Relationship between relative deprivation and health of Hainan Island residents: mediating effect of negative health behaviors.

Despite extensive evidence of the direct impact of relative deprivation on health, the mediating role of tobacco, alcohol and betel nuts in this impact has been largely ignored. This study aimed to verify whether these negative health behaviors are mediating factors for relative deprivation and health according to the mediating effect concept. Data from the Hainan Island Residents Health Interview Survey in 2017 were used. Variables including age, marital status, educational level, chronic diseases and area of residence were controlled for in multivariate analysis with separate sex analyses. Mediating effects of smoking, alcohol drinking and betel nut chewing, and whether the effects were complete or partial, were analyzed by logistic regression analysis. Smoking, alcohol drinking and betel nut chewing had a significant mediating effect in men, but not in women; however, alcohol drinking and betel nut chewing had similar, significant complete mediation in both sexes. Dissatisfaction following relative deprivation due to uneven income distribution may be relieved through these negative health behaviors. Therefore, better medical resources should be provided to improve residents' health and the impact of income inequality on health, particularly the growing gap between the rich and poor, should be addressed.

Does Perceiving the Poor as Warm and the Rich as Cold Enhance Perceived Social Justice? The Effects of Activating Compensatory Stereotypes on Justice Perception.

Compensatory stereotypes are the fundamental components of social perception, and competence and warmth are the two fundamental dimensions of social cognition. Previous studies have concluded that, to maintain belief in justice, the system justification motive leads people to believe that upper- and lower-class groups each have their own unique and mutually offsetting advantages and disadvantages (e.g., the rich have low warmth and the poor have high warmth). The present study introduced the variable of social justice perception (personal and systemic justice perception) and hypothesized that endowing upper-class groups with negative characteristics and lower-class groups with positive characteristics could enhance people's social justice perception. Participants were presented with vignettes that activated compensatory/non-compensatory stereotypes in four ways (compensatory competence, non-compensatory competence, compensatory warmth, non-compensatory warmth) regarding individuals described as rich and poor. Justice perception toward these individuals was then rated by the participants. The results showed that compensatory stereotypes triggered by system justification motives can affect the social justice perceptions of individuals to a certain extent. That is, perceiving the poor as warm and the rich as cold enhances perceived social justice, whereas perceiving the poor as competent and the rich as incompetent reduces perceived personal justice but does not affect perceived systemic justice. Especially in the context of the Chinese Confucian culture, which emphasizes warmth but ignores competence, the effect of compensatory stereotypes on perceptions of social justice underscores a cultural difference with the West that warmth is superior to competence. Further, compensatory stereotypes may be either beneficial for or detrimental to individuals of low socioeconomic status, and the results also question whether justice perception reflects the true fairness of society.