Who Feels They Contribute to U.S. Society? Helping Behaviors and Social Class Disparities in Perceived Contributions

Americans in lower (vs. higher) social class contexts are less likely to believe they contribute to society. Helping others by giving one’s time is an important way of contributing to others that also varies with social class. Five studies (N = 7, 326) investigated whether one source of the social class disparity in perceived contributions is a default model that considers helping distant others (i.e., bridging help, e.g., volunteering) as more of a contribution than helping close others (i.e., bonding help, e.g., caring for family members). In Study 1, Americans in lower (vs. higher) social class contexts perceived they contribute less to society (i.e., self-perceived contributions, Part A) and believed others perceive them as contributing less (i.e., metaperceived contributions, Part B). Studies 2–4 provide evidence for a default model of social good: Americans across social class contexts and even helpers themselves perceived bridging help as more of a contribution than bonding help, in part, because bridging help is perceived as reflecting more choice to help. With a representative sample (Midlife Development in the United States), Study 5 finds that Americans in lower (vs. higher) social class contexts engaged in relatively less bridging help and more bonding help. However, bridging help served as a stronger pathway to feelings of contributing than bonding help did. Together, these studies suggest that people in lower social class contexts may experience a psychological inequality, in part, because some of the forms of help that are most accessible, familiar, and practiced are widely perceived as less of a contribution.