Abstract
There is a growing body of work suggesting that social class stereotypes are amplified when people perceive higher levels of economic inequality—that is, the wealthy are perceived as more competent and assertive and the poor as more incompetent and unassertive. The present study tested this prediction in 32 societies and also examines the role of wealth-based categorization in explaining this relationship. We found that people who perceived higher economic inequality were indeed more likely to consider wealth as a meaningful basis for categorization. Unexpectedly, however, higher levels of perceived inequality were associated with perceiving the wealthy as less competent and assertive and the poor as more competent and assertive. Unpacking this further, exploratory analyses showed that the observed tendency to stereotype the wealthy negatively only emerged in societies with lower social mobility and democracy and higher corruption. This points to the importance of understanding how socio-structural features that co-occur with economic inequality may shape perceptions of the wealthy and the poor.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 367-382 |
Number of pages | 16 |
Journal | European Journal of Social Psychology |
Volume | 53 |
Issue number | 2 |
Early online date | 8 Nov 2022 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Mar 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This research was supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery grant (DP170101008), by the Centre for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies (ANID/FONDAL 15130009), by the Center for Intercultural and Indigenous Research (ANID/FONDAP #15110006), and a JSPS KAKENHI grant (19KK0063).
Funding Information:
This research was supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery grant (DP170101008), by the Centre for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies (ANID/FONDAL 15130009), by the Center for Intercultural and Indigenous Research (ANID/FONDAP #15110006), and a JSPS KAKENHI grant (19KK0063). Open access publishing facilitated by The University of Queensland, as part of the Wiley – The University of Queensland agreement via the Council of Australian University Librarians.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. European Journal of Social Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Funding
This research was supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery grant (DP170101008), by the Centre for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies (ANID/FONDAL 15130009), by the Center for Intercultural and Indigenous Research (ANID/FONDAP #15110006), and a JSPS KAKENHI grant (19KK0063). This research was supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery grant (DP170101008), by the Centre for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies (ANID/FONDAL 15130009), by the Center for Intercultural and Indigenous Research (ANID/FONDAP #15110006), and a JSPS KAKENHI grant (19KK0063). Open access publishing facilitated by The University of Queensland, as part of the Wiley – The University of Queensland agreement via the Council of Australian University Librarians.
Funders | Funder number |
---|---|
Australian University Librarians | |
Center for Intercultural and Indigenous Research | 15110006 |
Australian Research Council | DP170101008 |
Australian Research Council | |
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science | 19KK0063 |
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science | |
University of Queensland | |
Centro de Estudios de Conflicto y Cohesión Social | ANID/FONDAL 15130009 |
Centro de Estudios de Conflicto y Cohesión Social |
Keywords
- cross-culture
- economic inequality
- social class
- stereotyping