Upholding the Social Hierarchy: Agency as a Predictor of the Ideal Level of Economic Inequality

Many societies are becoming more economically unequal, and some people tend to be in favour of higher levels of economic inequality than others do. Traditionally, agency has been associated with high-status and high-power groups. In this research, we examined whether participants’ agency led them to...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Willis, Guillermo B., Moya, Miguel, Moreno Bella, Eva
Tipo de documento: artigo
Data de publicação:2024
País:España
Recursos:Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia
Repositório:e-spacio. Repositorio Institucional de la UNED
Idioma:inglês
OAI Identifier:oai:e-spacio.uned.es:20.500.14468/22450
Acesso em linha:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14468/22450
Access Level:Acceso aberto
Palavra-chave:agency–communion
self-perception
economic inequality
preference for inequality
social status
Descrição
Resumo:Many societies are becoming more economically unequal, and some people tend to be in favour of higher levels of economic inequality than others do. Traditionally, agency has been associated with high-status and high-power groups. In this research, we examined whether participants’ agency led them to think there should be higher levels of economic inequality. In Study 1 (N = 191) we used a correlational design and found that participants’ agency predicts higher levels of ideal economic inequality. In Study 2 (N = 204), using an experimental design, we revealed that priming agency (vs. communion) also leads to higher levels of ideal economic inequality. These findings extend prior evidence on the psychosocial effects of agency and illustrate the connection between agency and the ideal levels of economic inequality.