Our Teacher Wang Xue's Paper Was Published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Recently, our lecturer Wang Xue's paper "Perceiving Low Social Mobility Industries Zero Sum Beliefs About Social Hierarchies" was published online in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin is one of the authoritative academic journals in the fields of consumer psychology and social psychology. It is a 4-star ABS journal with an average impact factor of 4.5 over the past 5 years. Wang Xue's research focuses on the impact of social mobility, resource scarcity, and zero sum beliefs on consumer psychology and behavioral decision-making.

About the paper:

Wang, X., Zhuo, Y., Chen, W. F., Du, H., & Chen, Z. (2024). Perceiving Low Social Mobility Induces Zero-Sum Beliefs About Social Hierarchies. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, DOI：10.1177/01461672241290390.

Abstract:

In recent years, the phenomenon of internal competition has become increasingly prominent, commonly used to describe people in fields such as education and the workplace who continuously increase investment in order to compete for limited resources, but fail to improve overall social benefits or personal well-being. The core concept of involution is the "zero sum belief", which means that people believe that one person's gain must come at the cost of another person's loss. Although this belief has a significant impact on individual psychology and behavior, there is relatively little research on its antecedents. This study found that when individuals perceive low social mobility (i.e., their efforts cannot change social class), they are more likely to develop zero sum beliefs, and this relationship is mediated by scarce resources, which may further predict individual aggressive behavior. The findings of this study reveal the importance of social mobility beliefs in shaping individual cognition and behavior. By enhancing social mobility beliefs, people can reduce competition for resources and zero sum thinking, thereby promoting a healthier atmosphere of social interaction and cooperation.

Contributed by Discipline Research Office

Edited by Sun Yue

Reviewed by Wei Hao