Why do some people support higher taxes on the rich, while others believe such taxes are unfair? According to new research, stereotypes about wealthy people have a significant influence on Americans’ tax policy preferences — especially among conservatives.
“With an economic recession and mounting public debt, debate in the United States has focused on the merits of increasing taxes on the wealthy to balance the federal budget and alleviate growing income inequality. The underlying dynamics of this debate—occurring among elites, in the news media, and in the general public—are hardly academic, as tax policy and income inequality are among the most salient political issues since the onset of the ‘Great Recession,'” the study’s author, Jordan Michael Ragusa of the College of Charleston, wrote in his study.
The study of 162 undergraduates and 140 other adults survey the participants about tax policy, and asked them to generate adjectives or short phrases to describe an environmentalist, a conservative, a liberal, a rich person, and a poor person. Ragusa ended up with a total of 1,570 descriptions of “a rich person.”
The participants overwhelmingly supported raising taxes on the rich. More than 170 of them — 58 percent — supported a tax hike for the wealthy, while 87 participants — 29 percent — supported lowering taxes on the rich. The other 33 participants thought taxes on the rich were “about right.”
Ragusa found the ten most common ways to describe a rich person were “Educated/highly educated,” “Republican/conservative,” “Hard working,” “Good job/salary,” “Out of touch,” “Snobbish/arrogant,” “White,” “Inheritance/rich family,” “Multiple/expensive cars,” and “Conspicuous consumption.”
Ragusa determined that the concept of deservingness was a key factor. In particular, he examined descriptions of the rich that commented on whether the rich were directly responsible for their own wealth and whether they contributed to society.
People who believed the rich became wealthy through hard work and benefitted society as job creators supported lower taxes, while people who believed that the rich became wealthy as a result of inherited wealth and were selfish wanted them to pay higher taxes.
“The strongest stereotypes for conservatives are those that characterize the rich as ‘hard working’ and ‘selfmade,’ whereas the strongest stereotypes for liberals are those that characterize the rich as ‘greedy’ and ‘self-interested,'” Ragusa wrote.
The concept of deservingness was especially important among conservatives. Ragusa linked this finding to “a belief that individuals are largely responsible for their own outcomes.” For liberals, however, political ideology emerged as a more important factor than deservingness.
“Thus, rather than merely reflecting divergent affinities toward various social groups, liberal and conservative distinctions appear to reflect divergent strategies when formulating policy preferences. For conservatives, attributes such as control and reciprocity provide a relevant source of deservingness information, presumably because it can speak to individual merit. Conversely, although the results show that liberals’ preferences are shaped by antisocial stereotypes of the rich, the overall results demonstrate that taxing the rich is driven largely by ideological considerations,” Ragusa wrote.