Why Do (Some) Ordinary Americans Support Tax Cuts for the Rich? Evidence From a Randomized Survey Experiment

Why do (some) ordinary citizens support tax cuts for the rich? A prominent explanation in the political economy literature stresses the role of unenlightened self-interest. According to this view, citizens consistently fail to gauge whether they are directly affected by tax policy reforms. We use a randomized survey experiment in the US to identify the drivers of preferences for cutting taxes on the rich. The results show that informing individuals of whether they are directly affected by a cut in the top federal income tax rate has no impact on preferences. We therefore find no support for the unenlightened self-interest explanation. In contrast, we find preferences for taxing the rich are fundamentally affected by information that shifts citizens' core fairness beliefs, as well as information on the past trajectory of top tax rates. Our results therefore align with explanations of tax policy preferences that emphasize the importance of fairness perceptions and reference points.

Download Full-text

The Consumer Citizen, Political Knowledge, and Political Attitudes

The Consumer Citizen ◽

10.1093/oso/9780197526781.003.0004 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 75-96

Author(s):

Ethan Porter

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

United Kingdom ◽

Field Experiment ◽

Political Attitudes ◽

Political Knowledge ◽

The United States ◽

Survey Experiment ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

The Everyday ◽

The Rich

This chapter investigates the consumer citizen’s relationship with political knowledge and political attitudes. A survey experiment in the United States shows that taxpayer receipts can increase knowledge; evidence from a field experiment conducted in the United Kingdom, about the U.K. government’s nationwide distribution of taxpayer receipts, reaches similar conclusions. Yet the receipt is unable to affect a host of attitudes, including toward redistribution. But the consumer citizen’s attitudes toward redistribution can be changed—not just through alignability, but because of the everyday pressures of consumer life. This is illustrated by an experiment that finds that reminders of consumer debts can lead people to become more supportive of higher taxes on the rich.

Download Full-text

Interculturalism and the Acceptance of Minority Groups

Social Psychology ◽

10.1027/1864-9335/a000404 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 51 (2) ◽

pp. 135-140 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Maykel Verkuyten ◽

Kumar Yogeeswaran

Keyword(s):

Minority Groups ◽

Psychological Research ◽

Survey Experiment ◽

Social Psychological ◽

Negative Attitudes ◽

Positive Attitudes ◽

Social Psychological Research ◽

Using Data ◽

The Impact ◽

Situational Effect

Abstract. Multiculturalism has been criticized and rejected by an increasing number of politicians, and social psychological research has shown that it can lead to outgroup stereotyping, essentialist thinking, and negative attitudes. Interculturalism has been proposed as an alternative diversity ideology, but there is almost no systematic empirical evidence about the impact of interculturalism on the acceptance of migrants and minority groups. Using data from a survey experiment conducted in the Netherlands, we examined the situational effect of promoting interculturalism on acceptance. The results show that for liberals, but not for conservatives, interculturalism leads to more positive attitudes toward immigrant-origin groups and increased willingness to engage in contact, relative to multiculturalism.

Download Full-text

What Can We Learn From Factorial Surveys About Human Behavior?

Methodology ◽

10.1027/1614-2241/a000161 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 15 (1) ◽

pp. 19-30 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Knut Petzold ◽

Tobias Wolbring

Keyword(s):

Social Sciences ◽

Behavioral Intentions ◽

Actual Behavior ◽

Full Time ◽

Factorial Survey ◽

Survey Experiment ◽

Intended Behavior ◽

The Social ◽

Survey Experiments ◽

High Level

Abstract. Factorial survey experiments are increasingly used in the social sciences to investigate behavioral intentions. The measurement of self-reported behavioral intentions with factorial survey experiments frequently assumes that the determinants of intended behavior affect actual behavior in a similar way. We critically investigate this fundamental assumption using the misdirected email technique. Student participants of a survey were randomly assigned to a field experiment or a survey experiment. The email informs the recipient about the reception of a scholarship with varying stakes (full-time vs. book) and recipient’s names (German vs. Arabic). In the survey experiment, respondents saw an image of the same email. This validation design ensured a high level of correspondence between units, settings, and treatments across both studies. Results reveal that while the frequencies of self-reported intentions and actual behavior deviate, treatments show similar relative effects. Hence, although further research on this topic is needed, this study suggests that determinants of behavior might be inferred from behavioral intentions measured with survey experiments.

Download Full-text