Abstract
Economic inequality is a collective issue that affects all citizens. However, people often fail to support redistribution strategies aimed at redressing inequality. In this work we investigated personal optimism and collective pessimism as psychological processes that contribute to hampering vs. promoting the demand for redistribution. Our prediction was that support for redistribution would require both a pessimistic economic outlook at the collective level and the perception of being economically disadvantaged. In two studies, one of which pre-registered, Italian participants (Study 1: N = 306; Study 2: N = 384) were led to feel relatively poor or rich, rated their perceived control over either their personal or the nation's future and estimated either personal or national economic and general future risks. To measure support for redistribution, participants were invited to allocate their desired level of taxation to each of the five tax brackets included in the Italian personal income tax. Results showed that participants were optimistic about their personal future, but pessimistic about the fate of their nation. This difference was explained by respondents' greater perceived control over personal future than over the nation's future. Importantly, greater pessimism about national economic risks led to greater support for progressive taxation only for participants who felt relatively poor.
Highlights
At a time when in practically all developed countries wealth and income are increasingly and disproportionately concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer millionaires [1,2,3,4], one would expect that the majority of people should not hesitate to endorse social programs aimed at redressing the economic gap between the most and the least privileged of society [5]
In two studies we investigated for the first time two interrelated issues, namely the role of personal control in personal optimism and collective pessimism, and their relation to demand for redistribution among people who feel relatively economically disadvantaged vs. well-off
The second aim of our work was to investigate whether and when collective pessimism translates into the demand for more progressive taxation
Summary
At a time when in practically all developed countries wealth and income are increasingly and disproportionately concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer millionaires [1,2,3,4], one would expect that the majority of people should not hesitate to endorse social programs aimed at redressing the economic gap between the most and the least privileged of society [5]. This is not the case [6,7,8]. The 2020 annual report of Oxfam, entitled “Public Good or Private Wealth”, proposes to “end the under-taxation of rich individuals and corporations”, to “tax wealth and capital at fairer levels”, to “stop
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