IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/joecin/v23y2025i2d10.1007_s10888-024-09641-w.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

When perception shapes reality: Effects of perceived income inequality and social mobility on affective polarization

Author

Listed:
  • Lion Merten

    (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Chair for Empirical Political Science)

  • Jana Niedringhaus

    (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Department of Business and Economics)

Abstract

Economic inequality and affective polarization are regarded as crucial factors impacting democratic resilience. However, studies on how the two phenomena are intertwined remain scarce and rely primarily on objective measures of economic inequality, overlooking the important role of subjective perceptions. In this paper, we aim to fill this gap by empirically testing the link between perceptions of income inequality and affective polarization. In addition, we examine whether perceptions of income mobility moderate this relationship in such a way that perceptions of higher income mobility substitute the effect of perceived income inequality on affective polarization. To do so, we conducted a survey experiment (N = 2,717) with a factorial 2 (high vs. low income inequality) × 2 (high vs. low income mobility) design, in which we successfully modified income inequality and mobility perceptions. We find no significant effect of inequality perceptions on affective polarization and, as a consequence, no moderating role of income mobility perceptions in this relationship. Nevertheless, when income inequality is regarded to be high, the perceived level of income mobility seems to matter for the degree of affective polarization: Respondents are significantly more polarized in the high inequality and low mobility treatment than in the high inequality and high mobility treatment.

Suggested Citation

  • Lion Merten & Jana Niedringhaus, 2025. "When perception shapes reality: Effects of perceived income inequality and social mobility on affective polarization," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 23(2), pages 327-347, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:joecin:v:23:y:2025:i:2:d:10.1007_s10888-024-09641-w
    DOI: 10.1007/s10888-024-09641-w
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10888-024-09641-w
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10888-024-09641-w?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stefanie Stantcheva, 2023. "How to Run Surveys: A Guide to Creating Your Own Identifying Variation and Revealing the Invisible," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 15(1), pages 205-234, September.
    2. Vladimir Gimpelson & Daniel Treisman, 2018. "Misperceiving inequality," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 27-54, March.
    3. Alberto Alesina & Stefanie Stantcheva & Edoardo Teso, 2018. "Intergenerational Mobility and Preferences for Redistribution," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(2), pages 521-554, February.
    4. Steven Greene, 2004. "Social Identity Theory and Party Identification," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 85(1), pages 136-153, March.
    5. Ingar Haaland & Christopher Roth & Johannes Wohlfart, 2023. "Designing Information Provision Experiments," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 61(1), pages 3-40, March.
    6. Lelkes, Yphtach, 2021. "Policy over party: comparing the effects of candidate ideology and party on affective polarization," Political Science Research and Methods, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(1), pages 189-196, January.
    7. Raj Chetty & Nathaniel Hendren & Patrick Kline & Emmanuel Saez, 2014. "Where is the land of Opportunity? The Geography of Intergenerational Mobility in the United States," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(4), pages 1553-1623.
    8. Frederick Solt, 2008. "Economic Inequality and Democratic Political Engagement," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 52(1), pages 48-60, January.
    9. Daewoo Lee & Chae Young Chang & Hyunkang Hur, 2020. "Economic performance, income inequality and political trust: new evidence from a cross-national study of 14 Asian countries," Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(2), pages 66-88, June.
    10. Vladimir E. Gimpelson & Galina A. Monusova, 2014. "Perception Of Inequality And Social Mobility," HSE Working papers WP BRP 84/EC/2014, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    11. Christina Starmans & Mark Sheskin & Paul Bloom, 2017. "Why people prefer unequal societies," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 1(4), pages 1-7, April.
    12. Mullinix, Kevin J. & Leeper, Thomas J. & Druckman, James N. & Freese, Jeremy, 2015. "The Generalizability of Survey Experiments," Journal of Experimental Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(2), pages 109-138, January.
    13. Markus Knell & Helmut Stix, 2021. "Inequality, perception biases and trust," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 19(4), pages 801-824, December.
    14. Jan Schulz & Daniel M. Mayerhoffer & Anna Gebhard, 2022. "A Network-Based Explanation of Inequality Perceptions," Papers 2203.14254, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2022.
    15. Alexander J. Stewart & Joshua B. Plotkin & Nolan McCarty, 2021. "Inequality, Identity, and Partisanship: How redistribution can stem the tide of mass polarization," Papers 2103.14619, arXiv.org.
    16. Andreas Kuhn, 2020. "The individual (mis-)perception of wage inequality: measurement, correlates and implications," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 59(5), pages 2039-2069, November.
    17. Nina Weber, 2023. "Experience of Social Mobility and Support for Redistribution: Accepting or Blaming the System?," ifo Working Paper Series 397, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    18. Huddy, Leonie & Mason, Lilliana & Aarøe, Lene, 2015. "Expressive Partisanship: Campaign Involvement, Political Emotion, and Partisan Identity," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 109(1), pages 1-17, February.
    19. Dafoe, Allan & Zhang, Baobao & Caughey, Devin, 2018. "Information Equivalence in Survey Experiments," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 26(4), pages 399-416, October.
    20. Shayo, Moses, 2009. "A Model of Social Identity with an Application to Political Economy: Nation, Class, and Redistribution," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 103(2), pages 147-174, May.
    21. Alexander J. Stewart & Nolan McCarty & Joanna J. Bryson, 2018. "Polarization under rising inequality and economic decline," Papers 1807.11477, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2020.
    22. Helbling, Marc & Jungkunz, Sebastian, 2020. "Social divides in the age of globalization," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 43(6), pages 1187-1210.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jon M. Jachimowicz & Shai Davidai & Daniela Goya‐Tocchetto & Barnabas Szaszi & Martin V. Day & Stephanie J. Tepper & L. Taylor Phillips & M. Usman Mirza & Nailya Ordabayeva & Oliver P. Hauser, 2023. "Inequality in researchers’ minds: Four guiding questions for studying subjective perceptions of economic inequality," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(5), pages 1534-1561, December.
    2. Windsteiger, Lisa, 2022. "The redistributive consequences of segregation and misperceptions," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    3. Schwarz, Anna & Warum, Philipp, 2024. "Don’t stop believin’: Income group heterogeneity in updating of social mobility beliefs," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 1-19.
    4. Günther, Isabel & Martorano, Bruno, 2025. "Inequality, social mobility and redistributive preferences," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 229(C).
    5. Lasse J. Jessen & Sebastian Koehne & Patrick Nüß & Jens Ruhose, 2024. "Socioeconomic Inequality in Life Expectancy: Perception and Policy Demand," CESifo Working Paper Series 10940, CESifo.
    6. Campos-Vazquez, Raymundo M. & Krozer, Alice & Ramírez-Álvarez, Aurora A. & de la Torre, Rodolfo & Velez-Grajales, Roberto, 2022. "Perceptions of inequality and social mobility in Mexico," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    7. Tsvetkova, Milena & Olsson, Henrik & Galesic, Mirta, 2024. "Social networks affect redistribution decisions and polarization," OSF Preprints bw7ux_v1, Center for Open Science.
    8. Barton, Jared & Pan, Xiaofei, 2022. "Movin’ on up? A survey experiment on mobility enhancing policies," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    9. Marino, Maria & Iacono, Roberto & Mollerstrom, Johanna, 2024. "(Mis-)Perceptions, information, and political polarization: A survey and a systematic literature review," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    10. Riccardo Bruni & Alessandro Gioffré & Maria Marino, 2025. "In‐group bias in preferences for redistribution: a survey experiment in Italy," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 92(367), pages 1009-1080, July.
    11. Barron, Kai & Becker, Anna & Huck, Steffen, 2025. "Motivated political reasoning: On the emergence of belief-value constellations," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 172.
    12. Shen Yang & Alfred M. Wu, 2024. "The Political Effects of Economic Inequality: Evidence from Hong Kong," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 171(2), pages 749-769, January.
    13. Schwaiger, Rene & Huber, Jürgen & Kirchler, Michael & Kleinlercher, Daniel & Weitzel, Utz, 2022. "Unequal opportunities, social groups, and redistribution: Evidence from Germany," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    14. Botelho Azevedo, Alda & Gonçalves, Inês & Pereira dos Santos, João, 2025. "Can’t Buy Me Home: Beliefs, Facts, and Policy in the Housing Affordability Crisis," IZA Discussion Papers 18073, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Carl Leonard Fischer & Lorenz Meister, 2023. "Economic Determinants of Populism," DIW Roundup: Politik im Fokus 145, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    16. Knell, Markus & Stix, Helmut, 2020. "Perceptions of inequality," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    17. Fehr, Dietmar & Müller, Daniel & Preuss, Marcel, 2024. "Social mobility perceptions and inequality acceptance," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 221(C), pages 366-384.
    18. Christopher Hoy & Russell Toth & Nurina Merdikawati, 2024. "A false divide? Providing information about inequality aligns preferences for redistribution between right- and left-wing voters," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 22(3), pages 669-707, September.
    19. Maurice Dunaiski & Janne Tukiainen, 2023. "Does income transparency affect support for redistribution? Evidence from Finland's tax day," Discussion Papers 159, Aboa Centre for Economics.
    20. Nina Weber, 2023. "Experience of Social Mobility and Support for Redistribution: Accepting or Blaming the System?," ifo Working Paper Series 397, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:joecin:v:23:y:2025:i:2:d:10.1007_s10888-024-09641-w. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.