The Study Of Redistributive Preferences For Different Social Classes

In recent years,the increasingly severe gap between the rich and the poor highlights the necessity to promote redistribution.The promotion of redistribution will greatly reduce social inequality and mitigate inter-class conflicts.According to the inequality maintenance model of social class and its relevant studies,individuals,redistributive preferences will influence the promotion of redistribution through political participation and political influence.Therefore,understanding the redistributive preferences of different social classes has important pratical significance for promoting redistribution and social governance in reducing social inequality and mitigating inter-class conflicts.Drawing from the current research situation,social class has been an important research subject in the field of social psychology.These researches have been integrated into the inequality maintanence model of social class,which reveals the psychological processes that contribute to the maintenance of class differences and economic inequality.The relationships between social class and redistributive preferences are important aspects of this model.Although a large number of studies conducted in European and American countries have explored the direct relationships,there are few studies conducting in Chinese society and exploring the internal mechanism of social class’ effect on redistributive preferences.This dissertation aims to systemly and deeply explore the relationships between social class and redistributive preferences through three major researches(7 studies)in the context of Chinese society.Researh one with two studies investigates the direct relationship between social class and redistributive preferences.Based on the newly-published data of Chinese General Social Survey,study 1 obtains 10968 subjects from all provinces and autonomous regions of China and some indexs of measuring objective and subjective social class,such as annual income,education level,subjective social class,family relative economic status,and personal relative economic economic status.The results show that all indexes besides annual income can strongly and negatively predict redistributive preferences,meaning that higher social class individuals tend to have lower redistributive preferences.Study 2 develops redistributive preferences scale with good reliability and validity,which is suitable for Chinese social conditions.Considering the major contents of Chinese redistribution acitvities,the scale finally has 12 items with three dimensions:personal taxes,social welfares,and equal public services.This scale is an important tool for the subsequent researches.Research two with four studies deeply explores the psychological mechanism of social class’s effect on redistributive preferences,which is mediating role of the attributtions for rich-poor gap.Study 3 explores the whole psychological process through investigating 621 urban and rural residents.The results show that compared to lower subjective social class individuals,higher subjective social class individuals tend to make more internal atttributions for rich-poor gap,and then have lower redistributive preferences.To further reveal the casual relationships of the psychological process,study 4 and study 5,6 respectively explore the first half and second half of the psychological process through experiment method.Study 4,with 122 middle class adults as participants,experimentally primes individual’s subjective social class feelings.The results indicate that compared to those with priming low subjective social class feelings,individuals with priming high subjective social class feelings tend to make more internal attributions for rich-poor gap.Study 5,with 161 adults as participants,experimentally primes the reasons for rich-poor gap.The results show that compared to the condition of priming the external reason of rich-poor gap,under the condition of priming internal reason individuals tend to have lower redistributive attitudes.On the basis of third-party dictactor game,Study 6 with 49 undergraduates as participants further explores the influence of the reasons of poor-rich gap on redistributive preferences under the micro scenario.The results indicate that under the condition of priming internal reason of rich-poor gap,individuals also have less redistributive behaviors.Finally,the inequality maintenance model of social class and other relevant ideas have pointed out that higher social class individual’s more internal attributions for rich-poor gap and lower redistributive preferences will strengthen social inequality and provoke inter-class conflicts,and that humility is an effective intervention strategy.Research 3,Study 7 devotes to explore the influence of humility on high social class internal attribution tendency,and then the interventions to their low redistributive preferences.Adopting the method of situational primed experiment and recruiting a sample of 52 undergraduates from high social class as participants,the results show that compared to control group,those high social class undergraduates in priming humble state group tend to make less internal attributions for rich-poor gap,and then have higher redistributive preferences.This suggests that social administrators can promote redistribution by cultivating hiher social class individuals’humility mentality.In conclusion,above three researches(seven studies)deeply explore the relationships between social class and redistributive preferences in the context of Chinese society.Researches 1,which explores the direct relationship between social class and redistributive preferences,is the basis of this dissertation.Research 2,which explores the psychological mechanism,is the focus of this dissertation.Research 3,which devotes to search out intervention strategy,is the ending point of this dissertation.