Perceptions of own social class and local affluence: Effects on preferences for redistribution

• Autores: Olivera, Javier, Villa-Paro, Paola
• Formato: documento de trabajo
• Fecha de Publicación: 2025
• Institución: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
• Repositorio: PUCP-Institucional
• Lenguaje: inglés
• OAI Identifier: oai:repositorio.pucp.edu.pe:20.500.14657/205095
• Enlace del recurso: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14657/205095; http://doi.org/10.18800/2079-8474.0551
• Nivel de acceso: acceso abierto
• Materia: Preferences for redistribution inequality perceptions; Inequality perceptions; Beliefs; Wealth taxes; Peru; https://purl.org/pe-repo/ocde/ford#5.02.01

We conducted an online survey experiment in Lima to study how perceptions of social class shape support for economic redistribution. Participants were randomly informed about either their actual socio-economic status (SES) or the true share of affluent households in their district. Respondents substantially overestimated their own SES and, to a lesser extent, the prevalence of affluent households. Correctingthese misperceptions generally increased support for redistribution, with no effect on a wealth-tax proposal. Effects were especially strong when respondents had misjudged their SES by two or more levels: even those predisposed against redistribution (e.g., right-leaning, individualistic, or sceptical of government) increased their support. Similar patterns also emerged when correcting beliefs about the local distribution of SES.