Objective Income But Not Subjective Social Status Predicts Short-Term and Long-Term Cognitive Outcomes: Findings Across Two Large Datasets

Little evidence exists to determine whether individual variations in objective income versus subjective social status would more strongly predict cognitive outcomes in adulthood. In the present study, we contrast the predictive validity of objective income against subjective social status on cognitive outcomes using two large-scale, general public samples. In Study 1, we cross-sectionally examined a sample of Singaporean adults (N = 848; 379 males; Mage = 37.19) to determine whether income or subjective social status would predict reasoning ability. In Study 2, we examined a sample of American adults (N = 1476; 694 males; Mage = 53.70) across approximately ten years using latent variable cross-lagged panel modelling to determine whether income or subjective social status would predict long-term episodic memory and executive function after accounting for baselines. Age, gender, education, employment status, and household size were controlled for. Results indicated that objective income predicted all cognitive outcomes in both studies, whereas subjective social status did not. Additionally in Study 2, reverse-causal pathways in which cognitive functioning was specified as a predictor of later income were not supported. Overall, the results suggest replicable, unidirectional links between objective income and multiple indices of cognitive functioning that were not found for subjective social status.