Economic inequality has been consistently rising in recent decades in many Western countries including Germany. This is a pressing issue as greater economic inequality within a society has detrimental consequences for well-being, social stability, productivity, and even life expectancy. However, little is known about how individuals of different ages experience and respond to social inequality across adulthood. Because status differences are perceived as more malleable in young adulthood (i.e., young adults can expect to move up the social ladder) and only manifest across adulthood, we predicted that negative emotional reactions to the perceived standing in the social hierarchy should become increasingly pronounced with age. Consistently, a first study based on a national representative sample in Germany (N = 2,542; 18–91 years) confirmed that subjective social status had a much stronger effect on the acceptance of social inequality among middle-aged and older, as compared with younger, adults. In a second experimental study (N = 387; 18–89 years), participants of any age responded with negative emotional reactions when rising inequality was made salient. However, subjective social status moderated this effect only in middle-aged and older, but not younger, adults. Finally, a third experimental study (N = 605; 18–82 years) showed that, compared with middle-aged and older adults, younger adults maintained stronger upward mobility beliefs that accounted for the age-differential effects of subjective social status on negative emotional reactivity to rising inequality. We discuss the central role of upward mobility beliefs for individuals’ responses to social inequality across the adult life span.

近几十年来，包括德国在内的许多西方国家的经济不平等一直在加剧。这是一个紧迫的问题，因为社会内部更大的经济不平等会对福祉、社会稳定、生产力甚至预期寿命产生不利影响。然而，对于不同年龄的个体如何在成年期经历和应对社会不平等，我们知之甚少。因为地位差异在青年期被认为更具延展性（即，青年人可以期望在社会阶梯上向上移动）并且只在成年期表现出来，我们预测，对社会等级中的感知地位的负面情绪反应应该变得越来越明显年龄。始终如一地，第一项研究基于德国的国家代表性样本（N= 2,542；18-91 岁）证实，与年轻人相比，主观社会地位对中老年人接受社会不平等的影响要大得多。在第二项实验研究（N = 387；18-89 岁）中，任何年龄的参与者在不平等加剧时都会做出负面情绪反应。然而，主观社会地位仅在中年和老年人中缓和了这种影响，而不是在年轻人中。最后，第三个实验研究（N= 605; 18-82 岁）表明，与中年和老年人相比，年轻人保持更强的向上流动信念，这解释了主观社会地位对日益加剧的不平等的负面情绪反应的年龄差异影响。我们讨论了向上流动信念在个人对整个成年期社会不平等的反应中的核心作用。