Why do we never have enough time? Economic inequality fuels the perception of time poverty by aggravating status anxiety

IF 3.2 2区心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL

British Journal of Social Psychology Pub Date : 2023-11-07 DOI:10.1111/bjso.12695

Qi Zhao, Rongzi Ma, Zhenzhen Liu, Tianxin Wang, Xiaomin Sun, Jan-Willem van Prooijen, Mengxi Dong, Yue Yuan

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

People in many societies report that they do not have enough time. What makes people feel so rushed? We propose that economic inequality leads to perceived time poverty by increasing status anxiety. Five studies examined this line of reasoning. Study 1 (N = 230) found a positive correlation between economic inequality and perceived time poverty. Study 2 (N = 194) manipulated economic inequality to test the causal link between economic inequality and perceived time poverty. The results showed that people perceived more time poverty in the high (vs. low) economic inequality condition. Study 3 (N = 381) supported the mediating role of status anxiety in the relationship between economic inequality and perceived time poverty using a questionnaire survey. Study 4 (pre-registered; N = 283) manipulated economic inequality in an ecological valid way and yielded further support for the hypotheses. In pre-registered Study 5 (N = 233), a blockage manipulation design was employed to test the mediating effect of status anxiety as a function of economic inequality, which provided causal evidence for the proposed mediator. Our findings suggest that economic inequality serves as a structural societal factor that fuels people's perception of time poverty.

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为什么我们从来没有足够的时间？经济不平等加剧了对地位的焦虑，加剧了人们对时间贫困的看法。

许多社会的人们报告说他们没有足够的时间。是什么让人们感到如此匆忙？我们提出，经济不平等通过增加地位焦虑而导致感知的时间贫困。五项研究检验了这一推理。研究1（N = 230）发现经济不平等与感知的时间贫困之间存在正相关。研究2（N = 194）操纵经济不平等，以检验经济不平等与感知的时间贫困之间的因果关系。结果表明，在经济不平等程度较高（与较低）的情况下，人们感知到更多的时间贫困。研究3（N = 381）通过问卷调查支持了地位焦虑在经济不平等和感知时间贫困之间关系中的中介作用。研究4（预先注册；N = 283）以生态有效的方式操纵了经济不平等，并为这些假设提供了进一步的支持。在预先注册的研究5（N = 233），采用阻塞操纵设计来测试作为经济不平等函数的状态焦虑的中介作用，这为所提出的中介提供了因果证据。我们的研究结果表明，经济不平等是一个结构性社会因素，助长了人们对时间贫困的看法。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

British Journal of Social Psychology PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL-

CiteScore

9.50

自引率

7.40%

发文量

期刊介绍： The British Journal of Social Psychology publishes work from scholars based in all parts of the world, and manuscripts that present data on a wide range of populations inside and outside the UK. It publishes original papers in all areas of social psychology including: • social cognition • attitudes • group processes • social influence • intergroup relations • self and identity • nonverbal communication • social psychological aspects of personality, affect and emotion • language and discourse Submissions addressing these topics from a variety of approaches and methods, both quantitative and qualitative are welcomed. We publish papers of the following kinds: • empirical papers that address theoretical issues; • theoretical papers, including analyses of existing social psychological theories and presentations of theoretical innovations, extensions, or integrations; • review papers that provide an evaluation of work within a given area of social psychology and that present proposals for further research in that area; • methodological papers concerning issues that are particularly relevant to a wide range of social psychologists; • an invited agenda article as the first article in the first part of every volume. The editorial team aims to handle papers as efficiently as possible. In 2016, papers were triaged within less than a week, and the average turnaround time from receipt of the manuscript to first decision sent back to the authors was 47 days.