The psychological imprint of inequality: Economic inequality shapes achievement and power values in human life.

OBJECTIVE: This research investigates how economic inequality shapes basic human values across three cross-national, cross-regional, and longitudinal studies (Ntotal  = 219,697). METHODS: Study 1 examined the relationship between objective economic inequality and values across 77 societies from all five continents (n = 170,525). Study 2 examined the relationship between objective economic inequality and values across 51 regions in the United States (n = 48,559). Study 3 used a two-year longitudinal design to examine the relationship between perceived economic inequality and values (n = 613). RESULTS: Results from multilevel modeling and longitudinal analysis suggested that people who lived in areas with higher economic inequality and who perceived higher economic inequality were more likely to endorse achievement and power values. Moreover, people who perceived higher economic inequality were less likely to endorse benevolence values. These effects were robust in within-country tests (Studies 2 and 3) but not in the cross-country tests (Study 1) when accounting for sociodemographic characteristics. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that economic inequality may act as an antecedent of self-enhancement values, particularly within countries. In a world of rising economic inequality, this may over time lead to an overemphasis on achievement and power which have been shown to erode social cohesion.

Perceptions of Income Inequality and Women's Intrasexual Competition.

Income inequality has been empirically linked to interpersonal competition and risk-taking behaviors, but a separate line of findings consistently shows that individuals have inaccurate perceptions of the actual levels of income inequality in society. How can inequality be both consistently misperceived and yet a reliable predictor of behavior? The present study extends both these lines of research by evaluating if the scope of input used to assess income inequality (i.e., at the national, state, county, or postal code level) can account for perception discrepancies and if actual/perceived inequality is associated with female intrasexual competition. Female participants recruited online from the general US population (n = 691) provided demographic information, measures of perceived income inequality, and measures of intrasexual competition attitudes and behavior. Actual and perceived income inequality (at any level) did not predict negative attitudes toward other women or female weighting of physical appearance as a desirable trait. Perceived income inequality and actual county-level inequality was, however, predictive of female competition in the form of self-sexualization clothing choice. Further analyses found that age and importance placed on physical attractiveness also predicted women's clothing choices. Perceptions of income inequality were predicted not by actual Gini indices, but by beliefs about the levels of poverty and income gaps. These results highlight the importance of better understanding the proximate cues by which people perceive environmental features such as inequality, and how those cues are used to adjust interpersonal behaviors.

Changing attitudes toward redistribution: The role of perceived economic inequality in everyday life and intolerance of inequality.

Modern societies are characterized by economic inequality. Redistributive policies are one of the means to reduce it. We argue that perceived economic inequality in everyday life and intolerance of it are central factors to enhance positive attitudes toward redistribution. To test it, we conducted a four-wave longitudinal panel study in Chile with a sample of 1221 college students (at T1 - baseline, 960 at T2, 926 at T3, and 787 at T4; Mage = 18.89). As expected, a cross-lagged longitudinal analysis controlled by household income confirmed a positive relationship between perceived economic inequality in everyday life and intolerance of inequality, which in turn was positively associated with support for redistributive policies. These results were stable and consistent over time, supporting the idea that perceived economic inequality in everyday life enhances positive attitudes toward redistribution by increasing intolerance of it. Results highlight the important role played by perceived inequality in everyday life.

What predicts perceived economic inequality? The roles of actual inequality, system justification, and fairness considerations.

Past studies have mostly focused on investigating actual economic inequality with less work devoted to understanding perceived economic inequality and its antecedents. However, numerous studies have shown that perceived inequality is a strong predictor of psychological, political, and social outcomes and hence is an important outcome in and of itself. This paper aims to identify the socioecological (i.e., actual inequality) and psychological (legitimation and fairness considerations) antecedents of perceived economic inequality. We hypothesized that individuals who legitimized income inequality would perceive less inequality, whereas individuals who experienced unfairness engendered by income inequality would perceive more inequality. We utilized a nationally representative sample in China (N = 33,600 respondents nested within 25 provinces) and conducted multilevel longitudinal analyses to test our hypotheses. In line with our predictions, we found that legitimation of inequality was associated with less perceived inequality six years later, whereas unfairness was associated with more perceived inequality six years later. In addition, we found that in more unequal areas, people perceived less income inequality. These longitudinal effects were robust when controlling for prior years of perceived inequality, economic development, and sociodemographic factors. Findings have implications for system justification and economic inequality theories.

Association of parental dissatisfaction and perceived inequality of post-disaster recovery process with child mental health.

INTRODUCTION: Unequal distribution of access to resources would often be highlighted after disasters, and may have impact on child mental health. We aimed to elucidate the association between perception of recovery process (dissatisfaction and perceived inequality) and child mental health. METHOD: Data from the Great East Japan Earthquake Follow-up for Children (GEJE-FC) study targeting children (aged 4-6 years at the time of the disaster) and their siblings and parents from three affected prefectures (Miyagi, Fukushima and Iwate) in Japan, from August 2012 to January 2018, were analyzed. Dissatisfaction and perceived inequality of recovery process, parental mental health (Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6) and happiness) and social capital, and child mental health (Depression Self-Rating Scale for Children) were assessed via self-rated questionnaires. Longitudinal associations of dissatisfaction and perceived inequality and mental health were examined with the linear mixed modeling and structural equation modeling (n = 168 parent-child dyads). RESULT: Dissatisfaction and perceived inequality predicted lower parental happiness and more child depressive symptoms. Structural equation modeling revealed that parental mental health was associated with perceived inequality via lower social capital. Interestingly, perceived inequality was associated with child depressive symptom directly and indirectly through parental mental health and social capital. CONCLUSION: Dissatisfaction and perceived inequality of post-disaster recovery process were important predictors of child mental health. To mitigate the impact of disaster and to avoid damage on child mental health in the recovery process, policy makers should take into account survivors' dissatisfaction and perceived inequality of recovery process.