Diminishing Returns: The Effects of Income on the Content of Stereotypes of Wage Earners

Abstract

This study examined stereotypes of wage earners who varied in annual income from $10,000 to $190,000. As income increased, these stereotypes increased strongly in positive agentic characteristics and moderately in negative agentic characteristics and decreased slightly in communal characteristics. Findings were consistent with the interpretation that these stereotypic beliefs resulted from the influence of wage earners’ income on participants’ beliefs about earners’ role behavior on the job and in caring relationships.