Do people understand Sin Taxes? A Survey

The purpose of this survey is to understand consumers' attitudes towards sin taxes.
Sin taxes are corrective taxes specifically levied on certain goods deemed harmful to society and individuals, for example alcohol and tobacco, soft drinks, fast foods, and gambling. They are used to increase the price in an effort to a) decrease demand, and b) decrease the long-run negative health care costs that excessive consumption of sin goods may impose on society and/or on consumers' themselves. Therefore, sin taxes serve two purposes. The first is that they raise public revenues. The second is that they are also meant to shape consumers' behavior and to increase social welfare. While the first purpose is highly salient, the second one is lowly salient, because benefits from this type of taxation are in the future and uncertain. Meanwhile public support for sin taxes and their political palatability remain low.

The research question we want to address is whether or not consumers and the general public understand the two purposes of sin taxes. In addition, we would like to test whether a lack of understanding may explain the low public support for corrective taxes we observe in the real world. Finally, we would like to test whether an increase in awareness and understanding (driven by specific information about the rationale of these taxes supplied to consumers and tax payers) would be of help in raising public support for sin taxes.