The Broken Ladder

How Inequality Affects the Way We Think, Live, and Die

By: Keith Payne

Narrated by: James Foster

Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

A timely examination by a leading scientist of the physical, psychological, and moral effects of inequality.

Today's inequality is on a scale that none of us has seen in our lifetimes, yet this disparity between rich and poor has ramifications that extend far beyond mere financial means. In The Broken Ladder, psychologist Keith Payne examines how inequality divides us not just economically, but also has profound consequences for how we think, how our cardiovascular systems respond to stress, how our immune systems function, and how we view moral ideas such as justice and fairness.

Experiments in psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral economics have not only revealed important new insights on how inequality changes people in predictable ways, but have also provided a corrective to our flawed way of viewing poverty as the result of individual character failings. Among modern developed societies, economic inequality is not primarily about money, but rather about relative status: where we stand in relation to other people. Regardless of their average income, countries or states with greater levels of income inequality have much higher rates of all the social problems we associate with poverty, including lower average life expectancies, serious health issues, mental illness, and crime.

The Broken Ladder explores such issues as why women in poor societies often have more children, and have them younger; why there is little trust among the working class that investing for the future will pay off; why people's perception of their relative social status affects their political beliefs, and why growing inequality leads to greater political divisions; how poverty raises stress levels in the same way as a physical threat; inequality in the workplace and how it affects performance; why unequal societies become more religious; and finally offers measures people can take to lessen the harm done by inequality in their own lives and the lives of their children.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2017 Keith Payne (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Changes perception of poverty and inequality

After listening to this book, I have a greater appreciation of what the social problem of inequality is, as opposed to merely the social problem of poverty. The author does a great job distinguishing the two, and describes political sides but doesn't take one because addressing inequality doesn't fit traditional molds. It was also helpful to hear about the different decision processes that high status and low status individuals employ. I am not a social scientist, but the author did a good job of citing social science experiments that support his assertions. I came away with the opinion that we would have a stronger, more united country if we had some policies to address inequality.

Interesting and approachable

Well explained and easy to follow book on our relationships and where we see ourselves and others. Highly recommend!

Loved it

This book had everything! Socioeconomic statistics, psychological biases, neuroscience, inequality, human behavior. Fascinating and effective.

Evidence Based & Relatable Read

Great evidence based commentary on inequality. I appreciate that the author cited studies to support the rationales.

great content

Very straightforward and clear on topics that are routinely ignored or not considered even if observed.

amazing book. changed my thinking about poverty.

wow this one needs to be read by everyone. I am a conservative and this book showed me several areas where I have been mistaken in my thinking.

A MUST READ FOR ASPIRING POLITICIANS

The reading of this book was straightforward and emotional at the same time. It seemed as if the narrator was the author. If you have a question about how this great nation became the broken husk of democracy that we are today..this book will enlighten you. It explained so much about my life and community growing up that I had wondered about. I sincerely believe this should be read to high school students.

Very Insightful

Everyone should read this book. It’s insightful but backed up by science. So much of what we do, choose to do, and what happens too is is related to income inequality, that it is mind boggling!

Great insight into human behavior

Excellent easy to understand an easy to relate to studies and explanations of human behavior

Insightful and Unbiased

I had to read this for college, so I wasn’t exactly looking forward to spending time when I could be reading other books. However, the contents of the book gave me a new perspective and brought things to my attention that I hadn’t considered before. The only bad thing is that the physical copy as some visual aids that can’t be translated into audio, so you may still want to pick up the actual book to get the full experience.