Experiments show that people dislike inequality, but are they willing to overturn established hierarchies to achieve income equality? A cross-cultural experiment shows that from a young age humans exhibit rank reversal aversion when redistributing resources between the rich and the poor, suggesting that hierarchy preservation is a social norm.
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Charness, G., Villeval, M. Behavioural economics: Preserving rank as a social norm. Nat Hum Behav 1, 0137 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-017-0137
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-017-0137
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