Psychological Entitlement and Relative Deprivation Have Reciprocal Cross-lagged Associations for Both Structurally Advantaged and Disadvantaged Groups

Abstract Although relative deprivation theory argues that individual differences influence the degree to which people perceive themselves (IRD) or their group (GRD) as unfairly disadvantaged, few studies directly assess the psychological motivators underlying perceptions of injustice. We address this oversight by examining the relationships between psychological entitlement and relative deprivation using twelve annual waves of a nationwide random panel sample of adults ( N = 71,587). Random intercept cross-lagged panel modelling revealed that within-person changes in psychological entitlement predicted subsequent changes in IRD and GRD. Within-person changes in IRD and GRD also predicted changes in psychological entitlement over time. These results replicated across structurally advantaged and disadvantaged groups based on ethnicity, gender, and immigrant status. We thus highlight how psychological entitlement shapes—and is shaped by—perceptions of injustice, irrespective of one’s objective societal position. We encourage future research to further explicate the role of individual differences in relative deprivation theory.