Social Networks and Attitudes Towards Inequality: Unraveling the Influence of Acquaintances’ Socioeconomic Diversity and Status across Contemporary Societies

This study investigates how the socioeconomic composition of individuals' social networks shapes their attitudes toward inequality in contemporary societies. While previous research has focused mainly on the heterogeneity of people's acquaintances, this article addresses a critical gap by also considering the impact of where acquaintances are concentrated within the social structure. Using data from the ISSP 2017 Social Networks Module, which includes responses from 31,496 individuals across 31 countries, this research analyzes the effects of both socioeconomic network diversity and status on perceptions of inequality and preferences for redistribution. Regression analyses with country-fixed effects reveal that individuals with more socioeconomically diverse networks tend to perceive higher levels of inequality, yet exhibit on average less support for redistribution. Additionally, having higher-status acquaintances leads to a reduction for both inequality perceptions and redistributive preferences, though these differences are only significant in contexts of socioeconomic diversity. The study suggests that diversity acts as a catalyst; in its absence, individuals are more likely to naturalize their socioeconomic environments, diminishing the influence of acquaintances' status on their attitudes. Notably, the composition of social networks has a particularly strong effect on high-SES individuals, who show a marked reduction in support for redistribution when exposed to higher network diversity. Through these findings, this research advances the understanding of meso-level dynamics in distributive justice, underscoring the crucial role of social environments in shaping attitudes toward inequality.