Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Spanish

As people’s concerns about wealth inequality have not grown even as warnings are raised about its negative impact on societies and individuals, research has inquired into factors that influence people’s tolerance towards wealth inequalities. Previous research has shown that higher social position and meritocracy beliefs tend to reduce concern for wealth inequality. Two studies seek to replicate these findings in the Philippines, a country which reports high levels of tolerance for inequality but which does not fit models that explain country differences in tolerance for inequality. In Study 1, survey data showed meritocracy beliefs were negatively related to intolerance towards wealth inequality; this relationship was found only among higher subjective social class Filipinos. In Study 2, an experiment found that priming meritocracy reduced intolerance towards wealth inequality in a sample of higher social class Filipino. Results provide country-specific evidence on the inequality-legitimizing effects of meritocracy on higher subjective social class Filipinos’ attitudes towards wealth inequality.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Adler

Stewart

Psychosocial Working Group . (2007). The MacArthur scale of subjective social status. MacArthur Research Network on SES & Health. http://www.macses.ucsf.edu/Research/Psychosocial/subjective.php

Bernardo

A. B. I.

(2013). Social dominance orientation and attitudes towards the poor: Contrasting lower and higher socioeconomic groups in the Philippines. Philippine Journal of Psychology, 46(1), 39–69.

Bernardo

A. B. I.

Clemente

J. A. R.

Wang

T. Y.

(2018). Working for a better future: Social mobility beliefs and expectations of Filipino migrant workers in Macau. Australian Journal of Psychology, 70(4), 350–360. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12209

Bernardo

A. B. I.

Levy

S. R.

Lytle

A. E.

(2018). Culturally relevant meanings of the Protestant work ethic and attitudes towards poor persons. The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 21, E40. https://doi.org/10.1017/sjp.2018.48

Bucca

(2016). Merit and blame in unequal societies: Explaining Latin Americans’ beliefs about wealth and poverty. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 44, 98–112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rssm.2016.02.005

Buttrick

N. R.

Oishi

(2017). The psychological consequences of income inequality. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 11(3), e12304. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12304

Clemente

J. A. R.

Daganzo

M. A. A.

Bernardo

A. B. I.

Pangan

C. A. C.

(2017). Filipino adolescents’ conceptions of socioeconomic mobility: A consensual qualitative research. Child Indicators Research, 10(1), 117–140. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-016-9370-6

Chi

King

R. B.

(2019). Economic inequality is associated with long-term harm on adolescent well-being in China. Child Development, 90(4), 1016–1026. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13253

Frazier

P. A.

Tix

A. P.

Barron

K. E.

(2004). Testing moderator and mediator effects in counseling psychology research. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 51(1), 115–134. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.51.1.115

10.

García-Castro

J. D.

Rodríguez-Bailón

Willis

(2020). Perceiving economic inequality in everyday life decreases tolerance to inequality. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 90, 104019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2020.104019

11.

García-Sánchez

Van Der Toorn

Rodríguez-Bailón

Willis

G. B.

(2019). The vicious cycle of economic inequality: The role of ideology in shaping the relationship between “what is” and “what ought to be” in 41 countries. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 10(8), 991–1001. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550618811500

12.

Generalao

F. G.

(2005). Causal attributions for poverty and their correlates. Philippine Journal of Psychology, 38(2), 39–51. https://pssc.org.ph/wp-content/pssc-archives/Philippine%20Journal%20of%20Psychology/2005/05_Causal%20Attributions%20for%20Poverty%20and%20their%20Correlates.pdf

13.

Gijsberts

(2002). The legitimation of income inequality in state-socialist and market societies. Acta Sociologica, 45(4), 269–285. https://doi.org/10.1177/000169930204500402

14.

Hadler

(2005). Why do people accept different income ratios? Acta Sociologica, 48(2), 131–154. https://doi.org/10.1177/0001699305053768

15.

Hauser

D. J.

Ellsworth

P. C.

Gonzalez

(2018). Are manipulation checks necessary? Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 998. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00998

16.

Inglehart

Baker

W. E.

(2000). Modernization, cultural change, and the persistence of traditional values. American Sociological Review, 65(1), 19–51. https://doi.org/10.2307/2657288

17.

International Social Survey Project . (2009). International social survey programme: Social inequality IV. GESIS.

18.

Janmaat

J. G.

(2013). Subjective inequality: A review of international comparative studies on people’s views about inequality. European Journal of Sociology, 54(3), 357–389. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003975613000209

19.

Kelley

Evans

M. D.

(1993). The legitimation of inequality: Occupational earnings in nine nations. American Journal of Sociology, 99(1), 75–125. https://doi.org/10.1086/230230

20.

Kenworthy

McCall

(2007). Inequality, public opinion and redistribution. Socio-Economic Review, 6(1), 35–68. https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwm006

21.

Kluegel

Smith

(1986). Beliefs about inequality: Americans’ views of what is and what ought to be. De Gruyter.

22.

Larsen

C. A.

(2016). How three narratives of modernity justify economic inequality. Acta Sociologica, 59(2), 93–111. https://doi.org/10.1177/0001699315622801

23.

Laurin

Gaucher

Kay

(2013). Stability and the justification of social inequality. European Journal of Social Psychology, 43(4), 246–254. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.1949

24.

McCoy

S. K.

Major

(2007). Priming meritocracy and the psychological justification of inequality. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43(3), 341–351. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2006.04.009

25.

Mijs

J. J.

(2019). The paradox of inequality: Income inequality and belief in meritocracy go hand in hand. Socio-Economic Review. Advanced online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwy051

26.

Milanovic

(2011). Worlds apart: Measuring international and global inequality. Princeton University Press.

27.

Minkoff

S. L.

Lyons

(2017). Living with inequality: Neighborhood income diversity and perceptions of the income gap. American Politics Research, 47(2), 329–361. https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X17733799

28.

Mitchell

Tetlock

P. E.

Newman

D. G.

Lerner

J. S.

(2003). Experiments behind the veil: Structural influences on judgments of social justice. Political Psychology, 24(3), 519–547. https://doi.org/10.1111/0162-895X.00339

29.

Owuamalam

C. K.

Rubin

Spears

(2018). Addressing evidential and theoretical inconsistencies in system-justification theory with a social identity model of system attitudes. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27(2), 91–96. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721417737136

30.

Pratto

Stallworth

L. M.

Conway‐Lanz

(1998). Social dominance orientation and the ideological legitimization of social policy. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 28(20), 1853–1875. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.1998.tb01349.x

31.

Reynolds

Xian

(2014). Perceptions of meritocracy in the land of opportunity. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 36, 121–137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rssm.2014.03.001

32.

Reynolds

W. M.

(1982). Development of reliable and valid short forms of the Marlowe‐Crowne social desirability scale. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 38(1), 119–125. https://doi.org/10.1002/1097-4679(198201)38:1<119::AID-JCLP2270380118>3.0.CO;2-I

33.

Rodríguez-Bailón

(2020). Inequality viewed through the mirror of COVID-19. International Journal of Social Psychology, 35(3), 647–655. https://doi.org/10.1080/02134748.2020.1796298

34.

Rodriguez‐Bailon

Bratanova

Willis

G. B.

Lopez‐Rodriguez

Sturrock

Loughnan

(2017). Social class and ideologies of inequality: How they uphold unequal societies. Journal of Social Issues, 73(1), 99–116. https://doi.org/10.111/josi.12206

35.

Roex

K. L.

Huijts

Sieben

(2019). Attitudes towards income inequality: ‘Winners’ versus ‘losers’ of the perceived meritocracy. Acta Sociologica, 62(1), 47–63. https://doi.org/10.1177/0001699317748340

36.

Savani

Rattan

(2012). A choice mind-set increases the acceptance and maintenance of wealth inequality. Psychological Science, 23(7), 796–804. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797611434540

37.

Shariff

A. F.

Wiwad

Aknin

L. B.

(2016). Income mobility breeds tolerance for income inequality cross-national and experimental evidence. Perspectives in Psychological Sciences, 11(3), 373–380. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691616635596

38.

Spears

Greenwood

De Lemus

Sweetman

(2010). Legitimacy, social identity and power. In Guinote

Vescio

(Eds.), The social psychology of power (pp. 251–283). Guilford.

39.

Starmans

Sheskin

Bloom

(2017). Why people prefer unequal societies. Nature Human Behaviour, 1(4), 0082. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-017-0082

40.

Tajfel

Turner

J. C.

(1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. In Austin

W. G.

Worchel

(Eds.), The social psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 33–47). Brooks/Cole.

41.

Tay

(2014). Going beyond the gini ratio individual normative values about income inequality in the Philippines. Journal of Southeast Asian Economies, 31(3), 453–470. https://doi.org/10.1355/ae31-3g

42.

Tuason

M. T. G.

(2008). Those who were born poor: A qualitative study of Philippine poverty. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 55(2), 158–171. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.55.2.158

43.

Tyler

(2011). Procedural justice shapes evaluations of income inequality: Commentary on Norton and Ariely (2011). Perspectives in Psychological Sciences, 6(1), 15–16. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691610393981

44.

Verwiebe

Wegener

(2000). Social inequality and the perceived income justice gap. Social Justice Research, 13(2), 123–149. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007545823040

45.

Wilkinson

Pickett

(2010). The spirit level: Why greater equality makes societies stronger. Penguin Books.

46.

A. M.

Chou

K. L.

(2015). Public attitudes towards income redistribution: Evidence from Hong Kong. Social Policy & Administration, 51(5), 738–754. https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.12192

47.

Yang

Xin

(2020). Income inequality and interpersonal trust in China. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 23(3), 253–263. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajsp.12399

Meritocracy beliefs and intolerance towards wealth inequality among higher subjective social status Filipinos ( Creencias meritocráticas e intolerancia ante la desigualdad económica entre la población filipina de nivel socioeconómico subjetivo alto )

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References