A socioecological approach to explaining how economic inequality and psychological tendencies mutually constitute each other.

Abstract

Economic inequality is one of the defining challenges of our era. Social science research links higher levels of economic inequality to a range of undesirable outcomes, including more crime, social anomie, and ill health. Social psychological research is at the forefront of investigating how economic inequality shapes the human mind and behavior, but it has mostly focused on explaining how economic inequality at the structural level causes individual level manifestations. In this review, we reconceptualize economic inequality as a dynamic system, and we adopt a socioecological perspective to explain how economic inequality and psychological tendencies mutually constitute each other. First, we show how the psychological experience of economic inequality is afforded by social and physical environments that people interact with. Next, we show that through mechanisms such as self-selection, individuals and institutions can maintain and even perpetuate economic inequality. Our socioecological perspective highlights the self-reinforcing cycle of economic inequality and individual behavior, and it discusses to what extent lived experiences and psychological manifestations of economic inequality may differ across economic strata. We end by discussing the implications of our model for the research agenda in the social psychology of economic inequality.

Where you come from matters: familial class background plays a greater role for status-related judgements in France than in the United States ( Tu procedencia importa: la clase social familiar de pertenencia tiene más peso en los juicios sobre el estatus social en Francia que en Estados Unidos )

“…Indeed, residential mobility, a key factor driving social mobility in the United States (Leonard & Smith, 2021), is rapidly declining, with nearly 50% of Americans perceiving themselves as stuck in a neighbourhood they no longer wish to live in (Buttrick & Oishi, 2021). In this respect, our research adds to the growing literature describing how cultural worldviews, such as meritocracy or class blindness, may affect and possibly perpetuate economic inequality (Gobel & Carvacho, 2023).…”

“…Modern theories of cultural variations in human psychology (Uchida et al, 2019;Uskul & Oishi, 2018), and social hierarchy in particular (Gobel & Carvacho, 2023;Sheehy-Skeffington & Thomsen, 2019), propose that adaptive solutions to fundamental questions of group living, such as how to divide resources and privileges, may differ as a function of the environment people inhabit. According to this socioecological view, cultural variation in thought and behaviour are at least in part explained by the fact that human groups have historically inhabited vastly different social and physical environments, which in turn have shaped values, norms and practices of the groups living in those environments.…”

“…Las teorías modernas de la variación cultural en la psicología humana (Uchida et al, 2019;Uskul & Oishi, 2018) y en particular, la teoría de la jerarquía social (Gobel & Carvacho, 2023;Sheehy-Skeffington & Thomsen, 2019), proponen que las soluciones adaptativas a aspectos fundamentales de la convivencia grupal, como la distribución de recursos y privilegios, puede diferir en función del entorno en el que habitan las personas. Según este enfoque socioecológico, la variación cultural en conductas y pensamientos se explica, al menos en parte, por el hecho de que históricamente los grupos humanos han habitado entornos físicos y sociales enormemente distintos, lo que a su vez ha moldeado los valores, las normas y prácticas de los grupos que pueblan dichos entornos.…”

“…De hecho, la movilidad residencial, un factor clave de la movilidad social en Estados Unidos (Leonard & Smith, 2021), presenta un rápido declive y casi un 50% de los estadounidenses perciben estar atrapados en un vecindario en el que no desean vivir (Buttrick & Oishi, 2021). En este sentido, nuestra investigación contribuye al creciente volumen de literatura que describe cómo las distintas cosmovisiones culturales, como la meritocracia o la ceguera respecto a la clase social, podrían influir y posiblemente perpetuar la desigualdad económica (Gobel & Carvacho, 2023).…”