Emotional Reactions to Unequal Payment: The Impact of Meritocratic Ideology and Salary Negotiability

People respond to low-status inequality with feelings of anger and shame. This work investigates the impact of meritocracy beliefs and implied salary negotiability on individuals’ emotional reactions within a stable status hierarchy. When an unequal system appears negotiable, believing that hard wor...

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محفوظ في:
التفاصيل البيبلوغرافية
المؤلف الرئيسي: Maitner, Angela (author)
التنسيق: article
منشور في: 2015
الوصول للمادة أونلاين:http://hdl.handle.net/11073/8515
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author Maitner, Angela
author_facet Maitner, Angela
author_role author
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Maitner, Angela
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2015-03
2016-10-13T10:05:56Z
2016-10-13T10:05:56Z
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv Maitner, Angela. "Emotional Reactions to Unequal Payment: The Impact of Meritocratic Ideology and Salary Negotiability." Group Processes and Intergroup Relations 18, no. 2 (2015): 153-172
http://hdl.handle.net/11073/8515
10.1177/1368430214542255
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv en_US
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv Group Processes and Intergroup Relations
http://doi.org/10.1177/1368430214542255
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Emotional Reactions to Unequal Payment: The Impact of Meritocratic Ideology and Salary Negotiability
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
description People respond to low-status inequality with feelings of anger and shame. This work investigates the impact of meritocracy beliefs and implied salary negotiability on individuals’ emotional reactions within a stable status hierarchy. When an unequal system appears negotiable, believing that hard work pays off may decrease anger felt in response to inequality. However, learning that a system is non-negotiable violates expectations associated with meritocratic beliefs, and may therefore increase negative emotion. In two experiments investigating participants’ emotional reactions to payment systems, the more participants endorsed meritocratic ideologies, the less anger they felt when unequal treatment appeared negotiable. Experiment 2 showed that endorsement of meritocracy beliefs increased negative emotions when individuals learned that the unequal payment was non-negotiable. Taken together, this work suggests that it is important to consider beliefs about individual agency alongside system parameters establishing opportunities for individual mobility to understand emotional reactions to unequal treatment.
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identifier_str_mv Maitner, Angela. "Emotional Reactions to Unequal Payment: The Impact of Meritocratic Ideology and Salary Negotiability." Group Processes and Intergroup Relations 18, no. 2 (2015): 153-172
10.1177/1368430214542255
language_invalid_str_mv en_US
network_acronym_str aus
network_name_str aus
oai_identifier_str oai:repository.aus.edu:11073/8515
publishDate 2015
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
repository.name.fl_str_mv
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spelling Emotional Reactions to Unequal Payment: The Impact of Meritocratic Ideology and Salary NegotiabilityMaitner, AngelaPeople respond to low-status inequality with feelings of anger and shame. This work investigates the impact of meritocracy beliefs and implied salary negotiability on individuals’ emotional reactions within a stable status hierarchy. When an unequal system appears negotiable, believing that hard work pays off may decrease anger felt in response to inequality. However, learning that a system is non-negotiable violates expectations associated with meritocratic beliefs, and may therefore increase negative emotion. In two experiments investigating participants’ emotional reactions to payment systems, the more participants endorsed meritocratic ideologies, the less anger they felt when unequal treatment appeared negotiable. Experiment 2 showed that endorsement of meritocracy beliefs increased negative emotions when individuals learned that the unequal payment was non-negotiable. Taken together, this work suggests that it is important to consider beliefs about individual agency alongside system parameters establishing opportunities for individual mobility to understand emotional reactions to unequal treatment.2016-10-13T10:05:56Z2016-10-13T10:05:56Z2015-03info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfMaitner, Angela. "Emotional Reactions to Unequal Payment: The Impact of Meritocratic Ideology and Salary Negotiability." Group Processes and Intergroup Relations 18, no. 2 (2015): 153-172http://hdl.handle.net/11073/851510.1177/1368430214542255en_USGroup Processes and Intergroup Relationshttp://doi.org/10.1177/1368430214542255oai:repository.aus.edu:11073/85152024-08-22T12:15:58Z
spellingShingle Emotional Reactions to Unequal Payment: The Impact of Meritocratic Ideology and Salary Negotiability
Maitner, Angela
status_str publishedVersion
title Emotional Reactions to Unequal Payment: The Impact of Meritocratic Ideology and Salary Negotiability
title_full Emotional Reactions to Unequal Payment: The Impact of Meritocratic Ideology and Salary Negotiability
title_fullStr Emotional Reactions to Unequal Payment: The Impact of Meritocratic Ideology and Salary Negotiability
title_full_unstemmed Emotional Reactions to Unequal Payment: The Impact of Meritocratic Ideology and Salary Negotiability
title_short Emotional Reactions to Unequal Payment: The Impact of Meritocratic Ideology and Salary Negotiability
title_sort Emotional Reactions to Unequal Payment: The Impact of Meritocratic Ideology and Salary Negotiability
url http://hdl.handle.net/11073/8515