Does informing citizens about the non-meritocratic nature of inequality bolster support for a universal basic income? Evidence from a population-based survey experiment

Figures & data

Table 1. Items used for measuring the moderator variables economic egalitarianism, welfare chauvinism and institutional trust, including the wording of the statements. The statements have been translated from Dutch.

Item	Statement wording
Economic egalitarianism 1	It is not a good thing if differences between the rich and poor are large.
Economic egalitarianism 2	Large income differences are not a problem. (reverse coded)
Economic egalitarianism 3	It is important that children from poor families get the same opportunities as children from rich families.
Economic egalitarianism 4	In a fair society, differences in what people are able to spend are small.
Welfare chauvinism 1	If immigrants are unemployed for a long period, they should be made to leave the Netherlands.
Welfare chauvinism 2	Only people whose parents are Dutch should be entitled to social benefits.
Welfare chauvinism 3	Immigrants should only be entitled to social benefits if they have worked here for several years.
Welfare chauvinism 4	Immigrants should not be permitted to make use of social benefits.
Institutional trust 1	How much trust do you have in the following institutions or persons: civil servants?
Institutional trust 2	How much trust do you have in the following institutions or persons: the state?
Institutional trust 3	How much trust do you have in the following institutions or persons: the UWV (the organization responsible for unemployment benefits)?
Institutional trust 4	How much trust do you have in the following institutions or persons: your municipal authority?

Table 2. Descriptive statistics.

	n	Mean	SD	Min	Max
Dependent
Support for a UBI	1,630	3.91	1.82	1	7
Moderators
Net monthly household income in euros	1,462	3270.40	1801.32	100	13900
Economic egalitarianism	1,630	5.24	1.03	1.75	7
Welfare chauvinism	1,630	3.74	1.35	1	7
Institutional trust	1,630	3.71	0.89	1	7
Controls
Pre-treatment support for a UBI	1,630	4.07	1.70	1	7
Age in years	1,630	57.29	17.01	18	92
Gender (1 = female)	1,630	0.52	0.50	0	1
Educational level: Other education	1,630	0.02	0.12	0	1
Educational level: ISCED-1 (‘basisonderwijs’)	1,630	0.03	0.17	0	1
Educational level: ISCED-2 (‘vmbo’)	1,630	0.21	0.41	0	1
Educational level: ISCED-3 (‘havo/vwo’)	1,630	0.11	0.31	0	1
Educational level: ISCED-4 (‘mbo’)	1,630	0.24	0.43	0	1
Educational level: ISCED-5 (‘hbo’)	1,630	0.26	0.44	0	1
Educational level: ISCED-6/7/8 (‘wo’)	1,630	0.12	0.33	0	1
Labor-market status: employed	1,630	0.39	0.49	0	1
Labor-market status: self-employed	1,630	0.05	0.22	0	1
Labor-market status: retired	1,630	0.34	0.47	0	1
Labor-market status: unemployed	1,630	0.06	0.24	0	1
Labor-market status: homemaker	1,630	0.09	0.28	0	1
Labor-market status: student	1,630	0.04	0.20	0	1
Labor-market status: disabled	1,630	0.04	0.20	0	1
Immigrant status (1 = immigration background)	1,630	0.16	0.37	0	1
Amount of financial assets	1,623	6.78	4.27	0	24
Number of children at home	1,630	0.56	0.10	0	6
Marital status: married	1,630	0.55	0.50	0	1
Marital status: widowed	1,630	0.08	0.28	0	1
Marital status: divorced	1,630	0.12	0.33	0	1
Marital status: never married	1,630	0.25	0.43	0	1

Table 3. OLS regression estimates for support for a UBI on key variables.

Variable	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3	Model 4	Model 5
Income	−0.179* (0.071)				−0.125 (0.072)
Economic egalitarianism		0.247*** (0.036)			0.221*** (0.040)
Welfare chauvinism			−0.154*** (0.027)		−0.115*** (0.030)
Institutional trust				0.024 (0.041)	0.011 (0.045)
Support for a UBI (pre-treatment)	0.628*** (0.023)	0.591*** (0.022)	0.613*** (0.021)	0.631*** (0.021)	0.585*** (0.023)
Intercept	2.795*** (0.583)	0.214 (0.189)	1.993*** (0.147)	1.258*** (0.176)	1.760* (0.695)
n	1,462	1,630	1,630	1,630	1,462
R^2	0.349	0.367	0.361	0.349	0.375

*** p < 0.001, ** p < 0.01, * p < 0.05. Standard errors in parentheses.

Table 4. OLS regression estimates for support for a UBI.

Variable	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3	Model 4	Model 5
Wealth disparities information	0.095 (0.089)	0.085 (1.393)	0.988* (0.452)		0.035 (0.377)
Ethnic inequality information	−0.093 (0.089)		−0.595 (0.453)	0.259 (0.257)	−0.562 (0.383)
Income		−0.212 (0.126)
Wealth disparities info*Income		0.000 (0.175)
Economic egalitarianism			0.272*** (0.060)
Welfare chauvinism				−0.139** (0.046)
Institutional trust					−0.021 (0.070)
Wealth disparities info X Economic egalitarianism			−0.169* (0.085)
Ethnic inequality info X Economic egalitarianism			0.099 (0.085)
Ethnic discrimination info X Welfare chauvinism				−0.090 (0.064)
Wealth disparities info X Institutional trust					0.016 (0.100)
Ethnic discrimination info X Institutional trust					0.126 (0.100)
Support for a UBI before treatment	0.632*** (0.021)	0.625*** (0.028)	0.588*** (0.022)	0.615*** (0.026)	0.632*** (0.021)
Intercept	1.342*** (0.105)	3.066** (1.011)	0.089 (0.320)	1.923*** (0.221)	1.419*** (0.275)
n	1,630	979	1,630	1,087	1,630
R^2	0.350	0.347	0.372	0.379	0.351

*** p < 0.001, ** p < 0.01, * p < 0.05. Standard errors in parentheses.

Figure 1. Support for a UBI (pre-treatment) over economic egalitarianism (n = 1,630). Half density distribution and boxplot distribution. The dots signify individual scores. Note: The scores for the lowest economic egalitarianism category ('completely disagree') are not shown, as there were no respondents who completely disagreed with all four of the economic egalitarianism items. The horizontal axis reflects the rounded mean scores of the four items.

Table 5. Reverse placebo tests: OLS regression estimates on different, but related, dependent variables (based on non-missing observations on the dependent variable, pretreatment control variable and moderator variables).

Variables	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3	Model 4	Model 5
	Belief in inequality of opportunity: wealthy parents	Belief in inequality of opportunity: non-Dutch background	Structural explanation of inequality: wealth-based	Structural explanation of inequality: ethnic-based	Support for economic redistribution
Wealth disparities	0.056 (0.086)	0.015 (0.096)	0.152** (0.055)	0.080 (0.058)	0.275*** (0.093)
Ethnic discrimination	0.023 (0.087)	0.374*** (0.096)	0.002 (0.055)	0.169** (0.059)	0.056 (0.093)
Intercept	5.223*** (0.061)	4.510*** (0.068)	2.826*** (0.039)	2.543*** (0.041)	4.963*** (0.066)
n	1,462	1,462	1,462	1,462	1,462
R^2	0.000	0.013	0.007	0.006	0.007

*** p < 0.001, ** p < 0.01, * p < 0.05. Standard errors in parentheses.