Social Class and Income Inequality is Associated with Morality: Empirical Evidence from 67 Countries

TY - ABST

T1 - Social Class and Income Inequality is Associated with Morality: Empirical Evidence from 67 Countries

AU - Elbæk, Christian Truelsen

AU - Mitkidis, Panagiotis

AU - Aarøe, Lene

AU - Otterbring, Tobias

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - A fundamental characteristic of modern societies is economic inequality, where deprived individuals experience chronic economic scarcity. While such experiences have been shown to produce detrimental outcomes in regards to human judgment and decision-making, the consequences of such scarcity for our morality remain debated. We conduct one of the most comprehensive tests of the relationship between experiences of relative chronic economic scarcity and various measures linked to morality. In a pre-registered study, we analyse data from a large, cross-national survey (N = 46,450 across 67 countries) allowing us to address important limitations related to measurement validity and external validity in past research. Our findings demonstrate that experiences of relative chronic economic scarcity, as indexed by (1) low subjective socioeconomic status at the individual level, and (2) income inequality at the national macro level, predict higher levels of moral identity, higher morality-as-cooperation, a larger moral circle, and importantly; more prosocial behaviour. The results appear robust to several advanced control analyses. Finally, exploratory analyses indicate that observed income inequality at the national level does not significantly moderate the predicted effect of subjective socioeconomic status. Our findings have vital implications for understanding human morality under chronic resource scarcity.

AB - A fundamental characteristic of modern societies is economic inequality, where deprived individuals experience chronic economic scarcity. While such experiences have been shown to produce detrimental outcomes in regards to human judgment and decision-making, the consequences of such scarcity for our morality remain debated. We conduct one of the most comprehensive tests of the relationship between experiences of relative chronic economic scarcity and various measures linked to morality. In a pre-registered study, we analyse data from a large, cross-national survey (N = 46,450 across 67 countries) allowing us to address important limitations related to measurement validity and external validity in past research. Our findings demonstrate that experiences of relative chronic economic scarcity, as indexed by (1) low subjective socioeconomic status at the individual level, and (2) income inequality at the national macro level, predict higher levels of moral identity, higher morality-as-cooperation, a larger moral circle, and importantly; more prosocial behaviour. The results appear robust to several advanced control analyses. Finally, exploratory analyses indicate that observed income inequality at the national level does not significantly moderate the predicted effect of subjective socioeconomic status. Our findings have vital implications for understanding human morality under chronic resource scarcity.

M3 - Conference abstract for conference

T2 - IAREP Conference 2022

Y2 - 9 June 2022 through 12 June 2022

ER -