Recognition, Depreciation and Status Seeking

由理查德威尔金森和凯特皮克特发展的精神水平理论声称，平等主义社会的社会问题较少，生活比不平等主义社会更好。假设的因果机制是不平等引起的地位焦虑，它导致个人伤害自己和整个社会的行为。上一个项目“不平等，地位焦虑和生活质量。《欧洲精神层次理论的检验和扩展》研究了这一理论的关键主张。该项目利用欧洲生活质量调查的数据，主要侧重于个人的一般自卑感。该延续项目旨在填补重要的研究空白，分为两个模块：模块1，“确认和折旧”。首先，我们想找出人们在哪些特定情况下会感到被贬低。谁觉得被人看不起，被谁看不起，在哪里看不起，为什么看不起？我们还想仔细研究积极的地位体验，比如认可。谁会感到被社会尊重，在哪些具体情况下，主观幸福感会产生哪些后果？我们的研究将基于一个专门设计的调查模块，“日常生活中的认可和折旧”，申请人设法将其纳入2016年SOEP创新样本。这些新的和有代表性的主要数据将在2017年秋季进行分析。模块2，“地位寻求和中产阶级”。虽然自卑感集中在社会阶梯的较低层（如前一个项目所示），但我们推测中产阶级的地位焦虑会以不同的方式表达：作为地位寻求。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是至关重要的。关于关键决定因素，我们预计地位寻求具有上升的社会梯度，即中产阶级比下层阶级更强。我们还预计，在最不平等的社会中，寻求地位的人更多，而在最富裕的社会中，寻求地位的人更少。关于后果，我们假设个人地位寻求降低主观幸福感，集体地位寻求成为各种社会问题的肥沃土壤，其特征是模糊或上升的社会梯度。我们根据2002-2014年欧洲社会调查中22-29个国家的数据对这些假设进行了测试。

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.