User:Jmoshea1/sandbox

Subjective Inequality

Subjective inequality is a subfield of sociology which focuses on how individual members of a society perceive socioeconomic inequality. Much like the greater field of sociology, subjective inequality is investigated using both empirical (typically survey-based) data, and theoretical analysis. But unlike traditional notions of socioeconomic inequality, subjective inequality is not studied using cumulative, macro-level measures such as the Gini coefficient. Instead, it is interested in the micro-level perceptions of the individual members of a given society, and is measured using both qualitative, and quantitative survey methodologies.

The field of sociology at large has faced a question regarding how to transcend the dichotomy of subjective, and objective knowledge since its inception. This question largely relates to the possibilities of social interactions: the “subjective” refers to the individual, or an individual’s perception of a society, and the "objective" is any societal change or outcome. Many sociologists aim to find a balance between understanding social dynamics as both objective, and subjective. This same dichotomy applies to the question of how to measure and think about inequality: based on objective cumulative measures, or based on how it is perceived by individuals. In recent decades, sociologists have begun to emphasize the importance of both of these measures, in understanding inequality and its effects on human behavior.

History

In the United States, socioeconomic inequality has increased dramatically since the Great Depression, particularly during the 1980s. The study of subjective inequality, as opposed to solely more objective measures of inequality, began in the late 19th century with Karl Marx’s theories about class consciousness. According to sociologist James Kluegel, “Class consciousness in Marx's terms is the awareness of sharing a similar position in the social order with others in united opposition to this order.” Marx began discussions of subjective inequality by exploring the difference between people’s perception of their socioeconomic status, and their objective status within their greater environment.

Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, early studies of this topic attempted to assess whether people are conscious, or unconscious, of their objective social class. However, these studies were later criticized for being binary in nature, and therefore oversimplifying the complex question of how one perceives their socioeconomic status. Throughout the 20th century, in America especially, lines between the working class and the middle class began to blur, making it difficult to objectively classify one’s economic status.

In 1964, political scientist Philip Earnest Converse theorized that elites drive the opinions and beliefs of the rest of society, whether non-elite members of that society are aware of this or not. According to Converse, the influence of these elites extends to individual perceptions of the inequality, and unfairness, of the society they exist in. He argued that the masses tend to be uneducated and seek simplicity: they tend to agree with the beliefs of perhaps more educated “elites,” without checking to ensure their accuracy.

In 1972, sociologists Joseph Lopreato and Lawrence Hazelrigg studied the determinants of class consciousness, building from the theories of Karl Marx. While their findings were inconclusive, they were one of the first studies to explicitly state the importance of “subjective mobility” in addition to “objective mobility”. This sparked the need for more research in the area of subjective social stratification.

In 1975, psychologists Martin Fishbein and Icek Ajzen published their “Theory of Reasoned Action,” which created a model that predicted the relationship between one’s beliefs, attitudes, subjective norms, and behaviors. They reasoned that one's beliefs and attitudes, along with subjective norms, lead to behavioral intention, ultimately leading to actionable behavior.

A recent study in 2021 attempted to explore the "Construct of Economic Subjective Inequality," as there had been few previous studies on the subject. They found that perceived social inequality is very weakly correlated with objective social inequality, implying that most people’s individual perception of social stratification in the United States are largely inaccurate.

Theory

Psychology, and Economics

Subjective inequality is a field fundamentally based in human behavior. Since it is a study of perceived inequality, rather than objective measures of inequality, many sociologists have studied it using theories of economics, and human psychology.

Neoclassical economic theory assumes that people tend to simply maximize their utility – it does not take into account more complicated social and psychological forces. However, many sociologists have argued that his assumption cannot necessarily apply when discussing inequality, especially subjective inequality, and its effects on human behavior.

In his book “The Wealth of Nations,” economist and philosopher Adam Smith argued that social comparisons can affect what people consider to be necessary goods. That is, he argued that an individual’s perception of the consumption behaviors of others can affect their own consumption behavior:

“By necessaries I understand not only the commodities which are indispensably necessary for the support of life, but whatever the custom of the country renders it indecent for creditable people, even of the lowest order, to be without. A linen shirt, for example, is, strictly speaking, not a necessary of life. The Greeks and Romans lived, I suppose, very comfortably though they had no linen. But in the present times, through the greater part of Europe, a creditable day-labourer would be ashamed to appear in public without a linen shirt, […].”

Pollster and political scientist Elmo Roper argued that social comparison can in turn contribute to social and economic status. He noted that a person earning $40,000 per year may place them in a subjectively high-status category if they are surrounded by others who earn substantially less, say $20,000 per year. However, if that person lived in a different neighborhood, and was surrounded by people making substantially more than $40,000, they might feel poor by comparison. In this way, notions of social and economic status are affected by individual perceptions of inequality.

Sociologists argue that according to theoretical and experimental psychology, subjective perception of one’s social and economic status relative to that of others affects individual behavior. For example, socio psychologist Mitchell J. Callan found that those who are made to feel relatively poor are more likely to prefer an immediate financial reward, over a higher reward in the future. He argues that humans are sensitive not only to their place in the proverbial economic ladder, but are also sensitive to the shape of this ladder itself (i.e. how well-off others are by comparison).

Evolutionary Theory

Sociologists have also utilized evolutionary theory to explain why human behavior is impacted by subjective inequality.

According to darwinian evolution, the process of natural selection “shapes” an organism’s genome in order to optimize their reproductive fitness. That is, inherited traits such as eye color, or some parts of human psychology, are present because of evolutionary advantages they grant.

Reproductive success is based partly on an organism’s ability to acquire resources. For example, sociologists have found that in early human societies, and in some contemporary societies that do not enforce monogamous relationships, men with more resources tend to have more wives, and therefore reproductive success.

Thus, sociologists have argued that it posed an evolutionary advantage for humans to be concerned with not only acquiring resources, but acquiring more than those around them. In addition, sociologists have noted that if the socioeconomic structure of an environment changes (e.g. a resource becomes more scarce), it poses an evolutionary advantage to respond to this change, in order to once again maximize reproductive success. Thus, in effect, it is advantageous for individuals to be concerned with the degree of inequality in their environment.

Research

Collecting information about subjective inequality consists of a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. Researchers aim to answer the overarching question: “How do people perceive their relative social, economic, or political status?” utilizing the following means of experimentation and data collection:

Surveys and questionnaires: Researchers utilize questionnaires direct to individuals to collect information about perceptions of relative socioeconomic status. A popular survey method asks subjects to place themselves on the MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status. The MacArthur scale is a symbolic ladder depicting social status on which participants mark their “position”. Position on the ladder from bottom to top corresponds to position on the social ladder. The bottom of the ladder represents those who are “worst off”, and the top, those who are “best off”. The higher rungs are associated with more money, better quality education, and the scarcer/harder to access job positions. The lower end of the ladder embodies people who have less money, lower levels of education, and the easiest to access jobs.

Interviews: A qualitative method involving a more in-depth assessment of how individuals perceive their experience and standing within the social hierarchy. This method is particularly useful in allowing researchers to understand the subjective nature of how people perceive relative inequality.

Sociological Experiments: Simulations of wealth distribution provide a more experimental alternative to understanding perceptions of inequality. Participants in these sociological experiments view given wealth distribution scenarios and explain their assessments of fairness and inequality.

Comparative Studies: Analysis of cross-cultural attitudes towards inequality, fairness in welfare systems, and concepts of success and failure

Statistical analysis: Statistical tools allow researchers to evaluate data from surveys and come to broader conclusions about patterns in demographics within answers to questions regarding inequality

Past research methodologies on subjective inequality

“Americans misperceive racial economic equality”, a survey study by Michael W. Kraus, and Jennifer A. Richeson in 2017 concluded that White and Black Americans across all socio-economic status levels do not have an accurate evaluation of Black-White economic inequality. The discrepancy between surveyed Americans’ perceptions of economic inequality and the reality of the matter differed based on racial background and income level (high to low). Ultimately, White respondents of a higher income over-estimated, while Black respondents underestimated the reality of economic inequality. The methodology for this study involved 1,377 survey respondents questioned on their “Impressions of society”. The first part of the survey gave definitions of wealth and income, then the second part had them respond to: “Estimate general statistics for a number of economic demographic questions related to pay scales, unemployment, and health benefits” “For every $100 earned by an average White family, how much do you think was earned by an average Black family in 1947/2013?” “If a White member of the workforce with a high school degree made $100, how much would a Black member of the workforce with a high school degree make performing the same work in 1973/2015?”.

“Subjective socioeconomic status and income inequality are associated with self-reported morality across 67 countries”, a statistical analysis conducted by Christian T. Elbæk, Panagiotis Mitkidis, Lene Aarøe, and Tobias Otterbring in 2023 aimed to explore the relationship between perceptions of socioeconomic standing and general morality cross-culturally. Understanding that humans perceive their level of access to economic resources compared to others in society (subjective experiences of economic scarcity), these researchers analyzed data from a large, cross-national survey in order to link self-reports of morality to perceptions of how individuals experience inequality. The dataset analyzed contained self-reported demographics and social and moral psychology data from 51,089 individuals from 67 countries and 5 different regions of the world. This study was a large-scale international collaboration between more than 200 researchers from 67 different countries. The data was obtained from the International Collaboration on Social & Moral Psychology of COVID-19, and researchers utilized multilevel correlation analysis, nested OLS regressions, multilevel modeling (Linear Mixed Effects models), and cross-validations.

Connections to Other Disciplines

Subjective inequality is deeply intwined with social psychology, which studies how social influence, perception, and interaction influences individual and group behavior. Furthermore, social psychology studies networks of generalized trust among member of a society. A recent study in 2017 aimed to explore “the relationship between subjective inequality and generalized trust,” concluding that people are less likely to trust others when they perceive inequality as greater, and believe that society is unfair as a whole. Social psychologists attribute this to the fact that unequal access to opportunity changes one’s ability to trust others, and this sets a foundation for how people perceive societal inequality in relation to socioeconomic status. In addition, social psychology explores how those who are more privileged are more likely to put up psychological boundaries between themselves and disadvantaged groups during times of extreme inequality, because they fear resentment from the disadvantaged.

Subjective inequality also connects to Della-Fave’s theory of the logic of opportunity. While this is more so a theory within sociology as a whole, it suggests the elimination of inequality through 1) widespread feelings of deprivation, which can lead to a desire for social change, 2) the blaming of the organization of society, 3) the belief that social justice requires equality, 4) the belief that human nature will permit equality in a complex society, and 5) the belief that transitioning to an egalitarian society is possible. Similar to subjective inequality, this theory describes the relationship between individual perception and inequality. The logic of opportunity proposed by Della-Fave explains how the perception of inequality can lead to societal change, and can affect individual behavior.