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Income inequality and personality: Are less equal U.S. states less agreeable?

de Vries, Robert, Gosling, Samuel, Potter, Jeff (2011) Income inequality and personality: Are less equal U.S. states less agreeable? Social Science and Medicine, 72 (12). pp. 1978-1985. ISSN 0277-9536. (doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.03.046) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:48110)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.03.046

Abstract

Richard Wilkinson’s ‘inequality hypothesis’ describes the relationship between societal income inequality and population health in terms of the corrosive psychosocial effects of social hierarchy. An explicit component of this hypothesis is that inequality should lead individuals to become more competitive and self-focused, less friendly and altruistic. Together these traits are a close conceptual match to the opposing poles of the Big Five personality factor of Agreeableness; a widely used concept in the field of personality psychology. Based on this fact, we predicted that individuals living in more economically unequal U.S. states should be lower in Agreeableness than those living in more equal states. This hypothesis was tested in both ecological and multilevel analyses in the 50 states plus Washington DC, using a large Internet sample (N = 674,885). Consistent with predictions, ecological and multilevel models both showed a negative relationship between state level inequality and Agreeableness. These relationships were not explained by differences in average income, overall state socio-demographic composition or individual socio-demographic characteristics.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.03.046
Uncontrolled keywords: U.S.A; Income inequality; Personality; Social strategies; Agreeableness
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research
Depositing User: Robert De Vries
Date Deposited: 29 Apr 2015 15:09 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:19 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/48110 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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