Three Versions Play, The Throughs, and Turf Tiff, mixed-media artworks by Annie Lapin. Courtesy the artist; Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles; and Miles McEnery Gallery, New York City

Data from 162 countries indicated that people with higher incomes are prouder and less fearful; wealth inequality among pre-Columbian Mesoamerican societies, as measured by house size, was highest when governance was concentrated among the smallest number of people; a study of Florentines from 1427 to 2011 found low intergenerational socioeconomic mobility; and spinal degeneration was found to be markedly worse among lower-class late-medieval skeletons buried at the monastery of San…