People Judge So Class More On The Bus Than At Work

If you want to find them, class markers – accents, postcodes, and more – are everywhere.

And given that inequality in the UK is already high and is growing, you might think we’re all side-eyeing each other’s apparent advantages constantly.

Not so, a new study published in Scientific Reports has found. After tracking 6,150 observations from 301 working adults in Singapore over six days, they found that most of the time (about 82%), we’re not paying attention to one another’s class at all.

Speaking to HuffPost UK, Prof Andy J Yap, a Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD who was involved with the study, said: “The findings surprised us. Inequality surfaces and then fades… People move through daily life with many competing demands on their attention, and inequality is just one signal among many.

“A common assumption is that once people notice inequality, they will naturally compare themselves to others and feel its sting. Our data shows this is not the case.”

But who is noticing class, and when does it happen?

This study found that most of the time, people assumed one another’s social class through markers like:

• appearance,
• job or profession, and
• surroundings.

In this research, people who frequently compared themselves to others were more likely to notice class differences.

Additionally, those who see class hierarchies as “natural and meaningful” paid closer attention to others’ perceived rank, and “individuals with stronger fear-based attitudes towards migrant workers were more likely to register class differences in their environment”.

But not everyone who perceives class differences makes the same conclusions about them.

People with more egalitarian values were likelier to perceive inequality as unfair, while people who saw unequal hierarchies as a natural and reasonable part of life were (perhaps predictably) less convinced disparities were wrong.

But remarkably, “Our most striking finding was this: even people who are generally comfortable with hierarchy were more likely to judge inequality as unfair in moments when they actively compared themselves to others. It was not only about stable beliefs or values,” Professor Yap said.

“The act of comparison itself was associated with how people interpreted inequality. In those moments, inequality stopped being background noise and became something personally meaningful. What might otherwise feel normal could suddenly feel unjust.”

You might think that the workplace – a hierarchical environment uniquely tied to people’s financial status – would see the most class scrutiny.

But this paper showed that most of the class judgements people make take place in public spaces (32.7%), like public transport (29.9%).

That’s far more than class observations in the workplace (19.5%).

Still, Professor Yap said this may still have implications for leaders in the workplace.

“Research consistently shows that pay and recognition decisions create sharp spikes in social comparison,” he said.

“Employees who have spent most of the year with inequality as background noise will abruptly find themselves measuring their [performance review and bonus] outcomes against their peers.”