Hadarics Márton, Kende Anna, Szabó Zsolt Péter
Department of Social Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.
Department of Ergonomics and Psychology, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary.
Front Psychol. 2021 Oct 8;12:709080. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.709080. eCollection 2021.
In the current paper, we report the analysis of the relationship between meritocracy belief and subjective well-being using two large international databases, the ( = 44,387) and the ( = 51,752), involving data gathered from 36 countries in total. We investigated whether low status individuals are more likely to psychologically benefit from endorsing meritocratic beliefs, and the same benefits are more pronounced in more unequal societies. Since meritocracy belief can function as a justification for income differences, we assumed that the harsher the objective reality is, the higher level of subjective well-being can be maintained by justifying this harsh reality. Therefore, we hypothesized that the palliative function of meritocracy belief is stronger for both low social status (low income) individuals, and for those living in an unequal social environment (in countries with larger income differences). Our multilevel models showed a positive relationship between meritocracy belief and subjective well-being, which relationship was moderated by both individual-level income status and country-level income differences in both studies. Based on these results, we concluded that the emotional payoff of justifying income inequalities is larger if one is more strongly affected by these inequalities.
在当前论文中，我们报告了利用两个大型国际数据库（即[具体数据库1]，样本量(n = 44387)；以及[具体数据库2]，样本量(n = 51752)）对精英主义信念与主观幸福感之间关系的分析，这些数据总共来自36个国家。我们研究了地位较低的个体是否更有可能从认可精英主义信念中获得心理益处，以及在社会不平等程度更高的社会中这种益处是否更为显著。由于精英主义信念可以作为收入差异的一种正当理由，我们假设客观现实越严峻，通过为这种严峻现实提供正当理由就能维持越高水平的主观幸福感。因此，我们假设精英主义信念的缓和功能对于社会地位较低（低收入）的个体以及生活在不平等社会环境（收入差异较大的国家）中的个体而言更强。我们的多层次模型显示，在两项研究中，精英主义信念与主观幸福感之间均存在正相关关系，且这种关系受到个体层面的收入状况以及国家层面的收入差异的调节。基于这些结果，我们得出结论：如果一个人受收入不平等的影响越大，为收入不平等提供正当理由所带来的情感回报就越大。
