Although economic inequality has increased over the last few decades, support for redistributive policies is not widely accepted by the public. In this paper, we examine whether attitudes towards ...redistribution are a product of both perceptions of, and beliefs about, inequality. Specifically, we argue that the association between perceived inequality and support for redistribution varies by beliefs that justify inequality. We investigated this hypothesis in a cross‐cultural/country sample (N = 56,021 from 41 countries) using two different operationalizations of support for redistribution and two distinct beliefs that justify inequality. As hypothesized, the perceived size of the income gap correlated positively with believing that it is the government's responsibility to reduce inequality among those who rejected beliefs that justify inequality, whereas there was no association for those who endorsed these beliefs. Similarly, perceived economic inequality correlated positively with support for progressive taxation, but this association was weaker among those who endorsed meritocratic and equal opportunity beliefs. Together, these results demonstrate that ideologies influence the relationship between perceived inequality and attitudes towards redistribution, and that support for redistribution varies by how the policy is framed.
ABSTRACT
The legal socialization framework emphasizes the importance of adolescents’ encounters with police. We examine how different types of police contact and neighborhood experiences are linked ...to the legal socialization process among adolescents living in São Paulo, Brazil. Drawing on 669 participants across three waves of panel data from the São Paulo Legal Socialization Study, results from the multilevel longitudinal model revealed that within‐person increases in vicarious police contact were linked to a decrease in police legitimacy over time. Exploratory analyses using a multilevel mediation model indicated that the observed negative effect of vicarious police contact was mediated by evaluations of police procedural justice. As for the between‐person effects, voluntary police contact positively predicted police legitimacy over time. However, the effects of vicarious police contact and violent police contact were mediated by police procedural justice. Additionally, police legitimacy decreased for people who had more exposure to violence and lower levels of fear of crime. The study revealed that the nature of police contact and levels of exposure to violence can have important effects on adolescents’ perceptions of police legitimacy, even after accounting for procedural justice.
This article aims to examine the role of Belief in a Just World (BJW) in the legitimation of economic inequality. Using data from 27 European countries (N=47,086), we conducted multilevel analyses ...and found that BJW positively predicted the legitimation of economic inequality, measured by three indicators: the perceived fairness of the overall wealth inequality, and the fairness of the earnings made by the Top 10% and the Bottom 10% of society. These results persisted after controlling for individual- and country-level variables. Moreover, the BJW effect was stronger on the legitimation of the Bottom 10% incomes, compared to the legitimation of the Top 10%. We also found that economic inequality at the country-level reduced the BJW effect on legitimation of inequality. Finally, BJW displayed a negative indirect effect on support for redistribution, via the legitimation of economic inequalities.
This article studies the interactional functions of racism discourse in mobilizing support for right‐wing populism. The analysis focuses on the controversy surrounding UKIP's “Breaking Point” poster ...campaign, which launched days before the historic British EU referendum. We focus on the development of “tripolar relations” between the UKIP party leadership, mainstream political elites, and ordinary citizens. Using thematic discourse analysis, we show how the poster was depicted as racist and the UKIP leader Nigel Farage was accused of scaremongering and stoking racism by means of propaganda. This criticism becomes the grounds for mobilization as Farage defended the campaign against the charge of racism and his supporters rose to his side. We conclude by showing how arguments about the nature of racism are identity performances that can reproduce or challenge existing social relations. This article thus identifies the rhetorical “collaboration” that exists between critics and defenders of racism and the inadvertent political outcome of this interaction.
The study of perceived economic differences in everyday life is relevant to deepening knowledge of how inequality shapes psychological processes. In the current research, Spanish undergraduates (N = ...547) were asked what their friends with the most and least money could do with their resources. Using a qualitative and quantitative approach, we performed a content analysis of the 1,085 open‐ended responses given, ran latent class analyses with the coded material to identify groups of participants, and explored whether class membership was associated with their awareness of inequality and support for redistribution. Participants perceived inequality among their friends through daily indicators such as consumption, opportunities, leisure, and mental health; some participants used compensatory strategies to mitigate perceived inequality. Latent class analyses suggested that participants differed mostly in the attention paid to consumption and in the use of compensatory strategies. Exploratory analyses suggested that perceiving inequality in everyday life in terms of consumption, negative attributes towards the wealthy, or positive attributes towards low socioeconomic groups was related to acknowledging economic differences among individuals and support for redistribution. The study of perceived economic inequality in everyday life continues a new line of research with the potential to obtain results more consistent with people's experiences.
Attitudes towards economic inequality are crucial to uphold structural economic inequality in democratic societies. Previous research has shown that socioeconomic status, political ideology, and the ...objective level of economic inequality associated with individuals' attitudes towards economic inequality. However, some have suggested that people are aware of the individual and social features that are more functional according to the level of economic inequality. Therefore, individual predispositions such as cultural values could also predict these attitudes. In the current research, we expand previous results testing whether cultural variables at the individual level predict attitudes towards economic inequality. After analysing survey data including samples from 52 countries (N = 89,565), we found that self‐enhancement values predict positively, and self‐transcendence negatively, attitudes towards economic inequality as the ideal economic inequality measures. This result remained significant even after controlling by socioeconomic status, political ideology, and objective economic inequality. However, this effect is only true in high and middle social mobility countries, but not in countries with low social mobility. The present research highlights how cultural values and country social mobility are crucial factors to addressing attitudes towards economic inequality.
People’s desired levels of inequality are informed by the levels of inequality they perceive to exist. Perceived economic inequality is used as a reference point in determining people’s ideal level ...of inequality. However, recent research has suggested that the strength of this relationship depends on people’s endorsement of system-justifying beliefs. The current article extends this body of research by replicating these findings across 41 countries (N = 42,078), showing the impact of system-justifying beliefs at both the individual and the societal levels. We conducted a multilevel analysis and found that the higher the endorsement of equality of opportunity beliefs—both at the individual and the societal levels—and meritocratic beliefs—at the individual level—the stronger the relationship between perceived and ideal economic inequality. These findings are in support of a motivated account of the perceived legitimacy of economic inequality.
In Brazil, the Custody Hearing is a legal device established in 2015 to safeguard the rights of people arrested in flagrante delicto by the police. In an attempt to prevent the indiscriminate use of ...preventive detentions in the country, the custody hearings were created for the potential effects that an in-person meeting may have on the flow of the Criminal Justice System. While the recent literature on criminology has produced significant empirical data testing the effects of peoples’ evaluations of procedural justice during court hearings for institutional legitimacy, little is known about what happens during these situations of contact between citizens and judicial actors. Using data from the observation of 138 custody hearings at the largest Criminal Forum in Brazil, we analyzed in this work how interaction procedures and ceremonial resources are employed by judicial actors to exercise authority. By focusing on the quality of decision-making and the interpersonal treatment expressed in procedures, we sought to analyze the effects of the punitive framework for the construction of legitimacy. Our analysis of interactions in custody hearings indicates the existence of a claim to legitimacy which, counter to procedural justice principles, develops through the exclusion of the person subjected to that authority.
En este artículo se presenta la adaptación de una versión reducida de la escala de autoritarismo de derechas (RWA) en Colombia. En el Estudio 1 (n=417) se realizó un análisis fac-torial exploratorio ...para identificar las dimensiones de la escala; y en el Estudio 2 (n=396), se realizó un análisis factorial confirmatorio en donde se analizó la validez divergente/convergente de la escala. El estudio aporta evidencia empírica a favor de las propiedades psicométricas apropiadas para la escala de RWA en el contexto colombiano. Los resultados sugieren que la RWA tiene tres dimensiones en este contexto: agresión-autoritaria, sumisión-autoritaria, convencionalismo. Además, la RWA está asociada positivamente con dominancia social, deshumanización del adversario, apoyo al conflicto, patriotismo, sexismo, homofobia y la prohibición de políticas sociales progresistas (e.g., aborto, matrimonio homosexual, eutanasia).
Este artículo examina la interacción entre el estatus socioeconómico y las creencias que justifican la desigualdad en lo relativo al apoyo a la redistribución. Utilizando datos de una encuesta de São ...Paulo (Brasil) (N=928), encontramos que el apoyo a la redistribución estuvo negativamente asociado con el estatus socioeconómico subjetivo; pero estuvo positivamente relacionada con el estatus socioeconómico objetivo. Además, las creencias que justifican la desigualdad moderaron esta relación. Por un lado, el efecto negativo del estatus subjetivo sobre el apoyo a la redistribución fue más fuerte para las personas que apoyan las creencias que justifican la desigualdad. Por otro lado, el efecto positivo entre el estatus objetivo y el apoyo a la redistribución solo ocurrió para las personas que rechazaron estas creencias. Los resultados sugieren que el efecto del estatus socioeconómico sobre el apoyo a la redistribución depende del grado de apoyo a las creencias ideológicas que justifican la desigualdad.
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