The Legitimation of Inequality: Psychosocial Dispositions, Education, and Attitudes toward Income Inequality in China

CITATION

Im, D. (2014) The Legitimation of Inequality: Psychosocial Dispositions, Education, and Attitudes toward Income Inequality in China, Sociological Perspectives, 57(4), pp.506-525

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ABSTRACT
Why people of lower socioeconomic status often support conservative economic policies
has been one of the most intriguing puzzles for sociologists. This study tackles this paradox
and presents a social psychological explanation that considers the effect of two kinds of
psychosocial dispositions—authoritarianism and social dominance orientation—on attitudes
toward economic inequality. Using two nationally representative Chinese social surveys and
using structural equation modeling for empirical analysis, this article demonstrates that stark
rural–urban income disparity in China resulted in large regional–educational inequality and that
lower educational levels in disadvantaged areas led to residents’ conservative psychosocial
dispositions. This article sheds light on a previously neglected social psychological mechanism of
political attitude formation and shows how such a mechanism is embedded in macro-institutional
contexts.


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