Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
3-2015
Abstract
The economic conditions of one’s life can profoundly and systematically influence health outcomes over the life course. Our present research demonstrates that rejecting the notion that social class categories are biologically determined—a nonessentialist belief—buffers lower-class individuals from poor self-rated health and negative affect, whereas conceiving of social class categories as rooted in biology—an essentialist belief—does not. In Study 1, lower-class individuals self-reported poorer health than upper-class individuals when they endorsed essentialist beliefs but showed no such difference when they rejected such beliefs. Exposure to essentialist theories of social class also led lower-class individuals to report greater feelings of negative self-conscious emotions (Studies 2 and 3), and perceive poorer health (Study 3) than upper-class individuals, whereas exposure to nonessentialist theories did not lead to such differences. Discussion considers how lay theories of social class potentially shape long-term trajectories of health and affect of lower-class individuals.
Keywords
Social class, Socioeconomic status, Essentialism, Health, Emotion
Discipline
Applied Behavior Analysis | Social Psychology | Social Psychology and Interaction
Research Areas
Psychology
Publication
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
Volume
41
Issue
3
First Page
446
Last Page
461
ISSN
0146-1672
Identifier
10.1177/0146167215569705
Publisher
SAGE Publications (UK and US)
Citation
TAN, Jacinth J. X., & KRAUS, Michael W..(2015). Lay theories about social class buffer lower-class individuals against poor self-rated health and negative affect. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41(3), 446-461.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/2741
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167215569705
Included in
Applied Behavior Analysis Commons, Social Psychology Commons, Social Psychology and Interaction Commons