Culture Moderates the Relation Between Income Inequality and Subjective Well-Being

Abstract

Liberal ideology promotes equality whereas conservative ideology justifies inequality. Four studies examined whether the liberal–conservative continuum moderates the relation between inequality and subjective well-being (SWB). All four studies found a significant moderator effect such that higher inequality was related to greater SWB in conservative countries. In liberal countries, the corresponding relation was mostly reversed but did not reach significance. Studies 2 and 3 also showed that the moderator effect of liberalism was itself moderated by socioeconomic status (SES)—it was stronger among lower SES individuals. These two studies also found that the moderator effects of both liberalism and SES were partially or fully mediated by financial satisfaction. The current findings explain why previous research on the relation between income inequality and SWB produced inconsistent results.