Economic system justification predicts muted emotional responses to inequality.

Publisher: Nature Pub. Group Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 101528555 Publication Model: Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 2041-1723 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 20411723 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Nat Commun Subsets: MEDLINE

Original Publication: [London] : Nature Pub. Group

Capitalism* ; Culture* ; Socioeconomic Factors*; Emotions/*physiology; Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Autonomic Nervous System/physiology ; Female ; Galvanic Skin Response/physiology ; Ill-Housed Persons/psychology ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Self Report ; United States ; Video Recording ; Young Adult

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.

Brosnan, S. F. & de Waal, F. B. M. Evolution of responses to (un)fairness. Science 346, 1251776 (2014). (PMID: 10.1126/science.1251776)
Fehr, E., Bernhard, H. & Rockenbach, B. Egalitarianism in young children. Nature 454, 1079–1083 (2008). (PMID: 10.1038/nature07155)
Shaw, A. & Olson, K. R. Children discard a resource to avoid inequity. J. Exp. Psychol. Gen. 141, 382–395 (2012). (PMID: 10.1037/a0025907)
Brosnan, S. F., Talbot, C., Ahlgren, M., Lambeth, S. P. & Schapiro, S. J. Mechanisms underlying responses to inequitable outcomes in chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes. Anim. Behav. 79, 1229–1237 (2010). (PMID: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2010.02.019)
Piketty, T. Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Harvard Univ. Press, 2014).
Job, P., Jones, J. & Saad, L. Americans’ views on economic mobility and economic inequality in the U.S. (Trends) (Gallup, Inc., 2018). Available at: https://news.gallup.com/poll/228980/americans-views-economic-mobility-economic-inequality-trends.aspx (Accessed: 13 September 2019).
Dunn, A. Is the US Economic System Fair? Republicans, Democrats Divided (Pew Research Center, 2018). Available at: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/10/04/partisans-are-divided-over-the-fairness-of-the-u-s-economy-and-why-people-are-rich-or-poor/ (Accessed: 13 December 2018).
Norton, M. I. & Ariely, D. Building a better America—one wealth quintile at a time. Perspect. Psychol. Sci. 6, 9–12 (2011). (PMID: 10.1177/1745691610393524)
Bartels, L. M. Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age (Russell Sage Foundation, 2008).
Jost, J. T. & Hunyady, O. The psychology of system justification and the palliative function of ideology. Eur. Rev. Soc. Psychol. 13, 111–153 (2002). (PMID: 10.1080/10463280240000046)
Jost, J. T. & Thompson, E. P. Group-based dominance and opposition to equality as independent predictors of self-esteem, ethnocentrism, and social policy attitudes among African Americans and European Americans. J. Exp. Soc. Psychol. 36, 209–232 (2000). (PMID: 10.1006/jesp.1999.1403)
Napier, J. L. & Jost, J. T. Why are conservatives happier than liberals? Psychol. Sci. 19, 565–572 (2008). (PMID: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02124.x)
Wakslak, C. J., Jost, J. T., Tyler, T. R. & Chen, E. S. Moral outrage mediates the dampening effect of system justification on support for redistributive social policies. Psychol. Sci. 18, 267–274 (2007).
Onraet, E., Van Assche, J., Roets, A., Haesevoets, T. & Van Hiel, A. The happiness gap between conservatives and liberals depends on country-level threat: a worldwide multilevel study. Soc. Psychol. Personal. Sci. 8, 11–19 (2017). (PMID: 10.1177/1948550616662125)
Hasson, Y., Tamir, M., Brahms, K. S., Cohrs, J. C. & Halperin, E. Are liberals and conservatives equally motivated to feel empathy toward others? Personal. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 44, 1449–1459 (2018). (PMID: 10.1177/0146167218769867)
Wojcik, S. P. & Ditto, P. H. Motivated happiness: Self-enhancement inflates self-reported subjective well-being. Soc. Psychol. Personal. Sci. 5, 825–834 (2014). (PMID: 10.1177/1948550614534699)
Wojcik, S. P., Hovasapian, A., Graham, J., Motyl, M. & Ditto, P. H. Conservatives report, but liberals display, greater happiness. Science 347, 1243–1246 (2015). (PMID: 10.1126/science.1260817)
Buhrmeister, M., Kwang, T. & Gosling, S. D. Amazon’s mechanical tTurk: a new source of inexpensive, yet high-quality, data? Perspect. Psychol. Sci. 6, 3–5 (2011). (PMID: 10.1177/1745691610393980)
Peer, E., Brandimarte, L., Samat, S. & Acquisti, A. Beyond the Turk: alternative platforms for crowdsourcing behavioral research. J. Exp. Soc. Psychol. 70, 153–163 (2017). (PMID: 10.1016/j.jesp.2017.01.006)
Paulhus, D. L. & Reid, D. B. Enhancement and denial in socially desirable responding. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 60, 307–317 (1991). (PMID: 10.1037/0022-3514.60.2.307)
Davis, M. H. Measuring individual differences in empathy: evidence for a multidimensional approach. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 44, 113–126 (1983). (PMID: 10.1037/0022-3514.44.1.113)
Yzerbyt, V. Y., Muller, D. & Judd, C. M. Adjusting researchers’ approach to adjustment: On the use of covariates when testing interactions. J. Exp. Soc. Psychol. 40, 424–431 (2004). (PMID: 10.1016/j.jesp.2003.10.001)
Onraet, E., Van Assche, J., Roets, A., Haesevoets, T. & Van Hiel, A. The happiness gap between conservatives and liberals depends on country-level threat: a worldwide multilevel study. Soc. Psychol. Personal. Sci. 8, 11–19 (2017). (PMID: 10.1177/1948550616662125)
Jost, J. T., Blount, S., Pfeffer, J. & Hunyady, G. Fair market ideology: its cognitive and motivational underpinnings. Res. Organ. Behav. 25, 53–91 (2003). (PMID: 10.1016/S0191-3085(03)25002-4)
Hayes, A. F. Beyond Baron and Kenny: statistical mediation analysis in the new millennium. Commun. Monogr. 76, 408–420 (2009). (PMID: 10.1080/03637750903310360)
Fridlund, A. J. & Cacioppo, J. T. Guidelines for human electromyographic research. Psychophysiology 23, 567–589 (1986). (PMID: 10.1111/j.1469-8986.1986.tb00676.x)
Larsen, J. T., Berntson, G. G., Poehlmann, K. M., Ito, T. A. & Cacioppo, J. T. in Handbook of Emotions (eds Lewis, M., Haviland-Jones, J. M. & Feldman Barrett, L.) 180–195 (Guilford Press, 2008).
Larsen, J. T., Norris, C. J. & Cacioppo, J. T. Effects of positive and negative affect on electromyographic activity over zygomaticus major and corrugator supercilii. Psychophysiology 40, 776–785 (2003).
Hess, U. in Methods in Social Neuroscience (eds Harmon-Jones, E. & Beer, J. S.) 70–91 (Guildford Press, 2009).
Boucsein, W. Electrodermal Activity (Springer Science + Business Media, 2012).
Curran, P. J. & Hussong, A. M. Integrative data analysis: the simultaneous analysis of multiple data sets. Psychol. Methods 14, 81–100 (2009). (PMID: 10.1037/a0015914)
Scollon, C. N., Prieto, C.-K. & Diener, E. Assessing Well-Being 157–180 (Springer, Dordrecht, 2009).
Fitzmaurice, G. M., Laird, N. M. & Ware, J. H. Applied Longitudinal Analysis (Wiley, 2011).
Inbar, Y., Pizarro, D. A., Bloom, P. & Haven, N. Conservatives are more easily disgusted than liberals. Cogn. Emot. 23, 714–726 (2009). (PMID: 10.1080/02699930802110007)
Hibbing, J. R., Smith, K. B. & Alford, J. R. Differences in negativity bias underlie variations in political ideology. Behav. Brain Sci. 37, 297–307 (2014). (PMID: 10.1017/S0140525X13001192)
Fiske, S. T., Cuddy, A. J. C., Glick, P. & Xu, J. A model of (often mixed) stereotype content: competence and warmth respectively follow from perceived status and competition. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 82, 878–902 (2002). (PMID: 10.1037/0022-3514.82.6.878)
Fredrickson, B. L. & Joiner, T. Positive emotions trigger upward spirals toward emotional well-being. Psychol. Sci. 13, 172–175 (2002). (PMID: 10.1111/1467-9280.00431)
Starmans, C., Sheskin, M. & Bloom, P. Why people prefer unequal societies. Nat. Hum. Behav. 1, 0082 (2017). (PMID: 10.1038/s41562-017-0082)
Gross, J. J. Emotion regulation: current status and future prospects. Psychol. Inq. 26, 1–26 (2015). (PMID: 10.1080/1047840X.2014.940781)

Date Created: 20200122 Date Completed: 20200505 Latest Revision: 20221207

20221213

PMC6971272

10.1038/s41467-019-14193-z

31959749