http://thesituationist.wordpress.com/2011/12/17/choice-and-inequality/ Tue, 21 May 2013 07:44:09 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ http://thesituationist.wordpress.com/2011/12/17/choice-and-inequality/#comment-28101 Mon, 19 Dec 2011 06:07:06 +0000 http://thesituationist.wordpress.com/?p=16113#comment-28101 [...] Choice and Inequality – via thesituationist.wordpress.com – Wealth inequality has significant psychological, physiological, societal, and economic costs. We investigate how seemingly innocuous, culturally pervasive ideas can help maintain and further wealth inequality. Specifically, we test whether the concept of choice, which is deeply valued in American society, leads people to act in ways that maintain and perpetuate wealth inequality. Choice, we argue, activates the belief that life outcomes stem from personal agency, not from societal factors, leading people to justify wealth inequality. Six experiments show that when choice is highlighted, people are less disturbed by facts about the existing wealth inequality in the U.S., more likely to underestimate the role of societal factors in individuals’ successes, less likely to support the redistribution of educational resources, and less likely to tax the rich even to resolve a government budget deficit crisis. The findings indicate that the culturally valued concept of choice contributes to the maintenance of wealth inequality. [...]

]]> http://thesituationist.wordpress.com/2011/12/17/choice-and-inequality/#comment-28100 Mon, 19 Dec 2011 05:56:35 +0000 http://thesituationist.wordpress.com/?p=16113#comment-28100 [...] Chart of the day: The color of money Posted on 2011 December 18 | Leave a comment From The Situationist: [...]

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