The Psychology of Economic Inequality: A Collection

Today I wrote an op-ed piece for livescience about economic inequality. Read the piece here. In it, I argue that though economic inequality is a complex social and political issue, it may be explained, at least in part, in terms of the basic psychological motivations of individuals.

Anyway, I hope you'll check out the piece and send me comments via twitter (@mwkraus). If you'd like to read more about this area of research, below I have collected four past PYM pieces on the topic.




(1) Why should we care about economic inequality (I & II)?
In a two part series on economic inequality, I suggest that this is a fundamental social problem that bears our immediate attention. In Part I I suggest that economic inequality is bad for our health. In Part II I suggest that the problem is a hard one to solve because are lack of awareness of the problem.

(2) Class warfare.
In this post I discuss the ways in which high ranking members of society justify and maintain the current social hierarchy.

(3) Are the rich really rude? What science actually says.
In this post I suggest that, under certain conditions, people at the top of the social class hierarchy become more self-interested than their lower-ranking counterparts.

(4) The happiness chronicles II: Does money buy happiness?
In this post I detail the complex relationship between poverty, wealth, and happiness using findings from research in positive psychology.