Cognition of opportunity inequality and residents’ happiness: An empirical study on family background, luck and personal effort

Abstract

Abstract: The sources of opportunity inequality are divided into uncontrollable factors and controllable factors, which are divided into three factors: family background, talent, luck and personal effort. The study found that people are more likely to accept the inequality caused by personal efforts, and this inequality has a greater impact on happiness. If a person’s achievement mainly depends on his own choice and effort, rather than uncontrollable factors such as family background, talent and luck, then the residents’ happiness is relatively high. In addition, compared with rural areas, the impact of inequality related to family background on well-being is not significant in urban samples. One possible reason is that in cities, people recognize the importance of personal efforts more. The positive tunneling effect of equal opportunities greatly weakens the negative impact of unequal family background, and people are more likely to realize class mobility through personal efforts, Improve happiness.

Key words: inequality of opportunity, Income gap, Residents’ happiness

CLC Number:

F304

CUI Wei, HE Yan. Cognition of opportunity inequality and residents’ happiness: An empirical study on family background, luck and personal effort[J]. Journal of Guizhou University of Finance and Economics, 2022(2): 79-88.

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