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Income inequality and status seeking : searching for positional goods in unequal US states
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Walasek, Lukasz and Brown, G. D. A. (Gordon D. A.) (2015) Income inequality and status seeking : searching for positional goods in unequal US states. Psychological Science, 26 (4). pp. 527-533. doi:10.1177/0956797614567511
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797614567511
Abstract
It is well established that income inequality is associated with lower societal well-being, but the psychosocial causes of this relationship are poorly understood. A social-rank hypothesis predicts that members of unequal societies are likely to devote more of their resources to status-seeking behaviors such as acquiring positional goods. We used Google Correlate to find search terms that correlated with our measure of income inequality, and we controlled for income and other socioeconomic factors. We found that of the 40 search terms used more frequently in states with greater income inequality, more than 70% were classified as referring to status goods (e.g., designer brands, expensive jewelry, and luxury clothing). In contrast, 0% of the 40 search terms used more frequently in states with less income inequality were classified as referring to status goods. Finally, we showed how residual-based analysis offers a new methodology for using Google Correlate to provide insights into societal attitudes and motivations while avoiding confounds and high risks of spurious correlations.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||||
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Science > Psychology | ||||||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Psychological Science | ||||||||||
| Publisher: | Sage Publications Ltd. | ||||||||||
| ISSN: | 1467-9280 | ||||||||||
| Official Date: | 1 April 2015 | ||||||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 26 | ||||||||||
| Number: | 4 | ||||||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 527-533 | ||||||||||
| DOI: | 10.1177/0956797614567511 | ||||||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
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