Work, Beliefs, and Economic Inequality: Evidence on Behavioral Mechanisms

Q: What does this research mean for the field?

High economic inequality sustains itself by fostering motivated beliefs about social mobility, which in turn shifts political preferences toward a greater acceptance of inequality. Novelty: ClaimNovelty.NOVEL_FINDING. Consensus alignment: ConsensusAlignment.NEUTRAL.

Julia Martina Baumann

doi:10.18452/38614

August 27, 2026Open Access

Work, Beliefs, and Economic Inequality: Evidence on Behavioral Mechanisms

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Key Points

Investigate behavioral economic mechanisms governing individual belief formation, feedback processing, and adaptation to remote work in the context of economic inequality.
Conducted theoretical modeling and behavioral experiments combined with cross-country survey data analysis to examine inequality and social mobility expectations.
Experimentally manipulated prior beliefs about relative performance to test asymmetric belief updating and memory recall in response to positive and negative feedback.
Tracked employees longitudinally during the transition to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic to evaluate the moderating role of trait self-control on job performance and well-being.
High societal inequality promotes motivated beliefs in upward social mobility, thereby shifting political preferences toward greater tolerance of inequality and self-sustaining economic divides.
Experimentally induced underestimation of relative performance leads to reduced updating in response to positive signals and persistent pessimism, whereas overconfidence does not generate asymmetric updating.
Employees with low self-control adapt to remote work over time, resulting in significant increases in self-reported job performance and life satisfaction.

Implication

Experimental and survey research reveals how motivated beliefs sustain inequality and shape work performance, suggesting behavioral biases reinforce economic disparities.

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Cite This Study

Julia Martina Baumann (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a9299958e5d7d1fc0c119f5 https://doi.org/10.18452/38614

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Work, Beliefs, and Economic Inequality: Evidence on Behavioral Mechanisms

Key Points

Implication

Discussion

Cite This Study

Work, Beliefs, and Economic Inequality: Evidence on Behavioral Mechanisms

Key Points

Implication

Discussion

Cite This Study

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