Is skewed unfair? The role of experienced inequalities and self-interest in redistributive behavior

Although income inequality has been growing in most of the OECD countries since the 1970s, demands for more redistributive policies have stagnated. While many scholars looked at the macroeconomic factors, only a few focused on the cognitive mechanisms behind preferences for redistribution. Building from behavioral and political economists' literature, our two preregistered studies aimed to test how experienced inequalities and self-interest influence individuals’ ideal income distribution. Study one (N=366) used a spectator/worker between-subject experimental design to show that individuals adjust their ideal level of inequality to the one they have experienced. Study two (N=117) tested how self-interest moderates the motive for justice, most notably for individuals benefiting from income inequalities. Studying the inequality gap by combining recent theories and methods from behavioral economics and political sciences not only advance our understanding of how experienced inequalities and self-interest influences redistributive behavior but also offer an empirical basis for future studies investigating redistributive behavior.