Subjective socioeconomic status and income inequality are associated with self-reported morality across 67 countries

Subjective experiences of economic scarcity, the perceived lack of resources relative to others, are prevalent in modern societies. While research demonstrates that scarcity impacts cognition and decision-making, its association with morality remains debated. Some studies suggest scarcity leads to greedier behavior and dishonesty, reinforcing negative stereotypes of low SES individuals. Conversely, other research indicates that individuals experiencing scarcity emphasize moral values, act more ethically, and exhibit greater prosociality, potentially due to increased contextual orientation and reliance on social relationships. However, existing research suffers from limitations in cross-cultural generalizability, statistical power, and measurement validity, often relying on single-country samples or limited measures of morality. This study aims to address these limitations by conducting a large-scale, cross-national investigation using multiple measures of morality to provide a comprehensive understanding of the complex relationship between subjective economic scarcity and moral judgment.

The literature on the relationship between subjective economic scarcity and morality is divided. Some studies show that resource deprivation leads to greedier behavior, dishonesty, less prosocial intentions, and reduced charitable giving, perpetuating negative stereotypes. Conversely, other research suggests individuals experiencing scarcity exhibit more generous, charitable, and trusting behavior, attributing this to an increased contextual orientation that fosters empathy and prosociality towards peers. This latter perspective argues that individuals with lower social class perceptions demonstrate an externally focused orientation, leading to greater empathy and prosocial behaviors. However, inconsistencies exist, with some studies failing to replicate the positive relationship between subjective scarcity and prosociality, highlighting potential contextual factors and country-level variability. Existing studies also lack cross-cultural generalizability, statistical power, and often employ limited measures of morality, hindering a comprehensive understanding.

This pre-registered study (https://aspredicted.org/727eq.pdf) utilizes data from the International Collaboration on Social & Moral Psychology of COVID-19 (ICSMP) survey (N = 50,396 across 67 countries, including 28 nationally representative samples). Subjective SES is measured using the MacArthur socioeconomic ladder scale, while national-level income inequality is assessed using GINI coefficients from the World Bank. Morality is measured using four constructs: Moral Identity (importance of moral issues to self-concept), Morality-as-Cooperation (moral valence of cooperative behaviors), Moral Circle (number of individuals deserving moral consideration), and Prosocial Intentions (willingness to donate to charity). Multilevel modeling, nested OLS regressions, and cross-validations using supervised machine learning algorithms are employed to analyze the data, controlling for age and gender. The study addresses limitations of previous research by maximizing cross-cultural generalizability, ensuring statistical power, examining the moderating role of national-level income inequality, and employing multiple measures of morality. Missing data were handled through pairwise deletion and a robustness check with imputed data using random forest estimation.

The multilevel models reveal that after controlling for age and gender, lower individual-level subjective SES is associated with higher Moral Identity, Morality-as-Cooperation, and Prosocial Intentions, and marginally with a larger Moral Circle. These associations are robust across both all 67 countries and the 28 nationally representative samples. Higher national-level income inequality (GINI) is associated with higher Moral Identity and a larger Moral Circle, but not significantly with Morality-as-Cooperation or Prosocial Intentions. Income inequality does not meaningfully moderate the effect of subjective SES on any of the morality measures. Decomposition of the associations between subjective SES and morality into within-country and between-country components shows that within countries, lower subjective SES is consistently associated with higher Moral Identity, Morality-as-Cooperation, and Prosocial Intentions, while the between-country effects are less consistent. Notably, for Moral Circle, within-country associations indicate a slightly larger circle for those with lower SES, but between-country associations suggest countries with higher average SES have individuals with smaller moral circles. Exploratory analyses reveal variations in effect sizes across countries and regions, suggesting contextual differences. Robustness checks using adjusted disposable net income confirm the directionality of findings. The study showed that most of the variance in the measures of morality was attributed to the individual level (87.7% - 95.5%), suggesting a high degree of cross-cultural robustness in the relationships between subjective economic scarcity and moral tendencies.

The findings contradict the hypothesis that subjective economic scarcity leads to a depletion of moral character or reduced prosocial intentions. Instead, they support the notion that individuals experiencing such scarcity perceive themselves as more moral, value cooperation, and intend to engage in prosocial behavior. This might reflect a contextual social orientation where reliance on social relationships drives prosociality to ensure favorable life outcomes. The association with Moral Identity suggests individuals experiencing scarcity might strive to act morally due to increased attention to their social environment and dependence on external factors. The findings on Morality-as-Cooperation indicate a higher valuation of cooperative behaviors in contexts of scarcity. While the associations between subjective scarcity and moral circle size require further study, initial analysis suggests that countries with higher average subjective SES or higher inequality tend to have individuals with smaller moral circles. The small effect sizes should be interpreted considering their potential cumulative effects over time and at scale and also the difficulty in influencing human morality in real-world settings.

This study demonstrates robust associations between subjective SES and income inequality and multiple dimensions of self-reported morality across 67 countries. Contrary to some existing theories, subjective economic scarcity is not associated with a decline in morality but rather with a heightened emphasis on aspects of morality potentially instrumental to securing favorable outcomes in resource-constrained environments. Future research should investigate the interplay between subjective and objective measures of economic scarcity and explore a wider range of morality measures to provide a more nuanced understanding.

The study relies on self-reported data, which might not perfectly capture real-world behavior. While self-reported donation intentions and unethical behavior show correlations with actual behavior, external validity could be enhanced by future field-based studies using behavioral measures. The cross-sectional nature of the data limits causal inferences. Furthermore, the data collection occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, potentially influencing results. Future research should investigate these associations in different contexts and consider additional control variables, such as personality traits.