Kusano Kodai, Giuntoli Laura, Maass Anne
New York University Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2024 Dec 18:1461672241295266. doi: 10.1177/01461672241295266.
Despite extensive research, the relationship between income inequality and life satisfaction remains unclear, with some countries experiencing negative consequences, while others show neutral or positive outcomes. Using data from the Gallup World Poll (2006-2022) with nearly two million respondents from more than 110 countries, we disentangle the distinct within-country and between-country effects of inequality. Our multilevel analyses reveal a significant within-country effect: Temporal increases in inequality are associated with decreases in life satisfaction. At the between-country level, power distance-a cultural dimension reflecting tolerance for social disparities-moderates the relationship. In low power distance countries, higher inequality strongly predicts lower life satisfaction, whereas in high power distance countries, the effect is nonsignificant. These findings are robust across two measures of income inequality and controls for wealth and individualism, offering a refined methodological and cultural interpretation to resolve inconsistencies in prior cross-national research.
尽管进行了广泛研究，但收入不平等与生活满意度之间的关系仍不明确，一些国家出现了负面后果，而另一些国家则呈现出中性或正面结果。我们利用盖洛普世界民意调查（2006年至2022年）的数据，该调查涵盖了来自110多个国家的近200万受访者，以厘清不平等在国家内部和国家之间的不同影响。我们的多层次分析揭示了一个显著的国家内部效应：不平等的时间性增加与生活满意度的下降相关。在国家之间的层面上，权力距离——一个反映对社会差距容忍度的文化维度——调节了这种关系。在低权力距离国家，更高的不平等强烈预示着更低的生活满意度，而在高权力距离国家，这种影响并不显著。这些发现在收入不平等的两种衡量方法以及对财富和个人主义的控制方面都很稳健，为解决先前跨国研究中的不一致性提供了精细的方法论和文化解释。
