Experience and Perception of Social Mobility - a Cross-Country Test of the Self-Serving Bias

How does the experience of social mobility affect people’s distributive preferences? Us-ing cross-country survey data and a survey experiment, I examine the effects of experi-enced social mobility on support for redistribution. The results indicate an asymmet-ric relationship - experiencing downward mobility increases support for redistribution while experiencing upward mobility does not affect distributive preferences. In line with a common attribution bias, the self-serving bias, those with negative mobility experiences ‘blame the system’ and extrapolate from their negative experience onto society at large, which increases their demand for redistribution. Conversely, those who experienced positive mobility believe they ‘beat the odds’ and do not extrapolate from their experience onto perceptions of societal mobility, leading to no less support for redistribution. This finding suggests significant implications at the aggregate and a potential demand-side explanation for the Great Gatsby Curve: As overall absolute mobility decreases (increases), ceteris paribus, demand for redistribution also decreases (increases).