The Lack of Association Between Actual and Perceived Social Class and Support for Government Wealth Redistribution.

Live Poster Session: https://wesleyan.zoom.us/j/95860339165

Economic inequality in the United States is one of the defining issues of our time, but the attitude Americans hold toward wealth redistribution is highly varied. Previous studies usually imply that people of lower socioeconomic status would be more supportive of redistributive policies compared to high-income earners, but recent studies suggest that the politics of classes could be unraveling. There is far less information on perceived social class versus actual income-based class in accounting for variation in redistribution attitudes in modern national samples. This paper will utilize the 2024 American National Election Studies data to determine which of the two variables, self-identified class or household income level, is more closely linked to the third variable of support for government action to reduce inequality. Perceived class was measured using self-reported class identity, actual class was derived from income categories, and redistribution attitudes were assessed using a seven-point policy scale. It was anticipated that the lower perceived or actual class groups would be more supportive of redistribution, but both bivariate and multivariate analyses did not indicate much variation between class groups. The results confirm what some new research has suggested, but paint a picture where class isn’t only having less of an influence on policy, but one where it is having next to zero influence.

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