Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Apr;62(2):1076-1096.
doi: 10.1111/bjso.12620. Epub 2022 Dec 26.

Reducing economic inequality is 'just right': Moral conviction predicts support for redistributive government policies

Andrea Scatolon  1 , Maria Paola Paladino  1
Affiliations

Reducing economic inequality is 'just right': Moral conviction predicts support for redistributive government policies

Andrea Scatolon et al. Br J Soc Psychol. 2023 Apr.

Abstract

Individuals may support economic redistribution because of practical considerations, but also because they perceive it as morally necessary according to their personal ethical beliefs. Across three studies, we investigated whether attitudes towards reducing economic inequality can be experienced with moral conviction (i.e. perceived as rooted in one's core beliefs about right and wrong) and motivate support for redistributive government policies. In Study 1 (N = 138), reducing economic inequality moral conviction scores were comparable to other highly moralized topics (e.g. euthanasia) and higher than lowly moralized topics (e.g. tattoos). In Study 2 (N = 325) and Study 3 (N = 271), the moral conviction for reducing economic inequality positively predicted support for several redistributive government policies. Additionally, while empathic concern (Study 2 and 3) provided mixed results, structural causal attributions (Study 3) mediated this effect. Therefore, our findings highlight the importance of personal moral significance in understanding what motivates support for redistributive policies.

Keywords: economic inequality; moral conviction; moralization; redistributive government policies; support for redistribution.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Alesina, A., Stantcheva, S., & Teso, E. (2018). Intergenerational mobility and preferences for redistribution. American Economic Review, 108(2), 521-554. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20162015
    1. Alvaredo, C., Lucas, P. T., Saez, E., & Zucman, G. (2018). The world inequality report. In The world inequality report. Harvard University Press. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.4159/9780674984769/html
    1. Balestra, C., & Tonkin, R. (2018). Inequalities in household wealth across OECD countries: Evidence from the OECD Wealth Distribution Database (OECD Statistics Working Papers No. 2018/01; OECD Statistics Working Papers, Vol. 2018/01). https://doi.org/10.1787/7e1bf673-en
    1. Brandt, M. J., Wisneski, D. C., & Skitka, L. J. (2015). Moralization and the 2012 U.S. presidential election campaign. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 3(2), 211-237. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v3i2.434
    1. Brown-Iannuzzi, J. L., Lundberg, K. B., & McKee, S. E. (2021). Economic inequality and socioeconomic ranking inform attitudes toward redistribution. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 96, 104180. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2021.104180

LinkOut - more resources