Poster #92 - Essentialist beliefs about SES and residency in Chinese young adults

• In Event: Poster Session 06

Abstract

Research suggests that adults in the US essentialize socioeconomic status (SES), and the extent to which they do so is positively correlated with their own subjective SES (Kraus & Keltner, 2013). However, less is known about how these beliefs about SES emerge and whether they differ across cultures.
The present study focused on essentialist beliefs among young adults in China. China has recently experienced considerable changes in its economic landscape, including an increase in general wealth and economic inequality. Yet few studies have examined essentialist beliefs about SES in China (e.g., Coley et al., 2019; Xu et al., 2022) and no study has examined whether such beliefs vary across SES backgrounds.
The leading cause of inequality in China is geographic and urban-rural differences (Xie & Zhou, 2014), which are tied to the Chinese residency system. Residency is determined by an individual’s birthplace and can only be changed through education, employment, marriage, and investment. Residency is a socially salient category that is tied to the social, medical, benefits one can access. For instance, residency in a metropolitan city like Shanghai is more prestigious than residency in a smaller city or a rural area. Residency thus reflects similar privileges and resources as SES. To date, no studies have examined essentialist beliefs about residency or the relationship between residency and beliefs about SES.
This study thus examined whether Chinese adults essentialize SES and residency, and how their SES and residency background shapes the development of these beliefs.
Participants were 350 Chinese young adults from a range of SES backgrounds; half held Shanghai residency and half did not. Participants completed a battery of measures designed to assess their essentialism of SES, residency, and several control categories. These included the Social Class Scale (Kraus & Keltner, 2013) and Essentialization Scales (adapted from Rhodes & Gelman, 2009) on residency and SES. For each scale, participants indicated their agreement with each item on a 7-point scale; higher scores indicated higher levels of essentialism. They also answered demographic questions about their family background, residency, and subjective SES.
Results revealed that participants essentialized both residency and SES (Table 1), and their essentialism scores for SES were higher than those seen in the US (Kraus & Keltner, 2013; Zhu & Scott, 2021). Participants’ subjective SES was positively correlated with their scores on the Social Class Scale and the Essentialization Scales for SES and residency, all rs > .20 all ps < .001. Participants who identified as Shanghainese had higher essentialism scores than participants who identified as non-Shanghainese on the Social Class Scale, F(1, 348) = 11.89, p < .001, the Essentialization SES Scale, F(1, 348) = 6.64, p = .010, and the Essentialization Residency Scale, F(1, 348) = 19.90, p < .001.
Together, these results suggest that Chinese young adults’ essentialist beliefs about economic categories vary with their own background and experience. Identification with a prestigious residency and higher subjective SES is linked to higher essentialism of both SES and residency, indicating the interconnections between social categories that signal resources.

Group Authors

Zhu, T., Chang, X., Zhao, X., Scott, R. M.

Authors

• Tonghui (Kailee) Zhu, University of California Merced
  Presenting Author

• Xinyi Chang

• Xin Alice Zhao, East China Normal University

• Rose M Scott, University of California - Merced