| Abstract: | Relative deprivation (RD) is the product of an upward comparison that indicates that one's disadvantaged situation is undeserved coupled with anger and resentment. RD is associated with reduced psychological and physical health, individual deviance, and collective action, but empirical tests of RD are inconsistent. Closer attention to three central features of the RD experience – comparisons, discrete emotions, and the type of outcome – will improve the predictive value of RD. If social scientists measure RD correctly, they can answer the questions about people's surprising tolerance of large inequities in some contexts and unexpected sensitivity to small inequities in other contexts that first motivated RD research. |
