The Metric is the Message? How Inequality Metrics Shape Perceptions and Preferences for Redistribution

Inequality statistics highlight specific aspects of economic reality. Economists traditionally rely on technical indices such as the Gini coefficient, valued for their formal properties. More recently, scholars have emphasized measures like the income share of the Top 10%, which more directly evoke political conflict. We investigate whether inequality metrics shape public perceptions and support for redistribution, and how they are used in the media. In an online experiment (N = 1,246) among the general public, we show that "political'' measures reduce acceptance of inequality relative to the Gini coefficient, which itself has a desensitizing effect on fairness and emotional ratings. The behavioral effect of switching from the Gini to the Top 10\% share is quantitatively similar to switching 0.12-0.17 Gini points, e.g. from an equal society like the Netherlands to much more unequal Argentina. Academic experts and policy makers are less susceptible, but not immune to the metric effect, and predict a strong behavioral effect on the general public. Finally, we show that left-wing media are more likely to report top-share metrics and less likely to report the Gini coefficient than right-wing media, likely amplifying political divisions. Our findings show that inequality statistics do not merely describe economic reality, but shape normative assessments of the income distribution.