Class Attitudes in America: Sympathy for the Poor, Resentment of the Rich, and Political Implications

DiMaggio, Anthony R.

doi:10.1002/polq.12915

Cited by 3 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…Specifically, interventions that emphasize empathy may bolster support for policies that increase resources to help low-SES individuals. Consistent with this prediction, past research has linked sympathy for low-SES people with support for policies geared at reducing class-based inequality (Piston, 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 76%

“…Intervention strategies that highlight those feelings of empathy may help build public support for more equitable social policies. Indeed, people often support redistributive and equity-based policies when they feel sympathy for low-SES groups (e.g., Piston, 2018). Empathy-based strategies that sensitize the public to the social hurts of low-SES individuals may benefit classbased policies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Social Class and Social Pain: Target SES Biases Judgments of Pain and Support for White Target Individuals

Johnson

Freiburger

Deska

et al. 2023

Pers Soc Psychol Bull

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Social pain, defined as distress caused by negative interpersonal experiences (e.g., ostracism, mistreatment), is detrimental to health. Yet, it is unclear how social class might shape judgments of the social pains of low-socioeconomic status (SES) and high-SES individuals. Five studies tested competing toughness and empathy predictions for SES’s effect on social pain judgments. Consistent with an empathy account, in all studies ( Ncumulative = 1,046), low-SES White targets were judged more sensitive to social pain than high-SES White targets. Further, empathy mediated these effects, such that participants felt greater empathy and expected more social pain for low-SES targets relative to high-SES targets. Social pain judgments also informed judgments of social support needs, as low-SES targets were presumed to need more coping resources to manage hurtful events than high-SES targets. The current findings provide initial evidence that empathic concern for low-SES White individuals sensitizes social pain judgments and increases expected support needs for lower class White individuals.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 76%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Class and Social Pain: Target SES Biases Judgments of Pain and Support for White Target Individuals

Johnson

Freiburger

Deska

et al. 2023

Pers Soc Psychol Bull

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“…RQ2: Does being asked to provide estimates of low-income workers' salaries before receiving the information treatment increase the impact of the information treatment? Third, bringing to mind someone who works but nonetheless struggles to make ends meet may change policy attitudes by activating empathetic concern (Batson & Ahmad, 2009;Piston, 2018). Empathetic concern is elicited more easily for some groups than for others.…”

Section: How Information Shapes Support For Redistributive Spendingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Wage Information on Support for Redistributive Spending

Thorson,

Trump

2024

American Politics Research

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Public support for redistributive policies (e.g., Medicaid) depends in part on the perceived need and deservingness of beneficiaries. However, the average citizen is not well informed about the economic conditions of their fellow citizens. In this article, we explore how information about average earnings of the working poor (a group generally seen as deserving) influences support for redistributive spending. Two survey experiments test whether support for such spending is affected by information about the average incomes of low-wage occupations (e.g., home health aides and retail sales workers). We additionally explore potential mechanisms for this effect, including empathy. An exploratory study finds an effect, but a pre-registered confirmatory study yields substantively small findings with inconsistent significance. Even when participants both receive detailed information about low-wage occupations’ salaries and are encouraged to recall people who they know in those jobs, the treatment has no substantial effect. Given the strength of this treatment and the lack of consistent effects, we conclude that interventions providing information about low-income salaries (e.g., in news coverage or interpersonal conversation) are unlikely to have a substantive effect on support for redistribution.

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“…Compared to people in other affluent democracies, for instance, Americans tend to have relatively more negative attitudes toward the poor and view them as undeserving of government support (Aarøe and Petersen, 2014). Yet, even within the U.S., there are those who have empathy toward the poor and view them as unconditionally deserving of redistributive programs (Kreitzer and Smith, 2018;Piston, 2018;Schneider and Ingram, 1993).…”

Section: Attitudes Toward Rich and Poormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Redistribution generally targets the wealthy with progressive tax increases to provide general services, including income transfers for the poor. Research shows that attitudes toward the rich and poor can powerfully shape public support for policies that directly impact these groups (Laenen, 2020;Piston, 2018). Indeed, in actual political debates about redistribution, the relative weight given to negative attitudes toward the wealthy and sympathy toward the poor, as well as negative attitudes toward the government can determine whether policies are enacted (Barton and Piston, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attitudes toward government, rich and poor, and support for redistribution

Witko

Moldogaziev

2023

J. Soc. Pol.

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Scholars have argued that negative attitudes toward government inhibit support for redistributive policies, while other studies show that individual attitudes toward the rich and the poor shape support for redistribution. How these individual attitudes relate to support for redistribution together has seldom been examined. Using the third round of the Life in Transition Survey (fielded in 2016, including 29 countries transitioning from communism) and outcome variables that tap into general attitudes about closing the income gap between the rich and the poor and willingness to pay more to help the needy, we examine how individual attitudes toward government, as well as the rich and the poor are associated with support for redistribution (final analyzed sample n > 23,700). Using logit multivariate regression analysis, we find that trust in government institutions and perceptions of public corruption are associated with certain redistributive attitudes, while individual attitudes toward the rich and the poor are consistently associated with both the general beliefs that income gaps in the country should be reduced and individual levels of willingness to pay more to help the needy.

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Class Attitudes in America: Sympathy for the Poor, Resentment of the Rich, and Political Implications

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

Social Class and Social Pain: Target SES Biases Judgments of Pain and Support for White Target Individuals

Social Class and Social Pain: Target SES Biases Judgments of Pain and Support for White Target Individuals

The Effects of Wage Information on Support for Redistributive Spending

Attitudes toward government, rich and poor, and support for redistribution

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