Abstract
Wealth inequality is a prevalent social issue. The present study focuses on acceptance of wealth inequality, and considers personal income, perceived upward mobility, and future time perspective as its antecedents, and collective action intention as its outcome. With reference to the social identity literature and socioemotional selectivity theory, we posit a conditional indirect effect of income on collective action intention through acceptance of wealth inequality: only when mobility and future time perspective are relatively high, higher income is associated with higher acceptance of wealth inequality and in turn, lower collective action intention. Moderated mediation findings, based on territory-wide phone survey data from 866 Hong Kong adults, supported this prediction. This work indicates the relevance of an individual-level instrumental perspective to the understanding of acceptance of wealth inequality as well as collective action intention.
Highlights
Societal-level analyses have documented that wealth inequality1 brings about a range of undesirable social outcomes such as lower happiness, worse health, and increased mistrust (Pickett and Wilkinson, 2015; Buttrick and Oishi, 2017)
Based on the social identity literature (Tajfel and Turner, 1979; Hogg, 2005) and socioemotional selectivity theory (Carstensen, 1991, 2006; Carstensen et al, 1999), we reason that perceived upward mobility and future time perspective (FTP) may moderate the relationship between income and acceptance of wealth inequality (AWI). In studying these two moderating effects, we provide a detailed picture of the income– AWI–Collective Action Intention (CAI) association
CAI, which was negatively correlated with AWI (r = −0.28, p < 0.001), had a negative relationship with income (r = −0.08, p = 0.025) and mobility (r = −0.22, p < 0.001)
Summary
Societal-level analyses have documented that wealth inequality brings about a range of undesirable social outcomes such as lower happiness, worse health, and increased mistrust (Pickett and Wilkinson, 2015; Buttrick and Oishi, 2017). Given that wealth inequality fuels social discontent and instability, it certainly warrants research attention. Social scientists have paid increasing attention to acceptance of wealth inequality (AWI), or evaluation of the existing wealth inequality in the society (e.g., whether thinking that wealth inequality is acceptable) (Savani and Rattan, 2012; Shariff et al, 2016). A line of research has considered income as a determinant of AWI. Some research has suggested that AWI may influence collective action against wealth inequality (Hennes et al, 2012; Jost et al, 2012)
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