“Fear of Falling”: Economic Instability Enhances Collective Angst among Societies’ Wealthy Class

Jetten, Jolanda; Mols, Frank; Healy, Nikita; Spears, Russell

doi:10.1111/josi.12204

Cited by 83 publications

(103 citation statements)

References 35 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…A similar result applied to the ingroup (Jetten et al., ): the wealthier the group, the more participants inferred it was competent and capable. However, the warmest group was the moderately wealthy group, with both the “rich” and the “poor” group as colder.…”

Section: Social Class the Great Recession And Social Psychology: Thmentioning

confidence: 59%

The Social Psychology of the Great Recession and Social Class Divides

Moya

2017

Journal of Social Issues

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Section: Social Class the Great Recession And Social Psychology: Thmentioning

confidence: 59%

The Social Psychology of the Great Recession and Social Class Divides

Moya

2017

Journal of Social Issues

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Although the effects economic crises have on hostile ethnocentrism appear in much previous research (e.g., Doty et al., ), we for the first time tested a group‐based control account that may help to identify underlying processes (i.e., threatened control) and to tailor effective interventions. This account fits opposition to immigration among wealthy populations who experience threat to economic stability and presumably the ability to control it (Jetten, Mols, Healy, Spears, & Postmes, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

The Great Recession and Group‐Based Control: Converting Personal Helplessness into Social Class In‐Group Trust and Collective Action

Fritsche

Moya

Bukowski

et al. 2017

Journal of Social Issues

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Economic crises can threaten individuals’ sense of control. At the same time, these crises often result in collective responses, such as class‐based protest (e.g., the 99%), but also nationalism or xenophobia. We investigated how personal consequences of economic crises lead to both intragroup and intergroup responses and the role of control for these effects. Studies 1 and 2 show that personal income and fear of economic descent reduce people's personal control, which, in turn, fosters hostile interethnic attitudes (Study 1), and in‐group trust toward one's own social class (Study 2). Study 3 tests the combined effect of personal control and salience of collective economic identity in an experimental field study in Germany and Spain. For Spanish participants, control deprivation increased collective efficacy when national economic identity was salient, which, in turn, increased collective action intentions. We discuss the conditions under which crisis‐induced threat to personal control elicits collective responses and the consequences for intergroup relations, including across class lines.

show abstract

“…Research reported by Jetten, Mols, Healy, and Spears () is also relevant to this issue. These authors examined how economic instability affects low‐SES and high‐SES people.…”

Section: Social Cognition and Attitudesmentioning

confidence: 88%

The psychology of social class: How socioeconomic status impacts thought, feelings, and behaviour

Manstead

2018

British J Social Psychol

513

345

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Drawing on recent research on the psychology of social class, I argue that the material conditions in which people grow up and live have a lasting impact on their personal and social identities and that this influences both the way they think and feel about their social environment and key aspects of their social behaviour. Relative to middle‐class counterparts, lower/working‐class individuals are less likely to define themselves in terms of their socioeconomic status and are more likely to have interdependent self‐concepts; they are also more inclined to explain social events in situational terms, as a result of having a lower sense of personal control. Working‐class people score higher on measures of empathy and are more likely to help others in distress. The widely held view that working‐class individuals are more prejudiced towards immigrants and ethnic minorities is shown to be a function of economic threat, in that highly educated people also express prejudice towards these groups when the latter are described as highly educated and therefore pose an economic threat. The fact that middle‐class norms of independence prevail in universities and prestigious workplaces makes working‐class people less likely to apply for positions in such institutions, less likely to be selected and less likely to stay if selected. In other words, social class differences in identity, cognition, feelings, and behaviour make it less likely that working‐class individuals can benefit from educational and occupational opportunities to improve their material circumstances. This means that redistributive policies are needed to break the cycle of deprivation that limits opportunities and threatens social cohesion.

show abstract

“Fear of Falling”: Economic Instability Enhances Collective Angst among Societies’ Wealthy Class

Abstract: In 2008, an era of unprecedented growth and prosperity came to an end, and the world was plunged into the Great Recession, a Global Financial Crisis (GFC)-

Cited by 83 publications

References 35 publications

The Social Psychology of the Great Recession and Social Class Divides

The Social Psychology of the Great Recession and Social Class Divides

The Great Recession and Group‐Based Control: Converting Personal Helplessness into Social Class In‐Group Trust and Collective Action

The psychology of social class: How socioeconomic status impacts thought, feelings, and behaviour

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About