Is Income Inequality Related to Tolerance for Inequality?

Abstract

Data from the International Social Survey Programme that includes individual respondents from 34 countries surveyed at four different times show that populations of countries with more actual income inequality also tolerate more income inequality, even after controlling for numerous individual- and country-level variables. Comparisons over time show that actual income inequality predicts later tolerance for income inequality, within 3–4 years, but earlier tolerance for income inequality does not predict later actual income inequality. These analyses therefore indicate that people adapt how much income inequality they tolerate to actual inequality. They contribute to a long-standing theoretical and empirical discussion about whether material structures influence or result from social norms.