Recognition, Depreciation and Status Seeking

理查德·威尔金森和凯特·皮克特发展的精神水平理论声称，与不平等的社会相比，平等主义社会的社会问题更少，生活更好。假设的因果机制是不平等诱导的地位焦虑，它导致个人伤害自己和整个社会的行为。之前的项目《不平等、地位焦虑和生活质量。欧洲精神水平理论的检验和扩展》检验了这一理论的关键主张。利用欧洲生活质量调查的数据，该项目主要关注个人的总体自卑感。延续项目旨在弥补重要的研究差距，分为两个单元：单元1“确认和折旧”。我们想要找出，首先，在哪些特定的情况下，人们会感到被贬低。谁觉得被谁看不起，被谁看不起，在哪里被看不起，为什么？我们还想仔细研究积极的地位经验，例如认可。谁感到社会尊重，在哪些具体情况下，以及对主观幸福感的影响？我们的研究将基于一个专门设计的调查模块--“日常生活中的确认和折旧”，申请者设法将其列入2016年SOEP创新样本。这些新颖和有代表性的初步数据将于2017年秋季提供分析。模块2，“寻求地位与中产阶级”。虽然自卑情绪集中在社会阶梯的较低层(如上一个项目所示)，但我们猜测，中产阶级的地位焦虑将以不同的方式表现出来：追求地位。由于当代西方社会仍然是中产阶级社会，因此更多地了解这种特定类型的地位焦虑至关重要。关于关键决定因素，我们预计寻求地位的社会梯度将不断上升，即中产阶级的地位将比下层阶级的地位更强。我们还预计，在最不平等的社会中，寻求地位的人会更高，在最富裕的社会中，寻求地位的人会更低。关于后果，我们假设个人身份寻求降低主观幸福感，集体身份寻求成为以模糊或上升的社会梯度为特征的各种社会问题的肥沃土壤。我们用2002年至2014年期间欧洲社会调查中22-29个国家的数据来检验这些假设。

The Spirit Level theory as developed by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett claims that egalitarian societies have less social problems and enable better lives than inegalitarian societies. The assumed causal mechanism is inequality-induced status anxiety, which leads to behavior by which individuals harm themselves and society at large. The previous project "Inequality, Status Anxiety, and Quality of Life. An Examination and Extension of the Spirit Level Theory for Europe" examined key claims of this theory. Using data from the European Quality of Life Survey, the project mainly focused on individuals’ general sense of inferiority. The continuation project aims at addressing important research gaps, organized into two modules:Module 1, „recognition and depreciation“. We want to find out, first of all, in which specific situations people feel depreciated. Who feels looked down on, by whom, where and why? We further want to scrutinize positive status experiences, such as recognition. Who feels socially esteeemd, in which concrete situations, and with which consequences for subjective well-being? Our research will be based on a specifically designed survey module, „Recognition and Depreciation in Everyday Life“, which the applicant managed to place in the 2016 SOEP Innovation-Sample. These novel and representative primary data will be available for analysis in autumn 2017.Module 2, „status seeking and the middle class“. While inferiority feeflings are concentrated at the lower rungs of the social ladder (as the previous project has shown), our conjecture is that the status anxiety of the middle class will express itself differently: as status seeking. Since contemporary Western societies are still middle class societies, it is crucial to learn more about this specific type of status anxiety. Regarding key determinants, we expect status seeking to have an ascending social gradient, i.e. to be stronger among the middle class than among the lower class. We further expect status seeking to be higher in the most unequal societies, and lower in the most affluent societies. Regarding consequences, we assume individual status seeking to lower subjective well-being, and collective status seeking to be fertile ground for various social problems characterized by an indistinct or ascending social gradient. We test these assumptions against data for 22-29 countries from the European Social Survey covering the time period 2002-2014.