IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/apsrev/v117y2023i1p217-234_14.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Greed, Envy, and Admiration: The Distinct Nature of Public Opinion about Redistribution from the Rich

Author

Listed:
  • HANSEN, KRISTINA JESSEN

Abstract

Research on public opinion about economic redistribution has made important progress by incorporating the psychological microfoundation that shapes support for redistribution to the poor. However, one piece is missing: the microfoundation shaping support for redistribution from the rich. I provide a novel theory about this facet of redistributive attitudes and how it is distinct. Observational data from three nationally representative samples in two different welfare systems and an experiment show that attitudes about taking from the rich are mainly driven by perceptions of their prosociality—whether they are greedy or generous. This contrasts with public opinion about giving to the poor that is mainly driven by perceptions of the efforts of poor people. Furthermore, while compassion shapes attitudes about giving to the poor, the emotions of admiration and envy shape attitudes about taking from the rich. These findings have important theoretical and empirical implications for public opinion about economic redistribution.

Suggested Citation

  • Hansen, Kristina Jessen, 2023. "Greed, Envy, and Admiration: The Distinct Nature of Public Opinion about Redistribution from the Rich," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 117(1), pages 217-234, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:117:y:2023:i:1:p:217-234_14
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0003055422000582/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yeandle, Alex & Green, Jane & Le Corre, Tiphaine, 2024. "Economic hardship and support for redistribution: synthesising five themes in the literature," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 125294, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:117:y:2023:i:1:p:217-234_14. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/psr .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.