Subjective Social Class and Moral Judgment: The Chain Mediating Roles of Independent Self-Construal and Belief of Zero-Sum Game

Hu Hanyu; Peng Ming; Chen Tianlong

doi:10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240322

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Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2024, Vol. 47 ›› Issue (3) : 688-694. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240322

Social，Personality & Organizational Psychology

Subjective Social Class and Moral Judgment: The Chain Mediating Roles of Independent Self-Construal and Belief of Zero-Sum Game

Hu Hanyu^1,2,3,4, Peng Ming^1,2,3, Chen Tianlong^1,2,3

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Abstract

Different moral judgment tendencies reflect individuals’ different moral norms, especially in the face of moral dilemmas. Utilitarianism entails that only consequences of moral actions matter and consequences which lead to maximization of well-being for maximum number of agents ought to be preferred. According to previous studies, objective social class can positively predict utilitarian moral judgment, but there is no study about the relationship between subjective social class and utilitarian moral judgment. According to the social rank theory, the psychological root of the class difference is caused by comparing with others, which shaped the individual’s subjective social class. Thus, this study aims to investigate how the subjective social class affect sutilitarian moral judgment, which is helpful to better understand their relationship and extend the relationship to subjective social class. The theory of social cognitive suggests that class-based social cognitive patterns are shaped by the pervasive social goals, values, and expectations. Different subjective social class construct social cognition and belief differently. For example, the person who holds higher subjective social class tend to form independent self-construction, and prefer competition more than cooperation, which is the core of zero-sum game beliefs. Therefore, this study assumed that these innate cognition and intuition-based beliefs may play a mediating role between subjective social class and utilitarian moral judgment. In this study, independent self-construal and zero-sum game belief have been introduced as two mediating variables to explore their effects in the relationship between subjective social class and utilitarian moral judgment. In sum, this paper aimed to explore the relationship between subjective social class and moral judgment, and to examine the serial mediating role of independent self-construal and belief of zero-sum game.
We recruited 523 participants and utilized the moral judgment questionnaire, the MacArthur Scale of subjective social class, the self-construal scale, and the zero-sum game belief scale. Results show that: (1) The subjective social class can predict the utilitarian moral judgment positive significantly. (2) The independent self-construal and belief of zero-sum game plays a chain mediating role in the relationship between subjective social class and moral judgment. (3) Belief of zero-sum game plays a suppressing effect between the relationship of subjective social class and the utilitarian moral judgment. After controlling for the self-construal, the belief of zero-sum game can weaken the direct effect between subject social class and the utilitarian moral judgment.
The results of this study reveal a continuous mediating model, which is the basis of the relationship between subjective social class and moral judgment. We know that subject social class is formed by comparing with others, which is a sense of relationship between self and others. The belief of zero-sum game, on the other hand, is one’s belief about the world. Both are social factors that can affect our moral judgment. The findings extend the relationship between objective social class and moral judgment to subjective social class and support the hypothesis that there is a complex connection between subjective social class and utilitarian moral judgment. This conclusion contributes to a better understanding of how social factors affect moral judgment.

Key words

subjective social class / self-construal / belief of zero-sum game / moral judgment

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Hu Hanyu, Peng Ming, Chen Tianlong. Subjective Social Class and Moral Judgment: The Chain Mediating Roles of Independent Self-Construal and Belief of Zero-Sum Game[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2024, 47(3): 688-694 https://doi.org/10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240322

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