Economics of Rage

The study includes an individual-level, belief-specific information treatment. Respondents are randomly assigned to receive or not receive an infographic providing information on their wage position or wage dynamic prospects.

Treatment variable:
• Name: Personalized wage information treatment
• Description: Respondents are randomly assigned either to a control group or to one of four information treatments providing benchmark feedback about wage position or wage dynamic prospects. In each treatment group, the information treatment consists in confronting the
respondent’s beliefs to actual values computed based on Insee data. The information screen therefore changes based on the respondent’s beliefs and sometimes their demographics (for STAT2).
• Levels:
1. Control: no information treatment
2. STAT1: unconditional wage-position
3. STAT2: occupation-conditional wage-position
4. DYN1: time to obtain a 500-euro monthly wage increase
5. DOUBLE: time to double first salary today and in the parents’ generation
• Assignment: Random assignment at the individual level

2025-06-11

2026-01-27

• Emotional reaction to the treatment or survey (EMO1a / EMO1b), with response categories: joy, anger, fear, hope, sadness, tranquility
• Job satisfaction:
– Overall satisfaction with professional life (SAT1)
– Satisfaction with remuneration, promotion prospects, and feeling respected at work (SAT2)
• Beliefs on inequality:
– Hard work is rewarded (PV1)
– Zero-sum views of wealth inequality (PV2)
– Zero-sum views of promotions and raises within the workplace (PV3)
– Zero-sum views of women’s wage gains relative to men’s wages (PV4)
• Redistribution and worker-protection preferences:
– Support for stricter restrictions on layoffs (PV5)
– Support for increasing the minimum wage (PV6)
– Support for taking from the rich to give to the poor (PV7)

• Job priorities:
– Relative importance of pay, promotion, skill development, task content, social usefulness, workload, stress, and work-life balance (SAT3)
• Workplace trust:
– Trust in direct supervisor (TR1)
– Trust in colleagues (TR2)
– Trust in unions (TR3)
– Trust in firm management (TR4)
– Trust in one’s firm in general (TR5)
• Other policy preferences:
– Opinion on immigration (PV8)
– Opinion on globalization and international trade (PV9)
– Preferred legal retirement age (PV10)
• Political attitudes:
– Trust in the government (PV11)
– Left-right political self-placement (PV12)
– Vote intention (PV13)
• Labor-market behavior:
– Intention to search for a new job in the next 12 months (ECO1)

Survey experiment

The study is a randomized survey experiment. After answering baseline questions on demographics, employment, satisfaction, trust, political preferences, and income, respondents are asked about their beliefs in terms of wage position and dynamics. They are then randomly assigned at the individual level to either receive a personalized information treatment or to a control group that does not receive this information.
There are four treatment groups. Each of them receives a different information:
• STAT1: true position in the wage distribution among employees compared to belief. Information is presented on a 0 to 100 scale, accompanied by qualitative labels and short interpretative descriptions.
• STAT2: true position in the wage distribution within their 1 digit PCS compared to belief. Information is presented on a 0 to 100 scale, accompanied by qualitative labels and short interpretative descriptions.
• DYN1: true number of years needed to earn an extra €500 per month compared to belief. Information is presented in a short text.
• DOUBLE: true wage dynamics perspectives compared to their parents’ generation, based on the number of years needed for both generations to double their first wage. Information is presented in a short text.

Qualtrics's built-in randomization.

Individual

No

approximately 10,000 individuals

approximately 10,000 individuals

approximately 2,000 individuals for each branch