Wealth Concentration and Prosocial Behavior in Everyday Life

Abstract:

As wealth concentrates at the top echelons of society, social science researchers have attempted to calculate the increasingly unequal distribution of financial assets across countries around the globe. However, they know much less about what this shift means for everyday interactions among individuals. We take a first step by examining how wealth concentration impacts basic forms of prosocial engagement. Rather than focusing on highly dramatic acts of generosity, we instead consider more commonplace indicators of social obligation: whether people feel a responsibility to help those beyond their immediate family and whether they volunteer. How might wealth concentration be connected to everyday forms of helping others? As economic distance grows, prosocial engagement could plausibly move in either direction. On the one hand, greater inequality may heighten awareness of need and strengthen norms of obligation, charity, or volunteering, particularly among those with greater resources. In this view, inequality sharpens moral attention to others and increases helping beyond one’s immediate circle. Alternatively, wealth concentration may weaken habits and gestures of everyday kindness by eroding trust and increasing social distance. As economic advantages become more concentrated, people may view their society as less governed by shared rules, weakening trust and mutual obligation. Greater wealth can also expand access to private spaces and insular social worlds closed off to others. As shared routines and everyday encounters become less common, opportunities for helping others may decline.