More Unequal, Less Prosocial: Inequality Undermines Prosocial Behaviors

Topic:

 More Unequal, Less Prosocial: Inequality Undermines Prosocial Behaviors

Time&Date: 

 2:00-3:15 pm, 2019/8/29 (Thursday)

Venue:

  Room 619, Teaching A

Speaker:

Prof. Angela Y. Lee (Northwestern University)

Recent decades have witnessed a worldwide rise in inequality. Extant literature shows that inequality harms economic development, breeds crimes, depresses social mobility by undermining education opportunities, hurts physical and mental health by heightening stress, and lowers happiness by eroding trust (The Equality Trust, 2019). Yet, as those at the bottom focus on enhancing their status, those on top may hinder efforts to reduce inequality for fear of losing their privileged status (Jetten et al., 2017). The implication is that societal inequality encourages self-focused but suppresses other-focused behaviors. The current research examines the relationship between inequality and prosocial behavior. The results of four studies provide support for our hypothesis that societal inequality discourages prosocial behaviors.