Does economic inequality moderate the effect of class on prosocial behavior? A large-scale test of a recent hypothesis by Côté et al

PLoS One. 2019 Aug 9;14(8):e0220723. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0220723. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

Empirical research has provided mixed evidence regarding the question of whether higher social class promotes prosocial behavior. Recently, Côté et al. [1] hypothesized that these conflicting evidences might result from a hitherto neglected interaction between the individual's level of income and the degree of inequality in one's society. They argue that societies with a higher level of inequality foster a sense of entitlement in high-income individuals, which in turn leads them to be less generous. We put this reasoning to a large-scale test using observational data from the European Social Survey (ESS) and push the scope of our investigation towards a broader conception of social class, using next to income two additional measures of class. First, we examine whether high-class individuals in societies with high levels of inequality do in fact feel more entitled than their counterparts in more equal societies. While we find that an individual's class and the disposition towards entitlement are strongly correlated, our results show a negative interaction with inequality, i.e. the effect of class on the personal sense of entitlement is weaker in societies with high levels of inequality. Second, we test whether the effect of class on prosocial behavior is moderated by economic inequality with respect to two real-life acts of prosocial behavior, namely engaging in volunteer work and donating money to a humanitarian organization. Our results indicate a substantial positive effect of class on prosocial behavior throughout, as well as a moderate, yet positive, interaction effect of class and inequality.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Charities
  • Europe
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Multilevel Analysis
  • Observational Studies as Topic
  • Regression Analysis
  • Social Behavior*
  • Socioeconomic Factors*
  • Volunteers / psychology

Associated data

  • figshare/10.6084/m9.figshare.8326934

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), project number 324311331, receiver of the funding: Andreas Tutić. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.