Economic Inequality and Competitive Attitude Survey Xuan 2026

Research Hypothesis
This study hypothesized that perceived economic inequality would positively predict upward social comparison, which in turn would positively predict two types of competitive attitudes: hypercompetitive attitude and personal development competitive attitude. Upward social comparison was proposed to serve as a mediator in these relationships.
What the Data Is and How It Was Gathered
The dataset includes responses from 162 college students recruited in China. An adapted version of the Bimboola paradigm was used to manipulate participants' perception of economic inequality (0 = low economic inequality condition, 1 = high economic inequality condition). After the manipulation, participants completed measures of upward social comparison tendency and competitive attitudes, including hypercompetitive attitude and personal development competitive attitude. Gender and grade level were collected as control variables.
What the Data Shows and Notable Findings
The data showed that economic inequality significantly and positively predicted hypercompetitive attitude, with a significant direct effect (β = .18, p < .05). However, the direct effect of economic inequality on personal development competitive attitude was not significant (β = .01, p = .86).

Upward social comparison mediated the relationship between economic inequality and both types of competitive attitudes. Notably, the mediating role differed across the two attitudes. For hypercompetitive attitude, upward social comparison served as a partial mediator, with an indirect effect of .05 (95% CI [.01, .10]), accounting for 20.3% of the total effect. For personal development competitive attitude, upward social comparison served as a full mediator, with an indirect effect of .08 (95% CI [.01, .16]), accounting for 87.5% of the total effect.
A notable finding is that personal development competitive attitude depended entirely on the cognitive process of upward social comparison, whereas hypercompetitive attitude could be directly triggered by environmental cues of threat. This divergence in pathways suggests fundamental differences between the two types of competitive attitudes.
How to Interpret and Use the Data
All effects were estimated using a bias corrected percentile Bootstrap method with 5,000 resamples. A 95% confidence interval that does not contain zero indicates statistical significance. The reported β values are standardized regression coefficients, which can be used to compare the strength of different paths.
The data were analyzed using a mediation model in Mplus 8.3. Researchers may use this dataset for further testing of social comparison theory, meta analyses on economic inequality and competition, replication studies of mediation models, or as empirical evidence for educational interventions targeting healthy competition among students.

研究假设
本研究提出如下假设：感知到的经济不平等（perceived economic inequality）可正向预测上行社会比较（upward social comparison），而上行社会比较又会正向预测两类竞争态度——过度竞争态度（hypercompetitive attitude）与个人发展型竞争态度（personal development competitive attitude）；上行社会比较在上述两条关系中均发挥中介作用。
数据集概况与采集方式
本数据集包含162名在中国境内招募的大学生的问卷作答数据。研究采用改编版宾布拉范式（Bimboola paradigm）对被试的经济不平等感知进行操纵（0代表低经济不平等组，1代表高经济不平等组）。操纵环节结束后，被试完成了上行社会比较倾向与竞争态度的量表测评，其中竞争态度涵盖过度竞争态度与个人发展型竞争态度两个维度。研究同时收集了被试的性别与年级信息作为控制变量。
数据集结果与重要发现
数据结果显示，经济不平等对过度竞争态度具有显著的正向预测作用，直接效应显著（β=0.18，p<0.05）。但经济不平等对个人发展型竞争态度的直接效应并不显著（β=0.01，p=0.86）。上行社会比较在经济不平等与两类竞争态度的关系中均起到中介作用，且该中介效应在两类竞争态度间存在显著差异。针对过度竞争态度，上行社会比较为部分中介变量，间接效应值为0.05（95%置信区间[0.01, 0.10]），占总效应的20.3%；针对个人发展型竞争态度，上行社会比较为完全中介变量，间接效应值为0.08（95%置信区间[0.01, 0.16]），占总效应的87.5%。一项关键发现为：个人发展型竞争态度完全依赖于上行社会比较的认知过程，而过度竞争态度可直接由环境中的威胁线索触发。这种路径机制的差异，揭示了两类竞争态度之间的本质区别。
数据集的解读与使用方式
本研究所有效应均通过偏差校正百分位Bootstrap法、以5000次重采样进行估计。95%置信区间若不包含0，则表明该效应具有统计学显著性。报告中的β值为标准化回归系数，可用于比较不同路径的效应强度。本数据集的分析采用Mplus 8.3软件的中介模型完成。研究者可利用该数据集开展社会比较理论的进一步检验、经济不平等与竞争相关主题的元分析、中介模型的重复验证研究，或作为针对学生群体健康竞争的教育干预措施的实证依据。