Informational content of relative deprivation as a channel linking economic inequality to risk taking

The evidence that economic inequality (or relative deprivation) increases risk taking, as presented in PNAS by Payne et al. (1), is an insightful addition to a broader literature that finds that relative deprivation has distinct effects on individuals, not the least of which is their happiness, in addition to any direct effects of individuals’ absolute wealth or prosperity (2⇓–4). However, when it comes to the aggregate-level relationship...