The Effect of the Irreversible Inequality on Pro-social Behaviors of People With Disabilities

Inequalities have always been central to psychology, sociology and related fields such as social policy, gender studies, critical race studies, and human geography. Although inequality affects pro-social behaviors, there are still some controversies over this issue among people with disabilities. The current study aimed to investigate pro-social behaviors of people with disabilities and the effect of the irreversible inequality on pro-social behaviors. A dictator game was used to explore the difference of pro-social behaviors between people with disabilities and people without disabilities, when facing intra- or inter-group members. The results showed that compared to people with disabilities, people without disabilities were likely to show more pro-social behaviors. People with disabilities preferred intra-group cooperation, while people without disabilities preferred inter-group cooperation. Indeed, the intra-group cooperation was significantly greater than the expected cooperation of the intra-group members for people with disabilities. When facing the inter-group members, people without disabilities showed more than expected, that others would cooperate with them. These findings indicated that social avoidance was a common phenomenon for people with disabilities in China, but the situation would be different when they faced different groups. In addition, irreversible inequality could influence individuals’ cooperative strategies when facing individuals in a different status.