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

Abstract

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.

The Social Psychology of the Great Recession and Social Class Divides

“…Cultural practices of lower SES individuals correlate with lower ingroup efficacy and political inactivity (Becker, Kraus, & Rheinschmidt-Same, 2017). For those most affected, the Great Recession alters control, interethnic attitudes, and class-ingroup trust, although control deprivation increases collective efficacy, given national economic identity (Fritsche et al, 2017).…”

“…Attitudes toward immigration, of great current importance, also relate to social-class divides already worsened by recession (Fritsche et al, 2017). Currently, over a million migrants and refugees have reached Europe through irregular means in 2015 (UNHCR, 2015).…”

“…Besides ideology and class, one consequence of the Great Recession-the threat to individuals' sense of control-also causes intragroup and intergroup responses (Fritsche et al, 2017). Control motivation is basic among humans (Fiske, 2014).…”

“…Third, although several articles draw on the general population (dominated by the middle class), a limitation in studying this topic (Reid, 1993), many articles here include the perspectives of low-SES participants-or those who have suffered the Great Recession (Becker et al, 2017;Fritsche et al, 2017;Jury et al, 2017;Owuamalam et al, 2017;Swencionis et al, 2017;Volpato et al, 2017). Other articles include high-SES perspectives (Batruch et al, 2017;Jetten et al, 2017;Swencionis et al, 2017).…”

Social Class and Ideologies of Inequality: How They Uphold Unequal Societies

“…Inequality has been linked to poor health, increased crime, unwanted pregnancy (Kawachi, Kennedy, Lochner, & ProthrowStith, 1997), lower levels of happiness (Oishi, Kesebir, & Diener, 2011), and less trust in others (Fiske, Moya, Russell, & Bearns, 2012;Fritsche et al, 2017). Despite these costs and the preference that individuals have for a more egalitarian society (Norton & Ariely, 2011), some individuals tend to legitimize or at least not oppose economic inequality (Hadler, 2005;Jost, Pelham, Sheldon, & Ni Sullivan, 2003;Kelley & Evans, 1993).…”