This research focuses on messages addressing the growing income inequality in America. Economists and policy advocates commonly describe income inequality as something that has already occurred (i.e., in the past, the rich got richer) when monitoring growing income inequality and arguing for reform. In order to emphasize the severity of this phenomenon, economists and policy advocates also often emphasize how income inequality has occurred over an extended period of time (i.e., in the long-term, the rich have gotten richer for the past three decades ). On its face, highlighting past instances of seeming exploitation that unfolded over a long period of time intuitively appears to be more persuasive. However, recent work in the psychology of human judgment and decision-making hints otherwise; that framing income inequality in terms of its future consequences (the rich will get richer) and rapid changes (in a few short years) holds greater potential to increase concern and support for policies and actions to address it. This project systematically tests how alternate temporal frames to communicate income inequality, including temporal direction and temporal duration, influence judgments and decisions about whether or not to support efforts to reduce income inequality. In two randomized experiments using a general population sample of U.S. adults we will compare the impact of messages projecting future income inequality rather than documenting the past (temporal direction), and those that describe the phenomenon as occurring quickly (short-term) or over an extended period of time (long-term), in shaping support for redistributive policies aimed to reduce income inequality. We further examine a variety of potential cognitive and affective mechanisms responsible for these hypothesized effects.
In two randomized experiments using a general population sample of U.S. adults, we will examine the role of temporal frames in human judgment and decision-making with respect to a timely social issue of income inequality. This research first seeks to better understand how considering retrospectively-framed versus prospectively-framed income inequality brings about disparate judgments on the controllability of the situation, negative emotional response, and fairness judgments, thereby drawing differential support for social policy. This research also examines how income inequality framed in a shorter (slow) vs. longer (fast) duration influences policy support via causal attribution of affluence (wealth). The research addresses theoretical and empirical gaps in our understanding of temporal framing while extending previously-reported framing effects in policy support. It contributes to the literature on income inequality by examining a contextual influence and specifically the process and effects of temporal framing of income inequality. Theoretically, it will illuminate the mechanisms of temporal framing effects on social judgments and decisions by examining the relevant cognitive and affective psychological mechanisms.
