Browsing by Author "Booth, Robert W."

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    A 32-society investigation of the influence of perceived economic inequality on social class stereotyping
    (2023) Tanjitpiyanond, Porntida; Jetten, Jolanda; Peters, Kim; Ashokkumar, Ashwini; Barry, Oumar; Billet, Matthew; Becker, Maja; Booth, Robert W.; Castro, Diego; Chinchilla, Juana; Costantini, Giulio; Dejonckheere, Egon; Dimdins, Girts; Erbas, Yasemin; Espinosa, Agustin; Finchilescu, Gillian; Gomez, Angel; Gonzalez, Roberto; Goto, Nobuhiko; Hatano, Aya; Hartwich, Lea; Jarukasemthawee, Somboon; Karunagharan, Jaya Kumar; Novak, Lindsay M.; Kim, Jinseok P.; Kohut, Michal; Liu, Yi; Loughnan, Steve; Onyishi, Ike E.; Onyishi, Charity N.; Varela, Micaela; Pattara-angkoon, Iris S.; Peker, Mujde; Pisitsungkagarn, Kullaya; Rizwan, Muhammad; Suh, Eunkook M.; Swann, William; Tong, Eddie M. W.; Turner, Rhiannon N.; Vanhasbroeck, Niels; Van Lange, Paul A. M.; Vauclair, Christin-Melanie; Vinogradov, Alexander; Wacera, Grace; Wang, Zhechen; Wibisono, Susilo; Yeung, Victoria Wai-Lan
    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 that co-occur with economic inequality may shape perceptions of the wealthy and the poor.
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    High economic inequality is linked to greater moralization
    (2024) Kirkland, Kelly; Van Lange, Paul A. M.; Gorenz, Drew; Blake, Khandis; Amiot, Catherine E.; Ausmees, Liisi; Baguma, Peter; Barry, Oumar; Becker, Maja; Bilewicz, Michal; Boonyasiriwat, Watcharaporn; Booth, Robert W.; Castelain, Thomas; Costantini, Giulio; Dimdins, Girts; Espinosa, Agustin; Finchilescu, Gillian; Fischer, Ronald; Friese, Malte; Gomez, Angel; Gonzalez, Roberto; Goto, Nobuhiko; Halama, Peter; Hurtado-Parrado, Camilo; Ilustrisimo, Ruby D.; Jiga-Boy, Gabriela M.; Kuppens, Peter; Loughnan, Steve; Mastor, Khairul A.; McLatchie, Neil; Novak, Lindsay M.; Onyekachi, Blessing N.; Rizwan, Muhammad; Schaller, Mark; Serafimovska, Eleonora; Suh, Eunkook M.; Swann Jr, William B.; Tong, Eddie M. W.; Torres, Ana; Turner, Rhiannon N.; Vauclair, Christin-Melanie; Vinogradov, Alexander; Wang, Zhechen; Yeung, Victoria Wai Lan; Bastian, Brock
    Throughout the 21st century, economic inequality is predicted to increase as we face new challenges, from changes in the technological landscape to the growing climate crisis. It is crucial we understand how these changes in inequality may affect how people think and behave. We propose that economic inequality threatens the social fabric of society, in turn increasing moralization-that is, the greater tendency to employ or emphasize morality in everyday life-as an attempt to restore order and control. Using longitudinal data from X, formerly known as Twitter, our first study demonstrates that high economic inequality is associated with greater use of moral language online (e.g. the use of words such as "disgust", "hurt", and "respect'). Study 2 then examined data from 41 regions around the world, generally showing that higher inequality has a small association with harsher moral judgments of people's everyday actions. Together these findings demonstrate that economic inequality is linked to the tendency to see the world through a moral lens.