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Unequal but fair? : investigating the persistence of meritocratic beliefs
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Florence : European University Institute, 2024
EUI; SPS; PhD Thesis
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CLEMENTE, Anna, Unequal but fair? : investigating the persistence of meritocratic beliefs, Florence : European University Institute, 2024, EUI, SPS, PhD Thesis - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/77276
Abstract
The fact that people continue to believe in meritocracy, despite declining social mobility and raising inequality, has been presented as evidence of the strength of meritocratic beliefs. In the three papers of this thesis, I test the robustness of meritocratic beliefs under different signals about the state of the world or its accompanying narratives. I show that higher levels of inequity aversion reduce meritocratic preferences. In the first paper, I establish when merit loses relevance in justifying inequality. The finding that inequality is more likely to be accepted when it is based on “merit” is robustly supported by a large literature. What is less clear is when merit loses its primacy. In a survey experiment, I find that exposing participants to an economic shock increases inequity aversion, reducing tolerance for merit-based inequality. In the second paper, co-authored with Giuliano Formisano, I explore how increases in housingbased inequality affect perceptions of fairness of the economic system. Inequality based on rentier situations is disconnected from merit and should be seen as less justifiable, given its distributive consequences are changing the character of neighbourhoods: it is much harder to sell as a tide lifting all boats. In both survey data and Twitter discussions of economic issues, we show that citizens are more likely to be critical of the current economic system and advocate for fairness in places where housing price inequality has increased, which we attribute to inequity aversion. Finally, in the third paper, I show that an egalitarian discourse, centered around inequity aversion, outperforms meritocratic rhetoric. The contribution of the thesis is to offer evidence that once inequity aversion is activated, inequality is no longer accepted as natural.
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Defence date: 19 September 2024
Examining Board: Prof. Elias Dinas (European University Institute, Co-supervisor); Prof. Arnout van de Rijt (European University Institute, Supervisor); Dr. Tom O'Grady (University College London); Prof. Kris-Stella Trump (Johns Hopkins University)
Examining Board: Prof. Elias Dinas (European University Institute, Co-supervisor); Prof. Arnout van de Rijt (European University Institute, Supervisor); Dr. Tom O'Grady (University College London); Prof. Kris-Stella Trump (Johns Hopkins University)