TY - JOUR
T1 - High economic inequality is linked to greater moralization
AU - KIRKLAND, Kelly
AU - VAN LANGE, Paul A. M.
AU - GORENZ, Drew
AU - BLAKE, Khandis
AU - AMIOT, Catherine E.
AU - AUSMEES, Liisi
AU - BAGUMA, Peter
AU - BARRY, Oumar
AU - BECKER, Maja
AU - BILEWICZ, Michal
AU - BOONYASIRIWAT, Watcharaporn
AU - BOOTH, Robert W.
AU - CASTELAIN, Thomas
AU - COSTANTINI, Giulio
AU - Dimdins, Girts
AU - ESPINOSA, Agustín
AU - FINCHILESCU, Gillian
AU - FISCHER, Ronald
AU - FRISES, Malte
AU - GÓMEZ, Ángel
AU - GONZÁLEZ, Roberto
AU - GOTO, Nobuhiko
AU - HALAMA, Peter
AU - HURTADO-PARRADO, Camilo
AU - ILLUSTRISIMO, Ruby D.
AU - JIGA-BOY, Gabriela M.
AU - KUPPENS, Peter
AU - LOUGHNAN, Steve
AU - MASTOR, Khairul A.
AU - MCLATCHIE, Neil
AU - NOVAK, Lindsay M.
AU - ONYEKACHI, Blessing N.
AU - RIZWAN, Muhammad
AU - SCHALLER, Mark
AU - SERAFIMOVSKA, Eleonora
AU - SUH, Eunkook M.
AU - SWANN JR., William B.
AU - TONG, Eddie M. W.
AU - TORRES, Ana
AU - TURNER, Rhiannon N.
AU - VAUCLAIR, Christin-Melanie
AU - VINOGRADOV, Alexander
AU - WANG, Zhechen
AU - YEUNG, Victoria Wai Lan
AU - Bastian, Brock
N1 - © The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of National Academy of Sciences.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.
PY - 2024/7
Y1 - 2024/7
N2 - Throughout the 21st century, economic inequality is predicted to increase as we face new challenges, from changes in the technological landscape to the growing climate crisis. It is crucial we understand how these changes in inequality may affect how people think and behave. We propose that economic inequality threatens the social fabric of society, in turn increasing moralization – that is, the greater tendency to employ or emphasize morality in everyday life – as an attempt to restore order and control. Using longitudinal data from X, formerly known as Twitter, our first study demonstrates that high economic inequality is associated with greater use of moral language online (e.g., the use of words such as ‘disgust’, ‘hurt’ and ‘respect’). Study 2 then examined data from 41 regions around the world, generally showing that higher inequality has a small association with harsher moral judgments of people’s everyday actions. Together these findings demonstrate that economic inequality is linked to the tendency to see the world through a moral lens.
AB - Throughout the 21st century, economic inequality is predicted to increase as we face new challenges, from changes in the technological landscape to the growing climate crisis. It is crucial we understand how these changes in inequality may affect how people think and behave. We propose that economic inequality threatens the social fabric of society, in turn increasing moralization – that is, the greater tendency to employ or emphasize morality in everyday life – as an attempt to restore order and control. Using longitudinal data from X, formerly known as Twitter, our first study demonstrates that high economic inequality is associated with greater use of moral language online (e.g., the use of words such as ‘disgust’, ‘hurt’ and ‘respect’). Study 2 then examined data from 41 regions around the world, generally showing that higher inequality has a small association with harsher moral judgments of people’s everyday actions. Together these findings demonstrate that economic inequality is linked to the tendency to see the world through a moral lens.
KW - Twitter
KW - anomie
KW - economic inequality
KW - moral judgments
KW - moralization
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85198231147&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae221
DO - 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae221
M3 - Journal Article (refereed)
C2 - 38979080
SN - 2752-6542
VL - 3
JO - PNAS Nexus
JF - PNAS Nexus
IS - 7
M1 - pgae221
ER -