Effect of social class on personal control beliefs

Objective

This research investigated the effect of social class on personal control beliefs.

Background

Differences in personal control beliefs serve as a central theoretical explanation for social class differences in cognition, emotion, and behavior. However, prior empirical research has not yet conclusively demonstrated that personal control beliefs differ between social classes.

Method

Across four studies (total N = 138,417), we investigated the link between social class and personal control beliefs with well-established measures of social class (e.g., ISEI, McArthur Scale),representative samples, and data that allow for causal conclusions (e.g., experimental, and longitudinal data).

Results

We found that (a) higher social class was associated with higher personal control beliefs across 60 countries. Furthermore, we observed that (b) higher social class of parents was associated with higher personal control beliefs in their children, and that (c) experimentally induced higher (vs. lower) social class led to increases (vs. decreases) of personal control beliefs.

Conclusions

Individuals from lower social classes consistently have weaker personal control beliefs than individuals from upper social classes. Social class differences in this fundamental personality characteristic are bound to have important consequences in various life domains (e.g., psychological and physical well-being, and academic success).