Subjective Socioeconomic Status And Equality Of Opportunity

As a personal cognition of their social hierarchy,subjective socioeconomic status impacts people’s psychology and behavior.People’s beliefs about equality of opportunity are also closely related to subjective socioeconomic status.However,the effect of subjective socioeconomic status on the belief in equality of opportunity has been controversial.In addition,as economic inequality continues to increase,it is still being determined whether it can weaken people’s equal opportunity beliefs and affect the relationship between subjective socioeconomic status and the belief in equal opportunity.Therefore,in this paper,four studies will be used to explore the effect of subjective socioeconomic status on equal opportunity beliefs and the moderating effects of objective and subjective economic inequality.First,study 1 used cross-country data.In Study 1,it has found that individuals with high subjective socioeconomic status were more likely to believe in equality of opportunity,objective economic inequality did not affect the belief of equal opportunity,and objective economic inequality had no significant moderating effect.However,subjective economic inequality significantly weakens people’s belief in the equality of opportunity,and subjective economic inequality significantly moderates the relationship between subjective social status and belief in the equality of opportunity.Under high subjective economic inequality,the gap in equal opportunity belief between individuals with high and low subjective social status has narrowed.Higher subjective economic inequality has a stronger negative impact on the equality of opportunity beliefs of individuals with high subjective social status.Secondly,study 2 used the data of subjects in the country.In Study 2,the same results as in Study 1 have found.Individuals with high subjective socioeconomic status were more likely to believe in equal opportunity,objective economic inequality did not affect equal opportunity beliefs,and no significant moderating effect of objective economic inequality was found.Finally,study 3 verifies the moderating effect of subjective economic inequality through experimental manipulation.Study 3A manipulated subjective economic inequality through experiments and found that subjective socioeconomic status has significantly positively correlated with the belief in the equality of opportunity.Subjective economic inequality significantly weakened the belief in the equality of opportunity,but no moderating effect of subjective economic inequality was found.Study 3B manipulated subjective socioeconomic status and economic inequality through experiments and explored the causal relationship between subjective socioeconomic status,economic inequality,and equal opportunity beliefs.The study found a significant moderating effect of subjective economic inequality.However,unlike the direction of the moderating effect of study 1,in study 3B,with the increase of subjective economic inequality,the gap of equal opportunity beliefs of individuals with different subjective social statuses also increases.Higher subjective economic inequality significantly weakens the belief of equal opportunity of individuals with medium and low subjective social status.In summary,in the four studies of this paper,people with high subjective economic status tend to believe in equality of opportunity.Objective economic inequality does not significantly impact the belief in the equality of opportunity,while subjective economic inequality significantly weakens the belief in the equality of opportunity.Moreover,subjective economic inequality significantly moderates the relationship between subjective social status and belief in the equality of opportunity.However,in Study 1 and Study 3B,the direction of the moderating effect is the opposite.The moderating effect of subjective economic inequality may have more complex mechanisms that need further study.