Main content start
Who Feels They Contribute to U.S. Society?
New research from Co-Director Markus and colleagues shows how your social class can impact whether you believe you contribute to society.
New work from Co-Director Hazel Markus, Ellen Reinhart, and Rebecca Carey shows that U.S. Americans in lower (vs. higher) social class contexts are less likely to believe they contribute to society. This is due to a cultural bias about what it means to contribute.
Contributions to society can be thought of as two distinct types of help: bridging help (e.g., volunteering) or bonding help (e.g., caring for family members). U.S. Americans across all social class contexts perceive bridging help to be more of a contribution to society. Bonding help, however, is also critically important and culturally undervalued.
