Personal Relative Deprivation and Locus of Control.

Abstract

Objective: We investigated the relationship between personal relative deprivation (PRD)-resentment from the belief that one is worse off than people who are similar to oneself-and locus of control.

Background: Research has yet to comprehensively investigate whether PRD is associated with a tendency to favor external (vs. internal) explanations for self- and other-relevant outcomes.

Method: Eight studies (N_total = 6729) employed cross-sectional, experimental, and (micro)longitudinal designs and used established trait and state measures of PRD and loci of control.

Results: Participants higher in PRD adopted more external (vs. internal) explanations for others' outcomes while controlling for socio-demographics (e.g., socioeconomic status; Studies 1-4). This relationship was mediated by a lowered sense of personal control (Study 1) and evident in a cross-national sample of participants in Asia (Study 2). PRD is more robustly associated with external than internal explanations for self and other-relevant outcomes (Studies 5-8), and within-person changes in PRD are positively associated with within-person changes in external explanations (month-to-month and day-to-day; Studies 7-8).

Conclusions: PRD is positively associated with external locus of control independent of socioeconomic status, within and between people, and across cultures. This research highlights the implications of PRD for people's construal of the causal forces that govern their lives.