Individual values predict desiring more economic inequality: The moderator role of social mobility.

Attitudes towards economic inequality are crucial to uphold structural economic inequality in democratic societies. Previous research has shown that socioeconomic status, political ideology, and the objective level of economic inequality associated with individuals' attitudes towards economic inequality. However, some have suggested that people are aware of the individual and social features that are more functional according to the level of economic inequality. Therefore, individual predispositions such as cultural values could also predict these attitudes. In the current research, we expand previous results testing whether cultural variables at the individual level predict attitudes towards economic inequality. After analysing survey data including samples from 52 countries (N = 89,565), we found that self-enhancement values predict positively, and self-transcendence negatively, attitudes towards economic inequality as the ideal economic inequality measures. This result remained significant even after controlling by socioeconomic status, political ideology, and objective economic inequality. However, this effect is only true in high and middle social mobility countries, but not in countries with low social mobility. The present research highlights how cultural values and country social mobility are crucial factors to addressing attitudes towards economic inequality.

Rising and falling on the social ladder: The bidimensional social mobility beliefs scale.

Recent works in the field of Social Psychology have shown the importance of studying subjective social mobility from different perspectives. In the literature about subjective societal mobility, most of the research is focused on the mobility-immobility framing. However, several authors suggested studying social mobility beliefs effects differentiating according to mobility's trajectory, that is, upward (i.e., improving status over time) and downward (i.e., getting worse in status over time). The present research was motivated by the lack of measures that discriminate between beliefs in upward and downward societal mobility. Across two studies using different samples of the Spanish adult population, we examined both dimensions of social mobility beliefs and tested their predictive validity on other related constructs. In Study 1 (N = 164), with an EFA, we corroborated the independence between the two types of mobility. The internal structure was confirmed by a CFA in Study 2 (N = 400). Furthermore, it was shown that upward and downward mobility beliefs are differently related to other related constructs. The results from Studies 1-2 showed good convergent validity. In all correlations with the different constructs (attitudes towards inequality, meritocratic beliefs, justification of the economic system, and status anxiety) we found opposite direction effects for both types of societal mobility (upward and downward). The development of this new instrument can help to deepen our understanding of the psychosocial consequences of subjective social mobility, as well as to differentiate two processes that may have different consequences.

Concerns About Inequality in Health, Education and Income Jointly Predict Collective Actions

Introduction: Income inequality is often tolerated and justified, but when it brings about disparities in other domains of life (e.g., health or education), it may be seen with different eyes. In this research, we aimed to explore concerns regarding economic inequality in health, education, and income, and its relationship to supporting collective actions to reduce inequality. Method: We used survey data (N = 20,204, 18 countries) from the Latinobarometer 2020. We conducted descriptive analyses, latent class analyses, and analyses of multilevel linear regression to test our hypothesis. Results: We found that people were more concerned about health access and education opportunities than income inequality. We also identified two classes of people: one class concerned about education and health and the other unconcerned about inequality in any domain. In addition, results showed that all concerns and class membership predicted greater support of collective actions to reduce inequality. Conclusions: These preliminary findings suggest that concerns about education and health disparities may serve to increase awareness of overall inequality and mobilise the public.

Introducción: La desigualdad de ingresos a menudo se tolera y justifica, pero cuando esta conlleva desigualdades en otros ámbitos de la vida (e.g., salud o educación), puede que se vea con ojos diferentes. En este artículo tratamos de explorar la preocupación por la desigualdad económica en salud, educación e ingresos, así como su relación con el apoyo a acciones colectivas para reducir la desigualdad. Método: Usamos datos secundarios (N = 20 204, 18 países) del Latinobarómetro 2020. Llevamos a cabo análisis descriptivos, análisis de clases latentes y análisis de regresión multinivel. Resultados: Encontramos que la gente estaba más preocupada por el acceso a la salud y las oportunidades en educación que por la desigualdad en el ingreso. También identificamos dos perfiles de personas: unas preocupadas por la educación y la salud, y otras poco preocupadas por la desigualdad en ninguno de los ámbitos. Además, los resultados mostraron que todas las preocupaciones y los distintos perfiles predecían un mayor apoyo a las acciones colectivas para reducir la desigualdad. Conclusiones: Estos hallazgos preliminares sugieren que la preocupación por las desigualdades en salud y educación podrían servir para aumentar la conciencia sobre la desigualdad general y movilizar al público.

Spanish Adaptation of the Support for Economic Inequality Scale (S-SEIS).

BACKGROUND: This study presents the adaptation and evidence of the validity of the Spanish version of the Support for Economic Inequality Scale (S-SEIS). This measure evaluates people's tendency to have positive attitudes toward economic inequality. METHOD: Two correlational studies were conducted, one exploratory ( N = 619) and one confirmatory ( N = 562). RESULTS: S-SEIS showed good reliability in both studies. The factorial analysis showed a one-factor structure in Study 1 that was confirmed in Study 2. We also found a relationship between S-SEIS and other extensively used measures of attitudes toward inequality, such as intolerance toward inequality. S-SEIS positively correlates with belief in a just world, social dominance orientation (SDO), economic system justification (ESJ), institutional trust, and perceived democracy; it correlates negatively with intolerance toward inequality, perceived inequality, perceived warmth/competence of people in poverty and support for redistribution. CONCLUSIONS: The current research findings suggest that S-SEIS is a valuable instrument for evaluating the support of economic inequality in Spanish samples.

Wage (in)equality matters: the effect of organizational economic inequality on others' and self-ascriptions.

Economic inequality has consequences at the social-psychological level, such as in the way people make inferences about their environment and other people. In the present two preregistered studies, we used a paradigm of an organizational setting to manipulate economic inequality and measured ascriptions of agentic versus communal traits to employees and the self. In Study 1 (N = 187), participants attributed more agency than communion to a middle-status employee, and more communion than agency when economic equality was salient. In Study 2 (N = 198) this finding was replicated. Further, this inequality-agency association was explained by perceptions of competitive employee relationships. Results, moreover, suggested that participants mainly attributed more communion than agency to themselves in the equality condition. We conclude that agency and communion ascriptions may be functional and thus inform about the expectations people have on the nature of social relationships in the face of economic inequality.

Does income inequality increase status anxiety? Not directly, the role of perceived upward and downward mobility.

Status anxiety theory posits that higher income inequality leads people to attribute more importance to their socioeconomic status and to worry about the position they occupy on the social ladder. We investigated through two experimental studies (N = 1117) the causal effect of economic inequality on status anxiety and whether expected upward and downward mobility mediates this effect. In Study 1, perceived economic inequality indirectly increased status anxiety through lesser expected upward mobility. In Study 2, perceived economic inequality decreased both expected upward and downward mobility, with opposite indirect effects on status anxiety. This suggests that the relationship between inequality and status anxiety is not straightforward, and could implicate the presence of multiple processes working at the same time-whereas lower expected downward mobility could suppress the effect of inequality, lower expected upward mobility could exacerbate it.

Spanish Adaptation of the Support for Economic Inequality Scale (S-SEIS) / Adaptación Española de la Escala de Apoyo a la Desigualdad Económica (S-SEIS)

Background: This study presents the adaptation and evidence of the validity of the Spanish version of the Support for Economic Inequality Scale (S-SEIS). This measure evaluates people’s tendency to have positive attitudes toward economic inequality. Method: Two correlational studies were conducted, one exploratory (N = 619) and one confirmatory (N = 562). Results: S-SEIS showed good reliability in both studies. The factorial analysis showed a one-factor structure in Study 1 that was confirmed in Study 2. We also found a relationship between S-SEIS and other extensively used measures of attitudes toward inequality, such as intolerance toward inequality. S-SEIS positively correlates with belief in a just world, social dominance orientation (SDO), economic system justification (ESJ), institutional trust, and perceived democracy; it correlates negatively with intolerance toward inequality, perceived inequality, perceived warmth/competence of people in poverty and support for redistribution. Conclusions: The current research findings suggest that S-SEIS is a valuable instrument for evaluating the support of economic inequality in Spanish samples.(AU)

Antecedentes: La versión Española de la Escala de Apoyo a la Desigualdad Económica (S-SEIS) evalúa la tendencia de las personas a tener actitudes positivas hacia la desigualdad económica. Método: Se realizaron dos estudios correlacionales, uno exploratorio (N = 619) y otro confirmatorio (N = 562). Resultados: S-SEIS mostró una buena fiabilidad en los dos estudios. El análisis factorial mostró una estructura unifactorial en el Estudio 1 que se confirmó en el Estudio 2. Igualmente encontramos una relación entre S-SEIS y otras medidas de actitudes hacia la desigualdad ampliamente utilizadas, como la intolerancia hacia la desigualdad. S-SEIS correlaciona positivamente con la creencia en un mundo justo, la orientación hacia la dominancia social (SDO), la justificación del sistema económico (ESJ), la confianza institucional y la democracia percibida; correlaciona negativamente con la intolerancia hacia la desigualdad, la desigualdad percibida, la sociabilidad/competencia percibida de las personas en situación de pobreza y el apoyo a la redistribución. Conclusiones: Los hallazgos sugieren que la S-SEIS es una medida válida para evaluar el apoyo a la desigualdad económica en muestras españolas.(AU)

What about diversity? The effect of organizational economic inequality on the perceived presence of women and ethnic minority groups.

Economic inequality shapes the degree to which people and different social groups are perceived in stereotypical ways. Our research sought to investigate the impact of the perception of economic inequality in an organizational setting on expectations of social diversity in the organization's workforce, across the dimensions of gender and ethnicity. Combining data from previous experiments, we first explored in one set of studies (Studies 1a and 1b; N = 378) whether the degree of economic inequality in a fictitious organization affected participants' expectations of the representation of minority vs. majority group employees. We found that when we presented an organization with unequal (vs. equal) distribution of economic wealth amongst its employees to study participants, they expected the presence of men and White majority individuals to be larger than the presence of women and ethnic minorities. Second, we tested our hypotheses and replicated these initial effects in a pre-registered study (Study 2: N = 449). Moreover, we explored the potential mediating role of perceived diversity climate, that is, the perception that the organization promotes and deals well with demographic diversity. Findings revealed that an organizational setting that distributed resources unequally (vs. equally) was associated with a more adverse diversity climate, which, in turn, correlated with expectations of a lower presence of minority group employees in the organization. We concluded that economic inequality creates a context that modulates perceptions of a climate of social exclusion which likely affects the possibilities for members of disadvantaged groups to participate and develop in organizations.

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 Two Faces of Support for Redistribution in Colombia: Taxing the Wealthy or Assisting People in Need.

Support for redistribution is crucial for reducing economic inequality. Despite people's desire for reducing extreme inequalities, they still have mixed opinions regarding how to do so. The aim of the article is to examine the underlying latent dimensions of support for redistribution and test its correlates to perceptions of and attitudes toward inequality. In two studies, we found that support for redistribution can be modeled as a latent construct depicting two different dimensions: one focused on taxing the wealthy and changing the income distribution schema, and other focused on assisting people in need and providing opportunities. We also found that the dimension related to taxing the wealthy (vs. assisting people in need) displayed higher internal reliability and correlated consistently with perceptions and attitudes toward inequality: the higher the support for taxing the wealthy, the higher the perceptions and concerns of inequality, and the lower the inequality-justifying ideologies. This research unveils distinct underlying dimensions of support for redistribution that shed light on different motivations that drive people's redistributive preferences.

How Fair is Economic Inequality? Belief in a Just World and the Legitimation of Economic Disparities in 27 European Countries.

This article aims to examine the role of Belief in a Just World (BJW) in the legitimation of economic inequality. Using data from 27 European countries (N=47,086), we conducted multilevel analyses and found that BJW positively predicted the legitimation of economic inequality, measured by three indicators: the perceived fairness of the overall wealth inequality, and the fairness of the earnings made by the Top 10% and the Bottom 10% of society. These results persisted after controlling for individual- and country-level variables. Moreover, the BJW effect was stronger on the legitimation of the Bottom 10% incomes, compared to the legitimation of the Top 10%. We also found that economic inequality at the country-level reduced the BJW effect on legitimation of inequality. Finally, BJW displayed a negative indirect effect on support for redistribution, via the legitimation of economic inequalities.

Economic Inequality Increases Status Anxiety Through Perceived Contextual Competitiveness.

Status anxiety, the constant concern about individuals' position on the social ladder, negatively affects social cohesion, health, and wellbeing (e.g., chronic stress). Given previous findings showing that status anxiety is associated with economic inequality, we aimed in this research to test this association experimentally. A cross-sectional study (Study 1) was run in order to discard confounding effects of the relationship between perceived economic inequality (PEI) and status anxiety, and to explore the mediating role of a competitive climate (N = 297). Then we predicted that people assigned to a condition of high inequality would perceive more status anxiety in their social context, and they would themselves report higher status anxiety. Thus, in an experimental study (Study 2) PEI was manipulated (N = 200). In Study 1, PEI uniquely predicted status anxiety, and perceived competitiveness mediated the relationship. In Study 2 PEI increased perceived contextual status anxiety, a specific form of perceived competitiveness based on socioeconomic status (SES). Moreover, preliminary evidence of an indirect effect was found from PEI to personal status anxiety, through (higher) perceived contextual status anxiety. These preliminary findings provide experimental evidence for the effects of economic inequality on status anxiety and the mechanism involved. Economic inequality makes people feel that they live in a society where they are constantly concerned and competing with each other for their SES. These results could have important implications as health and wellbeing could be promoted by reducing economic inequalities and the competitive and materialistic environments of our societies.

Attitudes towards redistribution and the interplay between perceptions and beliefs about inequality.

Although economic inequality has increased over the last few decades, support for redistributive policies is not widely accepted by the public. In this paper, we examine whether attitudes towards redistribution are a product of both perceptions of, and beliefs about, inequality. Specifically, we argue that the association between perceived inequality and support for redistribution varies by beliefs that justify inequality. We investigated this hypothesis in a cross-cultural/country sample (N = 56,021 from 41 countries) using two different operationalizations of support for redistribution and two distinct beliefs that justify inequality. As hypothesized, the perceived size of the income gap correlated positively with believing that it is the government's responsibility to reduce inequality among those who rejected beliefs that justify inequality, whereas there was no association for those who endorsed these beliefs. Similarly, perceived economic inequality correlated positively with support for progressive taxation, but this association was weaker among those who endorsed meritocratic and equal opportunity beliefs. Together, these results demonstrate that ideologies influence the relationship between perceived inequality and attitudes towards redistribution, and that support for redistribution varies by how the policy is framed.

Inequality is in the air: contextual psychosocial effects of power and social class.

Social class and power inequalities are defining features of current societies and tend to influence several social psychological processes. Two types of consequences of social class and power inequalities can be differentiated: mechanical and contextual. Mechanical effects occur when inequality strengthens the relation between social class or power and a given outcome; conversely, contextual effects occur when inequality creates a social context that changes the relationship between social class or power and a given outcome. We exemplify these two different types of effects, focusing on the contextual ones, by analyzing the consequences of social class and power on a) status anxiety, b) the perception of society: social norms and mobility, and c) cohesion and social distance. Finally, we argue that perceived inequality and ideologies of inequality (e.g. economic system justification or social dominance orientation) might moderate these two described effects.

Economic Inequality and Masculinity-Femininity: The Prevailing Perceived Traits in Higher Unequal Contexts Are Masculine.

Previous studies have shown that economic inequality influences psychological processes. In this article, we argue that economic inequality also makes masculine attributes more prototypical. In Study 1 (N = 106), using an experimental design, we showed that individuals belonging to a society characterized by a higher level of economic inequality are perceived as more masculine than feminine. Study 2 (N = 75) shows, also experimentally, that the upper social class is perceived mostly in terms of masculine traits, and that this effect is greater when economic inequality is relatively high. Conversely, the lower social class is more clearly perceived in terms of feminine traits. These results inform our understanding of the impact of economic inequality on social perception.

Economic and social distance: Perceived income inequality negatively predicts an interdependent self-construal.

Previous research has shown that economic inequality influences how people are related with others. In this article, we suggest that perceived economic inequality influences self-construal. Specifically, we propose that higher economic inequality leads to an independent self-construal, whereas lower economic inequality leads to an interdependent self-construal. Correlational data from Studies 1a and 1b revealed that people who perceive lower levels of economic inequality tend to show higher levels of interdependent self-construal, even after controlling for social class. In Study 2, using an experimental design, we found that perceived high economic inequality leads to a more independent and less interdependent self-construal compared to the low economic inequality condition. These results expand the literature bridging the gap between a macro-social factor, such as economic inequality, and a micro-social factor, such as self-construal.

Perceptions of Economic Inequality in Colombian Daily Life: More Than Unequal Distribution of Economic Resources.

Research on perceptions of economic inequality focuses on estimations of the distribution of financial resources, such as perceived income gaps or wealth distribution. However, we argue that perceiving inequality is not limited to an economic idea but also includes other dimensions related to people's daily life. We explored this idea by conducting an online survey (N = 601) in Colombia, where participants responded to an open-ended question regarding how they perceived economic inequality. We performed a content analysis of 1,624 responses to identify relevant topics and used network analysis tools to explore how such topics were interrelated. We found that perceived economic inequality is mainly represented by identifying social classes (e.g., the elites vs. the poor), intergroup relations based on discrimination and social exclusion, public spaces (e.g., beggars on streets, spatial segregation), and some dynamics about the distribution of economic resources and the quality of work (e.g., income inequality, precarious jobs). We discuss how different perceptions of economic inequality may frame how people understand and respond to inequality.

Relación entre clase social subjetiva y autoeficacia: efecto de la comparación social / Relation between subjective social class and self-efficacy: Effect of social comparison

La clase socioeconómica es una variable relevante en el proceso de jerarquización social. Se ha encontrado que la clase social subjetiva (CSS) se relaciona positivamente con la autoeficacia de las personas. En la presente investigación, de tipo mixto y realizada con 380 participantes, se intentó replicar estos resultados operación alizando la CSS de dos formas: a) a través de una manipulación experimental -pidiéndole aleatoriamente a los participantes que se compararan con quienes quedaron abajo o arriba de ellos en una escala de jerarquía social- y b) a través de la medición de la CSS como diferencia individual. Los resultados no mostraron efectos de la manipulación experimental, pero si evidenciaron que la CSS, medida como diferencia individual, se relaciona positivamente con la autoeficacia general. Asimismo, y a nivel cualitativo, se analizaron las descripciones que los participantes hicieron sobre las características de las personas de clase alta y baja, encontrando que en ambos casos prevalecen características de tipo situacional (frente a características disposicionales), pero con una mayor valencia positiva en los de clase alta. Se concluye que la CSS es un factor importante en la autoeficacia y modera los efectos de la comparación social

Socioeconomic class is a relevant variable with regard to the process of social hierarchization; specifically, subjective social class (SSC) has been found to correlate positively with the self-efficacy of persons. In the present study, with mixed methodology and a population size of 280 participants, we attempted to replicate these results by operationalizing SSC in the two following manners: (a) through experimental manipulation --randomly requesting that participants compare themselves with those who are above or below them in a social hierarchy scale-- and (b) through measuring SSC as individual difference. The results show no effects due to experimental manipulation, but do support that SSC, measured as individual difference, positively correlates with general self-efficacy. Regarding qualitative analysis, when the participant's descriptions of common characteristics in members of the upper and lower class were studied, we found that situational characteristics predominated (over dispositional characteristics), but with greater positive valence when describing the upper class. We conclude that SSC is an important factor in self-efficacy and that it moderates effects of social comparison

Parental Support Buffering the Effect of Violence on Adolescents' Depression: Gender Differences.

In Mexico violence across the country has increased in recent years and has become a social problem of great importance. The continuous exposure to all types of interpersonal violence leads adolescents to cope with experiences and challenges of great risk of development deviations. Trying to find a more comprehensive understanding of violence outcomes on Mexican adolescents and its moderators, the present quantitative, non-experimental, cross-sectional correlation study was performed. Parental support ( vs. other sort of social support) was proposed to be a relevant moderator factor for decreasing the negative outcomes of violence exposure on depression, and gender was predicted to play a role in this process. A two-way interaction between violence exposure and parental support was only significant in the case of adolescent girls, whereas there was no evidence of such moderation for adolescent boys. The effect of exposure to violence on girls' depression was stronger when their parental support was relatively low than when their parental support was relatively high. Parental support may serve as a protective factor of depression after violence exposure especially for girls, whereas more research should be conducted in order to detect an efficient protective mechanism for boys who are exposed to violence.

Legitimidad y desempeño en el trabajo: cuando el derecho legitima y el merecimiento cualifica / Legitimacy and efficacy at work: when entitlement legitimizes and deservingness qualifies

El modelo estructural del merecimiento () establece dos factores que afectan a las percepciones de legitimidad: el derecho (merecer algo por cumplir las normas establecidas para ello) y el merecimiento (merecerlo por las acciones pasadas realizadas). A pesar de la relevancia de ambos factores, trabajos previos muestran conclusiones diferentes respecto a qué factor es un mejor predictor de la legitimidad. El objetivo de este artículo es explorar la influencia de estos factores al juzgar la legitimidad y las consecuencias positivas asociadas a la elección de un aspirante para un puesto de poder. Los resultados mostraron que mientras que un candidato con derecho para ocupar el puesto se percibe más legítimo, un candidato que merece ese puesto predice unas consecuencias más positivas como resultado de dicha elección. Además, los resultados sugieren que el grado de implicación de los individuos con la elección interactúa con el derecho y el merecimiento (AU)

The structural model of deservingness () posits that entitlement and deservingness are two different predictors of perceptions of legitimacy. Specifically, entitlement refers to the accomplishment of established social rules, whereas deservingness relates to the outcomes that individuals earn as products of their actions. Although both factors are good predictors of perceived legitimacy, previous works show different conclusions about their relevance. The aim of this paper is to further examine the influence of entitlement and deservingness on legitimacy perceptions and on the consequences expected for a candidate who has been elected for a power position. Results showed that whereas a high-entitlement candidate is perceived as more legitimate, a high-deservingness candidate is expected to perform better. Besides, results hint that the level of personal implication with the candidate election plays also a relevant role in combination with entitlement and deservingness, when individuals evaluate the expected consequences of the decision (AU)