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Encounters with inequality lead to demands for taxes on the rich

A field experiment reveals that people are more likely to demand that rich members of society should pay more taxes when reminded about ongoing inequality through exposure to a symbol of wealth.
  1. Colin Tredoux

    1. Colin Tredoux is in the Department of Psychology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa.

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  2. John Dixon

    1. John Dixon is in the School of Psychology, the Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK.

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Financial inequality has many effects on the poorest members of society, including lower quality of life and reduced life expectancy1. For instance, the poorest people in England can expect to live for 8.5 years less than the richest2. Under what conditions will those living in poverty seek redress? Writing in Nature, Sands and de Kadt3 ask this question of residents of a township in South Africa — one of the most unequal countries in the world4 (Fig. 1). They find that people from neighbourhoods of low average socio-economic status are more likely to support a demand that the rich pay more tax if they are reminded of inequality.

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Nature 586, 201-202 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-02526-8

References

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  3. Sands, M. & de Kadt, D. Nature 586, 257–261 (2020).

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  4. World Bank. The World Bank in South Africa https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/southafrica/overview (2020).

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