Psychology of Inequality

Defining social class 

• Social class can be defined & measured according to: material resources/economic capital, education, occupational prestige, sociocultural variables, perceived rank/subjective status, identification with a class category 

Intersection with gender and race 

• Stereotypical intersections between social class & both race & gender. Actual gender & racial differences in social standing 

Consequences of inequality 

• Societal wellbeing & prejudice, health, wellbeing & happiness, emotion, cognition, perception, social interactions 

(Mis)perceptions of social class & inequality 

• Degree of inequality misperceived, others' social class perceived with some accuracy, social class associated with strong stereotypes 

Maintaining inequality

• Inequality reinforced on structural & interpersonal level, inequality can be combated, but requires change on both levels

• Historically: land ownership, relationship to the means of production 
• Social class categories based on occupation (Jackman & Jackman, 1973) 
  • E.g. poor, working-class, middle class, upper-middle-class, upper class 
• Economic, cultural, social facets - inequality across all (Savage et al., 2013)
• Dimension of the self rooted in:
  • Objective material resources, subjective perceptions of rank relative to others (Cote, 2011)
• Rank
  • Perceived position on social ladder of society (Kraus et al., 2013)
• Social class as sociocultural context (Stephens & Townsend, 2013):
  • Rank and exposure to different material & social conditions 
  • Include different resources, ideas, practices & institutions 
  • Shapes the self & patterns of thinking, feeling & acting 
• Measurement in psychology 
  • Income, education, occupational prestige, social class category, subjective social status

• Agentic-communal model (Rucker et al., 2018)
  • Position in social hierarchy -> propensity for agency, communion 
  • Advantage -> agency 
  • Disadvantage -> communion 
• Social class and gender (Heilman 2001; Heilman et al., 2015)
  • Higher status & power occupations associated with men 
  • Competence stereotypes - gender, social class 
  • Education: women higher 
  • Income: men higher 
  • Highest status positions: women underrepresented 
• Social class and race 
  • Cues to social class affect perception of someone's race. Reveals association between social class and race (Freeman et al., 2011)
  • Mental representations of social class reflect race associations (Lei & Bodenhausen, 2017; Brown-Ianuzzi et al., 2017)
  • Race & job status associations, race & rank associations (Dupree et al., 2020)
  • Ethnicity pag gap, minority ethnic groups more likely to live in poverty, ethnicity differences in educational achievement, minority ethnic groups well-represented in higher education, highest status positions: minority racial & ethnic groups underrepresented 

• Societal level 
  • More unequal places less stable & lower well-being (Buttrick et al., 2017; Oishi et al., 2011; Roth et al., 2017)
  • Inequality -> relationship between globalisation & prejudice (Caluori et al., 2020)
• Health - various aspects of physical health related to social class (Adler et al., 2000; Marmot, 2015; Fournier, 2020)
• Wellbeing & happiness 
  • Stress, depression (Sherman & Mehta, 2020; Zimmerman & Katon, 2005; Miech & Shannahan, 2000)
  • Happiness, subjective wellbeing, life satisfaction (Akin et al., 2009; Stevenson & Wolfers, 2013; Kahneman & Deaton, 2010)
• Emotion - emotional experience, emotion expression (van Kleef & Lange, 2020)
• Cognition 
  • Responses to positive & negative stimuli - neuroscientific evidence (Hao & Farah, 2020)
  • Decision making: present vs future focus (short vs long term), driven by (scarcity, instability, low status - via lower sense of control), Shah et al., (2012), Sheehy-Skeffington (2020)
• Perception - self perception: self vs other-orientation, depends on culture, sense of control, entitlement 
• Social interactions: own-class social affiliation, prosocilaity? conflicting findings 

• Misperceptions of inequality 
  • Wealth distribution (Norton & Ariely, 2011)
  • Pay gap (Kiatpongsan & Norton, 2014)
  • Mean wealth (Dawtry et al., 2015)
  • Racial economic inequality - Black-White economic gap in US (Kraus et al., 2017; 2019), Kuo et al., (2020)
  • Mobility (Davidai & Gilovich, 2015; Kraus & Tan, 2015)
• Perceptions of others' class 
  • Rank at work: photos (posture, clothing) - Schmid Mast & Hall (2004
  • Interpersonal interactions: thin slices of behaviour (engagement) - Kraus & Keltner (2009)
  • Facial appearance: photos (attractiveness/health, emotion) - Bjornsdottir & Rule (2017; 20)
  • Speech: accents' status (Giles & Sassoon, 1983; Kraus et al., 2019)
  • Attire & self-presentation (Oh et al., 2019; Gillath et al., 2012; Davis, 1956)
  • CVs: class culture signals (Rivera, 2012; Rivera & Tilcsik, 2016)
• Social class stereotyping & attitudes 
  • Competence, warmth, but - depends on culture/history (Cuddy et al., 2008; Durante et al., 2017; Grigoryan et al., 2020)
  • Perceived traits & abilities. Dehumanisation of low social class. 
  • Explicit vs implicit attitudes toward high social class (Horwitz & Dovidio, 2017) 

• Systematic barriers: Inheritance, greater inequality - more difficult mobility is (Bowles & Gintis, 2002; Mood, 2017; Hertel & Groh-Samberg, 2019)
• Inequality is reinforced in various contexts:
  • Gateway contexts & middle-class cultural ideals (home, school, workplace) - Stephens et al., (2014)
  • Cultural mismatch in higher education, affluence cues & education performance 
  • Class perceptions & hiring decisions, cultural mismatch in the workplace 
  • Social connections don't tend to bridge across class boundaries, people tend to date and marry people of their own social class standing (Schwartz, 2013; Greenwood et al., 2014)
• Stereotyping 
  • Reinforces inequality. Inequality reinforces stereotyping 
  • Signals of higher class -> better treatment. Dehumanisation -> less support for redistribution
• Misperceptions: misperceptions of degree of inequality - not seeing problem. Overconfidence 
• System justification: system perceived as justified. System justification -> mutes physiological response to inequality  
• Ameliorating inequality 
  • Framing inequality in terms of disadvantage (vs advantage) -> support for action 
  • Minimising mismatch: individual (teaching contextual theory of difference), structural: making expectations clear & information accessible 

• Systematic barriers: Inheritance, greater inequality - more difficult mobility is (Bowles & Gintis, 2002; Mood, 2017; Hertel & Groh-Samberg, 2019)
• Inequality is reinforced in various contexts:
  • Gateway contexts & middle-class cultural ideals (home, school, workplace) - Stephens et al., (2014)
  • Cultural mismatch in higher education, affluence cues & education performance 
  • Class perceptions & hiring decisions, cultural mismatch in the workplace 
  • Social connections don't tend to bridge across class boundaries, people tend to date and marry people of their own social class standing (Schwartz, 2013; Greenwood et al., 2014)
• Stereotyping 
  • Reinforces inequality. Inequality reinforces stereotyping 
  • Signals of higher class -> better treatment. Dehumanisation -> less support for redistribution
• Misperceptions: misperceptions of degree of inequality - not seeing problem. Overconfidence 
• System justification: system perceived as justified. System justification -> mutes physiological response to inequality  
• Ameliorating inequality 
  • Framing inequality in terms of disadvantage (vs advantage) -> support for action 
  • Minimising mismatch: individual (teaching contextual theory of difference), structural: making expectations clear & information accessible