Perceived Social Contribution: What Is It and How Can It Perpetuate Inequalities?

Feeling as though one meaningfully contributes to society benefits physical health, psychological resilience, and political participation. Thus, any bias in what is perceived as a contribution has the potential to systematically disenfranchise people and exclude them from recognition and dignity. Extending past work showing that helping distant others (i.e., bridging help, e.g., volunteering) is perceived as contributing more to society than helping close others (i.e., bonding help, e.g., unpaid family caregiving), this paper examines how these disparities potentially function across individual, interpersonal, and institutional levels—from everyday conversations that are likely to praise volunteering over caregiving, to college admissions practices that favor formal public service, to legal systems that undervalue unpaid labor when calculating damages. Overall, a limited notion of what it means to contribute to society can maintain and perpetuate inequalities along the lines of social class, gender, and race and ethnicity in American society.