TY - JOUR

T1 - The Effect of Social Class on Agency and Communion

T2 - Reconciling Identity-Based and Rank-Based Perspectives

AU - Aydin, Anna Lisa

AU - Ullrich, Johannes

AU - Siem, Birte

AU - Locke, Kenneth D.

AU - Shnabel, Nurit

PY - 2019/8/1

Y1 - 2019/8/1

N2 - How does social class affect people’s goals in social interactions? A rank-based perspective suggests actors from higher social classes (compared to lower social classes) have more agentic and less communal goals when interacting with same class or unspecified others. Focusing on targets’ social class, an identity-based perspective suggests the reverse: Actors should more strongly endorse communal (agentic) goals toward illegitimately lower class (higher class) compared to illegitimately higher class (lower class) targets, regardless of actors’ own social class. Three preregistered experiments (N = 2,023) manipulated actor’s social class and the nature of the target (illegitimately higher/lower class, same class, unspecified) and measured participants’ goals in imagined interactions using the Circumplex Scales of Intergroup Goals. The identity-based perspective received strong support: Across studies, actors expressed stronger agentic (communal) goals toward higher class (lower class) targets. The rank-based perspective received limited support, with relatively low-class (vs. relatively high-class) actors expressing stronger communal goals toward same-class targets.

AB - How does social class affect people’s goals in social interactions? A rank-based perspective suggests actors from higher social classes (compared to lower social classes) have more agentic and less communal goals when interacting with same class or unspecified others. Focusing on targets’ social class, an identity-based perspective suggests the reverse: Actors should more strongly endorse communal (agentic) goals toward illegitimately lower class (higher class) compared to illegitimately higher class (lower class) targets, regardless of actors’ own social class. Three preregistered experiments (N = 2,023) manipulated actor’s social class and the nature of the target (illegitimately higher/lower class, same class, unspecified) and measured participants’ goals in imagined interactions using the Circumplex Scales of Intergroup Goals. The identity-based perspective received strong support: Across studies, actors expressed stronger agentic (communal) goals toward higher class (lower class) targets. The rank-based perspective received limited support, with relatively low-class (vs. relatively high-class) actors expressing stronger communal goals toward same-class targets.

KW - actor

KW - agency

KW - Circumplex Scales of Intergroup Goals

KW - communion

KW - social class

KW - target

KW - Social Work and Social Pedagogics

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85049666325&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.5167/uzh-152233

DO - 10.5167/uzh-152233

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85049666325

VL - 10

SP - 735

EP - 745

JO - Social Psychological and Personality Science

JF - Social Psychological and Personality Science

SN - 1948-5506

IS - 6

ER -