Perceived Income Inequality and Social Cleavage: A Latent Class Analysis across East and Southeast Asia

Perceived income inequality has been considered a pivotal motivation for addressing social disparities and realizing justice. This hypothesis posits that perceived inequality diminishes individuals' quality of life and subjective well-being, prompting them to seek societal change to enhance their well-being. However, recent studies in several societies have identified heterogeneity in perceived income inequality (PI) types: PI as Complaint and PI as Knowledge. While the former negatively impacts subjective well-being, the latter enhances it through such psychological mechanisms that one is fortunate to be well off despite significant societal disparities. If PI as Knowledge predominates, the motivation to improve society may be diminished. Therefore, this study analyzed a cross-national quantitative dataset from seven East and Southeast Asian societies (Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam) to estimate the composition of PI as Complaint and Knowledge, as well as the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics associated with each type of PI. Finite mixture models were employed to detect the latent structures of covariates.

The results are as follows. (1) Both PI types are present in East and Southeast Asia. (2) The composition of PI as Complaint versus PI as Knowledge is approximately 6:4 in East Asia and 4:6 in Southeast Asia. (3) Individuals with PI as Knowledge report higher subjective well-being than those with PI as Complaint in both East and Southeast Asia. (4) In East Asia, individuals with PI as Knowledge perceive less inequality and are younger, more educated, and more affluent than those with PI as Complaint. In Southeast Asia, both PI types show no significant differences in their demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. These findings suggest that PI as Knowledge is more prevalent in advanced societies than in middle-income societies, potentially exacerbating social cleavage and impeding efforts to overcome inequality in the former.