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A 32-society investigation of the influence of perceived economic inequality on social class stereotyping
Tanjitpiyanond,P. Jetten,J. Peters,K. Ashokkumar,A. Barry,O. Billet,M. Becker,M. Booth,R.W. Castro,D. Chinchilla,J.
Tanjitpiyanond,P.
Jetten,J.
Peters,K.
Ashokkumar,A.
Barry,O.
Billet,M.
Becker,M.
Booth,R.W.
Castro,D.
Chinchilla,J.
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 t
Description
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).
Date
2023
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Research Projects
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Keywords
JUSTIFICATION, cross-culture, economic inequality, social class, stereotyping, SDG 1 - No Poverty, SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities
Citation
Tanjitpiyanond, P, Jetten, J, Peters, K, Ashokkumar, A, Barry, O, Billet, M, Becker, M, Booth, R W, Castro, D, Chinchilla, J, Costantini, G, Dejonckheere, E & Erbaş, Y 2023, 'A 32-society investigation of the influence of perceived economic inequality on social class stereotyping', European Journal of Social Psychology, vol. 53, no. 2, pp. 367-382. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2908