Examining the impact of claims of life hardships among upper-class people on support for income equality policies

Abstract

The burgeoning population of individuals that experience poverty prompts an inquiry into the lack of expansion of income equality policies, exacerbating economic disparity. This study examines the life hardship claims of upper-class people in response to class privilege information. We conducted two experiments to investigate whether or not upper-class people in Japan are more likely to claim their life hardships when presented with class privilege information and whether or not claiming these hardships would result in decreased support for income equality policies. In contrast to expectations, neither experiment indicated whether class privilege information influenced claims of life hardship. One potential implication is that the upper-class in Japan do not perceive economic inequality as an inconvenient truth. Moreover, the results demonstrated that the more strongly they claimed life hardships, the less they supported redistributive policies.