Sands Melissa L
Department of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 Jan 24;114(4):663-668. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1615010113. Epub 2017 Jan 9.
The distribution of wealth in the United States and countries around the world is highly skewed. How does visible economic inequality affect well-off individuals' support for redistribution? Using a placebo-controlled field experiment, I randomize the presence of poverty-stricken people in public spaces frequented by the affluent. Passersby were asked to sign a petition calling for greater redistribution through a "millionaire's tax." Results from 2,591 solicitations show that in a real-world-setting exposure to inequality decreases affluent individuals' willingness to redistribute. The finding that exposure to inequality begets inequality has fundamental implications for policymakers and informs our understanding of the effects of poverty, inequality, and economic segregation. Confederate race and socioeconomic status, both of which were randomized, are shown to interact such that treatment effects vary according to the race, as well as gender, of the subject.
美国以及世界各国的财富分配严重不均。明显的经济不平等如何影响富裕人群对再分配的支持呢？通过一项安慰剂对照实地实验，我在富人常去的公共场所随机安排贫困人群出现。路人被要求签署一份请愿书，呼吁通过“百万富翁税”进行更多的再分配。对2591次请求的结果显示，在现实环境中接触不平等会降低富裕人群进行再分配的意愿。接触不平等会导致不平等这一发现对政策制定者具有根本性的启示，并有助于我们理解贫困、不平等和经济隔离的影响。研究表明，随机安排的同盟者种族和社会经济地位会相互作用，以至于处理效果会因受试者的种族以及性别而有所不同。
