How Does Information About Economic Inequality Affect Attitudes Toward Redistribution?
Redistribution serves as a tool for reducing economic inequality (Ostry & Berg, 2014). Since perceiving higher levels of inequality leads people to adopt more positive attitudes toward redistribution policies (García-Castro, 2021), one might assume that informing individuals about current high levels of inequality would increase support for such policies. However, receiving information about present inequality does not always motivate people to back redistribution measures.
On one hand, the characteristics of the source delivering the message, particularly its credibility, can persuade and shape how individuals reason about the information received (Sterling et al., 2020). On the other hand, political ideologies influence how people process and consume information. For instance, individuals pay less attention to inequality when their ideologies justify it, such as meritocracy or political conservatism (Du & King, 2022; Waldfogel et al., 2021).
Researchers from the Social Problems Psychology Group (https://www.pps-ugr.es/) recently published an article on how information about economic inequality affects attitudes toward redistribution, exploring how this influence depends on both the characteristics of the source delivering the message and the ideology of the recipient.
In two experiments (N1 = 239, N2 = 707), participants were presented with a newspaper article reporting on current levels of inequality in Spain, with the only variation being the source of the information (International Institution vs. Left-Wing Political Party). The findings indicated that attitudes toward redistribution became more positive depending on the degree of credibility attributed to the source, which in turn depended on the participants' political ideology: individuals with right-wing political views attributed greater credibility to the international institution (vs. left-wing political party), while for individuals positioned further to the left on the political spectrum, the opposite effect was observed.
Therefore, when informing the public about economic inequality, it is crucial to consider the target audience and how the source of information aligns with their beliefs in order to enhance the effectiveness of the message in changing attitudes toward redistribution.
Reference:
Sánchez-Rodríguez, Á., García-Sánchez, E., Montoya-Lozano, M., Velandia-Morales, A., & Lobato, R. M. (2024). When and How Information About Economic Inequality Affects Attitudes Towards Redistribution. *Social Justice Research*, 1-27. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-024-00435-z
Contact:
Ángel Sánchez-Rodríguez (@email)
Efraín García-Sánchez (@email)
Mar Montoya-Lozano (@email)
Andrea Velandia-Morales (@email)
Roberto Muelas Lobato (rmuelas@ubu.es)