Question

Dominant group members tend to have better material comforts and more political freedom than minority groups. Sociologists refer to this type of inequality as ________.

Answer 1

The answer to the blank space is a term called relative deprivation.

Relative deprivation is a principle where individuals and groups lack resources to access the lifestyle and amenities that they are accustomed to or are approved by a society. It differs from absolute deprivation since the latter has a fixed definition as to what these individuals lack compared to most population on earth, not just the dominant group in a region.

These two concepts are commonly associated with the principles of relative and absolute poverty – where the former will always occur as long as social inequalities remain the standard of living.