A 32‐society investigation of the influence of perceived economic inequality on social class stereotyping

• DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.2908
• Publication Date: 2022-11-09T06:25:36Z
• Authors: Porntida Tanjitpi...; Jolanda Jetten; Kim Peters; Ashwini Ashokkumar; Oumar Barry; Matthew Billet; Maja Becker; Robert W. Booth; Diego Castro; Juana Chinchilla; Giulio Costantini; Egon Dejonckheere; Girts Dimdins; Yasemin Erbas; Agustín Espinosa; Gillian Finchilescu; Ángel Gómez; Roberto González; Nobuhiko Goto; Aya Hatano; Lea Hartwich; Somboon Jarukasem...; Jaya Kumar Karuna...; Lindsay M. Novak; Jinseok P. Kim; Michal Kohút; Yi Liu; Steve Loughnan; Ike E. Onyishi; Charity N. Onyishi; Micaela Varela; Iris S. Pattara‐a...; Müjde Peker; Kullaya Pisitsung...; Muhammad Rizwan; Eunkook M. Suh; William Swann; Eddie M. W. Tong; Rhiannon N. Turner; Niels Vanhasbroeck; Paul A. M. Van Lange; Christin‐Melanie ...; Alexander Vinogradov; Grace Wacera; Zhechen Wang; Susilo Wibisono; Victoria Wai‐Lan ...
• Keywords: Assertiveness; Social Inequality; Social Mobility; Stereotype (UML)

Abstract There is a growing body of work suggesting that social class stereotypes are amplified when people perceive higher levels economic inequality—that is, the wealthy perceived as more competent and assertive poor incompetent unassertive. The present study tested this prediction in 32 societies also examines role wealth‐based categorization explaining relationship. We found who inequality were indeed likely to consider wealth meaningful basis for categorization. Unexpectedly, however, associated with perceiving less assertive. Unpacking further, exploratory analyses showed observed tendency stereotype negatively only emerged lower mobility democracy corruption. This points importance understanding how socio‐structural features co‐occur may shape perceptions poor.