The different effects of income and educational level on prosocial behaviour and related ideological variables

Abstract

Studies on socioeconomic status (SES) have recently increased in social psychology. The most used indicators to measure objective SES are income and educational level (usually standardizing and summing the scores of these variables). However, income and education possibly have different, even opposite effects on certain variables. Across seven studies, using data from previous research and from international databases, we show that this is true both for prosocial behaviour and for variables related to prosocial behaviour. A higher educational level tends to positively predict prosocial behaviour (Studies 1a–1d) and structural attributions of poverty (Studies 2 and 3), and negatively predict scores for meritocratic beliefs (Study 3) and just world beliefs (Study 4). In most cases, income showed a reverse trend or did not predict the outcome. We discuss the broader implications both for the study of prosocial behaviour and social class.

Joaquín Alcañiz Colomer

Postdoctoral researcher on the WHOCOUNTS project at IGOP, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

My research interests include social policies, attributions for poverty, punitive attitudes…