Master’s Defence in Psychology

Rozália Julianna Halmai defends her final project for the MSc degree in Psychology. The project is titled “Perceived Inequality in an Equal Society: Trust, Prosociality, and Environmental Engagement in Iceland”.

• The defence will take place in room M101 and is open to everyone
• The defence will also be online via Zoom here
• Rozália’s supervisor is Prof. Mehmet Harma at the University of Akureyri
• The examiner is Associate Prof. Burak Dogruyol at the Kadir Has University

About the project

How are perceptions of economic inequality related to trust, cooperation, and care for the environment in a relatively equal society?

Perceived income inequality can be defined as a people’s subjective sense of economic differences in their everyday social environment. Although these perceptions do not always match with the objective economic indicators (e.g. Gini score), they can still play role in how people think, feel, and behave toward others.

In this study we examined how perceived income inequality is related to prosociality and pro-environmental engagement in Iceland. The project asks whether perceived inequality related to weakened cooperation and collective engagement, as previous research often suggests, or whether Iceland's high institutional trust context changes this pattern.
Based on an online survey with adults in Iceland, individuals completed measures of perceived income inequality, prosocial behavior, pro-environmental habits, life history strategies, and demographic information. We also examined how people think about the future and make long-term decisions as a possible psychological process linking perceived inequality to social and environmental engagement outcomes.

The findings suggest that perceived inequality did not reduce prosociality in the Icelandic sample. Instead, it was positively associated with pro-environmental habits. This relationship was partly explained by slower life history strategies, reflecting future orientation, long-term planning, and investment in collective outcomes in our sample.

Our results suggest that Iceland's relatively egalitarian and high trust context may buffer against some of the negative psychological consequences associated with perceived economic inequality. In Icelandic context, perceived inequality may not signal mistrust but trigger a collective action (e.g., pro-environmental habit) that can be addressed through shared responsibility and long-term engagement.

By focusing on Iceland, this study contributes to broader discussions on trust, cooperation, inequality, environmental engagement, and the psychological foundations of collective action.

everyone is welcome!