Abstract
Although humans display inequality aversion, many people appear to be untroubled by widespread economic disparities. We suggest that such indifference is partly attributable to a belief in the fairness of the capitalist system. Here we report six studies showing that economic ideology predicts self-reported and physiological responses to inequality. In Studies 1 and 2, participants who regard the economic system as justified, compared with those who do not, report feeling less negative emotion after watching videos depicting homelessness. In Studies 3–5, economic system justifiers exhibit low levels of negative affect, as indexed by activation of the corrugator supercilii muscle, and autonomic arousal, as indexed by skin conductance, while viewing people experiencing homelessness. In Study 6, which employs experience-sampling methodology, everyday exposure to rich and poor people elicits less negative emotion among system justifiers. These results provide the strongest evidence to date that system-justifying beliefs diminish aversion to inequality in economic contexts.
Highlights
Humans display inequality aversion, many people appear to be untroubled by widespread economic disparities
Sample items include “If people work hard, they almost always get what they want,” “Economic positions are legitimate reflections of people’s achievements,” and “There are many reasons to think that the economic system is unfair”
Previous research suggests that self-identified conservatives are less motivated to feel empathy than liberals[15]. Consistent with these findings, we found that economic system justification (ESJ) and Empathic Concern (EC) were negatively correlated (r = −0.32, p < 0.001)
Summary
Humans display inequality aversion, many people appear to be untroubled by widespread economic disparities. We hypothesized that individuals high (vs low) in ESJ would report less negative emotion in response to the homeless videos (vs control videos). The negative signs of these interaction terms indicate that video type had a weaker effect on the emotions of participants scoring high (vs low) in ESJ.
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