Contributing to the burgeoning discourse on economic inequality, we expose an inequality in what the poor are socially permitted to buy. Across 11 experiments (n = 4,179), we demonstrate that lower-income individuals are held to more restrictive standards of permissible consumption, judged negatively for purchasing the same items as their higher-income peers. We rule out the explanation that higher-income people are socially permitted to consume more simply because they can afford more; instead, we find lower-income people are socially permitted to consume less because they are presumed to need less. These findings suggest that—in addition to economic disparities that restrict what lower-income individuals financially can consume—there is an inequality in what they are socially permitted to consume.
Serena Hagerty received a A.B. in Psychology from Harvard College in May 2016. She entered the Marketing doctoral program at HBS directly after completing her undergraduate degree. Serena is also a Stone PhD Research Fellow in Inequality and Wealth Concentration at the Harvard Kennedy School. Her research focuses on how consumer behavior responds to and shapes wealth inequality. In particular, her research investigates why lower-income consumers are unfairly judged for their purchasing decisions and the inequality of socially permissible consumption. Other work explores perceptions of premium services targetted to wealthy consumers and the effects of relative wealth on overaccumulation.
- Featured Work
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Contributing to the burgeoning discourse on economic inequality, we expose an inequality in what the poor are socially permitted to buy. Across 11 experiments (n = 4,179), we demonstrate that lower-income individuals are held to more restrictive standards of permissible consumption, judged negatively for purchasing the same items as their higher-income peers. We rule out the explanation that higher-income people are socially permitted to consume more simply because they can afford more; instead, we find lower-income people are socially permitted to consume less because they are presumed to need less. These findings suggest that—in addition to economic disparities that restrict what lower-income individuals financially can consume—there is an inequality in what they are socially permitted to consume.
- Journal Articles
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- Barasz, Kate, and Serena Hagerty. "Hoping for the Worst? A Paradoxical Preference for Bad News." Journal of Consumer Research (forthcoming). View Details
- Hagerty, Serena, and Kate Barasz. "Inequality in Socially Permissible Consumption." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117, no. 25 (June 23, 2020): 14084–14093. View Details
- Working Papers
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- Mohan, Bhavya, Serena Hagerty, and Michael Norton. "Consumers Punish Firms that Cut Employee Pay in Response to COVID-19." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 21-020, August 2020. View Details
- Area of Study