Sep 13, 2018 By: yunews
Dr. William Arsenio, professor of psychology in the clinical program at , authored an article, 鈥淭he Wealth of Nations: International Judgments Regarding Actual and Ideal Resource Distributions,鈥 for the October issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science.
In addition, Dr. Arsenio is a co-author of 鈥淎dolescents鈥 Conceptions of Wealth and Societal Fairness Amid Extreme Inequality: An Argentine Sample鈥 slated for publication in the November issue of Developmental Psychology.
These articles address how individuals understand (and misunderstand) the ways in which different societal resources, such as wealth, jobs and status, are distributed in the United States and other countries. Dr. Arsenio and his colleagues are especially interested in how and when individuals鈥 perceptions of inequality affect their judgments about the fairness of society and public policies that might influence that fairness.
鈥淎dults and adolescents from different nations and political views vary widely in their perceptions of how societal resources are distributed,鈥 he noted. 鈥淔or example, U.S. participants, unlike those from many European countries, significantly underestimate the extent of U.S. inequality. Yet, despite these national differences, there is a surprising amount of consensus across nations, age groups and study methods in one area: every group studied prefers a more egalitarian distribution of societal resources than what they believe currently exists, and, furthermore, these ideal preferences are quite similar across all groups.鈥
