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Building a Better America—One Wealth Quintile at a Time
Abstract
Disagreements about the optimal level of wealth inequality underlie policy debates ranging from taxation to welfare. We attempt to insert the desires of "regular" Americans into these debates, by asking a nationally representative online panel to estimate the current distribution of wealth in the United States and to "build a better America" by constructing distributions with their ideal level of inequality. First, respondents dramatically underestimated the current level of wealth inequality. Second, respondents constructed ideal wealth distributions that were far more equitable than even their erroneously low estimates of the actual distribution. Most important from a policy perspective, we observed a surprising level of consensus: All demographic groups-even those not usually associated with wealth redistribution such as Republicans and the wealthy-desired a more equal distribution of wealth than the status quo.
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“Using the same measure, another study found that both groups are about equally divided in their beliefs and ideals about income inequality (Norton and Ariely, 2011).”
From Factual belief polarization between Democrats and Republicans: source or epiphenomenon of ideological and affective polarization? (2024) · cites this paper as Norton and Ariely, 2011
In the citing paper
“their preferred distribution of wealth among citizens was closer to equality than even their own incorrect estimations of the distribution”
From The psychology of social class: How socioeconomic status impacts thought, feelings, and behaviour (2018) · cites this paper as Norton and Ariely (2011)
In the citing paper
“respondents greatly underestimated the degree of wealth inequality in the United States, believing that the wealthiest 20% of the population owned 59% of the wealth, where the actual figure is 84%”
From The psychology of social class: How socioeconomic status impacts thought, feelings, and behaviour (2018) · cites this paper as Norton and Ariely (2011)
In the citing paper
“This also held for wealthy respondents and Republican voters – albeit to a lesser extent than their poorer and Democrat counterparts.”
From The psychology of social class: How socioeconomic status impacts thought, feelings, and behaviour (2018) · cites this paper as Norton and Ariely (2011)
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Metadata
- Authors
- Norton, M. I., & Ariely, D.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- Duke University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Norton, Michael I.
- Venue
- Perspectives on Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2011-01
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 9-12
- ISSN
- 1745-6916 (ISSN-L)
- 1745-6924
- OpenAlex
- W2133875312
- Cited by
- 1,119
- References
- 25
- Citations by year
- 2026: 30 · 2025: 62 · 2024: 97 · 2023: 79 · 2022: 86 · 2021: 117 · 2020: 124 · 2019: 96 · 2018: 85 · 2017: 64 · 2016: 65 · 2015: 61 · 2014: 45 · 2013: 53 · 2012: 30
- FWCI
- 161.67
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Perspectives on Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Income, Poverty, and Inequality
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Social Policy and Reform Studies
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social Issues and Policies
- Keywords
- wealth inequality, public opinion on inequality, partisanship
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