Unequal Foundations: Inequality, Morality, and Emotions across Cultures (Perspectives on Justice and Morality)

This book offers a novel theory and an original use of cross-cultural data to argue that the level of economic inequality in a society is reflected in the emotional experience of its members. People living in societies with greater equality experience more positive, binding emotions on a regular basis, while people living in unequal societies, like the United States, are significantly more likely to regularly experience negative, sanctioning moral emotions. We develop the idea that morality operates at both the societal and individual levels, and develop the thesis that individual moral emotions represent the distal structure of society. We bridge a number of areas in social science, including morality, inequality, social psychology, and the study of emotions. A good deal of work explains how being economically advantaged (or not) contributes to individual tastes, beliefs, values, and choices. Very little work links the __extent__ of the advantages within a society to individual outcomes. We suggest that being advantaged in a relatively equal society leads to different experiences and shared cultures than being advantaged in a highly unequal society. We offer a novel use of established data from a tool drawn from the well-established Affect Control Theory tradition to demonstrate empirical support for our theory. As such, we go beyond previous work by showing data that supports our theory using a method that is designed for cross-cultural comparative research. We aim for this book to stimulate future work via different tools to test our theoretical argument. Unequal Foundations offers readers a novel theory and a unique use of cross-cultural data to assert that the level of economic inequality in a society is reflected in the emotional experience of its members. People living in societies with more equality (countries such as Japan, Germany, and Canada) generally experience more positive, binding emotions on a regular basis. On the other hand, those living in unequal societies (the United States and China, for example) are significantly more likely to regularly experience negative, sanctioning moral emotions. In this book, authors Steven Hitlin and Sarah K. Harkness explore the idea that morality operates at both the societal and individual levels, and contend that individual moral emotions represent the distal structure of society. In addition to developing this broad theory ranging from society to the individual, Hitlin and Harkness offer their readers a novel use of data from a tool drawn from the affect control theory tradition in order to demonstrate empirical support for this theory. As such, the authors delve deeper than previous literature by presenting data that supports their general approach using a method designed for cross-cultural comparative research. "Unequal Foundations offers readers a novel theory and a unique use of cross-cultural data to assert that the level of economic inequality in a society is reflected in the emotional experience of its members. People living in societies with more equality (countries such as Japan, Germany, and Canada) generally experience more positive, binding emotions on a regular basis. On the other hand, those living in unequal societies (the United States and China, for example) are significantly more likely to regularly experience negative, sanctioning moral emotions. In this book, authors Steven Hitlin and Sarah K. Harkness explore the idea that morality operates at both the societal and individual levels, and contend that individual moral emotions represent the distal structure of society."-- From publisher's website Cover Series Unequal Foundations Copyright Dedication Contents 1. Introduction 2. A Primer on Inequality 3. The Social Scientific Study of Morality 4. The Difficulty of Studying Morality Across Cultures 5. Morality as a Measure of Society 6. The Theory of Inequality and Moral Emotions 7. Affect Control Theory: How Do Cultures Draw Moral Lines? 8. Methodology and a Description of the Data 9. Empirical Analysis 10. Conclusion References Index Unequal Foundations' offers readers a novel theory and an original use of cross-cultural data to assert that the level of economic inequality in a society is reflected in the emotional experience of its members