Responses to Social Inequality across the Life Span: The Role of Social Status and Upward Mobility Beliefs

Autor/inn/en	Weiss, David; Greve, Werner; Kunzmann, Ute
Titel	Responses to Social Inequality across the Life Span: The Role of Social Status and Upward Mobility Beliefs
Quelle	In: International Journal of Behavioral Development, 46 (2022) 4, S.261-277 (17 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Weiss, David)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0165-0254
DOI	10.1177/01650254221089615
Schlagwörter	Social Status; Social Mobility; Foreign Countries; Economic Factors; Well Being; Age Differences; Adults; Psychological Patterns; Emotional Response; Economically Disadvantaged; Germany + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Sozialer Status; Soziale Mobilität; Ausland; Ökonomischer Faktor; Well-being; Wellness; Wohlbefinden; Age; Difference; Age difference; Altersunterschied; Emotionales Verhalten; Deutschland
Abstract	Economic inequality has been consistently rising in recent decades in many Western countries including Germany. This is a pressing issue as greater economic inequality within a society has detrimental consequences for well-being, social stability, productivity, and even life expectancy. However, little is known about how individuals of different ages experience and respond to social inequality across adulthood. Because status differences are perceived as more malleable in young adulthood (i.e., young adults can expect to move up the social ladder) and only manifest across adulthood, we predicted that negative emotional reactions to the perceived standing in the social hierarchy should become increasingly pronounced with age. Consistently, a first study based on a national representative sample in Germany (N = 2,542; 18-91 years) confirmed that subjective social status had a much stronger effect on the acceptance of social inequality among middle-aged and older, as compared with younger, adults. In a second experimental study (N = 387; 18-89 years), participants of any age responded with negative emotional reactions when rising inequality was made salient. However, subjective social status moderated this effect only in middle-aged and older, but not younger, adults. Finally, a third experimental study (N = 605; 18-82 years) showed that, compared with middle-aged and older adults, younger adults maintained stronger upward mobility beliefs that accounted for the age-differential effects of subjective social status on negative emotional reactivity to rising inequality. We discuss the central role of upward mobility beliefs for individuals' responses to social inequality across the adult life span. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01