The psychological imprint of inequality: Economic inequality shapes achievement and power values in human life

Objective This research investigates how economic inequality shapes basic human values across three cross-national, cross-regional, and longitudinal studies (N-total = 219,697). Methods Study 1 examined the relationship between objective economic inequality and values across 77 societies from all five continents (n = 170,525). Study 2 examined the relationship between objective economic inequality and values across 51 regions in the United States (n = 48,559). Study 3 used a two-year longitudinal design to examine the relationship between perceived economic inequality and values (n = 613). Results Results from multilevel modeling and longitudinal analysis suggested that people who lived in areas with higher economic inequality and who perceived higher economic inequality were more likely to endorse achievement and power values. Moreover, people who perceived higher economic inequality were less likely to endorse benevolence values. These effects were robust in within-country tests (Studies 2 and 3) but not in the cross-country tests (Study 1) when accounting for sociodemographic characteristics. Conclusions Our findings suggest that economic inequality may act as an antecedent of self-enhancement values, particularly within countries. In a world of rising economic inequality, this may over time lead to an overemphasis on achievement and power which have been shown to erode social cohesion.

Automated summary

This research investigates how economic inequality shapes basic human values. The findings suggest that people who live in areas with higher economic inequality or perceive higher economic inequality are more likely to endorse achievement and power values, while being less likely to endorse benevolence values. Particularly within countries, economic inequality may lead to an overemphasis on achievement and power, which in turn erodes social cohesion.