Americans in lower (vs. higher) social class contexts are less likely to believe they contribute to society. Helping others by giving one's time is an important way of contributing to others that also varies with social class. Five studies (N = 7,326) investigated whether one source of the social class disparity in perceived contributions is a default model that considers helping distant others (i.e., bridging help, e.g., volunteering) as more of a contribution than helping close others (i.e., bonding help, e.g., caring for family members). In Study 1, Americans in lower (vs. higher) social class contexts perceived they contribute less to society (i.e., self-perceived contributions, Part A) and believed others perceive them as contributing less (i.e., metaperceived contributions, Part B). Studies 2-4 provide evidence for a default model of social good: Americans across social class contexts and even helpers themselves perceived bridging help as more of a contribution than bonding help, in part, because bridging help is perceived as reflecting more choice to help. With a representative sample (Midlife Development in the United States), Study 5 finds that Americans in lower (vs. higher) social class contexts engaged in relatively less bridging help and more bonding help. However, bridging help served as a stronger pathway to feelings of contributing than bonding help did. Together, these studies suggest that people in lower social class contexts may experience a psychological inequality, in part, because some of the forms of help that are most accessible, familiar, and practiced are widely perceived as less of a contribution. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

---

谁认为他们为美国社会做出了贡献？感知贡献中的帮助行为和社会阶层差异。


处于较低（相对于较高）社会阶层背景下的美国人不太可能相信他们为社会做出了贡献。通过付出自己的时间来帮助他人是帮助他人的重要方式，它也因社会阶层而异。五项研究 （N = 7,326） 调查了感知贡献中社会阶层差异的一个来源是否是一种默认模型，该模型认为帮助远方他人（即桥接帮助，例如志愿服务）比帮助接近他人（即建立联系帮助，例如照顾家庭成员）更像是一种贡献。在研究 1 中，处于较低（相对于较高）社会阶层背景下的美国人认为他们对社会的贡献较少（即自我感知的贡献，A 部分），并认为其他人认为他们的贡献较少（即元感知的贡献，B 部分）。研究 2-4 为默认的社会公益模型提供了证据：不同社会阶层背景的美国人，甚至帮助者自己都认为桥接帮助更像是一种贡献，而不是联系帮助，部分原因是桥接帮助被认为反映了更多的帮助选择。通过一个代表性样本（美国的中年发展），研究 5 发现，处于较低（相对于较高）社会阶层背景下的美国人参与的桥梁帮助相对较少，而参与的联系帮助更多。然而，与联系帮助相比，桥接帮助是获得贡献感的更强途径。总之，这些研究表明，处于较低社会阶层背景下的人可能会经历心理不平等，部分原因是一些最容易获得、最熟悉和最实用的帮助形式被广泛认为贡献较小。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 （c） 2024 APA，保留所有权利）。