The Psychology of Involution: Taxonomy, Sociocultural Predictors, and Psychological Outcomes

It is a puzzle of modern life: people are dashing around to complete their daily tasks, like busy little ants, but they hardly make real progress or find the happiness they hope for. Involution (neijuan) is a recent, widespread phenomenon in China characterized by societal hyper-competition and individual experiences of burnout, anxiety, and disillusionment with success. However, the psychology of involution remains poorly understood. We probe its taxonomy, sociocultural predictors, and psychological outcomes by examining individual variations in involution perception using latent profile analysis (LPA). We identified four profiles among Chinese (n = 389 for pilot; n = 1,456 for formal, from 31 provinces) and Western (n = 1,200, from the United States, Australia, Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom) individuals: Racing Rat, Placid Dove, Ambitious Bee, Couch Potato. Individuals of the Bee and Dove profiles displayed better psychological well-being than those of the Potato and Rat profiles. Higher socioeconomic status and more perceived tightness were associated with adaptive profiles like the Bee, and lower status and more perceived looseness were linked to maladjusted profiles like the Rat. Our findings provide a person-centered framework for understanding involution, with cross-disciplinary implications for policy interventions targeting its detrimental effects and coping strategies.