Tejero-Peregrina Lope, Willis Guillermo, Sánchez-Rodríguez Ángel, Rodríguez-Bailón Rosa
Universidad de Granada, ES.
University of Granada, ES.
Int Rev Soc Psychol. 2025 Apr 2;38:4. doi: 10.5334/irsp.1013. eCollection 2025.
Economic inequality negatively impacts the welfare in our societies, yet there is reluctance to support measures aimed at alleviating its effects. To enhance our comprehension of how inequality influences support for redistribution, this paper investigates the mediating role of descriptive meritocracy (i.e., the degree to which meritocracy is perceived to exist in society). Using a cross-sectional study (N = 1536) and a follow-up experimental-causal-chain design in two subsequent experiments (N = 530), we show that the perception of inequality leads to the perception that society is not meritocratic, which, in turn, promotes support for redistribution. These results underscore the significance of perceiving economic inequality in order to dismantle the normative meritocratic narratives that hinder its reduction. We discuss these findings as part of the effects of economic inequality on the normative climate that influences our individual outcomes.
经济不平等对我们社会的福利产生负面影响，但人们却不愿支持旨在减轻其影响的措施。为了加深我们对不平等如何影响对再分配的支持的理解，本文研究了描述性精英主义（即人们认为社会中存在精英主义的程度）的中介作用。通过一项横断面研究（N = 1536）以及随后两个实验中的后续实验因果链设计（N = 530），我们表明，对不平等的认知会导致人们认为社会不是精英主义的，而这反过来又会促进对再分配的支持。这些结果强调了认识经济不平等对于打破阻碍其减少的规范性精英主义叙事的重要性。我们将这些发现作为经济不平等对影响我们个人结果的规范氛围的影响的一部分进行讨论。
