A WEALTH OF AMBIVALENCE: HOW STEREOTYPES ABOUT THE RICH MATTER FOR POLITICAL ATTITUDES AND CANDIDATE CHOICE

Abstract

Over the past few decades, economic inequality has risen at an alarming rate while class mobility has stagnated. But, what is the nature of the public's beliefs about the rich? And how are these beliefs consequential for citizens' voting behavior and policy attitudes? Using an original survey, a series of survey experiments, and a large-scale field experiment from the 2012 presidential election, this dissertation illustrates that citizens' attitudes towards the rich are consequential for both citizens' policy preferences and their vote choice. With respect to the former, I find that holding negative stereotypes about the rich is positively associated with support for major redistributive policies even when accounting for the effect of party membership, ideology and income. Stereotypes about the rich also influence peoples' vote choice. This dissertation finds that citizens penalize wealthy political candidates, perceiving them as less empathic and being less likely to vote for them. Additionally, citizens' - especially Democrats' - predispositions about the rich in general figure into their evaluations of wealthy politicians. These findings are generalizable to high information elections: in a field experiment during the 2012 presidential election, I find that Democrats are three percentage points more likely to vote for Obama when they receive specific information highlighting Romney's personal wealth. This dissertation provides evidence that individuals do indeed hold specific stereotypes about the rich and employ these stereotypes as a shortcut for their own policy preferences as well as their evaluation of a candidate's fitness for office.