Many scholars have noted that the United States is particularly poor at addressing income inequality. Interestingly, most Americans express support for the poor but are generally hesitant to support redistributive policy. In The Economic Other, Meghan Condon and Amber Wichowsky examine this paradox by deftly exploring how social comparisons structure our preferences with regard to inequality and redistribution, studying how people experience class, wealth, and inequality and how gender, race, and ethnicity intersect with those experiences. Accessible to scholars, students, and the general public alike, this book fills key gaps in the literature regarding how people view and interact with inequality through social comparisons.

Using survey experiments, qualitative responses, and observational data, the authors paint a rich picture of people’s perceptions of inequality and redistribution. In the first part of their book, Condon and Wichowsky explore how people report hypothetically interacting with those from different socioeconomic classes. Respondents who were induced to reflect on interactions with those from higher economic classes expressed greater anxiety and insecurity. Conversely, those reflecting on lower economic classes expressed discomfort and distance, with emphases on individualism, work ethic, and deservingness.

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