Income inequality and status seeking: searching for positional goods in unequal U.S. States

Psychological Science
Lukasz Walasek, Gordon D A Brown

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.

References

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Apr 29, 2010·Psychological Science·Christopher J BoyceSimon C Moore
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Citations

Oct 19, 2017·Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking·Kaisheng LaiRongjun Yu
Aug 23, 2018·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Khandis R BlakeRobert C Brooks
Oct 5, 2018·Journal of Personality·Nicolas SommetFabrizio Butera
May 3, 2019·Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin·Timothy L MullettDavid Stillwell
Mar 18, 2020·Death Studies·Wei CaiHong Li
Apr 19, 2017·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·B Keith PayneJason W Hannay
Jan 19, 2018·The Behavioral and Brain Sciences·Mario WeickChanki Moon
Oct 15, 2020·Applied Psychology. Health and Well-being·Hongfei DuPeilian Chi
Aug 30, 2020·Current Opinion in Psychology·David DuboisNailya Ordabayeva
Jun 11, 2021·Frontiers in Psychology·Davide MelitaRosa Rodríguez-Bailón
Aug 31, 2021·Frontiers in Psychology·Lawrence A Kuznar, Jeffrey Day

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Software Mentioned

Google Correlate
Google Search
GC

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