The Psychological Impact Of Inequality

Inequality is a phenomenon that is very present in today’s reality. Some have a lot and some have little, which applies to both money and opportunities. Of course, this affects our lifestyles as well as the quality of life we ​​lead. But the effects of inequality do not stop there, there are also psychological effects.

In the current context, characterized by difficulties and economic instability, differences between social classes tend to grow. Thus, we have three well-defined classes: the rich who have almost everything, a middle class with little capital, if compared to the rich, and the poor who have nothing. Together, the economy and the social class of belonging will produce the psychological effects that we report below.

everyday inequalities

The social class we belong to influences how we perceive reality, how we feel and how we behave.

Lower-class people will realize that events happening around them depend on external forces beyond their control. These people tend to have more empathy and compassion, have altruistic behavior or, in other words, perform more positive actions towards others without gaining anything in return. All this compared to the upper class.

On the other hand is the economy, money. The difference between the amount of money that the richest and the poorest have will determine the economic inequality of a society.

Thus, if in one society the rich have twenty times more money than the poor and in another they have a thousand times more, the first society will have less economic inequality than the second. Thus, people from more unequal societies tend to be more distrustful, compete more for economic resources and favor economic inequalities.

social class inequality

We all grew up in a certain social class, and most will always live in a very similar social class to which they grew up. For this reason, we have developed a way of thinking, feeling and acting very similar to the people around us. This, in turn, determines how we relate to other people.

People of lower social class tend to live in environments where there is a lot of uncertainty, where their vulnerability is high and threats are important and frequent. This leads them to realize that their actions and the opportunities they have do not depend on them, but on external elements they cannot control. Together they are more context sensitive.

Upper class people have more economic resources and their social hierarchy is higher. They live in societies with high security, more freedom of choice and that are characterized by stability. Therefore, these people learn to realize that they have the ability to influence the context and, unlike lower class people, they become more sensitive to other people’s opinions.

While lower-class people are the ones who develop the most empathy, upper-class people are more accurate when it comes to identifying the emotions that the people they interact with feel (cognitive empathy).

Gini coefficient: inequality index

economic inequality

It is understood that economic inequality is a consequence of the way resources are distributed in a society. Distribution can be more equal or less, more unequal. As can be simply understood, unequal societies present more problems for those who have less.

Some of these problems are health, obesity, unwanted pregnancies, drug abuse and, in addition, they present more crimes. However, there is also another type of problem: psychological ones.

People who live in more unequal societies tend to be more suspicious. Therefore, they are also more unpleasant to others and participate less in social activities. There is less interaction between people, especially when they live in different neighborhoods.

On the other hand, there is more competitiveness in the most unequal societies. This causes people to experience more feelings of anxiety about being looked down upon, especially those who have a lower status, even though people also tend to value themselves more positively to prevent this from happening.

Definitely, less unequal societies present themselves as better contexts in which to live. The benefits, both material and psychological, are much greater in this type of society. Furthermore, in these societies social classes are more similar.

And, as if that were not enough, the greater the social inequality in a country, the more likely it is that its inhabitants prefer a more unequal society or are less concerned about inequality.