Cultural psychology of inequality: Current and future directions

The current special issue reports seven empirical articles on diverse areas of inequality, ranging from the perception of economic inequality (who are concerned, what cues people use to perceive inequality in everyday life), the educational origin of income inequality, to the role of inequality in luxury consumption, prosocial behaviour, life satisfaction, and beliefs in upward and downward economic mobility. We first comment on these articles, then briefly review the current state of the psychology of inequality and point to future directions. Finally, we point out that a cultural psychological perspective is missing from the extant literature on the psychology of inequality. Namely, it is important to document how current systems of inequality are maintained and transmitted across generations in specific sociocultural contexts.

Automated summary

The special issue reports on various aspects of inequality, including perception of economic inequality, educational origin of income inequality, and the role of inequality in luxury consumption, prosocial behavior, life satisfaction, and beliefs in economic mobility. Future research should focus on the cultural psychological perspective to understand how systems of inequality are maintained and transmitted in specific sociocultural contexts.