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Social Sampling, Perceptions of Wealth Distribution, and Support for Redistribution

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The Social Psychology of Inequality

Abstract

Much theorizing in social psychology, economics, and related disciplines has emphasized the role of ideology, self-interest, or other motivational factors in determining how individuals respond to economic inequality. In the present chapter, we outline a complimentary, “bottom-up” approach focusing instead on the role of environmental structure – the structure of wealth distribution itself – in tandem with individuals’ own wealth, in systematically determining perceptions of wealth distribution. This social sampling account entails that, because people are overexposed to similarly wealthy (or poor) others via their day-to-day social environment and extrapolate from these “social samples” to wider society, wealthier persons are prone to perceive greater levels of wealth across society as a whole. This process not only leads to divergence between wealthier and poorer persons’ perceptions of wealth distribution but has important knock-on consequences for their political preferences. We discuss recent evidence showing that social sampling partially explains why wealthier persons tend to favor wealth redistribution less than poorer persons, independently of self-interested or ideological motivation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Essex, Colchester, UK

    Rael J. Dawtry

  2. School of Psychology, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK

    Robbie M. Sutton

  3. School of Psychology, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Chris G. Sibley

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  1. Rael J. Dawtry
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  2. Robbie M. Sutton
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  3. Chris G. Sibley
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Correspondence to Rael J. Dawtry .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD, Australia

    Jolanda Jetten  & Kim Peters  & 

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Dawtry, R.J., Sutton, R.M., Sibley, C.G. (2019). Social Sampling, Perceptions of Wealth Distribution, and Support for Redistribution. In: Jetten, J., Peters, K. (eds) The Social Psychology of Inequality. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28856-3_24

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