LSE III Event | Local versus National: The effect of income (mis)perceptions on inequality beliefs

Описание: Part of the Inequalities Seminar Series

Tuesday 30 September, 12.30 - 1.30pm. In-person and online seminar. CBG 2.03.

Speaker: Dr Katy Morris, Postdoctoral Fellow, Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI), Stockholm University.

People are notoriously bad at estimating their position in the national income distribution. However, national income distributions can mask huge local-level variation. In light of new evidence that suggests people anchor to more immediate reference groups, we investigate whether people have more accurate perceptions of where they sit in the local income distribution and whether local income corrections induce greater change in individual inequality beliefs and preferences. Findings from a pre-registered survey experiment in the United States reveal that perceptions of household position within the local (county) and national income distributions are equally inaccurate, with respondents defaulting to the middle rung of the ladder at both scales. Though not uniformly stronger, we find that local income corrections produce more consistent changes in outcomes such as meritocratic belief and support for redistribution than national ones. These results challenge the received wisdom that the national context is the natural or default reference group.