Does economic inequality moderate the effect of class on prosocial behavior? A large-scale test of a recent hypothesis by Côté et al

Abstract

Empirical research has provided mixed evidence regarding the question of whether higher social class promotes prosocial behavior. Recently, Côté et al. [ 1 ] hypothesized that these conflicting evidences might result from a hitherto neglected interaction between the individual’s level of income and the degree of inequality in one’s society. They argue that societies with a higher level of inequality foster a sense of entitlement in high-income individuals, which in turn leads them to be less generous. We put this reasoning to a large-scale test using observational data from the European Social Survey (ESS) and push the scope of our investigation towards a broader conception of social class, using next to income two additional measures of class. First, we examine whether high-class individuals in societies with high levels of inequality do in fact feel more entitled than their counterparts in more equal societies. While we find that an individual’s class and the disposition towards entitlement are strongly correlated, our results show a negative interaction with inequality, i.e. the effect of class on the personal sense of entitlement is weaker in societies with high levels of inequality. Second, we test whether the effect of class on prosocial behavior is moderated by economic inequality with respect to two real-life acts of prosocial behavior, namely engaging in volunteer work and donating money to a humanitarian organization. Our results indicate a substantial positive effect of class on prosocial behavior throughout, as well as a moderate, yet positive, interaction effect of class and inequality.

Neighbourhood wealth, not urbanicity, predicts prosociality towards strangers

“…These data from a battery of real-world experiments lend more weight to the hypothesis that relative deprivation is negatively associated with generalized trust and prosociality. Several other studies have reported a similar pattern [34,[52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61]. In experimental settings, exposure to harsh environments has been associated with an increased willingness to defect in a Prisoner's Dilemma game, and a reduced tendency to send money to a partner in a Dictator Game [36,62,63], and experimentally induced financial deprivation can increase the willingness to cheat for financial rewards [64].…”

“…Large-scale, survey-based studies report similar findings. One recent study using more than 30 000 observations based on nationally representative samples concluded that high socio-economic status was associated with increased willingness to donate to charity, to volunteer to help, to contribute a higher proportion of income to charity, and to choose the prosocial option in an economic game [59] (see also [58]), while another large study (a total sample of greater than 60 000 and with participants from more than 30 countries) reported positive effects of household income on tendency to volunteer or to donate to charity ( [60], but see [65], who performed a similar study, obtaining a null result). Finally, a study using data from more than 40 000 responses to the World Values Survey and the European Values Study, respectively, also suggests a negative link between exposure to environmental harshness and the tendency to invest in cooperative behaviour [52].…”

“…For example, one study found that the effect of social class on social behaviour depends on whether the behaviour takes place in private or public [74], though we note that the effects of the interaction between class and anonymity on giving was inconsistent across different experiments in the study mentioned. Another study argued that the effect of social class on prosocial behaviour depends on whether lower-status individuals are exposed to high economic inequality [75], though two subsequent studies have failed to replicate this effect using similarly large datasets [58,60].…”

The effect of perceived financial vulnerability on prosocial activity

“…Although previous research offers convincing evidence for the negative relationship between relative financial standing and prosocial behavior, some studies have demonstrated a reverse pattern. Two large-scale studies reported a positive relationship between objective and subjective social class and self-reported charitable donations (Korndörfer, Egloff, & Schmukle, 2015;von Hermanni & Tuti c, 2019) and volunteering (von Hermanni & Tuti c, 2019). Another study examined the effect of the interaction between income and inequality on generosity in three large representative datasets.…”

Having less, giving less: The effects of unfavorable social comparisons of affluence on people’s willingness to act for the benefit of others

“…However, recent large-scale studies have found no such moderating effect in other populations (von Hermanni & Tutić, 2019;Schmukle et al, 2019). In our studies, we collected measures of objective and subjective socioeconomic status, as well geographical data, allowing us to examine the overall relationship between social rank and prosociality and whether this is moderated by the inequality in the participant's home state.…”