Do You Trust the System? Interaction Effect between Perceived Economic Mobility and Socioeconomic Status on Fair Market Ideology and Consumer Responses

The increasing inequality of wealth in modern societies may limit the ability of low socioeconomic status (SES) consumers to achieve a higher SES. Although there have been extensive studies on inequality and SES in the fields of psychology and economics, scant research has examined how consumer SES and perceived economic mobility (PEM) jointly influence decisions (Yoon and Kim 2016, 2018). On the basis of system justification theory, the author predicts that high-PEM consumers have a higher degree of fair market ideology (FMI) than other consumers (Jost et al. 2003). High FMI leads to various responses, including higher price–quality relationship beliefs and even the rejection of government health policies. FMI, defined as the tendency to view market-based processes and outcomes as legitimate and just, is a cognitive underpinning of economic system justification. People with high FMI have a high propensity to defend and justify the existing economic system. The author argued that consumers with high PEM would report higher FMI than those with low PEM, because consumers with high PEM rely on the current economic system to provide resources and opportunities to move upward in the economic hierarchy. This argument is consistent with recent findings in social psychology (Day and Fiske 2017). In the current study, it was predicted that the effect of PEM on FMI would be stronger for consumers with a low SES. This is because, compared with high-SES consumers, low-SES consumers have fewer resources with which they can secure future wellbeing. The current social system largely determines whether they can achieve a higher SES. If they have the opportunity to move upward, they should tend to justify the system and even accept social inequality. PEM should not be a concern for high-SES consumers, because they have sufficient financial resources. A series of studies tested our predictions and provided supporting evidence.