Abstract
Objective: This research investigated the effect of social class on personal control
beliefs.
Background: Differences in personal control beliefs serve as a central theoreti-
cal explanation for social class differences in cognition, emotion, and behavior.
However, prior empirical research has not yet conclusively demonstrated that
personal control beliefs differ between social classes.
Method: Across four studies (total N = 138,417), we investigated the link between
social class and personal control beliefs with well-established measures of social
class (e.g., ISEI, McArthur Scale),representative samples, and data that allow for
causal conclusions (e.g., experimental, and longitudinal data).
Results: We found that (a) higher social class was associated with higher per-
sonal control beliefs across 60 countries. Furthermore, we observed that (b)
higher social class of parents was associated with higher personal control beliefs
in their children, and that (c) experimentally induced higher (vs. lower) social
class led to increases (vs. decreases) of personal control beliefs.
Conclusions: Individuals from lower social classes consistently have weaker
personal control beliefs than individuals from upper social classes. Social class
differences in this fundamental personality characteristic are bound to have im-
portant consequences in various life domains (e.g., psychological and physical
well-being, and academic success).
