Ever since Thomas Pikkety shot to unlikely fame for his magnus opus Capital In The 21st Century in 2013, economic and social inequality has been a hot topic around the world. New research from New York University sheds an interesting light on the topic, suggesting that if people believe the economic system is fair, then they’re generally more comfortable with inequality.
“Research has shown that people generally have an aversion to unequal distributions of resources, an example of which may be a person we see sleeping on a grate or lacking access to basic necessities, healthcare, and education,” the researchers explain. “Yet many people either pay little attention to or are otherwise unbothered by rising economic disparities–responses that some may have difficulty understanding.”
An aversion to inequality
Previous work has suggested that humans have an evolutionary aversion to inequality, with children as young as six years old showing an awareness of inequality and a willingness to reduce it where possible. Despite this, as adults, various surveys have shown that people seem reasonably happy for society to be unequal.
The researchers wanted to explore this apparent contradiction across a number of experiments whereby participants were asked their views on the American economic system. For instance, in one experiment, volunteers were asked to share their agreement with statements such as “Economic positions are legitimate reflections of people’s achievements,” before then having to watch a video featuring an interview with a homeless man describing his circumstances.
The results showed that those who felt the economic system was fair subsequently felt fewer negative emotions whilst watching the video interview with the homeless man. Subsequent experiments then built upon this format by measuring their physiological response to viewing inequality in action.
The researchers measured a range of involuntary reactions to stimuli, such as facial muscle movements and skin conductance levels. The results suggest that there was relatively little negative affect and arousal when people watched the interviews.
The final experiment tried to get things out of a lab environment and into a more real-world setting. Volunteers received four text messages every day for nine days, each of which tried to encourage them to complete a survey on their phone. Two of these surveys measured the reaction of the individuals to inequality, including whether they had personally encountered anyone who was very poor (or very rich). They were also asked their response to such encounters.
As with the previous results, people who had identified themselves as ‘system justifiers’ typically reported less negative emotion after experiencing inequality than people who were more critical of the economic system.
“These results provide the strongest evidence to date that system-justifying beliefs diminish aversion to inequality in economic contexts,” the researchers conclude.
