Doctoral Dissertation Research: Perception of Social Mobility and Attitudes Related to Inequality

博士论文研究：对社会流动性的看法和与不平等相关的态度

• 批准号: 1831484
• 负责人: Michael Hout
• 金额: $ 1.15万
• 依托单位: New York University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-06-01 至 2019-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1831484&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Perception; Social; Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Perception; Social

This project examines how individual perceptions of social mobility affect attitudes toward inequality and resource redistribution. Survey data have shown that compared to individuals in other countries, Americans display higher tolerance toward outcome inequality and more aversion to redistributive policies. One influential explanation for this phenomenon is that Americans tend to believe they have been living in a mobile society in which individual success is only modestly determined by family background. However, considerable research shows that such perceptions of social mobility are not aligned with reality. This project will test whether correcting misperceptions of social mobility can alter attitudes toward inequality and redistribution. By receiving accurate information about social mobility in the United States, individuals who turn out to have overestimated (underestimated) mobility will become less (more) tolerant of economic inequality and demand more (less) redistribution. Findings of this project will contribute to our understanding about social mobility and inequality by highlighting the importance of individual subjective perceptions, and provide input into social policies regarding redistribution. The project will test hypotheses using an online survey experiment. Recruited subjects will first answer a series of survey questions regarding their perceptions of social mobility in the United States relative to some other developed countries. Subjects in the treatment group, but not in the control group, will immediately receive correct answers to these questions. All subjects, regardless of treatment status, will be asked to report their attitudes toward inequality and redistribution. Hypotheses suggest there will be attitudinal shifts when individual misperceptions are corrected. Six hundred subjects will be recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk. Another 1,000 subjects will be recruited via a Qualtrics Online Sample, which will resurvey participants after one week of the initial contact to evaluate if the treatment effects persist. This research design allows causal inferences because the experiment randomly assigns subjects to conditions, which improves upon prior studies on similar topics using correlational designs.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该项目研究了个人对社会流动性的看法如何影响对不平等和资源重新分配的态度。调查数据表明，与其他国家的个人相比，美国人对结果不平等的容忍度更高，并且对重新分配政策的厌恶。对这一现象的一个有影响力的解释是，美国人倾向于相信他们一直生活在一个流动社会中，在这个社会中，个人成功只能由家庭背景谦虚地决定。但是，大量的研究表明，这种对社会流动性的看法与现实不符。该项目将测试纠正对社会流动性的误解是否会改变对不平等和重新分配的态度。通过收到有关美国社会流动性的准确信息，事实证明，被高估（低估）流动性的个人将变得更少（更多）对经济不平等的宽容，并且需求更多（较少）重新分布。该项目的发现将通过强调个人​​主观看法的重要性，并提供有关重新分配的社会政策的意见，从而有助于我们对社会流动性和不平等的理解。 该项目将使用在线调查实验检验假设。招募的受试者将首先回答有关他们相对于其他一些发达国家的美国社会流动性看法的一系列调查问题。治疗组的受试者（但不在对照组中）将立即获得这些问题的正确答案。无论治疗状况如何，所有受试者都将被要求报告他们对不平等和重新分配的态度。假设表明，当纠正个人误解时，将会发生态度转移。将通过亚马逊机械土耳其人招募600名受试者。将通过Qualtrics在线样本招募另外1,000名受试者，该样本将在初次接触的一周后重新提供参与者，以评估治疗效果是否持续。该研究设计允许因果推断，因为该实验将受试者随机分配给条件，从而改善了使用相关设计对类似主题的先前研究。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的智力优点评估来支持的，并具有更广泛的影响。