Center for Social Norms and Behavioral dynamics Working Papers, 2021
Economic inequality in the US has increased since the 1950s, yet this has not been accompanied by... more Economic inequality in the US has increased since the 1950s, yet this has not been accompanied by increased taxation and redistribution. The question how US Americans (mis-)perceive this inequality and to what extent this perception can translate into a demand for redistribution has therefore become an important policy question and a recent academic debate. We investigate how perceived income inequality causally a ects people's fairness views and their support for redistribution in a comprehensive and well-powered survey experiment with a representative sample of US Americans. We find precisely estimated null e ects. While US Americans underestimate the extend of poverty and, in particular, strongly overestimate the income of top earners, there is no evidence for a causal e ect of perceived inequality on political views or behavior. We test the role of a series of moderators and find that this null e ect holds for di erent income groups and party a liations, as well as for participants with di erent levels of trust in government and with di erent levels of perceived personal autonomy. Our study thus suggests that informing people about the extent of inequality in a society will not e ectively alter their support for redistributive policies.
We study experimentally how people’s willingness to comply with elected rules is affected by vote... more We study experimentally how people’s willingness to comply with elected rules is affected by voter manipulation and disenfranchisement. Groups of 100 subjects vote on a “code of conduct” regarding behavior in a dictator game. Introducing a voting fee, offering subjects money to change their votes, or excluding the votes of low-income subjects leads to a strong decline in voluntary compliance with elected rules that ask subjects to give. Rules that ask subjects to not give see no decline. Heterogeneity in behavioral reactions suggests that treatment effects are driven by preferences for democratic participation and by preferences for unbiased election procedures.
Comparative Political Economy: Comparative Capitalism eJournal, 2020
Several studies have demonstrated that income inequality has risen since the 1960s. Other studies... more Several studies have demonstrated that income inequality has risen since the 1960s. Other studies have found that people underestimate the extent of the inequality. Reasons for these mis-perceptions include over-reliance on one’s own local environment and ideologically-motivated reasoning. We propose a novel mechanism to account for the mis-perceptions of income inequality. We posit that the degree to which people believe that they have control over their lives, their perceived autonomy, is related to: (1) the belief that inequality is low and, furthermore, (2) the belief that these inequalities are fair. Using a representative sample of 3,427 Americans, we find evidence to support these hypotheses.
Can elections change people’s ideas about what is ethically right and what is wrong? A number of ... more Can elections change people’s ideas about what is ethically right and what is wrong? A number of recent observations suggest that social norms can change rapidly as a result of election outcomes. We explore this conjecture using a controlled online experiment. In our experiment, participants rate the social appropriateness of sharing income with poorer individuals. We compare situations in which a rule has been elected that asks people to share or not to share, respectively, with situations in which no rule has been elected. In the absence of an election, sharing is widely considered socially appropriate, while not sharing is considered socially inappropriate. We show that elections can change this social norm: They shift the modal appropriateness perception of actions and, depending on the elected rule, increase their dispersion, i.e. erode previously existing consensus. As a result, actions previously judged socially inappropriate (not sharing) can become socially appropriate. Thi...
We design an online experiment with large voter groups to study how vote buying and partial disen... more We design an online experiment with large voter groups to study how vote buying and partial disenfranchisement of the electorate during a referendum affects voluntary compliance with elected rules of redistribution. To our knowledge, this is the first experimental paper to study whether the well-documented positive behavioral effects of democratic institutions are sensitive to electoral manipulation. We establish a strong negative effect of manipulative interventions: When votes have been bought or parts of the electorate been excluded from the ballot, subjects comply significantly less with elected rules that ask them to share part of their income with other members of the experimental society. Analyzing beliefs, we find no evidence that treatment effects are driven by strategic concerns regarding the behavior of other subjects. Rather, subjects seem to react intrinsically to violations of the idea of inclusive and unbiased elections. Treatment effects are found mainly among indivi...
Although inequality in the US has increased since the 1960s, several studies show that Americans ... more Although inequality in the US has increased since the 1960s, several studies show that Americans underestimate it. Reasons include overreliance on one’s local perspective and ideologically-motivated cognition. We propose a novel mechanism to account for the misperceptions of income inequality. We hypothesize that compared to those who feel less autonomy, the people who believe they are autonomous and have control over their lives also believe that (1) income inequality is lower and (2) income inequality is more acceptable. Using a representative sample of 3,427 Americans, we find evidence to support these hypotheses.
Economic inequality in the US has increased since the 1950s, yet this has not been accompanied by... more Economic inequality in the US has increased since the 1950s, yet this has not been accompanied by more progressive taxation and redistribution. The question how US Americans (mis-)perceive this inequality and to what extent this perception can translate into a demand for redistribution has therefore become an important policy question. We investigate how perceived income inequality causally affects people's fairness views and their support for redistribution in a comprehensive and well-powered survey experiment with a large sample of US Americans. We find precisely estimated null effects. While US Americans underestimate the extent of poverty and, in particular, strongly overestimate the income of top earners, there is no evidence for a causal effect of perceived inequality on policy views or behavior. We test the role of a series of moderators and find that this null effect holds for different income groups and party affiliations, as well as for participants with different levels of trust in government and different levels of perceived personal autonomy. Our study thus suggests that informing people about the extent of inequality in a society will not effectively alter their support for redistributive policies.
Center for Social Norms and Behavioral dynamics Working Papers, 2021
Economic inequality in the US has increased since the 1950s, yet this has not been accompanied by... more Economic inequality in the US has increased since the 1950s, yet this has not been accompanied by increased taxation and redistribution. The question how US Americans (mis-)perceive this inequality and to what extent this perception can translate into a demand for redistribution has therefore become an important policy question and a recent academic debate. We investigate how perceived income inequality causally a ects people's fairness views and their support for redistribution in a comprehensive and well-powered survey experiment with a representative sample of US Americans. We find precisely estimated null e ects. While US Americans underestimate the extend of poverty and, in particular, strongly overestimate the income of top earners, there is no evidence for a causal e ect of perceived inequality on political views or behavior. We test the role of a series of moderators and find that this null e ect holds for di erent income groups and party a liations, as well as for participants with di erent levels of trust in government and with di erent levels of perceived personal autonomy. Our study thus suggests that informing people about the extent of inequality in a society will not e ectively alter their support for redistributive policies.
We study experimentally how people’s willingness to comply with elected rules is affected by vote... more We study experimentally how people’s willingness to comply with elected rules is affected by voter manipulation and disenfranchisement. Groups of 100 subjects vote on a “code of conduct” regarding behavior in a dictator game. Introducing a voting fee, offering subjects money to change their votes, or excluding the votes of low-income subjects leads to a strong decline in voluntary compliance with elected rules that ask subjects to give. Rules that ask subjects to not give see no decline. Heterogeneity in behavioral reactions suggests that treatment effects are driven by preferences for democratic participation and by preferences for unbiased election procedures.
Comparative Political Economy: Comparative Capitalism eJournal, 2020
Several studies have demonstrated that income inequality has risen since the 1960s. Other studies... more Several studies have demonstrated that income inequality has risen since the 1960s. Other studies have found that people underestimate the extent of the inequality. Reasons for these mis-perceptions include over-reliance on one’s own local environment and ideologically-motivated reasoning. We propose a novel mechanism to account for the mis-perceptions of income inequality. We posit that the degree to which people believe that they have control over their lives, their perceived autonomy, is related to: (1) the belief that inequality is low and, furthermore, (2) the belief that these inequalities are fair. Using a representative sample of 3,427 Americans, we find evidence to support these hypotheses.
Can elections change people’s ideas about what is ethically right and what is wrong? A number of ... more Can elections change people’s ideas about what is ethically right and what is wrong? A number of recent observations suggest that social norms can change rapidly as a result of election outcomes. We explore this conjecture using a controlled online experiment. In our experiment, participants rate the social appropriateness of sharing income with poorer individuals. We compare situations in which a rule has been elected that asks people to share or not to share, respectively, with situations in which no rule has been elected. In the absence of an election, sharing is widely considered socially appropriate, while not sharing is considered socially inappropriate. We show that elections can change this social norm: They shift the modal appropriateness perception of actions and, depending on the elected rule, increase their dispersion, i.e. erode previously existing consensus. As a result, actions previously judged socially inappropriate (not sharing) can become socially appropriate. Thi...
We design an online experiment with large voter groups to study how vote buying and partial disen... more We design an online experiment with large voter groups to study how vote buying and partial disenfranchisement of the electorate during a referendum affects voluntary compliance with elected rules of redistribution. To our knowledge, this is the first experimental paper to study whether the well-documented positive behavioral effects of democratic institutions are sensitive to electoral manipulation. We establish a strong negative effect of manipulative interventions: When votes have been bought or parts of the electorate been excluded from the ballot, subjects comply significantly less with elected rules that ask them to share part of their income with other members of the experimental society. Analyzing beliefs, we find no evidence that treatment effects are driven by strategic concerns regarding the behavior of other subjects. Rather, subjects seem to react intrinsically to violations of the idea of inclusive and unbiased elections. Treatment effects are found mainly among indivi...
Although inequality in the US has increased since the 1960s, several studies show that Americans ... more Although inequality in the US has increased since the 1960s, several studies show that Americans underestimate it. Reasons include overreliance on one’s local perspective and ideologically-motivated cognition. We propose a novel mechanism to account for the misperceptions of income inequality. We hypothesize that compared to those who feel less autonomy, the people who believe they are autonomous and have control over their lives also believe that (1) income inequality is lower and (2) income inequality is more acceptable. Using a representative sample of 3,427 Americans, we find evidence to support these hypotheses.
Economic inequality in the US has increased since the 1950s, yet this has not been accompanied by... more Economic inequality in the US has increased since the 1950s, yet this has not been accompanied by more progressive taxation and redistribution. The question how US Americans (mis-)perceive this inequality and to what extent this perception can translate into a demand for redistribution has therefore become an important policy question. We investigate how perceived income inequality causally affects people's fairness views and their support for redistribution in a comprehensive and well-powered survey experiment with a large sample of US Americans. We find precisely estimated null effects. While US Americans underestimate the extent of poverty and, in particular, strongly overestimate the income of top earners, there is no evidence for a causal effect of perceived inequality on policy views or behavior. We test the role of a series of moderators and find that this null effect holds for different income groups and party affiliations, as well as for participants with different levels of trust in government and different levels of perceived personal autonomy. Our study thus suggests that informing people about the extent of inequality in a society will not effectively alter their support for redistributive policies.
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