Rethinking mobility’s impact: Social mobility, fairness, and life satisfaction in contemporary China

Since Sorokin’s seminal work, many studies have explored the psychological outcomes of social mobility, with mixed results. Most of the previous research has been limited by methodological issues that prevent them from distinguishing the contributions of mobility from social status. We examined the relationship between perceptions of upward and downward social mobility and life satisfaction using diagonal reference model, a methodology that permits to estimate the separate effects of origin class, destination class, and social mobility. Based on nationally representative data from the 2019 and 2021 Chinese Social Survey, we found that perceptions of upward social mobility was associated with higher life satisfaction, while perceptions of downward social mobility was associated with lower life satisfaction. Mechanism analyses suggested that perceived fairness mediated the nexus between perceptions of upward and downward social mobility and life satisfaction. This study enhances our understanding of the association between social mobility and human well-being, elucidating the micro-level psychological mechanisms underlying this relationship.