Volume 52, Issue 4 p. 726-746
Original Article

Nations' income inequality predicts ambivalence in stereotype content: How societies mind the gap

Federica Durante

Corresponding Author

Federica Durante

University of Milan – Bicocca, Italy

Correspondence should be addressed to Federica Durante, Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di Milano–Bicocca, Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126 Milano, Italy (e-mail: [email protected]).Search for more papers by this author
Susan T. Fiske

Susan T. Fiske

Princeton University, New Jersey, USA

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Nicolas Kervyn

Nicolas Kervyn

Catholic University of Louvain at Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

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Amy J. C. Cuddy

Amy J. C. Cuddy

Harvard Business School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

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Adebowale (Debo) Akande

Adebowale (Debo) Akande

Institute of Research on Global Issues, Tshwane, South Africa

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Bolanle E. Adetoun

Bolanle E. Adetoun

Economic Commission for West Africa (Ecowas), Abuja, Nigeria

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Modupe F. Adewuyi

Modupe F. Adewuyi

Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

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Magdeline M. Tserere

Magdeline M. Tserere

National Prosecuting Authority, Pretoria, South Africa

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Ananthi Al Ramiah

Ananthi Al Ramiah

University of Oxford, UK

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Khairul Anwar Mastor

Khairul Anwar Mastor

University Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Malaysia

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Fiona Kate Barlow

Fiona Kate Barlow

University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia

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Gregory Bonn

Gregory Bonn

University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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Romin W. Tafarodi

Romin W. Tafarodi

University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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Janine Bosak

Janine Bosak

University of Bern, Switzerland

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Ed Cairns

Ed Cairns

University of Ulster, UK

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Claire Doherty

Claire Doherty

University of Ulster, UK

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Dora Capozza

Dora Capozza

University of Padova, Italy

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Anjana Chandran

Anjana Chandran

Bangalore, India

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Xenia Chryssochoou

Xenia Chryssochoou

Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens, Greece

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Tilemachos Iatridis

Tilemachos Iatridis

University of Crete, Greece

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Juan Manuel Contreras

Juan Manuel Contreras

Princeton University, New Jersey, USA

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Rui Costa-Lopes

Rui Costa-Lopes

ICS – University of Lisbon, Portugal

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Roberto González

Roberto González

Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile

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Janet I. Lewis

Janet I. Lewis

Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

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Gerald Tushabe

Gerald Tushabe

Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda

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Jacques-Philippe Leyens

Jacques-Philippe Leyens

Catholic University of Louvain at Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

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Renée Mayorga

Renée Mayorga

University of Lima, Peru

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Nadim N. Rouhana

Nadim N. Rouhana

Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA

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Vanessa Smith Castro

Vanessa Smith Castro

University of Costa Rica, San Pedro, Costa Rica

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Rolando Perez

Rolando Perez

University of Costa Rica, San Pedro, Costa Rica

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Rosa Rodríguez-Bailón

Rosa Rodríguez-Bailón

University of Granada, Spain

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Miguel Moya

Miguel Moya

University of Granada, Spain

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Elena Morales Marente

Elena Morales Marente

University of Huelva, Spain

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Marisol Palacios Gálvez

Marisol Palacios Gálvez

University of Huelva, Spain

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Chris G. Sibley

Chris G. Sibley

University of Auckland, New Zealand

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Frank Asbrock

Frank Asbrock

Philipps University Marburg, Germany

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Chiara C. Storari

Chiara C. Storari

University of Lausanne, Switzerland

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First published: 05 October 2012
Citations: 155
After the first four authors, the remaining authors are listed alphabetically by the last name of our primary contact at the university. Nicolas Kervyn is now at Centre Emile Berheim, Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, ULB, Belgium; Ananthi Al Ramiah is now at Yale-NUS College, Singapore; Juan Manuel Contreras is now at Harvard University, USA; Gregory Bonn is now at Monash University Sunway Campus, Malaysia; Janine Bosak is now at Dublin City University Business School, Ireland.

Abstract

Income inequality undermines societies: The more inequality, the more health problems, social tensions, and the lower social mobility, trust, life expectancy. Given people's tendency to legitimate existing social arrangements, the stereotype content model (SCM) argues that ambivalence―perceiving many groups as either warm or competent, but not both―may help maintain socio-economic disparities. The association between stereotype ambivalence and income inequality in 37 cross-national samples from Europe, the Americas, Oceania, Asia, and Africa investigates how groups' overall warmth-competence, status-competence, and competition-warmth correlations vary across societies, and whether these variations associate with income inequality (Gini index). More unequal societies report more ambivalent stereotypes, whereas more equal ones dislike competitive groups and do not necessarily respect them as competent. Unequal societies may need ambivalence for system stability: Income inequality compensates groups with partially positive social images.