Nicolas Sommet, University of Lausanne, will give a presentation via Zoom in this week’s Social, Economic, and Decision Psychology research seminar (Thursday 17 June).

Income inequality fosters competitiveness at school

In four preregistered studies, we tested whether contexts with high income inequality foster an ethos of competitiveness among the workforce of tomorrow: Is income inequality associated with more competitiveness and less cooperativeness at school? Three preregistered observational studies using OECD PISA data (a total of ≈850,000 15-year-old students from 75+ countries observed in 2018, 2003, and/or 2000) and one preregistered experiment (≈850 young adults imagining going back to school) led to four sets of findings. Income inequality systematically predicted (i) higher perceived competitiveness, (ii) lower perceived cooperativeness, (iii) an orientation toward competitiveness, and (iv) an orientation towards instrumental rather than intrinsic cooperativeness (i.e., using cooperation as a strategic tool to achieve academic success rather than for the enjoyment of the activity itself). Results are discussed in relation to the literature on the psychology of income inequality, the selective function of school systems, and the concept of competition.