The Problem Of “inequality”: The Relationship And Mechanism Between Subjective Economic Inequality And Prosocial Behavior From The Perspective Of Social Norm

Confucius said,"Poverty is not a problem,but inequality is a problem." Over the past30 years,the world has made great strides in reducing poverty-more than 1 billion people have been lifted out of extreme poverty and the "problem of poverty" has been alleviated,but at the same time,more than 70% of the population lives in societies with growing economic inequality.The "problem of inequality" has gradually emerged.Previous research has shown that economic inequality contributes to many social and health problems and greatly affects the way individuals interact with others.Prosocial behavior,a benign form of interpersonal interaction,has been "corrupted" to some extent by economic inequality.Studies have found that high levels of economic inequality are associated with a decrease in prosocial behavior.However,this negative relationship has not been further verified in the context of Chinese society,and little is known about its internal mechanisms.Combining the above issues and given that subjective economic inequality is a manifestation of the interaction between individuals and their environment,which has a more direct predictive effect on individuals’ psychology and behavior,this study aimed to investigate the relationship between individuals’ subjective economic inequality and their prosocial behavior in the context of Chinese society and its mechanisms.Based on the context of strong familism in China,this study examined the moderating role of family economic status between subjective economic inequality and prosocial behavior.Based on the current situation of economic inequality,the social goal of "common prosperity" and the social advocacy of "helping the rich first to help the rich later" in China,this study examined the mediating role of perceived distributional norms between economic inequality and prosocial behavior and the moderating role of family economic status on the direct path and the second half of the mediating model from the perspective of social norms.This study explored the relationship between subjective economic inequality and prosocial behavior and its internal mechanisms through four sub-studies.Study 1 was based on data from the 2008 Chinese Household Income Project(CHIP)survey of rural people(N= 4738),and used respondents’ estimated monthly family income at five levels in their village to calculate the indicator of subjective economic inequality,and the number of days of help given to village relatives and neighbors in 2008 as the indicator of time spent helping others,to initially examine the relationship between subjective economic inequality and prosocial behavior in a large sample of data and examine the moderating role of subjective family economic status in it.The results indicated that subjective economic inequality negatively predicted prosocial behavior,specifically,the higher the level of subjective economic inequality of a participant,the lower his or her level of prosocial behavior,but no moderating role of subjective family economic status was found.Study 2 aimed to test the findings of Study 1 again by using an online survey that recruited working people(N = 300)to measure subjective economic inequality and low pecuniary cost prosocial behavior using a dictator game paradigm.Consistent with the findings of Study 1,subjective economic inequality negatively predicted prosocial behavior,while subjective family economic status did not play a moderating role in it.Study 3 tested the mediating role of perceived distributional norms between subjective economic inequality and prosocial behavior and the moderating role of family economic status in the mediating model.Working people(N = 562)were recruited through an online survey.Subjective economic inequality and perceived distributional norms were measured using scales,and then,high pecuniary cost prosocial behavior was measured using a dictator game paradigm.The results of the mediation test found that perceived distributional norms played a fully mediating role in the relationship between subjective economic inequality and prosocial behavior while subjective/objective family economic status did not play a significant moderating role in the mediation model,specifically,the higher the level of subjective economic inequality of a participant,the higher his or her perceived distributional norms and,consequently,the lower his or her level of prosocial behavior,and for participants with different family economic status,there was no significant difference in the mediating effect of perceived distributional norms between subjective economic inequality and prosocial behavior.Based on Study 3,Study 4 further explored the causal effect of subjective economic inequality on prosocial behavior and continued to examine the mediating role of perceived distributional norms and the moderating role of family economic status in the mediation model.Through an online experiment,working people(N = 283)were recruited,and two different diagrams of the resident income distribution in the province were randomly presented to the participants,manipulating the participants’ perceived level of provincial economic inequality(low vs.high subjective economic inequality),with the measurement of perceived distributional norms,followed by the participants playing a dictator game(same as Study 3).The results showed that participants in the high economic inequality group did not differ significantly from those in the low economic inequality group at the level of high pecuniary cost prosocial behavior.Consistent with the results of Study 3,we found a significant mediating effect of perceived distributional norms but not a significant moderating effect of subjective/objective family economic status in it.In summary,this study found that the higher the level of subjective economic inequality of an individual,the lower his or her level of prosocial behavior,and that perceived distributional norms played a fully mediating role and were not moderated by individual family economic status.The findings not only demonstrate the prevalence of the negative relationship between economic inequality and prosocial behavior from a socio-ecological psychological perspective,but also reveal the cognitive process through which the ecological environment of economic inequality associate with micro-individuals’ prosocial behavior from a social norms perspective,where the environment of economic inequality may guide people’s behavior at the level of social norms.The findings provide inspiration for mitigating the negative effects of economic inequality and fostering virtuous social interactions,and it also provides inspiration for promoting the goal of achieving common prosperity by bringing people from all walks of life together.