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Gentrification impacts nearly every major city in the United States, posing a potential threat to lower social class residents’ sense of belonging in their neighborhoods. In one survey and three preregistered experiments, we investigated how gentrification affects the belonging of residents across the social class spectrum and how to invest in working-class neighborhoods without undermining lower social class residents’ sense of belonging. Studies 1–3 (Ns = 141, 1,085, and 510, respectively) provided correlational and experimental evidence that lower social class residents feel less belonging than higher social class residents in gentrifying neighborhoods. Study 3 showed that this belonging disparity was mediated by lower social class individuals perceiving themselves to be less similar to and less trusting of other residents and higher social class individuals feeling the amenities would better suit them in the gentrifying neighborhood. Nevertheless, neighborhood investment does not always threaten lower social class individuals’ sense of belonging. Study 4 (N = 402) showed that lower social class individuals anticipated greater belonging and were more supportive when neighborhood investment was community driven (i.e., prioritized the needs of existing residents) than capital driven (i.e., prioritized economic growth). We discuss implications for equitable urban policy and future directions for a social psychology of gentrification. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
