On the relation between social class and prejudice: The roles of education, income, and ideological attitudes
Open accessAbstract
Prejudice is more prevalent among members of the working class than among members of the middle or upper class. It is still a matter of discussion whether education works to suppress prejudice among upper class members or, on the contrary, to enhance genuinely tolerant attitudes. We propose that (i) two indicators of social class—income and education—independently predict prejudice toward multiple targets as follows: lower levels of income and education are associated with higher levels of prejudice. (ii) The connection between social class and prejudice is explained by the endorsement of system‐legitimating ideological attitudes, namely right‐wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO). We tested these hypotheses in four studies using cross‐sectional surveys in Europe (Studies 1 and 2, Ns = 11 330 and 2640) and longitudinal data from Germany and Chile (Studies 3 and 4, Ns = 343 and 388). Results show that education and income exert independent negative effects on prejudice. The effect of education is stronger than the effect of income, which is not stable across countries. The relationships between income and prejudice and education and prejudice are mediated by RWA and SDO. We conclude that people of the working class generally endorse an ideological configuration that is well suited for legitimating the social system. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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Lower income and education were associated with greater prejudice.
“lower income and education were associated with greater prejudice”
From The psychology of social class: How socioeconomic status impacts thought, feelings, and behaviour (2018) · cites this paper as Carvacho et al. (2013)
The associations between income and education and measures of prejudice were often mediated by SDO and more consistently by RWA.
“The associations between income and education, on the one hand, and measures of prejudice, on the other, were often (but not always) mediated by SDO and (more consistently) RWA.”
From The psychology of social class: How socioeconomic status impacts thought, feelings, and behaviour (2018) · cites this paper as Carvacho et al. (2013)
RWA and SDO were negatively associated with income and education, such that higher scores on income and education predicted lower scores on RWA and SDO.
“RWA and SDO were negatively associated with income and education, such that higher scores on income and education predicted lower scores on RWA and SDO.”
From The psychology of social class: How socioeconomic status impacts thought, feelings, and behaviour (2018) · cites this paper as Carvacho et al. (2013)
The working class develops and reproduces an ideological configuration that is generally well suited for legitimating the social system.
“the working class seems to develop and reproduce an ideological configuration that is generally well suited for legitimating the social system”
From The psychology of social class: How socioeconomic status impacts thought, feelings, and behaviour (2018) · cites this paper as Carvacho et al. (2013)
Education was a more consistently significant predictor of prejudice than income was.
“although education proved to be a more consistently significant predictor of prejudice than income did”
From The psychology of social class: How socioeconomic status impacts thought, feelings, and behaviour (2018) · cites this paper as Carvacho et al. (2013)
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The psychology of social class: How socioeconomic status impacts thought, feelings, and behaviour
Manstead, A. S. R. (2018) · British Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1111/bjso.12251 · Cited by 831 · see citing works
“Such attitudes are shared to a perhaps surprising extent by workingclass people (Clery et al., 2013) and, as we have seen, the research by Carvacho et al. (2013) suggests that working-class people endorse ideologies that endorse and preserve a social system that materially disadvantages them.”
ResultDiscrimination of minority welfare claimants in the real world: The effect of implicit prejudice.
Assouline, M., Gilad, S., & Ben-Nun Bloom, P. (2022) · Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory · doi:10.1093/jopart/muab016 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
- Authors
- Carvacho, H., Zick, A., Haye, A., González, R., Manzi, J., Kocik, C., & Bertl, M.
- Affiliations
- Bielefeld University (DE)
- Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile Santiago Chile
- Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (CL)
- Corresponding author
- Carvacho, Héctor
- Venue
- European Journal of Social Psychology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2013-06
- Volume
- 43
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 272-285
- ISSN
- 0046-2772 (ISSN-L)
- 1099-0992
- OpenAlex
- W1942245897
- Cited by
- 186
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 18 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 27 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 16.52
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- americanae.aecid.es
- Licence
- Locations
- European Journal of Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
- Americanae (AECID Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PUB – Publications at Bielefeld University (Bielefeld University) (submittedVersion)
- Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld (Universität Bielefeld) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Volkswagen Foundation
- Universität Bielefeld
- Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social Power and Status Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Cultural Differences and Values
- Keywords
- social class, prejudice, education, income, right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, ideological attitudes, working class, social dominance, cross-national comparison
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