# When all is unequal, the rich get dominant: Inequality leads to expectations of dominant leadership among those high in SES

## TL;DR

This paper shows that people with higher social economic status behave more dominantly, especially when economic inequality is high.

## Contribution

The study reveals that perceived economic inequality intensifies dominant behavior expectations among high SES individuals.

## Key findings

- Higher SES individuals are expected to behave more dominantly than lower SES individuals.
- Dominant behavior expectations are strongest when economic inequality is perceived as high.
- Findings are consistent across experimental and correlational studies.

## Abstract

People of higher SES have been found to behave more dominantly than people of lower SES. We tested the hypothesis that this difference is exacerbated under conditions of high economic inequality, when the income/wealth difference between those of low and high SES becomes greater. Across four studies (N =  2,739), using both experiments that manipulate perceived inequality (Studies 1a, 1b, and 3) and a correlational study that measures perceived inequality (Study 2), we find evidence that people expect others and themselves to become more dominant if they are of high as opposed to low SES, and this difference is most extreme when economic inequality is perceived to be high.