Egoistical Relative Deprivation

[Page 228]Egoistical or individual relative deprivation (IRD) is defined as a judgment that one is disadvantaged compared with a relevant referent; this judgment evokes feelings of anger, resentment, and entitlement. IRD is distinct from group relative deprivation (GRD), the judgment that one’s reference group is relatively disadvantaged, which is accompanied by feelings of anger, resentment, and entitlement. IRD predicts mental and physical health, deviance, and political attitudes.

IRD is most likely to occur when people easily can contrast their current situation with a more positive experience that “ought” to have occurred (a version of the simulation heuristic). By detaching people’s subjective evaluations from their objective circumstances, IRD explains why even “objectively advantaged” people can feel deprived. If people feel that they are entitled to have more ...