Me vs Others: Perception Gaps and Support for Redistribution and Paternalism

We study the anatomy of the BTAE and its causal impact on support for redistribution and paternalism.To this aim, we conduct a novel large-scale online survey that allows us to collect, for each respondent, baseline socioeconomic and financial characteristics, perceptions about themselves and about other people along a variety of policy-relevant dimensions, and their policy preferences. To establish a causal link between the BTAE and policy views, we implement two "de-biasing" experimental interventions designed to shift perception gaps and consequently policy preferences (as explained below).

2025-04-07

2025-12-31

We have two classes of main outcomes. The first class is composed of Better-Than-Average Effect (BTAE) measures, capturing the difference between respondents’ self-perceptions and their perceptions of others in a particular reference group (people with similar income vs low-income people) along a specific dimension. We consider the following dimensions: behavioral responses to changes in economic policies, spending behavior in response to government transfers, financial decision-making, psychological characteristics, attitudes such as patience and self control, personality traits, free-riding tendencies, and, for comparability, dimensions trypically associated with the BTAE in the literature in psychology.

The second class of outcomes is composed of policy views. We consider general views about redistribution, specific redistribution policies, paternalistic policies, and additional policies related to immigration, climate change, affirmative action, gun and drugs control, and sin taxes.

BTAE measures are defined as the difference between self-rating and others-rating along a particular dimension. The domain of their units depends on the survey question scale. We also construct domain-specific BTAE indices by aggregating related questions. More specifically, we consider the following domains directly related to economic behaviors:
- Behavioural responses following a policy change
- Spending decisions
- Responsibility (e.g., self-control, patience)
- Perceptions of merit
- Free-riding
Then, we also consider domains that are not directly related to economic decisions but that are commonly studied in the psychology literature (e.g., honesty, kindness…).

We also construct domain-specific indices for policy views on:
- Support for paternalistic policies
- Support for redistribution

To complement self-reported preferences, we include in the survey consequential economic decisions with real monetary stakes. Participants are automatically enrolled in a lottery to win $100, which creates a scenario for measuring revealed preferences through actual financial decisions. First, participants indicate how much of their potential $100 lottery winnings they would donate to charities helping low-income households. Next, those willing to donate must choose between two charity types: one providing direct cash transfers that recipients can use as they wish or another one delivering food where beneficiaries only benefit through food consumption. Finally, participants estimate how much other respondents donated on average, with financial incentives for accuracy.

Moreover, we will investigate whether background characteristics of respondents play a role. We will thus look at outcomes by income, age, gender, political affiliation, and education levels. We will also collect measures of self-interest connected with each policy (e.g., being a policy recipient) to study the role of self-interest in mediating the relation between the BTAE and policy views.

Participants are randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions with equal probability: 1) Control group: Participants receive no information about the BTAE; 2) Indirect BTAE treatment: Participants view an educational video explaining the Better-Than-Average Effect as a common psychological phenomenon. The video defines the bias, presents scientific evidence of its prevalence, and illustrates how it manifests in everyday judgments; 3) Direct BTAE treatment: Participants receive the same educational content as in the indirect BTAE treatment, but the examples taken are economic ones and directly related to the BTAE perception gaps measured in the survey.

In addition, our survey flow makes the following randomization assignments. Comparison group: Participants are randomly assigned to make comparisons either with ”similar others” (defined as people with comparable income and family situation) or with ”low-income others”. Me-Others Question order: For each perception block, participants are randomly assigned to either rate themselves first and others second, or rate others first and themselves second. Survey module order: The sequence of perception measures and policy preference questions is randomized, with half of participants encountering policy questions before the second batch of perception measures and half after. Finally, some perception questions are randomly asked before treamtent, while some others after, so as to capture baseline BTAE measures for respondents in the two main treatment arms.

Randomization is performed by Qualtrics.

Randomization is performed at the individual level.

No

3,000 individuals.

3,000 individuals.

Each respondent is assigned to one of the treatment arms defined above with equal probability. In the case of our main treatment assignment (control group and video treatments), we are planning to have 1000 respondents in each branch.