The DOI matches its Crossref record; 44 of the 45 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Social Class, Contextualism, and Empathic Accuracy
Abstract
Recent research suggests that lower-class individuals favor explanations of personal and political outcomes that are oriented to features of the external environment. We extended this work by testing the hypothesis that, as a result, individuals of a lower social class are more empathically accurate in judging the emotions of other people. In three studies, lower-class individuals (compared with upper-class individuals) received higher scores on a test of empathic accuracy (Study 1), judged the emotions of an interaction partner more accurately (Study 2), and made more accurate inferences about emotion from static images of muscle movements in the eyes (Study 3). Moreover, the association between social class and empathic accuracy was explained by the tendency for lower-class individuals to explain social events in terms of features of the external environment. The implications of class-based patterns in empathic accuracy for well-being and relationship outcomes are discussed.
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“Participants who were temporarily induced to experience lower social class were better at recognizing emotions from the subtle cues available from the eye region of the face.”
From The psychology of social class: How socioeconomic status impacts thought, feelings, and behaviour (2018) · cites this paper as Kraus et al. (2010)
In the citing paper
“lower‐class participants were more inclined to explain decisions they made in terms of situational rather than dispositional factors”
From The psychology of social class: How socioeconomic status impacts thought, feelings, and behaviour (2018) · cites this paper as Kraus et al. (2010)
In the citing paper
“lower‐class individuals score more highly on measures of empathy.”
From The psychology of social class: How socioeconomic status impacts thought, feelings, and behaviour (2018) · cites this paper as Kraus, Côté, and Keltner (2010)
In the citing paper
“Subjective social class was again related to empathic accuracy, with lower‐class participants achieving a higher score.”
From The psychology of social class: How socioeconomic status impacts thought, feelings, and behaviour (2018) · cites this paper as Kraus et al. (2010)
In the citing paper
“High‐school‐educated participants attained a higher score than did their college‐educated counterparts.”
From The psychology of social class: How socioeconomic status impacts thought, feelings, and behaviour (2018) · cites this paper as Kraus, Côté, and Keltner (2010)
In the citing paper
“the relation between subjective social class and empathy was found to be mediated by this tendency to explain decisions in terms of situational factors.”
From The psychology of social class: How socioeconomic status impacts thought, feelings, and behaviour (2018) · cites this paper as Kraus et al. (2010)
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Metadata
- Authors
- Kraus, M. W., Côté, S., & Keltner, D.
- Affiliations
- University of California, San Francisco (US)
- University of Toronto (CA)
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
- Corresponding author
- Kraus, Michael W.
- Venue
- Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2010-10-25
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 1716-1723
- ISSN
- 0956-7976 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9280
- OpenAlex
- W2133353131
- Cited by
- 663
- References
- 45
- Citations by year
- 2026: 25 · 2025: 49 · 2024: 39 · 2023: 43 · 2022: 47 · 2021: 52 · 2020: 98 · 2019: 55 · 2018: 40 · 2017: 43 · 2016: 42 · 2015: 38 · 2014: 27 · 2013: 22 · 2012: 27
- FWCI
- 70.76
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychological Science (publishedVersion, public-domain)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Emotions and Moral Behavior
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social Power and Status Dynamics
- Keywords
- social class, empathic accuracy, contextualism, emotion judgment, interpersonal relationships, well-being, emotional facial expressions
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Emotions, Empathy, Facial Expression, Female, Hierarchy, Social, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Male, Middle Aged, Nonverbal Communication, Social Behavior, Social Class, Social Environment, Social Perception
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