https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2048-5872
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ABSTRACT
In this paper, we analyze the influence of the perceived level of economic inequality in daily life on people’s recognition of the perceived humanity gap between low- and high-socioeconomic groups within society. To achieve this purpose, in Studies 1A–B, we analyzed the relationship between economic inequality and the humanity gap. In Studies 2A–B, we manipulated the level of inequality (low vs. high) to identify differences in the humanity gap. Results indicated that higher perceptions of economic inequality lead individuals to recognize a wider humanity gap between low- and high-socioeconomic groups in society. Implications are discussed.
Acknowledgments
We acknowledge support from the Centre for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies - COES (ANID/FONDAP/15130009).
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Data availability statement
The data described in this article are openly available in the Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/pjdqr/ and https://osf.io/b5qwf/
Open scholarship
This article has earned the Center for Open Science badges for Open Data, Open Materials and Preregistered. The data and materials are openly accessible at https://osf.io/pjdqr/ and https://osf.io/b5qwf/
Supplementary material
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2022.2157699
Notes
1. Note that when measuring perceptions of dehumanization, participants rated the extent to which they thought that poor groups and rich groups within their society were considered either less evolved (i.e., animal-like) or more evolved (i.e., human-like). As in previous studies (e.g., Durante et al., Citation2013; Fiske et al., Citation2002), we asked about how others in a society perceive rich people and poor people rather than requesting that the participants report their perceptions (i.e., direct dehumanization) or their perception about being dehumanized by others (i.e., meta-dehumanization). This procedure is intended to (a) reduce participants’ social desirability concerns when presented with a blatant measure of dehumanization and (b) capture the extent to which people socially recognize at a cultural level the interplay between SES and the attribution of uniquely human traits previously identified in the literature (Sainz, Martínez, Moya, Citation2019). The understanding of how perceptions of economic inequality influence direct dehumanization or perceptions of meta-dehumanization are not a matter of study of this project and could be further developed in other projects.
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Notes on contributors
Mario Sainz
Mario Sainz, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Social and Organizational Psychology Department at the Universidad Nacional de Estudios a Distancia (Spain). His research mainly focuses on the study of dehumanization processes applied to poverty.
Rocío Martínez
Rocío Martínez, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the University of Granada, Spain. Her research mainly focuses on the study of the consequences of dehumanization and also of feminism and gender inequality.
Juan Matamoros-Lima
Juan Matamoros-Lima. PhD Candidate in Social Psychology at the University of Granada (Spain). His research interests focus on the psychology of inequality, social mobility beliefs, and legitimizing ideologies.
Miguel Moya
Miguel Moya is a Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Granada, Spain. His research interests mainly focus on the social psychological study of social class, and the psychosocial study of gender.
Rosa Rodríguez-Bailón
Rosa Rodríguez-Bailón is a Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Granada, Spain. Hes research interests mainly focus on the social psychological study of economic inequality.