HOMMERICH CAROLA

Abstract This chapter explores the impact of inequality-normalizing narratives on attitudes toward income inequality. Focusing on economically developed East Asian countries (Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan), it examines how inequality-normalizing narratives and social status relate to individuals’ acceptance of income inequality. Drawing on the latest subset of the World Values Survey (7th wave, 2017–20), it finds stronger alignment with narratives that legitimize inequality (e.g., individual responsibility, belief in the merits of competition, meritocracy, hard work, and the importance of freedom over equality) to be an important predictor of acceptance of income inequality. For all three countries, we find that belief in inequality-legitimizing narratives provides a more robust explanation for the acceptance of unequal income distributions compared to subjective social status. The chapter highlights how narratives that normalize income inequality are deeply entrenched in developed market economies, regardless of their developmental pathways.

Abstract People who are socioeconomically better off tend to report higher levels of well-being, with inconsistent roles ascribed to objective socioeconomic status (SES), subjective SES (SSES), and personal relative deprivation (PRD)—depending on the predictors, facets of well-being, and countries under study. We tested a comprehensive model of social status indicators as determinants of subjective well-being by a) including PRD, SSES, income, and education as predictors, b) assessing subjective well-being as well as interdependent happiness (happiness in relation to significant others), c) testing the model in Japan, Germany, and the US—countries with comparable societal structure (e.g., educated, industrialized, rich, democratic) but diverging cultural dimensions, and d) testing an explanatory variable: feeling excluded from society. Cross-culturally (N = 2,155), PRD and SSES independently and strongly predicted well-being, while income and education exhibited negligible direct effects. SSES emerged as the predominant predictor in Japan compared to the US and Germany, whereas PRD was the predominant predictor in the US compared to Germany and, to a lesser extent, Japan. This was largely accounted for by culture-specific links of social status with perceived social exclusion—the extent to which people feel unable to keep up with society as a whole. Perceived social exclusion was more strongly linked to SSES in Japan compared to Germany and the US, and more strongly linked to PRD in the US than in Germany. The role of perceived social exclusion as an explanatory variable in the relationship between social status and subjective well-being merits further investigation within and between countries.