An experimental test of the validity of survey-measured political ideology

Abstract

We examine the predictive validity of survey-measured left-right politicalideology by testing whether this measure is able to explain observed choices regarding equality versus efficiency. We study this in a real-effort distributionexperiment, in which decision-makers allocate money equally or efficiently. Wedistinguish between decision-makers that receive 'manna-from-heaven' and decision-makers that have earned the money to be distributed in a real effort task. We find that, conditional on entitlement concerns, self-reported right-wing ideology significantly predicts preferences for efficiency. Reported left-wing ideology does not have predictive value in explaining preferences for equality. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/published