The Influence Of Subjective Socioeconomic Status On Important Life Decisions

Poverty is a global social and cultural phenomenon.Many studies have shown that individuals with low SES(socioeconomic status)are more risk-averse to benefits than those with high SES in making risky decisions about money.No attention has been paid to the risk appetite of individuals of different SES in other areas of life decision-making,which is ubiquitous.Moreover,in many fields such as education,occupation,health care and economy,there are both high-importance risky decisions(such as school choice and investment)and low-importance risky decisions(such as course selection and gambling games),but there are few studies on the differences between the two.Therefore,this study mainly discusses the influence of the importance of decision making task and subjective SES on individual risk preference in the fields of education,occupation,healthcare and economy.Study 1 was divided into experiment 1a and Experiment 1b.In Experiment 1a,340 college students were investigated to examine the relationship between subjective SES and individual risky decisions in the educational,occupational,medical,and economic domains,and the effect of the importance of decision-making tasks on individual risky decisions.The results showed that the higher the subjective SES,the more inclined individuals were to take risks,and the more important the decision-making task,the more inclined individuals were to take risks.In order to further reveal the causal relationship between subjective SES and risk decision making in various fields,experiment 1b manipulated the subjective SES of 158 college students to investigate its influence on risk decision making in various fields.The results also found that the higher the subjective SES,the more likely individuals were to take risks,and the more important the decision-making task,the more likely individuals were to take risks.In addition,in the fields of education,occupation and economy,the importance of decision-making task interacts with the subjective SES.In other words,the higher the subjective SES is in the high-importance decision-making task,the more likely the subjects are to take risks.However,in the low-importance decision-making task,the subjective SES did not affect the risk decision-making of the subjects.Study 2 consisted of experiment 2a,experiment 2b and experiment 2c.Experiment2a examined the mediating role of perceived control between subjective SES and risk decision making in various domains in 313 college students in high-importance and low-importance decision making tasks.The results show that in high-importance decision-making tasks,the mediation model is valid,and subjects with high subjective SES have higher sense of control,which leads to more risk-taking.Experiment 2b and experiment 2c used experimental causal chain design to examine the role of perceived control in the influence of subjective SES on risk decision-making in various domains.Experiment 2b manipulated the subjective SES of 128 college students.The results showed that subjective SES would affect the sense of control of the subjects,and the subjects with higher subjective SES had stronger sense of control.In experiment 2c,138 college students’ sense of control was manipulated,and it was found that sense of control had an impact on risk decision-making in various fields,and the more important the decision-making task was in the fields of education,occupation and economy,the more inclined the subjects were to take risks.The higher the subjective SES,the more likely participants were to take risks.