Author(s)

Yang Wang, Yi Ding

School of Psychology, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China.

The rapid increase of economic inequality is prevalent in many societies, yet people seem to underestimate actual inequality dramatically. In this study, we examine whether and how feelings of economic gain affect people’s perceptions of economic inequality in China, a society with the rapid development of the economy after China’s reform and opening-up and is now also facing a high level of economic inequality. Using a large Chinese sample, we found that individuals with higher feelings of economic gain reported lower perceptions of economic inequality, and meritocracy beliefs could partially mediate this effect. These findings highlight the importance of personal feelings of economic gain in shapes people’s perceptions of economic inequality.

Feelings of Economic Gain, Meritocracy, Perceptions of Inequality

Wang, Y. and Ding, Y. (2021) Feelings of Economic Gain in the Past Blind People to Inequality. Advances in Applied Sociology, 11, 377-383. doi: 10.4236/aasoci.2021.118034.