The Effect Of Social Class On Prosocial Behavior And Its Psychological Mechanism

Social class refers to groups in different positions in the social hierarchical structure,different social classes differ not only in possession of material and social resources,they also have different subjective perceptions of their social status.Social class has important influence on individual's mind and behavior,the relationship between social class and prosocial behavior has attracted many researchers' attention.And some researches have found that there is a significant negative correlation between the subjective social class and the relative deprivation,while relative deprivation is a negative predictor of prosocial behavior.Therefore,the present research chooses relative deprivation as an important mediating variable to explore the influence of subjective social class on prosocial behavior and the psychological mechanism.In study 1,217 participants were surveyed by questionnaires on objective social class,subjective social class,empathy and prosocial behavior.The results reveal that subjective social class has a significant positive predictive effect on prosocial behavior,that is,the higher the individuals' subjective social class is,the stronger the tendency of prosocial behavior is.In addition,subjective social class won't influence prosocial behavior through empathy.In study 2,247 undergraduates were recruited by using the experimental design between subjects.By manipulating the subjective social class,the participants were randomly divided into high-class group,low-class group and control group.And then we mearsured relative deprivation,state empathy,trait empathy,prosocial behavior and objective social class of the three groups.The results show that the subjective social class has a significant positive predictive effect on prosocial behavior,and relative deprivation plays a mediating role in the influence of the subjective social class on prosocial behavior.People with higher subjective social class,have lower level of relative deprivation,thus they will show more prosocial behavior.In addition,it further excludes the possibility that objective social class and empathy have an impact on the process.The results well verify the hypothesis of this research,which has certain theoretical and practical significance.