Public Views about Inequality, Opportunity, and Redistribution: Evidence from Media Coverage and Experimental Inquiry

Much evidence and analysis suggest that Americans have traditionally cared more about equality of opportunity than equality of outcomes. On this view of American culture, these two kinds of inequality are framed as competing norms: in order to preserve equality of opportunity, Americans are willing to accept the substantial material differences that may result from individuals competing on equal terms.

Sociologist Leslie McCall and social psychologist Jennifer Richeson conjecture that while this way of thinking about inequality may have been true of Americans in the past, it may now be changing. As economic inequality has risen over the past three decades, Americans may have begun to view rising inequality as a threat to the American Dream of economic opportunity for all. So, for example, the Gallup poll reports a 23 percentage point drop in the last 12 years in the number of Americans who report that they are “satisfied” with their opportunity to get ahead. McCall and Richeson frame these developing attitudes as what they call an “opportunity model,” which stipulates first, that Americans are beginning to worry about the erosion of opportunity and second, that they attribute some of this erosion to rising economic inequality. McCall and Richeson point out that this frame of mind, unlike the traditional stance, should be amenable to support for redistributive policy – but only if redistribution is viewed as opportunity enhancing. Taxing and spending to support more effective public education or job training would be a clear example.

McCall and Richeson propose to undertake a major study of the “opportunity model” that would involve both a discourse analysis of the discussion of inequality in American media over the past 30 years, and a series of social psychology experiments designed to probe the conditions that provoke heightened concerns about inequality and support for policies designed to reduce it. In combining a media study with psychological experiments, McCall and Richeson hope to learn about the current conceptualization of inequality in American culture, both as it is produced by media elites and as it is received by American citizens at large.