Dialectical beliefs and savings tendency: Opposite patterns in good versus bad current status

• Published in: Journal of applied social psychology Vol. 48; no. 3; pp. 128 - 135
• Main Author: Li, Liman Man Wai
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.03.2018
• Subjects: Dialectics; Socioeconomic factors; Socioeconomic status
• ISSN: 0021-9029; 1559-1816
• DOI: 10.1111/jasp.12496

People often experience a dilemma: whether we should invest now for a better future or save now for an unexpected future. The current research investigated the influence of dialecticism, a constellation of lay beliefs stating that the world is full of constant changes, coexisting contradictions, and interdependent relationships, on people's savings tendencies when they are with good versus bad status. Study 1 verified that dialectical beliefs were negatively associated with optimistic expectations among people with good status (i.e., high socioeconomic status) but positively associated with optimistic expectations among people with bad status (i.e., low socioeconomic status). Next, Studies 2 and 3 examined the interaction effect between dialectical beliefs and people's current status in predicting their savings tendencies in the investment scenarios with the focus on savings decision‐making and emotional experiences related to savings scenarios, respectively. Finally, to test generalizability, Study 4 examined people's savings tendencies in the situation that they needed to prevent failure instead of doing investments. The results converged to support the hypothesis that stronger dialectical beliefs predicted greater savings tendencies among people with good current status but weaker savings tendencies among people with bad current status. These findings demonstrated that the effect of dialectical beliefs on savings tendencies varies as a function of the characteristics of the situations, which advances the theoretical understanding of dialecticism in decision‐making research.