| Summary: | Do narratives about the causes of inequality influence support for redistribution? Scholarship
suggests that information about levels of inequality does not easily shift redistributive
attitudes. We embed information about inequality within a commentary article depicting the
economy as being rigged to advantage elites, a common populist narrative of both the left and
right. Drawing on the media effects and political economy literatures, we expect articles
employing narratives that portray inequality as the consequence of systemic unfairness to
increase demands for redistribution. We test this proposition via an online survey experiment
with 7,426 respondents in Australia, France, Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom,
and the United States. Our narrative treatment significantly increases attitudes favoring
redistribution in five of the countries. In the US the treatment has no effect. We consider
several reasons for the non-result in the US – highlighting beliefs about government
inefficiency – and conclude by discussing general implications of our findings.
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