Stéphane Côté and Michael W. Kraus

IN a society as unequal as ours, people tend to interact almost exclusively with people who share similar educational histories, incomes and occupations — and when they do interact with others from different social classes, even as friends, those relationships seem fraught with misunderstanding and tension. That’s partly a matter of circumstance, but it’s also a matter of habit. As the comedian Kevin Hart jokes, “I stay in my lane, people. I stay in my financial lane.”

We assessed social class by asking participants to place themselves on a 10-rung ladder, with the highest rung representing the people with the most money, most education and most respected jobs. Our analyses revealed that participants laughed less, and displayed nongenuine smiles more, when listening to someone from a different class.

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