The influence of religious beliefs on the expectations of individual social class mobility

• Date: 25 April 2023
• Pages: 1069-1086
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-05-2022-0122
• Published date: 25 April 2023
• Author: Xiaodong Chen,Miraj Ahmed Bhuiyan

The influence of religious beliefs

on the expectations of individual

social class mobility

Xiaodong Chen and Miraj Ahmed Bhuiyan

Guangdong University of Finance and Economics, Guangzhou, China

Abstract

Purpose –This paper examines the in-depth relationship between religious beliefs and individual social class

mobility expectations in China.

Design/methodology/approach –The data used in this article are mainly from the China Comprehensive

Social Survey in 2010 (CGSS2010). Compared with other years’CGSS data, CGSS2010 includes a module on

religious topics, and the questionnaire information related to religion is more comprehensive and suitable for in-

depth analysis.

Findings –The results show that religious beliefs have a significant positive impact on personal social class

mobility expectations. Based on the principle of diminishing marginal returns on capital, the positive impact of

religious belief on the expectation of individual social class mobility is more significant in groups with

nonagricultural household registration, higher education level, older age and better family background

conditions. However, with the further improvement of family background conditions, this positive impact

begins to weaken. In addition, possible channels of action include prejudice effects, psychological effects,

individual capital effects and social capital effects. The results of other effects are positive except for the

prejudice effect. Overall, religious beliefs, as one of the important components of contemporary Chinese culture,

have a positive significance for the “Chinese Dream”.

Originality/value –There is also little literature globally that provides an in-depth analysis of the

relationship between religion and economic development. Studies have led to an understanding of the

relationship between religious beliefs and individual social class mobility expectations. But it is unclear

whether theories developed based on Western spiritual experience will be applicable to China or not.

The authors have tested for China.

Keywords Religious beliefs, Expectations of social class mobility, Prejudice effect, Psychological effect,

Capital effect

Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction

Social class mobility expectations are positive or negative psychological expectations of

future class mobility made by individuals based on their actual situation and objective social

environment. This is very much in line with the “Chinese Dream”[1] connotation. The

popularity of rational expectation theory in macroeconomics, the proposal of expectation

theory in psychological theory and the survey of expectation index in sociology all show the

vital position of expectation in real life and its important significance as a contemporary

explicit science in academic research. Ouyang (2005) even regards human psychological

expectations and the pursuit of expectations as subjective explanatory factors for social

progress, equally crucial with productivity as an objective explanatory factor. As a member

of the social network relationship, the individual’s expectation of the direction of the mobility

of his social status (that is, the expectation of the mobility of social classes) is undoubtedly

one of the most basic and essential psychological expectations. Several studies have revealed

The influence

of religious

beliefs

1069

Data availability statement: Not applicable.

Ethics statement: No conflict of ethics.

Author contributions: All authors have equally contributed to the study.

Conflicts of interest: The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/2040-7149.htm

Received 17 May 2022

Revised 26 January 2023

Accepted 30 March 2023

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 42 No. 8, 2023

pp. 1069-1086

© Emerald Publishing Limited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-05-2022-0122

the significance of social class mobility expectations in influencing human cognition,

preference, trust, social networks, happiness, etc (Alesina and Angeletos, 2005;Milanovic and

Ersado, 2008;Wang et al., 2020;Ding et al., 2021;Xia et al., 2021). The introduction of the

“Chinese Dream”is an important concept that reflects to a considerable extent the great

importance attached by the relevant decision-making departments of the Chinese

government to the expectation of social class mobility. However, there are few research

results on the influencing factors of social mobility expectations. This paper explores the

impact of religious beliefs on Chinese residents’social class mobility expectations.

According to the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS), the average annual growth rate of

religious believers in China was 18% between 2003 and 2010, and “religious fever”has

emerged (Ruan et al., 2015). In recent years, the “religious fever”has increased unabated, and

the influence of religion on Chinese society has gradually increased (Song and Gu, 2019).

Regarding the socio-economic effects of religious beliefs, China’s domestic literature mainly

studies from both macro- and micro-levels. Macroscopically, Bai and Kung (2012) and Chen

et al. (2014) use historical data at the county level in China to examine the long-term impact of

religious diffusion on China’s economic development. At the micro-level, they mainly

analyzed the impact of religious beliefs on enterprises (such as corporate investment

preferences, donation behavior, corporate governance, etc.) and individual residents (such as

participation rate of group events, risk appetite, entrepreneurial behavior, human capital

investment, etc.) (Lei and Liu, 2016;Chen et al., 2013;Ruan et al., 2014a,b,2016). In light of our

data, the literature on the socio-economic effects of religious beliefs has not yet emerged from

the perspective of individual social class mobility expectations.

There is also little literature globally that provides an in-depth analysis of the

relationship between religion and economic development (McCleary and Barro, 2006).

Some studies have shown a significant positive causal relationship between the two, and

the mechanism of action has been examined. For example, Gruber (2005),Becker and

Woessmann (2009) argue that protestantism has increased believers’education level. So,

human capital is an important channel for Protestant action in economic performance.

Guiso et al. (2003),McCleary and Barro (2003) and McCleary and Barro (2006) find that

religion shapes values conducive to economic growth, such as thrift, diligence,

collaboration and loyalty. Spater and Tranvik (2019) take the religious reform in

western Switzerland as a quasi-natural experiment and finds that Protestant regions are

more industrialized than Catholic regions. Other studies argue that Protestantism

promotes the formation and perfection of the spirit of contract and social and moral norms

so that social capital is an important channel for Protestantism to influence economic

development (Blum and Dudley, 2001;Arrunada, 2010). On the contrary, some scholars

argue that there is no significant correlation between religious belief and economic

development (Cantoni, 2013) or that conclusions based on transnational studies are not

robust and sensitive to the choice of instrumental variables (IVs) (Durlauf et al., 2011).

These studies have led to understanding the relationship between religious beliefs and

individual social class mobility expectations. But it is unclear whether theories developed

based on Western religious experience will be applicable to China or not. There are three

reasons: first, compared with foreign countries, China’s religious belief groups are, after all, a

minority. Under the influence of long-term traditional concepts and historical religious

policies, this part of the group is easily treated differently, which may lead to different

economic and social results. Second, there are five types of religions recognized by the

Chinese government at present. There is no absolutely dominant religious sect, and all kinds

of beliefs have certain commonalities and significant differences in organizational forms,

catechisms, etc., which bring more significant difficulties to empirical research. Third, most

foreign religions are influenced by Confucian culture, and in the localization process, they

constantly compromise and self-adjust with a strong Chinese cultural influence.

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