Caught Between Ideology and Self-Interest

Subjective Social Status and Meritocratic Beliefs Shape Whether People Perceive, Feel Anger About, and Want to Change Economic Conflict

Bibliographic Data

ID5609804
AuthorsJ Van Noord (0000-0002-2351-0260, Brussels Institute for Social and Population Studies (BRISPO; Research Cluster TOR) Vrije Universiteit Brussel Brussel Belgium, corresponding author), Bram Spruyt (0000-0003-0573-724X, Brussels Institute for Social and Population Studies (BRISPO; Research Cluster TOR) Vrije Universiteit Brussel Brussel Belgium), Filip Van Droogenbroeck (0000-0003-1133-3495, Brussels Institute for Social and Population Studies (BRISPO; Research Cluster TOR) Vrije Universiteit Brussel Brussel Belgium), Toon Kuppens (0000-0002-7056-4288, Department of Organizational Psychology University of Groningen Groningen Netherlands)
Year2025
Volume76
Issue3
Pages566-577
Publication date2025-06-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueBritish Journal of Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0007-1315 • E-ISSN: 1468-4446
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1468-4446.13185
PMID39916323
OpenAlexW4407262258
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited48

Belief in meritocracy and social status are central to understanding how people think and behave in relation to economic conflict. In this paper, we investigate how belief in meritocracy is moderated by (subjective) social status for three different aspects of citizens' attitudes towards economic inequality and conflict, namely (1) perceived conflict, (2) anger about economic inequality and (3) intentions to change economic conflict (egalitarianism). Data from the International Social Survey Programme on 29 countries reveal that the effect of meritocracy depends on social status and differs meaningfully across the three attitudes. For people high in social status, belief in meritocracy relates to lower perceptions of conflict, anger, and egalitarianism. For people with a low subjective social status there is no or a weak relation of belief in meritocracy with the outcomes. In addition, when belief in meritocracy was low, those with a high subjective social status appeared to be concerned about inequality as they perceived more economic conflict and felt more anger than those with a low subjective social status. However, this was not the case for intentions to reduce inequality. Hence, these effects of meritocracy and social status should be understood in light of self-interest concerns of social groups, rather than solely ideological domination

Anger · Egalitarianism · Ideology · Inequality · Meritocracy · Political science · Politics · Social change · Social conflict · Social inequality · Social mobility · Social science · Sociology · Law · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Psychology · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology

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