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Economic inequality has a huge impact on well-being, also affecting adolescents, who are the future agents of our societies. Nevertheless, research often overlooks their perspectives on economic inequality, poverty, and their attitudes towards its reduction. The present research evaluates adolescents’ perceived and ideal economic inequality, causal attributions of poverty, support for collective action against economic inequality and meritocratic beliefs (in school or in general). Findings from this cross-sectional study involving Spanish adolescents (N = 942) reveal age-related differences being older teenagers who had higher ideal economic inequality, more general meritocratic beliefs and made more external causal attributions of poverty. Younger teenagers show greater endorsement of belief in school meritocracy. Beliefs in school meritocracy moderate perceived economic inequality, with stronger endorsement correlating with increased economic inequality tolerance and lesser support for collective action as perceived economic inequality rises. External causal attributions of poverty and ideal economic inequality partially mediate the relationship between perceived economic inequality and support for collective action, shaping attitudes towards economic inequality and its reduction. Our research contributes to understanding adolescents’ comprehension of inequality and their motivation to reduce it. By shedding light on the mechanisms underlying adolescent perceptions of economic inequality and their implications for collective action, our findings pave the way for interventions and policies aimed at promoting social justice and well-being among adolescents and the rest of society., La desigualdad económica afecta al bienestar de las personas, incluyendo los/as adolescentes, los futuros agentes de nuestras sociedades. Pero es frecuente que no se analicen sus perspectivas sobre la desigualdad económica, la pobreza y sus actitudes hacia su reducción. Esta investigación estudia la desigualdad económica ideal y percibida por adolescentes, las atribuciones causales de la pobreza, el apoyo a la acción colectiva contra la desigualdad económica y las creencias meritocráticas (en la escuela y en general). Los resultados de este estudio transversal con adolescentes españoles/as (N = 942) revelan diferencias asociadas a la edad en las variables estudiadas, siendo los/as adolescentes de mayor edad quienes desean un nivel mayor de desigualdad económica, tienen más creencias meritocráticas generales y realizan más atribuciones causales externas de la pobreza. Los/as adolescentes más jóvenes muestran más apoyo a las creencias en la meritocracia en la escuela. A su vez, las creencias en la meritocracia escolar moderan la percepción de la desigualdad económica: según aumenta la desigualdad económica percibida, apoyar más la meritocracia correlaciona con mayor desigualdad económica ideal y menor apoyo a la acción colectiva. Las atribuciones causales de pobreza y la desigualdad económica ideal median parcialmente la relación entre la desigualdad económica percibida y el apoyo a la acción colectiva para reducir la desigualdad, explicando en parte la formación de actitudes hacia la desigualdad económica y su reducción. Nuestra investigación contribuye al estudio de la adolescencia, la desigualdad y el bienestar social, abriendo el camino a futuras intervenciones y políticas que promuevan la justicia social y el bienestar.

Past research has shown that economic inequality shapes individuals’ self-construals. However, it has been unclear which dimensions of self-construal are associated with and affected by economic inequality. A correlational (Study 1: N = 264) and an experimental study (Study 2: N = 532) provided converging evidence linking perceived economic inequality with two forms of independent (vs. interdependent) self-construal: Difference from Others and SelfReliance. In Study 3 (N = 12,634) societal differences in objective economic inequality across 48 nations predicted feelings of Difference from Others, but not Self-Reliance. Importantly, we found no significant associations of economic inequality with the other six dimensions of self-construal. Our findings help extend previous results linking economic inequality to forms of “social distance.”

In this study we tested whether economic inequality and democratic choices affected individuals' cooperative behavior. We expected two main effects: First one of inequality on cooperation and another of democratic choice on cooperation. We used the public goods game (N = 479), in which participants were given a certain number of tokens and decided how many they wanted to keep in their private fund and how many they wanted to share in the public goods. To manipulate economic inequality, we distributed participants’ initial tokens either equally, unequally or very unequally. To manipulation democratic choice, we presented a prescriptive norm to punish the free-riders, either chosen by the participants or imposed. Cooperative behavior was measured by the number of tokens that participants invested in the public goods ark. A mix design was used, including one between participants manipulated factor (democratic choice) and other one manipulated within participants (inequality distribution). As predicted, our findings showed a significant difference between the high and the low inequality condition on cooperative behavior. Participants cooperate with more tokens in the low (vs. high) inequality condition. However, when the prescriptive norm was introduced, this difference between inequality conditions disappeared. No differences in cooperation were found when the prescriptive norm was either democratically voted or imposed. Our findings showed evidence about the reduction of cooperation in unequal contexts. Additionally, prescriptive norms could reduce differences in cooperative behavior independently of inequality levels. The results show that the study of prescriptive norms could contribute to foment redistribution and tax compliance.

The pandemic caused by COVID-19 has entailed a radical change in teaching, which occurred suddenly and without the possibility to adequately train university professors. Factors such as personal situation, prior training in digital competencies for online teaching, or sex can play an important role in the stress levels of professors. The objective of this study was to understand how these factors affected professors’ stress levels during a period of the pandemic. Through a survey carried out via email, a total of 123 teachers from different Spanish universities were contacted, 96 of whom responded. The results obtained establish a positive correlation between the stress felt by professors and sex, number of children, prior knowledge of online teaching systems, as well as the use of social networks. These preliminary findings could serve to establish preventive protocols that would help to improve the quality of life of professors and, consequently, the quality of university teaching in similar situations that may arise in the future., La pandemia provocada por el COVID-19 ha supuesto un cambio radical en la docencia, acaecido de forma súbita y sin posibilidad de formar adecuadamente a los docentes universitarios. Factores como la situación personal, la formación previa en competencias digitales para la docencia online o el sexo pueden jugar un papel importante en el nivel de estrés percibido por los docentes. El objetivo de este estudio fue conocer cómo afectaron estos factores al estrés percibido por los propios docentes durante un periodo de la pandemia. Mediante una encuesta realizada a través del correo electrónico, se contactó con un total de 123 docentes de diferentes universidades españolas de los que respondieron 96. Los resultados obtenidos permiten establecer una correlación positiva entre el sexo, el número de hijos, el conocimiento previo de sistemas de docencia online y el uso de redes sociales con el estrés percibido por los docentes. Estos hallazgos preliminares podrían servir para establecer protocolos preventivos que ayudaran a mejorar la calidad de vida del docente, y consecuentemente, la calidad de la docencia universitaria en futuras situaciones similares.

In this study, we analyze the perception of economic inequality in everyday life in Spain based on political ideology. Using content analysis techniques, we processed 705 open-ended responses from 290 people and used network analysis to examine the relationships between the categories identified. We found that economic inequality is perceived primarily as social comparison and relative deprivation between individuals/groups. However, it is perceived more in terms of social justice when people are situated on the left (vs. the right) of the political spectrum. We discuss the perception of economic inequality as a multidimensional phenomenon situated in everyday life, which influences how we understand and react to social disparities., Resumo: Neste estudo, analisamos a percepção da desigualdade econômica na vida cotidiana de jovens na Espanha de acordo com a ideologia política. Com base em técnicas de análise de conteúdo, processamos 705 respostas abertas de 290 pessoas e usamos análise de redes para examinar as relações entre as categorias identificadas. Constatamos que a desigualdade econômica é percebida principalmente como comparação social e privação relativa entre pessoas e grupos; muito mais em termos de justiça social, quando as pessoas se posicionam à esquerda (versus direita) do espectro político. Discutimos a percepção da desigualdade econômica como fenômeno multidimensional situado na vida cotidiana que influencia na forma de entender e reagir ante as disparidades sociais., Resumen: En este estudio analizamos la percepción de la desigualdad económica en España en la vida cotidiana de acuerdo con la ideología política. Mediante técnicas de análisis de contenido, procesamos 705 respuestas abiertas de 290 personas y usamos análisis de redes para examinar las relaciones entre las categorías identificadas. Encontramos que la desigualdad económica se percibe principalmente como comparación social y privación relativa entre personas/grupos; y más en términos de justicia social, cuando las personas se situaron a la izquierda (vs. la derecha) del espectro político. Discutimos la percepción de la desigualdad económica como un fenómeno multidimensional situado en la vida cotidiana, que influye en la forma de entender y reaccionar ante las disparidades sociales.