Did low-income essential workers during COVID-19 increase public support for redistribution?
研究通过实验考察，强调低收入关键工作者的社会贡献虽能提升对其疫情福利的支持，但并未普遍增加对再分配或福利项目的支持，且种族提示有负面影响。
Previous studies have shown that America generally has a low level of support for redistribution, in large part due to racial prejudice, particularly toward the poor. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, has increased public attention to low-income workers’ essential roles in society. Has this increased attention to low-income workers promote public support for redistribution? This article examines how priming about low-income workers’ (1) essential roles and (2) race, shaped individuals’ redistributive preferences. Our findings demonstrate that an emphasis on essential workers increased appreciation of their contribution to society and support for pandemic-related benefits for these workers. However, it did not increase support for redistribution or welfare programmes in general. In addition, while we found negative effects of a Latino cue, particularly among white respondents, this effect weakened when information about workers’ work ethics and other attributes was provided. Our findings have implications for understanding public support of redistribution and communicating government social welfare programmes.