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The Effects of Social Class on Individuals’ Decision-Making Tendencies in a Prestige-Money Game: Social Value or Instrumental Value?

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A Correction to this article was published on 09 April 2019

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Abstract

Through a series of three experiments, this study explored the possible influence of social class on the decision-making tendency of prestige-seeking in a Prestige-Money Game, and further explored the internal sources of such influence. In Experiment 1, the participants’ social class was manipulated to examine whether there were class effects in prestige-seeking when individuals of different social classes were paired together in a Prestige-Money Game. In Experiment 2, social rank, which only contained ranking differences, was adopted as a more abstract proxy variable for social class to investigate whether class effects still existed in prestige-seeking in a Prestige-Money Game. Based on the results of Experiment 1 and 2, Experiment 3 further explored the sources of motivation for prestige-seeking among subjects of different social class. The results showed that upper-class individuals showed greater money-seeking tendencies when facing an upper-class opponent, and showed greater prestige-seeking tendencies when facing a lower-class opponent. Such tendencies were derived from social rank; instrumental value played a substantial role. The game strategy of lower-class individuals were mainly oriented toward their personal needs. Specifically, they showed greater prestige-seeking when facing an upper-class opponent, and showed greater money-seeking when facing a lower-class opponent. Such tendencies were derived from the activation of their social class identity; the role of instrumental value was limited. These findings suggest that the essential differences in the game tendencies of individuals from different social classes in a Prestige-Money Game may originate from the fact that different social classes have different demands for the instrumental value and social value of prestige.

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Change history

  • 09 April 2019

    The original version of this article contained an error in the co-author name and e-mail address. The author name should read as ���Chen-Hao Tan��� instead of ���Cheng-Hao Tang���.

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Funding

This study was Sponsored by Peak Discipline Construction Project of Education at East China Normal University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education, East China Normal University, 3663 Zhongshan North Road, Putuo District, Shanghai, 200062, China

    Pei Wang

  2. Department of Psychology, Shanghai Normal University, 100 Guilin Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai, 200234, China

    Cheng-Hao Tang

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  1. Pei Wang
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  2. Cheng-Hao Tang
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Correspondence to Pei Wang.

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Wang, P., Tang, CH. The Effects of Social Class on Individuals’ Decision-Making Tendencies in a Prestige-Money Game: Social Value or Instrumental Value?. J Gambl Stud 35, 1283–1302 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-019-09827-2

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