Inequality is a phenomenon very present in today’s reality, some have a lot and others do not, which applies to both money and opportunities, of course it affects our lifestyles and the quality of life we lead, but the effects of inequality do. It doesn’t end there, there are also psychological effects.
In today’s challenging environment and economic instability, class differences tend to increase, so we have three well-defined classes: the rich who have almost everything, a middle class with little capital, if we compare it to the rich, and the rich. poor people who have nothing. Together, the economy and social class of belonging will produce the psychological effects we report below.
The social class to which we belong influences how we perceive reality, how we feel, and how we behave.
The lower class will find that the events that occur around them depend on external forces beyond their control, these people tend to have more empathy and compassion, altruistic behavior or, in other words, to perform more positive actions towards others without gaining anything in return. . All this in relation to the upper class.
On the other hand, there’s the economy, the money. The difference between the amount of money available to the richest and the poorest will determine a society’s economic inequality.
Thus, if in one society the rich have twenty times more money than the poor and in another have a thousand times more, the first society will have less economic inequality than the second. As a result, people in more unequal societies tend to be more suspicious, to compete more for economic resources, and to support economic inequality.
We all grow up in a certain social class, and most will continue to live in a social class very similar to the one they grew up in, so we have developed a way of thinking, feeling and acting very similar to the people around us. This, in turn, determines our relationship with others.
Low-income people tend to live in environments where there is a lot of uncertainty, high vulnerability, and high threats, leading them to realize that their actions and the opportunities they have depend not on them, but on external elements they cannot control. Together, they are more context sensitive.
People in the upper class have more financial resources and their social hierarchy is higher. They live in high-security societies, freer of choice and characterized by stability. As a result, these people learn to realize that they have the ability to influence the context and, unlike people in the lower class, become more sensitive to the opinions of others.
Although it is the lower class that develops the most empathy, those in the upper class are more accurate in identifying the emotions that people interact with (cognitive empathy) feel.
It is understood that economic inequality is a consequence of the way resources are distributed in a society, distribution can be more equal or less, more unequal, as can be understood simply, unequal societies pose more problems for those who have less.
Some of these problems are health, obesity, unwanted pregnancies, addictions, and more crimes. However, there is also another type of problem: psychological problems.
People living in more unequal societies tend to be more suspicious, as a result, they are also more unpleasant to others and participate less in social activities, there is less interaction between people, especially when they live in different neighborhoods.
On the other hand, there is more competitiveness in more unequal societies, which leads people to feel more anxious when neglected, especially those of lower status, although people also tend to value the most positively to prevent this from happening.
Clearly, less unequal societies present themselves as better contexts for living. The benefits, both material and psychological, are much greater in this type of society. In addition, in these societies, social classes are more similar.
And, as if it were small, the greater the social inequality in a country, the more likely it is that its inhabitants prefer a more unequal society or care less about inequality.