Abstract: The anxiety experienced by the middle class is increasingly severe in contemporary society. We believe that this anxiety stems from structural problems related to economic inequality, and social mobility amplifies the impact of this inequality to a certain extent. This article specifically analyzes and compares two types of anxiety: status anxiety and the fear of downward mobility. Status anxiety arises from the threat of social evalution in the process of social comparison. The other is the fear of potential falling in status brought about by social mobility, known as the fear of downward mobility. This fear is a concern about the possibility of losing one’s existing socioeconomic status and wealth. Status anxiety involves static comparison, as it primarily focuses on an individual’s relative position within the social stratification system at a specific moment, arising from the process of social comparison. The fear of downward mobility, on the other hand, involves dynamic comparison, as it encompasses not only comparison with others within the social stratification system but also an individual’s past experiences and potential future changes throughout their entire lifecycle. Due to the complex relationship between economic inequality and social mobility, middle-class anxiety is often intertwined with these two anxieties. Understanding these two anxieties provides avenues and approaches to alleviate related anxieties.

Key words: status anxiety, economic inequality, social mobility, social identity threat