Relative deprivation (RD) is the judgment that one or one's ingroup is worse off compared with some relevant standard coupled with feelings of dissatisfaction, anger, and resentment. RD predicts a wide range of outcomes, but it is unclear whether this relationship is moderated by national cultural differences. Therefore, in the first study, we used national assessments of individual-collectivism and power distance to code 303 effect sizes from 31 different countries with 200,578 participants. RD predicted outcomes ranging from life satisfaction to collective action more strongly within individualistic nations. A second survey of 6,112 undergraduate university students from 28 different countries confirmed the predictive value of RD. Again, the relationship between individual RD and different outcomes was stronger for students who lived in more individualistic countries. Group-based RD also predicted political trust more strongly for students who lived in countries marked by lower power distance. RD effects, although consistent predictors, are culturally bounded. In particular, RD is more likely to motivate reactions within individualistic countries that emphasize individual agency and achievement as a source of self-worth.
Colleges and universities are a unique context in which students encounter similar aged peers from a wide range of economic backgrounds. As emerging adults coping with major life transitions, students may be especially sensitive to upward contrasts with other students who have advantages that they feel they deserve (personal relative deprivation or PRD). We surveyed a population of university students when they were second-and third-year students (N = 309), and 2 years later, when they were fourth-and fifth-year students (N = 400).
Social psychological models of group identity and collective action should be particularly adept at providing psychological explanations for growing rates of populism in the Western World. Because populism tends to arise in times of societal shifts that reflect both economic and cultural changes, populist attitudes are likely grounded in perceptions of intergroup relations and collective attitudes. We surveyed 95 demonstrators at the 2016 Republican National Convention and 108 demonstrators at the Democratic National Convention. Results support the idea that relative anger prototypicality, in this case, the extent to which people believe that their own anger toward politicians is representative of most Americans' anger, predicts feelings of group-based relative deprivation. Importantly, these feelings of deprivation mediate the relationship between prototypical anger and populist attitudes. These findings provide a unique picture of current political
When organizational authorities or representatives discriminate, it not only impacts the discrimination target; it also affects those who witness it. In this article, we argue that discrimination within workplace and educational contexts implicates the larger organization in which it occurs in two ways. First, it communicates to targets the extent to which the representatives of an organization respect their group. Second, discrimination implicates the morality of the larger group or organization in which it occurs. This second threat to the organization's morality affects all observers, even those who do not share a social category with the target. We argue that both forms of threat can decrease organization identification, wellbeing, and increase withdrawal. For all observers, whether one is a member of the targeted group or not, to witness an organizational authority clearly discriminate against another organizational member is distressing and leads to withdrawal. We offer recommendations for policy and decision-making procedures aimed at (1) adopting organizational decision-making structures that minimize the opportunity for personal acts of bias (to prevent discrimination before it occurs), and (2) offering those who witness (or experience) discrimination clear avenues for addressing it (to minimize its destructive consequences). If organization members,
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