Attitudes to Income Inequality as an Element of Social Capital

Abstract

This article presents the results of research on an aspect of social capital, i.e. attitudes to inequality, which has seldom been investigated. The aims of this article are to analyze spatial variance in such attitudes within Poland, compare these results with research carried out in other countries, and investigate the nature of the intention-behavior gap regarding attitudes to inequality. The study method combined experimental economics with a questionnaire and was carried out in April-June 2014, based on a sample of 1,540 students studying in 16 regional capitals of Poland. Our results indicate that any correlations between declarations and observed behavior are very weak, both at the level of individuals and regions. The declared attitude to inequality seems to be associated with the wealth of the region a student comes from, rather than actions that promote income equality. A comparison of the results obtained in the Ultimatum Game in various countries indicates that Polish students show a relatively high level of aversion to inequality, together with a relatively strong aversion to punishing individuals for proposing an unequal distribution of resources.(original abstract)