I know people who can and who cannot: A measure of the perception of economic inequality in everyday life

Abstract

This paper describes the development of the Perceived Economic Inequality in Everyday Life (PEIEL) scale. It is written and validated in Spanish. We first carried out an exploratory study, using a sample of 205 participants (52.2% men and 47.8% women; age: M = 24.69, SD = 8.95). We then conducted a confirmatory study with a sample size of 215 individuals (43.7% men and 56.3% women; age: M = 23.83, SD = 6.46). Results showed that the PEIEL scale is a valid and reliable unidimensional instrument. This scale negatively predicted tolerance of economic inequality over and above perceived inequality measured by wage gap estimates. In addition, perceived economic inequality in everyday life was negatively associated with tolerance of inequality, particularly in individuals with right-wing political ideology.

Perceiving economic inequality in everyday life decreases tolerance to inequality

“…Furthermore, this result supports previous studies that found that there is a negative relationship between perceived economic inequality and tolerance to economic inequality (Castillo et al, 2012;García-Castro et al, 2019;Khun, 2019) in contrast to studies suggesting the opposite (Loveless, 2013;Trump, 2018).…”

“…Despite these findings, the opposite has also been suggested in previous research (Loveless, 2013;Trump, 2018). In a previous study, measuring perceived inequality based on the closest context, PEIEL positively predicted intolerance toward inequality over and above the most popular measures of general perception of inequality used in the literature (García-Castro et al, 2019).…”

“…Hence, we aimed to deepen the research on inequality in a more direct and meaningful way, through the inequality that individuals experience in their daily lives. For instance, we used a scale that measures salient experiences of inequality in everyday life, and how individuals perceive inequality in their close social circle (García-Castro et al, 2019). Second, although previous researchers have already examined the relationship between PEIEL and tolerance to inequality (García-Castro et al, 2019), no experimental research has been conducted to examine the causal direction of this effect.…”

“…For instance, we used a scale that measures salient experiences of inequality in everyday life, and how individuals perceive inequality in their close social circle (García-Castro et al, 2019). Second, although previous researchers have already examined the relationship between PEIEL and tolerance to inequality (García-Castro et al, 2019), no experimental research has been conducted to examine the causal direction of this effect. Finally, the possible relationship between the perception of economic inequality and attitudes toward redistribution mediated by intolerance to inequality has not yet been empirically examined.…”

“…The measured PEIEL is a 12-item Likert scale with a 7-point response format ranging from 1 (completely disagree) to 7 (completely agree). Some examples of its items are as follows: "I know people who can afford to save money and others who do not reach the end of the month," "Among the people PERCEIVED ECONOMIC INEQUALITY IN EVERYDAY LIFE 9 I know some cannot afford unforeseen expenses and others solve them without any difficulty" (García-Castro et al, 2019;α = .88, M = 5.69, 95% CI [5.55, 5.83]).…”