolation and non-interaction with other people to prevent contagion. Still, the response to an impending economic crisis must be through the collective organization. In this set of pre-registered studies, we analyse two possible mechanisms of coping with collective economic threats: shared social identity and interdependent self-construction. We conducted three correlational studies during the pandemic in May–October 2020 (Study 1, N = 363; Study 2, N = 250; Study 3, N = 416). Results show that shared identity at two levels of politicization (i.e., working-class and 99% identities) and interdependent self-construal mediated the relationship between collective economic threat, intolerance towards economic inequality and collective actions to reduce it. The results highlight that the collective economic threat can reinforce the sense of community—either through the activation of a politicized collective identity, such as the working class or the 99% or through the activation of an interdependent self—which in turn can trigger greater involvement in the fight against economic inequality. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement .     

The Role of Perceived Wealth Competence,Wealth Values,and Internal Wealth Locus of Control in Predicting Wealth Creation Behavior1

The aim of this research was to explore the possibility that Wallston's (1992 ) modified social learning theory would apply to wealth creation behavior. We hypothesized that those who have high scores on internal wealth locus of control, perceived wealth competence, and wealth value would be more likely to engage in wealth creation behavior, both currently and in the future. A community sample of 317 adults completed measures of all these constructs. Factor structure and reliability of the scales were established prior to analysis. Two separate hierarchical multiple regressions were conducted: The moderation hypothesis was not supported. Perceived wealth competence was identified as a predictor of wealth creation behavior, current and future, in terms of both statistical and practical significance.     

‘The system is unfair’: Uncontrollable attributions for inequality predict more equitable giving in adolescents

Socioeconomic position is often determined by uncontrollable, structural factors, yet people from the United States tend to attribute wealth and poverty to individual control. However, information about behavioural correlates of such beliefs across development is relatively lacking. Thus, we examined adolescents' reasoning about the causes of inequality in a sample of 599 adolescents from a socioeconomically, ethnically, and racially diverse middle school (grades 6–8). Additionally, early adolescents were presented with two novel groups with an unexplained wealth disparity and given a task in which they could perpetuate or rectify inequality. We found that while adolescents tended to give equitably and rectify the inequality, this outcome was predicted by the type of explanation they gave for societal inequality. Furthermore, participants' socioeconomic status and sexual identity predicted their inequality explanations. These results add to our knowledge of adolescent reasoning about inequality by demonstrating a potential link between attributions for inequality and giving behaviour.     

Social Control Behavior: The Effects of Social Situations and Personal Implication on Informal Social Sanctions

Social control is the generic term used to refer to reactions to counter‐normative behaviors and to informal social sanctions that can be attributed to deviant individuals. This review of theories and experimental findings addresses the determinants of social control reactions. First, we examine researches in experimental social psychology that show how people's reactions can be inhibited by the presence of others; a phenomenon known as the ‘Bystander effect’. Next, we examine the extent to which group membership factors affect social control. According to the ‘Black Sheep effect’, people are more severe with a deviant when they share their social identity than when he is a member of an out‐group. Even though these processes appear as good predictors for social control reactions, other findings highlight that social control and the previous processes could be associated to self‐related motivations that are encouraging people to defend themselves through the protection of their group's norms.     

Social inequality and the reduction of ideological dissonance on behalf of the system: evidence of enhanced system justification among the disadvantaged

According to system justification theory, people are motivated to preserve the belief that existing social arrangements are fair, legitimate, justifiable, and necessary. The strongest form of this hypothesis, which draws on the logic of cognitive dissonance theory, holds that people who are most disadvantaged by the status quo would have the greatest psychological need to reduce ideological dissonance and would therefore be most likely to support, defend, and justify existing social systems, authorities, and outcomes. Variations on this hypothesis were tested in five US national survey studies. We found that (a) low‐income respondents and African Americans were more likely than others to support limitations on the rights of citizens and media representatives to criticize the government; (b) low‐income Latinos were more likely to trust in US government officials and to believe that ‘the government is run for the benefit of all’ than were high‐income Latinos; (c) low‐income respondents were more likely than high‐income respondents to believe that large differences in pay are necessary to foster motivation and effort; (d) Southerners in the USA were more likely to endorse meritocratic belief systems than were Northerners and poor and Southern African Americans were more likely to subscribe to meritocratic ideologies than were African Americans who were more affluent and from the North; (e) low‐income respondents and African Americans were more likely than others to believe that economic inequality is legitimate and necessary; and (f) stronger endorsement of meritocratic ideology was associated with greater satisfaction with one's own economic situation. Taken together, these findings are consistent with the dissonance‐based argument that people who suffer the most from a given state of affairs are paradoxically the least likely to question, challenge, reject, or change it. Implications for theories of system justification, cognitive dissonance, and social change are also discussed. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

‘How the other half lives’?: Taking a critical approach to the social psychology of economic inequality and extreme wealth

The negative impact of economic inequality on social issues and wellbeing is of importance to social psychology that historically has an interest in social justice. Social Identity Theory is explored as an approach that acknowledges the wider context of social issues. The use of experiments encounters challenges in categorizing wealth and how individuals account for extreme wealth. Mainstream research agendas in psychology are not neutral and draw upon current ideology (such as neoliberalism) that can often maintain inequality. These difficulties are addressed by Critical Social Psychology driven by a social justice agenda that challenges the acceptance of neoliberal values. The application of Critical Social Psychology to wealth inequality is demonstrated with research using UK media data. Critical feminist psychology is discussed to explore the role of class and how to challenge the stigmatization of working-class people. Finally, this paper outlines how Discursive Psychology addresses how extreme wealth and the practices of the super-rich are warranted. A discursive approach questions the acceptance of wealth inequality as an everyday assumption and demonstrates how dominant discourse draws upon individualism. Furthermore, Discursive Psychology has examined how accountability for problematic practices, such as tax avoidance that maintain inequality, are managed in media broadcasts.     

Social class transitions: Three guiding questions for moving the study of class to a dynamic perspective

We argue that social psychological theories of social class should move toward a more dynamic view that considers class change experiences to supplement more static perspectives focused on backgrounds or current positions. Indeed, social class is a unique demographic form of hierarchy because of its dynamism: social class is relatively malleable compared to race and gender; it can change multiple times in one's lifespan; and unlike age, it is something individuals can strive to change and that they often believe is possible to change. We review work from a variety of fields, including sociology, psychology, and organizational behavior, that begins to tackle the question of social class change experiences. Drawing on theories of social class transitions, acculturation, and identity change, we present an organizing framework suggesting three objective, structural features of social class change that should inform individuals' experience of changing class: What direction am I going (resource expectations)? How did I get here (predictability)? Where should I be (social comparisons)? We review emerging work as well as gaps in existing theory and suggest avenues for future research.     

Disavowing White Identity: How Social Disgust can Change Social Identities

Recent work finds that the sense of solidarity some whites feel with their racial group is strongly associated with their political attitudes, particularly since the election of Barack Obama. Prior work has also noted that levels of this identity have been stable across time and data sources. We, however, document a notable decline in levels of white identity in both panel and cross-sectional national survey data immediately after the 2016 presidential election. Using a two-wave panel design, we examine the factors associated with this decline. We examine whether particular emotional reactions, especially disgust toward Donald Trump, pushed some whites away from their racial identity. We also consider the possibility that some whites may have felt that Trump's election reduced perceptions of racial or political threat, therefore lowering levels of white identity. We find the strongest support for the former hypothesis; the decline in white identity was driven mostly by whites expressing disgust toward Trump. Our results highlight the effect that the political environment can have on group identities and point in particular to the significant role that disgust may play in attenuating the strength of group solidarity.     

Social Anxiety and Social Surrogacy in College Roommate Relationships

The social surrogate hypothesis proposes that people with higher social anxiety (HSA) recruit others to accompany them into social situations. We tested this hypothesis with college roommates using both hypothetical (Study 1) and retrospective (Study 2) measures, while assessing roommate's perceptions of recruitment and how social surrogacy might influence liking between roommates. Across two studies, we found that HSA participants were less likely to enter social situations alone (i.e. higher conditional entry); however, HSA was related to recruitment only when participants considered hypothetical scenarios, not when recruitment was assessed globally or retrospectively. There was little evidence that HSA participants' roommates were aware of these behaviours, although there was preliminary evidence that less social anxiety might increase liking when roommates perceived more conditional entry. We also found preliminary evidence that social anxiety may be negatively related to liking when participants were less likely to recruit an alternate surrogate if their roommate was unavailable. Taken together, these preliminary findings emphasize the importance of studying the surrogacy process from an interpersonal/dyadic perspective and using methods that will differentiate between anticipated (which may be assessed by hypothetical scenarios) and enacted recruitment behaviours. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology     

How living in economically unequal societies shapes our minds and our social lives

In recent decades, the economies of many countries have produced increasingly unequal outcomes for the rich and poor. This economic trend has attracted interest from members of the media, public and political classes as well as researchers who are interested in its societal implications. While this research has traditionally been the purview of economists and sociologists, there has been a burgeoning growth in research that has sought to understand the psychology of economic inequality. In this review, we summarize this work, focusing on two major themes: (1) how people perceive the scale of economic inequality and appraise its significance, and (2) how living in an economically unequal environment shapes people's social lives. Together, this work affirms claims that economic inequality is ‘the defining issue of our time’ (Obama, 2013) with a great deal of destructive potential. We identify important questions that await further research attention.     

Personal and Political: Post-Traumatic Stress Through the Lens of Social Identity,Power, and Politics

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has always been controversial and highly politicized. Here, using a social identity approach, we review evidence that trauma and its aftermath are fundamentally linked to social position, sociopolitical capital, and power. We begin this contribution by demonstrating how a person's group memberships (and the social identities they derive from these memberships) are inherently linked to the experience of adversity. We then go on to consider how it is through group memberships that individuals are defined by their trauma risk and trauma histories—that is, a person's group memberships and their trauma are often inherently linked. Considering the importance of group memberships for understanding trauma, we argue that it is important to see these, and group processes more generally, as more than just “demographic” risk factors. Instead, we argue that when groups are defined by their trauma history or risk, their members will often derive some sense of self from this trauma. For this reason, attributes of group memberships are important in developing an understanding of adjustment and adaptation to trauma. In particular, groups' status, their recourse to justice, and the level of trust and solidarity within the group are all central to the impact of traumatic events on individual-level psychological resilience. We review evidence that supports this analysis by focusing on the exacerbating effects of stigma and social mistrust on post-traumatic stress, and the value of solidarity and strong identities for resilience. We conclude that because of these group-related processes, trauma interweaves the personal with the political and that post-traumatic stress is fundamentally about power, positionality, and politics.     

Predicting Support for Arabs' Autonomy from Social Dominance: The Role of Identity Complexity and Dehumanization

The present study extends previous research on the influence of social dominance orientation (SDO) in international affairs by investigating the role of sociocognitive processes such as social identity complexity (SIC) and intergroup dehumanization in explaining the relationship between SDO and support for Arabs' autonomy. An Italian heterogeneous sample (N = 123), in terms of gender, age, political orientation, religiosity, and income level, was considered. We expected that those low on SDO would be more likely to support Arabs' autonomy, would have higher SIC, and would be less likely to dehumanize Arabs. We also expected that SIC and dehumanization would sequentially mediate the relationship between SDO and support for Arabs' autonomy. Results revealed that Italians low on SDO have higher SIC (i.e., a more inclusive social identity) which endorses lower dehumanization of Arabs. This in turn explained the influence of SDO on support for Arabs' autonomy. These findings integrate the literature about SDO and SIC and enhance the understanding of the sociocognitive processes underlying people's support for international egalitarian movements.