Description du projet
Pourquoi les personnes sont-elles davantage influencées par l’inégalité subjective
L’inégalité est en hausse et c’est un problème qui figure en tête de l’agenda politique, économique et social de l’UE. Une recherche suggère que les individus sont davantage influencés par l’inégalité subjective qu’objective. Tandis que cette inégalité perçue fait l’objet d’une attention de plus en plus accrue, on ne sait toujours pas exactement ce qu’elle signifie. Comment peut‑elle être évaluée avec fiabilité? Le projet PERCINEQ, financé par l’UE, propose deux types de recherche visant à contribuer à une théorie générale de l’inégalité perçue. Il cherchera à expliquer les perceptions au travers des formes du comportement humain par le biais d’une analyse interdisciplinaire de la littérature disponible. Il étudiera également les principaux mécanismes causaux générant des perceptions d’inégalités, ainsi que leurs effets sur la société.
Objectif
Rising levels of inequality has become a key political, economic and social issue in recent years. Nevertheless, many studies show that individuals are much more likely to be influenced by subjective rather than objective inequality. For such reason, perceived inequality is becoming an increasingly popular topic among scholars and non-academic experts. Despite the growing number of studies, little is still known about what perceived inequality is exactly and how it can properly measured given that it is a contested, multidimensional and unobservable concept (1 research objective). Moreover, it is still not clear why people wrongly assess it and which are the consequences of such misperception (2 research objective). The first research objective aims at contributing to a general theory of perceived inequality defining perceptions within models of human behaviors through an interdisciplinary review of the literature. Moreover, improved measures of perceived inequality will be elaborated applying cluster analysis to multiple indicators. The second objective of the research focuses on the identification of the main causal mechanisms driving inequality misperceptions (limited rationality or emotional innumeracy) and its consequences in our society. Such objective is pursed through the creation of an original questionnaire and the implementation of a survey experiment for the collection of new data. Doing so, the simultaneous test of the two causal mechanisms can be implemented for the first time in the literature of perceptions of inequality. The survey will also allow to explore the political and economic consequences of misperceiving inequality. When considering political consequences, the research focuses on political unrest and populist voting (e.g. Brexit, Trump, Lega Nord in Italy); while for economic consequences, it focuses on preferences for redistribution. Important policy implications for our knowledge-based society are expected from PERCINEQ.
Champ scientifique
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinateur
08193 Cerdanyola Del Valles
Espagne