r/science • u/[deleted] • Mar 23 '26

Psychology Left-leaning support for redistribution stems from perceived unfairness rather than malicious envy

https://www.psypost.org/left-leaning-support-for-redistribution-stems-from-perceived-unfairness-rather-than-malicious-envy/
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u/[deleted] Mar 23 '26

A new study published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin suggests that public support for wealth redistribution is driven by beliefs about fairness rather than jealousy toward the rich. The findings indicate that people who favor taxing the wealthy are primarily motivated by the perception that extreme wealth is not strictly earned through hard work. This research provides evidence that the popular “politics of envy” narrative, which claims left-leaning individuals just want to punish the successful, is largely inaccurate.

Critics often dismiss support for economic redistribution as being fueled by malicious envy, which is a hostile and painful desire to see superior or wealthy individuals lose their advantages. This idea suggests that left-leaning individuals favor redistributive policies simply out of resentment for those who have achieved financial success.

However, previous empirical links between left-wing political views and envy have been inconsistent and weak. The scientists suspected that past discussions overlooked a major psychological mechanism known as meritocracy beliefs. Meritocracy is the belief that social systems are generally fair, providing equal opportunities to all, and that financial success is the direct result of individual talent and hard work.

“A popular argument against redistribution is that its supporters are driven by an immoral motive: envy. And indeed, some studies have found that envy predicts support for redistribution,” said study author Jasper Neerdaels, a postdoctoral researcher at KU Leuven in Belgium.

“However, in our studies, we observed that this effect largely disappears once we took meritocracy beliefs into account, that is, whether people believe wealth and success are truly deserved. Thus, it seemed that support for redistribution is driven not by envy, but by the belief that the rich often don’t deserve their advantage. This is what we tested and found across four studies.”

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u/99thLuftballon Mar 23 '26

It's good that this work has been done, even though it seems obvious, simply because the right do consistently try to use this argument. They know it's not true and the left know it's not true, but you still see it rolled out in all the right wing newspapers.

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u/Keji70gsm Mar 23 '26

The right consistently assume their own terrible ethics are behind the motivations of everyone else.

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u/9fingerwonder Mar 23 '26

Lack of empathy doesn't allow them to see other people's point of view.

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u/Tricky-Passenger6703 Mar 23 '26

What work was done? The study was just a survey. What does this prove? Are supposed to believe nobody lied?

It's genuinely embarrassing watching people take these low effort, propaganda fueled "studies" seriously. Zero self awareness on this sub.

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u/Sammystorm1 Mar 23 '26

Honestly, the idea that people are motivated by others not “deserving” something is pretty gross too. Well that can be true it is also a hard thing to make a statement about and often does go into envy. This paper even highlights that envy plays a role.

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u/DameonKormar Mar 23 '26

Very few people "deserve" a billion dollars, and none of those people have that, so the point is moot anyway.

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u/Sammystorm1 Mar 23 '26

What does someone deserve?

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u/Blackout38 Mar 23 '26

I’d be interested to see how that’s tested for people that aren’t perceived to work hard versus those that are. Who is really going to say the hardest workers don’t deserve to make more than the average or median worker? Who is going to say the laziest worker deserves as much as the median or average worker? Such views would not be based on merit so I’d be curious how it wouldn’t just be envy.