Perceived Economic Inequality Is Negatively Associated with Subjective Well-being through Status Anxiety and Social Trust

Efraín García-Sánchez (), Juan Matamoros-Lima, Eva Moreno-Bella, Davide Melita, Ángel Sánchez-Rodríguez, Juan Diego García-Castro, Rosa Rodríguez-Bailón and Guillermo B. Willis
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Efraín García-Sánchez: University of Granada
Juan Matamoros-Lima: University of Granada
Eva Moreno-Bella: National University of Distance Education (UNED)
Davide Melita: Jagiellonian University
Ángel Sánchez-Rodríguez: Universidad de Salamanca
Juan Diego García-Castro: Universidad de Costa Rica
Rosa Rodríguez-Bailón: University of Granada
Guillermo B. Willis: University of Granada

Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, 2024, vol. 172, issue 1, No 11, 239-260

Abstract: Abstract The relationship between economic inequality and subjective well-being has produced mixed results in the literature. Conflicting evidence may be due to overlooking the role of psychosocial processes that translate socioeconomic conditions into subjective evaluations. We argue that perceiving high economic inequality erodes social capital, undermining people’s subjective well-being. We rely on the Psychosocial Model of Perceived Economic Inequality and Subjective Well-Being (PEISW), which posits that perceived economic inequality negatively affects subjective well-being by increasing status anxiety and decreasing social trust. Furthermore, these indirect effects from perceived inequality to subjective well-being will be moderated by system-justifying ideologies. The present article provides the first empirical test of this model using a national survey from Spain (N = 1,536). We confirmed that perceived economic inequality is negatively associated with well-being. We also found that perceived economic inequality had an indirect negative effect on subjective well-being via increasing status anxiety and reducing social trust. We found no evidence that system-justifying ideologies (i.e., social dominance orientation) moderated the association between perceived economic inequality and subjective well-being. We discuss that perceived economic inequality is crucial to understanding the link between economic inequality and subjective well-being and elaborate on the role of psychosocial mechanisms that promote competition and undermine social cohesion.

Keywords: Perceived economic inequality; Income inequality; Status anxiety; Social trust; Social dominance orientation; Subjective well-being (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1007/s11205-024-03306-x

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