Social class rank,threat vigilance,and hostile reactivity

Lower-class individuals,because of their lower rank in society,are theorized to be more vigilant to social threats relative to their high-ranking upper-class counterparts.this class-related vigilance to threat,the authors predicted,would shape the emotional content of social interactions in systematic ways.in study 1,participants engaged in a teasing interaction with a close friend.lower-class participants-measured in terms of social class rank in society and within the friendship-more accurately tracked the hostile emotions of their friend.as a result,lower-class individuals experienced more hostile emotion contagion relative to upper-class participants.in study 2,lower-class participants manipulated to experience lower subjective socioeconomic rank showed more hostile reactivity to ambiguous social scenarios relative to upper-class participants and to lower-class participants experiencing elevated socioeconomic rank.the results suggest that class affects expectations,perception,and experience of hostile emotion,particularly in situations in which lower-class individuals perceive their subordinate rank.© 2011 by the society for personality and social psychology,inc.