Awareness Without Action: Understanding Public Support for Redistribution in the Face of Economic Inequality

Across Europe, high or rising levels of economic inequality persist. Yet neither public demand for redistribution nor policy responses appear reflective of this. This paper investigates why widespread recognition that inequality is undesirable rarely translates into support for redistributive measures. To address this question, the paper reports on two pre-registered experiments fielded across 8 European countries. Study 1 uses a conjoint experiment to test whether exposure to information about high and rising inequality affects support for specific redistributive policies, asking whether citizens connect inequality with support for policies that “take from the rich” or “redistribute to the poor.” Study 2 explores the role of fairness beliefs using a vignette experiment that manipulates the deservingness of the rich. It varies the attributed cause of wealth accumulation (e.g., governmental favouritism, innate ability, family, luck), and examines their impact on preferences for taxing the rich and social spending for the poor. The findings of Study 1 suggest that citizens are not well-informed about which policies effectively reduce inequality: they are strongly supportive of raising minimum wages, yet they do not prioritise progressive or wealth taxes, which are typically more effective in tackling inequality. The results of Study 2 further indicate that redistributive support is contingent on fairness beliefs, increasing only when wealth accumulation is framed as resulting from governmental favouritism. Together, the studies show that recognition of inequality does not automatically translate into support for the most effective redistributive measures: preferences are shaped by ambivalence toward taxing the rich and by perceptions of fairness.