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Economic inequality is a significant problem of modern society, and redistributive policies are one of the most effective tools for reducing it. Previous studies have highlighted the importance of social mobility to understand attitudes toward redistribution. Across three preregistered studies (N = 2475; one cross‐sectional and two experimental) in different countries (Italy and Spain), we investigated the relationship between upward and downward societal mobility beliefs and attitudes toward redistribution, as well as potential explanatory mechanisms. Results showed that when people believe that it is easy to improve the socioeconomic status in their society, they oppose redistributive policies; conversely, when people believe that is difficult, they support redistributive policies. Importantly, meritocratic beliefs explained the upward mobility effect on redistribution, and perceived personal economic risks accounted for the downward mobility effect. Implications of these results for the design of policies to reduce economic inequality are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyze the influence of the perceived level of economic inequality in daily life on people's recognition of the perceived humanity gap between low- and high-socioeconomic groups within society. To achieve this purpose, in Studies 1A–B, we analyzed the relationship between economic inequality and the humanity gap. In Studies 2A–B, we manipulated the level of inequality (low vs. high) to identify differences in the humanity gap. Results indicated that higher perceptions of economic inequality lead individuals to recognize a wider humanity gap between low- and high-socioeconomic groups in society. Implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: People's psychological tendencies are attuned to their sociocultural context and culture‐specific ways of being, feeling, and thinking are believed to assist individuals in successfully navigating their environment. Supporting this idea, a stronger "fit" with one's cultural environment has often been linked to positive psychological outcomes. The current research expands the cultural, conceptual, and methodological space of cultural fit research by exploring the link between well‐being and honor, a central driver of social behavior in the Mediterranean region. Method: Drawing on a multi‐national sample from eight countries circum‐Mediterranean (N = 2257), we examined the relationship between cultural fit in honor and well‐being at the distal level (fit with one's perceived society) using response surface analysis (RSA) and at the proximal level (fit with one's university gender group) using profile analysis. Results: We found positive links between fit and well‐being in both distal (for some, but not all, honor facets) and proximal fit analyses (across all honor facets). Furthermore, most fit effects in the RSA were complemented with positive level effects of the predictors, with higher average honor levels predicting higher well‐being. Conclusions: Our findings highlight the interplay between individual and environmental factors in honor as well as the important role honor plays in well‐being in the Mediterranean region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sexist attitudes reinforce gender inequality, but, are they absent on Women's Day? This research examines the extent to which, in some contexts, Women's Day can activate sexist attitudes that reinforce structural inequalities between men and women. Based on ambivalent sexism theory, we propose that people are more likely to agree with benevolent sexist attitudes on Women's Day than on any other day. In Study 1 (N=190) we measured sexist attitudes on Women's Day and then one month later. We found that participants asked on Women's Day reported more benevolent sexism than participants asked a month later. Benevolent sexism was stronger on Women's Day for men (who scored higher for both hostile and benevolent sexism than women). In order to establish causality, in Study 2 (N=175) we used an experimental paradigm in which we made Women's Day more salient (against the control condition). Results showed that participants assigned to the Women's Day experimental condition indicated more support for benevolent sexist attitudes than those assigned to the control condition and again (men scored higher on both dimensions of sexism across both conditions). This research provides evidence of the potential unintended effects of International Women's Day and the challenges that women still face. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Socioeconomic status self‐deception refers to the motivated tendency to perceive oneself as having a higher subjective status than would correspond to objective conditions. This can be a powerful mechanism to legitimize the social order. We proposed that when people perceive the surrounding social environment to be classist, people tend to self‐deceive themselves by overestimating their socioeconomic status. This mechanism, in turn, would lead to justify the system to a higher extent and show less support for redistribution, and reduce relative deprivation and status anxiety. These hypotheses were tested across four pre‐registered studies on different high‐quality samples, different operationalization of the variables in our model, and both cross‐sectional and longitudinal observations. On the one hand, the results do not provide evidence of a link between perceiving a classist climate and socioeconomic status self‐deception. On the other hand, socioeconomic status self‐deception was confirmed to predict higher system justification, and lower support for redistribution, status anxiety and relative deprivation. The construct and operationalization of socioeconomic status self‐deception proposed in this research could help reconcile opposing predictions by system justification theory and social dominance theory, and understand why individuals low on socioeconomic status would oppose policies which could benefit them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and endorsement of honour. We studied the SES-honour link in 5 studies (N = 13,635) with participants recruited in different world regions (the Mediterranean and MENA, East Asian, South-East Asian, and Anglo-Western regions) using measures that tap into various different facets of honour. Findings from these studies revealed that individuals who subjectively perceived themselves as belonging to a higher (vs. lower) SES endorsed various facets of honour more strongly (i.e. defence of family honour values and concerns, self-promotion and retaliation values, masculine honour beliefs, emphasis on personal and family social image, the so-called street code). We discuss implications of these findings for the cultural dynamics linked to SES., (© 2025 British Psychological Society.)

Cognitive biases affect how people perceive social class mobility. Previous studies suggest that people find it difficult to estimate actual economic social mobility accurately. These results have also noted differences between regions. While in the United States people overestimate actual economic social mobility, in Europe people tend to underestimate it. Across two independent cross-sectional studies, we examined whether cognitive biases operate in the Spanish context and, if so, whether they depend on the type of social mobility. In Study 1 ( N = 480), we tested whether people in Spain have an accurate estimation of actual upward economic societal mobility. The results showed that people in Spain have a pessimistic view of upward societal mobility. In Study 2 ( N = 274), we analyzed whether people in Spain are more or less optimistic according to the type of social mobility: Personal vs. societal. We found that Spaniards are more optimistic when estimating their own mobility (i.e., personal mobility) than when estimating the mobility of the Spanish society (i.e., societal mobility). Contrary to our predictions, we found that meritocratic beliefs do not play a relevant role in determining any type of social mobility. These results extend previous research on social mobility and its psychosocial consequences. Furthermore, they are well aligned with a new psychosocial perspective suggesting that social mobility is a multidimensional construct. We also discussed the psychosocial implications of this optimistic bias for personal mobility.