Public welfare is a cause that benefits the public. It is an important symbol of civilization. The academia generally believe that social status is one of the major factors that affect public welfare activities. Based on a comparison of social status from the subjective and the objective perspective

this paper analyzes the impact of social status on the participation in public welfare activities from a multi-dimensional perspective by constructing status identity deviation. Based on the analysis of the survey data of resident living conditions in mega-cities of the New Era in 2019

this study finds that: First

the promotion of objective individual social status can effectively promote the participation of residents in public welfare activities

among which education plays the most significant role

while subjective status identity has no significant influence. Second

"upward deviation" can only reduce the possibility of residents donating money and materials

while "downward deviation" can increase the participation in various public welfare activities. Considering that subjective status identity does not have a significant impact

the reason why status identity deviation leads to this result is that it is difficult for groups with higher (lower) objective social status to estimate their status to be higher (lower)

that is

those with higher objective social status are more likely to have downward deviation

while those with lower social status are the opposite. Therefore

the above results reflect how objective social status functions

which indicates that the deviation of status identity has no substantive significance. Previous studies on status identity deviation usually assumed that subjective status identity rather than objective social status had an impact on individual behavior

but such results suggest that this assumption is not applicable to the participation in public welfare activities. Because of the unique attributes of objective material resources (resources such as economy and time) consumed by public welfare activities

unblocking the status transition channels of the middle and lower classes in mega-cities is still the most effective way to promote public welfare activities.