Well-off but Powerless: Status Incongruence and Psychological Well-being in Contemporary China

• In Event: 4176 - Social Psychology and Inequality

Abstract

During recent decades, China has experienced rapid economic growth but the authoritarian state has continued to hold tight control over the access to political power. Scholars have long suspected that the incongruence between growing economic resources and lack of political power may spawn dissatisfaction and anxiety. But little empirical research has systematically assessed the incongruence and its consequences. In this paper, we ask: 1) do Chinese people perceive the incongruence between their economic conditions and access to power? And 2) does this incongruence affect their psychological well-being? This study builds on a substantial body of research on status inconsistency, which has suffered several conceptual and methodological shortcomings. This study overcomes these shortcomings and seeks to contribute to the research on status inconsistency in general.
The data come from the 2011 Chinese General Social Survey, a nationally representative survey (N=5,529). We measure both positive and negative aspects of psychological well-being. Visual analog scales are used to measure subjective power and wealth status. Status incongruence is measured by dummy variables indicating mismatch between power and wealth status. We use the diagonal mobility model to distinguish the effects of status incongruence from the effects of the two constituent hierarchies.
Most Chinese people placed themselves at the bottom of the power hierarchy; there are substantial gaps in people’s subjective power and wealth status. Contrary to the expectation of the theorists of status inconsistency, the incongruence does not have detrimental consequences on psychological well-being, although low power status in itself is linked to reduced happiness and life satisfaction. Rather, the access to economic resources seemed to have compensated for the detriments associated with limited access to power. This study has implications for the study of social stratification in contemporary China and for the study of the multi-dimensional nature of social stratification in general.

Authors

• Lei Jin, Chinese University of Hong Kong

• Tony Tam, Chinese University of Hong Kong