Priming past experiences and preferences for redistribution

Jeffrey Cross (), Stephen Wu and Wei Zhan ()
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Jeffrey Cross: Hamilton College
Wei Zhan: Hamilton College

Economics Bulletin, 2023, vol. 43, issue 1, 53 - 73

Abstract: This paper analyzes the effects of priming people to think about negative past experiences such as job loss or illness on attitudes towards redistribution. Using a randomly assigned survey design, we find that the effects of being primed to think about past misfortunes on support for redistribution vary by gender. Being cued to think about negative past experiences increases sympathy for governmental redistribution for male respondents, but not for non-males. For non-male respondents, past misfortunes increase support for redistribution even when not primed. Psychological research suggests that this could be due to gender-based differences in how events are remembered or processed.

Keywords: redistribution; priming; experiment; misfortune; attitudes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H3 I3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-03-30
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-22-00554

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