University of Osnabrueck, Germany.
University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia.
Br J Soc Psychol. 2021 Jul;60(3):947-965. doi: 10.1111/bjso.12438. Epub 2021 Jan 8.
Neoliberalism has become the dominant ideology in many parts of the world. Yet there is little empirical research on its psychological impact. On the basis of a social identity approach to health, we hypothesize that, by increasing competition and by reducing people's sense of connection to others, neoliberalism can increase loneliness and compromise our well-being. Study 1 (N = 246) shows that the more neoliberal people perceive society to be, the worse their well-being, and that this relationship is mediated via loneliness. In two experiments, we showed that exposure to neoliberal ideology increases loneliness (Study 2, N = 204) and, through this, decreases well-being (Study 3, N = 173). In Study 4 (N = 303), we found that exposure to neoliberal ideology increased loneliness and decreased well-being by reducing people's sense of connection to others and by increasing perceptions of being in competition with others. In Study 4, the effect of neoliberalism on well-being was evident for liberals only. We discuss the potential impact of neoliberalism on different social groups in society.
新自由主义已成为世界许多地区的主导意识形态。然而，关于其心理影响的实证研究却很少。基于社会认同理论对健康的研究，我们假设，新自由主义通过增加竞争和减少人们与他人的联系感，可以增加孤独感并损害我们的幸福感。研究 1（N=246）表明，人们对社会的新自由主义感知程度越高，他们的幸福感就越差，这种关系是通过孤独感来介导的。在两项实验中，我们表明，接触新自由主义意识形态会增加孤独感（研究 2，N=204），进而通过这种方式降低幸福感（研究 3，N=173）。在研究 4（N=303）中，我们发现，接触新自由主义意识形态通过减少人们与他人的联系感和增加与他人竞争的感知，增加了孤独感并降低了幸福感。在研究 4 中，新自由主义对幸福感的影响仅对自由主义者明显。我们讨论了新自由主义对社会中不同群体的潜在影响。
