Trade-offs in Economic Preferences: Both Democrats and Republicans Prioritize Poverty Alleviation over Equality and Efficiency

摘要: Tackling socioeconomic woes can be a difficult task in an increasingly polarized political climate, especially when desired outcomes conflict (eg, alleviating poverty but increasing inequality). Across two main (N= 1,931) studies and one supplemental (N= 956) study we develop a typology that orthogonalizes social policy along two dimensions:(a) help versus harm and (b) the rich versus the poor. In doing so, we explore partisan overlap in the prioritization of poverty, inequality, economic efficiency, and wealth in determining political policy support. In Study 1 we find a large degree of partisan overlap; Republicans and Democrats alike strongly prioritize helping the poor and share a general dislike for helping the rich. Once the bipartisan goal of helping the poor is met, Democrats more strongly prioritize inequality reduction while Republicans more strongly prioritize avoiding harm to the rich. Additionally, Democrats are more willing than Republicans to forego help to the poor if it comes along with rising inequality. In Study 2 we replicate these findings and explore the emotional underpinnings of socioeconomic preferences. While only hostile emotions towards the rich predict Republicans’ willingness to harm the rich and reduce inequality, both compassion towards the poor and hostile emotions towards the rich predict this preference among Democrats. By leveraging our comprehensive typology framework, we can generate valuable insights for designing social policy that falls at the intersection of bipartisan economic priorities.