‘How the other half lives’?: Taking a critical approach to the social psychology of economic inequality and extreme wealth

Abstract

The negative impact of economic inequality on social issues and wellbeing is of importance to social psychology that historically has an interest in social justice. Social Identity Theory is explored as an approach that acknowledges the wider context of social issues. The use of experiments encounters challenges in categorizing wealth and how individuals account for extreme wealth. Mainstream research agendas in psychology are not neutral and draw upon current ideology (such as neoliberalism) that can often maintain inequality. These difficulties are addressed by Critical Social Psychology driven by a social justice agenda that challenges the acceptance of neoliberal values. The application of Critical Social Psychology to wealth inequality is demonstrated with research using UK media data. Critical feminist psychology is discussed to explore the role of class and how to challenge the stigmatization of working-class people. Finally, this paper outlines how Discursive Psychology addresses how extreme wealth and the practices of the super-rich are warranted. A discursive approach questions the acceptance of wealth inequality as an everyday assumption and demonstrates how dominant discourse draws upon individualism. Furthermore, Discursive Psychology has examined how accountability for problematic practices,

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

“…Our review complements past work focused on the intrapersonal processes (Buttrick & Oishi, 2017;Easterbrook, 2021), interpersonal process (Sánchez-Rodríguez et al, 2023), and intergroup processes (Peters & Jetten, 2023). Discussions of critical approaches to economic inequality (Carr, 2023); the moderating role of system-justifying beliefs (Willis et al, 2022), and the effects of economic inequality on happiness and well-being (Wienk et al, 2021) go beyond the scope of the present review.…”

The dynamic socioecological model of economic inequality and psychological tendencies: A cycle of mutual constitution

“…Discussions of a critical approach to economic inequality(Carr, 2023); the moderating role of system-justifying beliefs(Willis et al, 2022), economic inequality in the workplace(van Dijk et al, 2020) or in education(Easterbrook & Hadden, 2021) go beyond the scope of the present review.2 It goes beyond the scope of this review to distinguish the effects of economic inequality from the effects of poverty.Because economic inequality traps a significant number of individuals with the lowest income in environments characterized by resource scarcity, its psychological and behavioral effects, including the breakdown of social fabric and the sensitivity to threat, might not be dissimilar to those characterizing environments of poverty (for recent discussions of the effects of economic scarcity seeFrankenhuis & Nettle, 2020;Sheehy-Skeffington, 2019.…”

“…1 1 Discussions of a critical approach to economic inequality (Carr, 2023); the moderating role of system‐justifying beliefs (Willis et al., 2022), economic inequality in the workplace (van Dijk et al., 2020) or in education (Easterbrook & Hadden, 2021) go beyond the scope of the present review. …”