In addition to the negative effects of economic inequality on a range of health and social outcomes, we propose that inequality should also affect how people perceive the broader normative climate in ...society. We predicted that people living in a more unequal (vs. equal) society are more likely to appraise the social context as one where individualism determines people's behavior. We tested this idea in three experiments by manipulating the degree of economic inequality in a fictional society. We showed that, compared to the low‐inequality condition, participants in the high‐inequality condition were more likely to project individualistic norms onto society. Furthermore, Experiments 2 and 3 showed that in the high‐ (vs. low‐) economic‐inequality condition, participants inferred more competition and less cooperation between people. Our results are discussed in light of the importance of the perception of a broader normative climate to explain the consequences of economic inequality.
Economic inequality has been found to have pernicious effects, reducing mental and physical health, decreasing societal cohesion, and fueling support for nativist parties and illiberal autocratic ...leaders. We start this review with an outline of what social identity theorizing offers to the study of inequality. We then articulate four hypotheses that can be derived from the social identity approach: the fit hypothesis, the wealth‐categorization hypothesis, the wealth‐stereotype hypothesis, and the sociostructural hypothesis. We review the empirical literature that tests these hypotheses by exploring the effect of economic inequality, measured objectively by metrics such as the Gini coefficient as well as subjectively in terms of perceptions of economic inequality, on wealth categorization (of others and the self), the desire for more wealth and status, intergroup hostility, attitudes towards immigrants, prosocial behavior, stereotyping, the wish for a strong leader, the endorsement of conspiracy theories, and collective action intentions. As we will show, this research suggests that economic inequality may have even more far‐reaching consequences than commonly believed. Indeed, investigating the effects of economic inequality on citizens' sociopolitical behaviors may be increasingly important in today's turbulent political and social landscape.
Purpose
Antecedents and influences of workplace incivility have recently been studied in many areas of research but there is still a lack of consideration for the impact of culture. Theoretical ...considerations for the present research are based on the cultural dimensions of power distance and tightness/looseness because the collective levels of power distance are similar between Korea and Spain, but the collective levels of tightness/looseness are different between the two countries. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether individuals’ occupational position affects their normative reactions to incivility differently.
Design/methodology/approach
Participant (victim)’s (those who react to uncivil behaviors) social power (low vs high) and perpetrator’s (those who exhibit uncivil behaviors) social power (low vs high) were experimentally manipulated; all participants were randomly assigned to one of four perpetrator × victim conditions in relation to hierarchical positions (Ntot = 467).
Findings
The results suggest that the level of social and personal acceptability was greater either among Koreans than Spanish at a collective level or among people who endorsed higher power distance and tightness values. All in all, the findings highlight cultural influences on the importance of social hierarchy as a factor that can impact the people’s normative reactions to incivility.
Originality/value
The findings broaden our understanding of the psychology of employees in relation to incivility, by simultaneously considering the influences of culture (power distance and tightness/looseness) and social power.
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.
The degree of economic inequality may lead to different environments where people develop motives and behaviours that lend them higher chances of survival. However, the specific features attributed ...to an environment with a particular level of economic inequality have received little research attention. In this research, we explored how perceived economic inequality may influence the values inferred as normative in society. Results from three studies, one correlational and two experimental, showed that perceived normative values change according to the degree of perceived economic inequality in a given context: higher levels of perceived economic inequality are related to normative self-enhancement values, whereas lower levels of perceived economic inequality are related to normative self-transcendence values. These results are discussed in terms of how information on economic inequality is used to build a general perception of the normative climate in society and, accordingly, of the values that would best guide behaviours.
Although several scholars and international institutions have considered high levels of economic inequality an issue for society, the populations who live in more unequal countries tend to be less ...concerned about it. Given the ideological connotations in the construct of people’s concerns about economic inequality, whether those who live in more unequal countries are more interested in economic inequality remains unclear. In this research, we aimed to examine whether objective economic inequality is related to individuals’ interest in the topic of economic inequality. First, we used data from the United States Census Bureau and Google Trends to examine whether the objective level of economic inequality predicted the interest of the population in searching Google for terms such as “economic inequality” and “income inequality.” Our results showed that individuals who live in more economically unequal U.S. states more often search these terms. Second, we analysed the tweets that contained the terms “economic inequality” and “income inequality” (10,118 tweets) published over 9 days and localised by U.S. state. We found that individuals who live in more economically unequal U.S. states more often post tweets about economic and income inequality. To take a closer look at the narrative around economic/income inequality, we conducted a network analysis using tweets as nodes and retweets as edges. Our results suggest that the public narrative about economic inequality via Twitter was built on three large communities. Finally, we discuss the implications of our results in relation to economic inequality consequences.
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.
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.
Stereotypes have traditionally been considered as "mental pictures" of a particular social group. The current research aims to draw the structure of gender stereotypes and metastereotype schemes as ...complex systems of stereotypical features. Therefore, we analyze gender stereotypes as networks of interconnected characteristics.
Through an online survey (
= 750), participants listed the common female and male features to build the structure of the gender stereotypes. Participants also listed the common features of how members of one gender think they are viewed by people of the other gender to build the structure of gender metastereotypes.
Our results suggest that female stereotypes are characterized by a single community of features consistently associated such as
, and
. Female metastereotype, however, combines the previous community with another characterized by
and
. On the contrary, the male stereotype projected by women is characterized by a community of features associated such as
, and
, but male in-group stereotypes and metastereotypes projected by men are a combination of this community with another one characterized by features associated such as
, and
.
A network approach to studying stereotypes provided insights into the meaning of certain traits when considered in combination with different traits. (e.g., strong-intelligent vs. strong-aggressive). Thus, focusing on central nodes can be critical to understanding and changing the structure of gender stereotypes.
With a view to improving the sensitivity of direct coupling of a headspace sampler (HS) with a mass spectrometer (MS), here we propose the use of a programmed temperature vaporizer (PTV) in ...solvent–vent injection mode before the sample is introduced into the MS. This preconcentration scheme has been used for some time in many methods based on gas chromatography (GC), but to the best of our knowledge it has not yet been used in an electronic nose based on MS. The increase in the S/N ratio with the proposed instrumental configuration (HS-PTV/MS) lies between 6.9- and 22-fold. The main advantage of using this injector lies in the fact that it does not involve time-consuming steps. To check the possibilities of this methodology, saliva samples from healthy volunteers and patients with different types of illnesses (including some types of cancer) were analyzed. None of the compounds studied was detected in the samples corresponding to the healthy volunteers. One or more biomarkers, at levels ranging from 13 to 500 μg/L, were found in five of the samples from the patients. Additionally, separative analysis by HS-PTV-GC/MS was performed for confirmatory purposes and both methods provided similar results. The main advantage of the proposed methodology is that no prior chromatographic separation and no sample manipulation are required.
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