Less democracy,more inequality: the effect of perceived democracy on inferred economic inequality / Menos democracia,más desigualdad: el efecto de la democracia percibida sobre la desigualdad económica inferida

Abstract

Previous research has shown that an increased perception of economic inequality in a country was associated with a lower perception of democracy. Building on these findings, our study aimed to test this relationship in the opposite direction by experimentally manipulating the democracy level of a society and examining the effect on inferred economic inequality of it. We expected that perceiving a low democracy level within a country would lead to inferring higher levels of economic inequality. Two experimental studies were conducted (N₁ = 253, N₂ = 534) using a unifactorial between-groups design. Participants were randomly assigned to the high or low democracy condition. In the high-democracy condition, the country was portrayed as having free and fair elections, civil liberties, political pluralism, regulated functioning of its institutions, and equality before the law, whereas in the low-democracy condition, these characteristics were not preserved. As predicted, inferred economic inequality was higher when the country was presented as less (vs. more) democratic. In sum, exposure to a low-democratic context may increase the inference of economic inequality.