Psychology of social class
Research
Research
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### Social class as a cultural identity

In the first wave of research on the psychology of social class, social classes were conceived as a form of cultural identity. In this sense, individuals come to embody class\-specific thoughts, feelings, and behaviors through learned norms, values, and expectations shared by others of similar social class backgrounds. These norms, values, and expectations are then expressed through cultural practices such as food consumption, taste in art and music, language, clothing, and ways for expressing oneself and adjusting to others. The first theoretical account positing social class as a cultural identity contends that social class reflects more than just the material resources that individuals possess, and that objective resources shape individual’s cultural practices and behaviors that signal social class. Individuals display their objective resources (e.g., educational attainment, family wealth/income, and occupational prestige) through class\-related signals (e.g., symbols of wealth, education, or occupation, aesthetic preferences, and social behavior). Through these class\-related signals, individuals provide the information needed to compare their own social class to that of others. These comparisons then separate people into different social class categories which become the basis for individual’s subjective understanding of their social class rank vis\-à\-vis others and lead to different psychological and behavioral outcomes for low versus high social class individuals.

### Conceptions of self

Supporting the idea that social class is a cultural identity, beyond differences in structural resources and individual skills, people from lower social class backgrounds also experience cultural barriers that maintain social\-class disparities. In the United States, different social class contexts foster different cultural models of self. Due to fewer financial resources, greater environmental constraints, and fewer opportunities for choice, working\-class or low social class contexts tend to foster an interdependent model of self. To effectively navigate these contexts, low\-social class individuals must rely on and work together with others for material assistance and support. In contrast, middle\-class or higher\-social class contexts provide greater access to economic capital and more opportunities for choice, fostering an independent model of self. To be effective in these contexts they must learn to influence others, challenge the status quo, and express their own personal interests.

Although both models of self can be highly useful, U.S. gateway institutions (e.g. higher education) tend to prioritize independence as the cultural ideal.Markus, H. R. and Connor, E. 2013\. *Clash! 8 cultural conflicts that make us who we are*, New York, NY: Hudson Street Press. In higher education, arguably one of the most important gateways to social mobility, administrators and educators often enact an independent model of self when making assumptions about how students should be motivated, learn, and interact with others. Students are expected to express their personal preferences, pave their own paths, and challenge norms and rules. Research suggests that when people from working class backgrounds enter institutions that prioritize independence, they face a cultural mismatch. Experiencing cultural mismatch can lead people from working class backgrounds to feel uncomfortable enacting the independent behaviors required to gain access to gateway institutions. For example, students from working class backgrounds are unlikely to apply to selective universities, feel uncomfortable separating themselves from their families and communities, and are more reluctant to pursue paths to organizational power when doing so requires self\-interested behavior. Even when these students do gain admission to these institutions, the cultural mismatch that they face can impede on their opportunity to succeed. When individuals’ cultural norms are not included in institutions, they feel uncomfortable and less often perform up to their potential. Additionally, displaying interdependent behaviors such as humility, instead of independent behaviors such as confidence, leads to more negative performance evaluations.

### Relating to others

Conceptions of self also elicit class\-specific ways of relating to others. The interdependent norms of low social class contexts tend to engender greater social responsiveness which leads people from lower social class backgrounds to more accurately understand others' emotions and to engage in more pro\-social behavior. For example, higher class individuals tend to demonstrate more signs of disengagement and fewer signs of engagement than their lower class counterparts during interactions with strangers (CITE Kraus \& Keltner, 2009\). Lower social class individuals also tend to perceive people's emotions more accurately because they pay greater attention to contextual cues. Further, people with lower household incomes tend to donate a higher proportion of their salary to charities than do those from higher income households and are more likely to behave pro\-socially toward others. Research further suggests that compared to higher social class individuals, lower social class individuals have more egalitarian values, are more likely to help a stranger in distress, and trust others more. Conversely, people who are perceived as being of lower social class are less likely to receive help from others compared to those perceived as being of higher social class. 


What norms and values are associated with different social classes?