From Inequality to Action: How Justice and Deservingness Beliefs Shape Political Behavior
From Inequality to Action: How Justice and Deservingness Beliefs Shape Political Behavior
Abstract Submissions Closed
RC42 Social Psychology (host committee)
Language: English and Spanish
Session Type: Oral
Political behavior —participation, protest, voting, support for redistribution— is shaped not only by structural position but by how individuals perceive and evaluate inequality. This session brings together political sociology, which traces political behavior to class, exposure to inequality, and institutional context, and social psychology, which examines the processes through which people judge the fairness of the social order: beliefs about justice, merit, and deservingness, perceptions of status, and judgments about legitimacy. We treat these as two halves of a single causal sequence, in which structural conditions shape political behavior in large part through such inequality beliefs.
We invite papers examining the relationship between inequality beliefs and political behavior. We are especially interested in work treating justice and deservingness beliefs, perceived inequality, status concerns, and legitimacy judgments as predictors of participation, protest, vote choice, support for redistribution, and political trust. We also welcome papers tracing the fuller path from social structure through these beliefs to behavior, including those positioning justice and deservingness beliefs explicitly as mediating or moderating mechanisms.Relevant outcomes include conventional and contentious participation, protest, vote choice, support for redistribution, and political trust. Relevant constructs include perceived inequality, meritocratic and deservingness beliefs, status anxiety, relative deprivation, and system justification. We welcome diverse methods: surveys, experiments, panel and comparative designs, and qualitative or mixed approaches.
By foregrounding the link between attitudes and behavior, the session connects micro-level attitudinal research with macro-level analysis of structural conditions. We particularly welcome comparative and Global South contributions, where this relationship remains underexamined.
We invite papers examining the relationship between inequality beliefs and political behavior. We are especially interested in work treating justice and deservingness beliefs, perceived inequality, status concerns, and legitimacy judgments as predictors of participation, protest, vote choice, support for redistribution, and political trust. We also welcome papers tracing the fuller path from social structure through these beliefs to behavior, including those positioning justice and deservingness beliefs explicitly as mediating or moderating mechanisms.Relevant outcomes include conventional and contentious participation, protest, vote choice, support for redistribution, and political trust. Relevant constructs include perceived inequality, meritocratic and deservingness beliefs, status anxiety, relative deprivation, and system justification. We welcome diverse methods: surveys, experiments, panel and comparative designs, and qualitative or mixed approaches.
By foregrounding the link between attitudes and behavior, the session connects micro-level attitudinal research with macro-level analysis of structural conditions. We particularly welcome comparative and Global South contributions, where this relationship remains underexamined.
Session Organizers: