Widening Inequality: How Perceiving Differences in Facing the Pandemic Crisis Increase Support for Egalitarian Measures

Resumen

Previous research has found that perceptions of inequality predict support for redistribution (Willis et al., 2022). The COVID-19 crisis highlighted that people are vulnerable to the same crisis in different ways and provided an opportunity to introduce social changes aimed at curbing the trends of increasing inequalities. This research aimed to analyse whether perceiving low socioeconomic status (SES) groups to be more vulnerable than high-SES groups in the context of COVID-19 increases people's support for reducing economic inequality. In 2 studies (one cross-sectional and one experimental), it was found that low-SES people were perceived as more economically vulnerable to the pandemic. Furthermore, differences in perceived economic vulnerability predicted preferences for redistributive measures in Study 1 (n = 410, general population, Andalusia, Spain) and mediated the relationship between targets SES and support for redistributive measures in Study 2 (n = 565, general population, Andalusia, Spain). These results show how perceived differences in vulnerability during a pandemic crisis between low-SES people and high-SES people may favour support for egalitarian policies.