Del Fresno-Díaz Ángel, García-Sánchez Efraín, Padial-Rojas Elena, Willis Guillermo B, de Lemus Soledad
Department of Social Psychology, University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
Institute of Psychology, University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland.
Br J Soc Psychol. 2025 Jul;64(3):e70003. doi: 10.1111/bjso.70003.
People's perceptions of social classes may differ from scholars' definitions. We used a mixed method, sensitive to context, to examine lay perceptions of social classes in Spain. In Study 1 (N = 90), we conducted qualitative interviews to examine how people spontaneously characterize wealth-based groups. Participants identified between two and seven groups. We grouped these into five main analytical categories for analytical purposes: poor, lower and working classes, middle classes, upper classes and rich and beyond. These groups were described based on material characteristics, traits and culture. Positive traits were mainly associated with non-wealthy groups, especially the lower and working classes, while negative traits were associated with wealthy groups. In Studies 2 (N = 251) and 3 (N = 190), we extended these findings quantitatively, showing that positive stereotypes were associated with non-wealthy groups, whereas negative stereotypes were associated with wealthy groups. Using psychometric networks, non-wealthy groups were ascribed more positive traits-with some ambivalences-while wealthy groups were mainly described using negative traits. We confirmed this pattern of results through meta-analyses. These findings highlight the importance of lay perspectives in theoretical frameworks and the need for context-sensitive approaches in analysing social class representations.
人们对社会阶层的认知可能与学者的定义有所不同。我们采用了一种结合多种方法且考虑情境因素的方式，来研究西班牙民众对社会阶层的认知。在研究1（N = 90）中，我们进行了定性访谈，以探究人们如何自发地对基于财富的群体进行特征描述。参与者识别出了2至7个群体。为了便于分析，我们将这些群体归为五个主要的分析类别：贫困阶层、下层和工人阶级、中产阶级、上层阶级以及富裕阶层及以上。这些群体是根据物质特征、特质和文化来描述的。积极特质主要与非富裕群体相关，尤其是下层和工人阶级，而消极特质则与富裕群体相关。在研究2（N = 251）和研究3（N = 190）中，我们对这些发现进行了定量扩展，结果表明积极的刻板印象与非富裕群体相关，而消极的刻板印象与富裕群体相关。通过心理测量网络分析，非富裕群体被赋予了更多积极特质——尽管存在一些矛盾之处——而富裕群体主要被用消极特质来描述。我们通过元分析证实了这一结果模式。这些发现凸显了民众观点在理论框架中的重要性，以及在分析社会阶层表征时采用考虑情境因素方法的必要性。
