Neoliberalism has become the dominant ideology in many parts of the world. Yet there is little empirical research on its psychological impact. On the basis of a social identity approach to health, we hypothesize that, by increasing competition and by reducing people’s sense of connection to others, neoliberalism can increase loneliness and compromise our well-being. Study 1 (N = 246) shows that the more neoliberal people perceive society to be, the worse their well-being, and that this relationship is mediated via loneliness. In two experiments, we showed that exposure to neoliberal ideology increases loneliness (Study 2, N = 204) and, through this, decreases well-being (Study 3, N = 173). In Study 4 (N = 303), we found that exposure to neoliberal ideology increased loneliness and decreased well-being by reducing people’s sense of connection to others and by increasing perceptions of being in competition with others. In Study 4, the effect of neoliberalism on well-being was evident for liberals only. We discuss the potential impact of neoliberalism on different social groups in society.

中文翻译：

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新自由主义可以通过促进社会脱节、竞争和孤独感来降低幸福感

新自由主义已成为世界许多地方的主导意识形态。然而，关于其心理影响的实证研究很少。基于对健康的社会认同方法，我们假设，通过增加竞争和减少人们与他人的联系感，新自由主义会增加孤独感并损害我们的福祉。研究 1 ( N  = 246) 表明，新自由主义者越认为社会越糟糕，他们的幸福感就越差，而且这种关系是通过孤独来调节的。在两个实验中，我们表明接触新自由主义意识形态会增加孤独感（研究 2，N  = 204），并因此降低幸福感（研究 3，N  = 173）。在研究 4 ( N = 303），我们发现接触新自由主义意识形态会通过减少人们与他人的联系感和增加与他人竞争的感知来增加孤独感并降低幸福感。在研究 4 中，新自由主义对幸福感的影响仅对自由主义者来说是明显的。我们讨论了新自由主义对社会中不同社会群体的潜在影响。