Economic Inequality, the Working Poor, and Belief in the American Dream

• Published in: Public opinion quarterly 2023-02, Vol.86 (4), p.944-954
• Main Author: Newman, Benjamin J
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0033-362X; 1537-5331
• DOI: 10.1093/poq/nfac043

Does exposure to economic inequality undermine belief in the American dream? Scholarship has long argued that the availability of meritocratic ideologies like the American dream inoculates people against exposure to inequality by leading them to rationalize unequal outcomes by viewing wealth as due to hard work and poverty as due to indolence. The existence of inequality where the “have-nots” are working poor, however, could serve to undermine such a process because their employment status casts them as “deserving poor” and limits the applicability of agency-based explanations for poverty. Across two experiments embedded in national surveys, exposure to inequality alone did not cause significant reductions in belief in the American dream; however, exposure to inequality where the have-nots were working poor significantly reduced belief in the American dream. Moderation and mediation analyses indicate these effects were most pronounced among lower-income Americans and indirectly heightened support for government reduction of inequality.