Feelings of Economic Gain in the Past Blind People to Inequality

Yang Wang,Yi Ding

doi:10.4236/aasoci.2021.118034

Abstract

The rapid increase of economic inequality is prevalent in many societies, yet people seem to underestimate actual inequality dramatically. In this study, we examine whether and how feelings of economic gain affect people’s perceptions of economic inequality in China, a society with the rapid development of the economy after China’s reform and opening-up and is now also facing a high level of economic inequality. Using a large Chinese sample, we found that individuals with higher feelings of economic gain reported lower perceptions of economic inequality, and meritocracy beliefs could partially mediate this effect. These findings highlight the importance of personal feelings of economic gain in shapes people’s perceptions of economic inequality.

Highlights

Economic inequality, which refers to the unequal distribution of wealth between the top and bottom of the society, has become commonplace around the world (Jencks, 2002; Pickett & Wilkinson, 2010)
Correlations between feelings of economic gain, meritocracy, and perceptions of inequality were significant in the expected directions
We found that we found that feelings of economic gain significantly predict perceptions of inequality (β = −.127, p < .001, effect size f2 = .015, ΔR2 = .015)

Summary

Introduction

Economic inequality, which refers to the unequal distribution of wealth between the top and bottom of the society, has become commonplace around the world (Jencks, 2002; Pickett & Wilkinson, 2010). People in many societies seem not widespread to concern about rising economic inequality or raise a consensus on redistributive policies aimed at reducing it (Starmans, Sheskin, & Bloom, 2017) One reason for this is that people may be blind to economic inequality and tend to underestimate the actual level of inequality in their society (Norton & Ariely, 2011). In a recent review article, Ding and Ji (2021) argued that feelings of economic gain, which refers to a positive evaluation of and satisfaction with the current economic situation compared to the past, might contribute to people’s underestimation of inequality To examine this argument, in this research, we test whether and how feelings of economic gain affect people’s perceptions of economic inequality in China, a society with the rapid development of the economy after China’s reform and opening-up and is facing a high level of economic inequality (Xie & Zhou, 2014). We tested these hypotheses using a large nationwide Chinese sample

Participants

Procedure and Measures

Initial Analyses

Mediation Analysis

Discussion