Are people with lower socioeconomic status (SES) better than those with higher SES at empathic accuracy, or recognizing others' thoughts and feelings? Two psychological approaches to the study of SES say they are, but emphasize different reasons. The rank approach argues that because individuals with lower SES experience low rank, they feel less in control and more threatened by others, so it is more valuable for them to understand others' mental states. The cultural approach argues that because lower SES cultures foster more interdependent values, people steeped in those cultures focus more on others, leading them to better understand others' mental states. Previous tests of the basic hypothesis these two approaches share have yielded mixed evidence. This registered report uses a large-scale, nationally representative sample to accomplish two goals. First, it tests the basic shared hypothesis, finding that lower subjective rank, social class cultural group, and income—but not education—all predict better empathic accuracy. Second, it explores additional research questions, finding that subjective rank more strongly predicts empathic accuracy compared to SES cultural group (consistent with the rank approach), but childhood SES more strongly predicts empathic accuracy than adulthood SES (consistent with the cultural approach). Results regarding the moderating role of the valence of the mental state being recognized were not consistent. We conclude there is indeed a negative association between social class and empathic accuracy, and discuss the degree to which this is due to the psychology of rank and childhood cultural socialization.

社会经济地位 (SES) 较低的人在共情准确性或识别他人想法和感受方面是否比社会经济地位较高的人更好？研究社会经济地位的两种心理学方法都说是，但强调的原因不同。等级方法认为，由于社会经济地位较低的人等级较低，他们感觉自己的控制能力较差，受到他人的威胁更大，因此了解他人的心理状态对他们来说更有价值。文化方法认为，由于社会经济地位较低的文化培养了更多相互依存的价值观，沉浸在这些文化中的人们会更加关注他人，从而更好地理解他人的心理状态。先前对这两种方法共有的基本假设的测试产生了混合的证据。这份注册报告使用大规模的、具有全国代表性的样本来实现两个目标。首先，它测试了基本的共同假设，发现较低的主观等级、社会阶层文化群体和收入（但不是教育）都预示着更高的共情准确性。其次，它探讨了其他研究问题，发现与 SES 文化群体相比，主观排名更能预测共情准确性（与排名方法一致），但儿童 SES 比成年 SES 更能预测共情准确性（与文化方法一致）。关于被识别的精神状态效价的调节作用的结果并不一致。我们得出的结论是，社会阶层和共情准确性之间确实存在负相关关系，并讨论了这种关系在多大程度上归因于等级心理和儿童文化社会化。