Social Class, Control, and Culture: Individuals with Low Socioeconomic Status Perceive Less Control in Relationally Immobile Societies

Studies have shown that individuals with high socioeconomic status (SES) perceive a greater sense of control than those with lower SES. However, no studies have examined how sociocultural contexts affect perceived control of individuals from different SES backgrounds. Studies 1 and 2 found that the association between SES and sense of control was stronger in countries with low relational mobility (e.g. East Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa) compared to those with high relational mobility (e.g. Latin America), largely due to lower perceived control among low-SES individuals in immobile societies. Study 3 demonstrated that self-reported relational mobility mediated the cross-country differences in SES-control associations. Study 4 experimentally manipulated relational mobility to establish its causal effect on the SES-control association. These findings suggest that social environments that afford less-flexible social networks exacerbate SES disparities in perceived control and highlight how social ecology may disproportionately impact individuals with lower SES.