A PUBLIC Framework for the Political Psychology of Inequality

Abstract

Psychological approaches to the study of the politics of inequality are welcome and warranted because psychology is foundational to understanding inequality, including ways to rectify it. Whereas some approaches narrow political psychology’s focus through a lens of a particular discipline and definition of inequality (Connolly et al., 2026), our focus is to center the public. That is, psychology is best situated to study the politics of inequality if it approaches the problem of inequality from a broader perspective: that of people—a perspective that goes well beyond a small handful of academic disciplines or socioeconomic strata. To accomplish this goal, we propose a pluralistic, unbiased, local, intersectional, and critical (PUBLIC) approach to the political psychology of inequality. A PUBLIC approach should be pluralistic in its application of evidence and ways of knowing; unbiased in the perspectives that it centers; local in its focus on psychology, politics, and impact; intersectional in its understanding of inequality and solidarity; and critical in its analysis of power and advantage. Implications for policy and collective action are highlighted.