Priming past experiences and preferences for redistribution

This paper analyzes the effects of priming people to think about negative past experiences such as job loss or illness on attitudes towards redistribution. Using a randomly assigned survey design, we find that the effects of being primed to think about past misfortunes on support for redistribution vary by gender. Being cued to think about negative past experiences increases sympathy for governmental redistribution for male respondents, but not for non-males. For nonmale respondents, past misfortunes increase support for redistribution even when not primed. Psychological research suggests that this could be due to gender-based differences in how events are remembered or processed.