Does village inequality in modern income harm the psyche? Anger, fear, sadness, and alcohol consumption in a pre-industrial society

Ricardo A. Godoy*, Victoria Reyes-García, Thomas McDade, Tomás Huanca, William R. Leonard, Susan Tanner, Vincent Vadez

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

36 Scopus citations

Abstract

Researchers have found a positive association between income inequality and poor individual health. To explain the link, researchers have hypothesized that income inequality erodes community social capital, which unleashes negative emotions, stress, and stress behaviors that hurt health. Few studies have tested the hypothesized path. Here we estimate the association between (a) village income inequality and social capital, and (b) three distinct negative emotions (anger, fear, sadness) and one stress behavior (alcohol consumption). We use four quarters of panel data (2002-2003) from 655 adults in 13 villages of a foraging-farming society in the Bolivian Amazon (Tsimane'). We found that: (1) village income inequality was associated with more negative emotions but with less alcohol consumption, (2) social capital always bore a negative association with outcomes, and (3) results held up after introducing many changes to the main model. We conclude that village income inequality probably affects negative emotions and stress behaviors through other paths besides social capital because we conditioned for social capital. One such path is an innate dislike of inequality, which might have pre-human origins. Our prior research with the Tsimane' suggests that village income inequality bore an insignificant association with individual health. Therefore, village income inequality probably affects negative emotions and stress behaviors before undermining health.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)359-372
Number of pages14
JournalSocial Science and Medicine
Volume63
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2006

Funding

Grants from the programs of Biological and Cultural Anthropology of the National Science Foundation (0078801, 0134225, 0200767, 9731240, 9904318, and 0322380) and the Wenner-Gren Foundation (GR-7250) covered the expenses of the research. Thanks to L. Apaza, E. Conde, J. Dávila, H. Rivas, Y. Lobo, L. Parada, B. Nate, P. Pache, E. Tayo, S. Cari, J. Cari, M. Roca, D. Pache, J. Pache, and V. Cuata for help collecting data and logistical support, to the Gran Consejo Tsimane’ for their continuous support, and to three anonymous reviewers and Ichiro Kawachi for helpful comments.

Keywords

  • Bolivia
  • Emotions
  • Health
  • Income inequality
  • Social capital
  • Tsimane'

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Health(social science)
  • History and Philosophy of Science

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