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Noblesse Oblige? Social Status and Economic Inequality Maintenance among Politicians

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  • Michael W Kraus
  • Bennett Callaghan

Abstract

Economic inequality is at historically high levels in the United States and is among the most pressing issues facing society. And yet, predicting the behavior of politicians with respect to their support of economic inequality remains a significant challenge. Given that high status individuals tend to conceive of the current structure of society as fair and just, we expected that high status members of the U.S. House of Representatives would be more likely to support economic inequality in their legislative behavior than would their low status counterparts. Results supported this prediction particularly among Democratic members of Congress: Whereas Republicans tended to support legislation increasing economic inequality regardless of their social status, the social status of Democrats – measured in terms of average wealth, race, or gender – was a significant predictor of support for economic inequality. Policy implications of the observed relationship between social status and support for economic inequality are considered.

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  • Michael W Kraus & Bennett Callaghan, 2014. "Noblesse Oblige? Social Status and Economic Inequality Maintenance among Politicians," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(1), pages 1-6, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0085293
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0085293
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Moody, James & Mucha, Peter J., 2013. "Portrait of Political Party Polarization – ERRATUM," Network Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(2), pages 251-251, August.
    2. Moody, James & Mucha, Peter J., 2013. "Portrait of Political Party Polarization1," Network Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(1), pages 119-121, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Yuxiao Dong & Jie Tang & Nitesh V Chawla & Tiancheng Lou & Yang Yang & Bai Wang, 2015. "Inferring Social Status and Rich Club Effects in Enterprise Communication Networks," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(3), pages 1-14, March.
    2. Martin Korndörfer & Boris Egloff & Stefan C. Schmukle, 2015. "A Large Scale Test of the Effect of Social Class on Prosocial Behavior," Working Papers 1601, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
    3. Martin Korndörfer & Boris Egloff & Stefan C. Schmukle, 2015. "A Large Scale Test of the Effect of Social Class on Prosocial Behavior," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 808, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).

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