Popular explanations of inequality as the result of individual failings rather than structural processes are powerful cultural mechanisms that legitimize and reproduce inequality in the United States. How might individuals’ experiences of downward or upward mobility shape the explanations they give? We argue that perceived experiences of economic mobility may not only shape how Americans understand economic inequality but may also impact their beliefs about social inequalities more broadly. Using proportionally representative survey data of 1110 U.S. residents, we find that those who perceive that they currently occupy a lower economic class than when they were growing up (i.e., they experienced subjective downward mobility) were more likely than class-stable individuals to reject individualistic explanations of economic inequality and embrace structural ones. By contrast, the upwardly mobile were more likely to reject structural explanations. We find that mobility is similarly related to the likelihood of giving individualistic or structural explanations for race and gender inequality as well. Downward mobility is also associated with greater support of redistributive policies related to economic as well as gender and race inequality. These findings suggest that economic mobility may influence popular explanations of inequality and support for redistributive policy not only related to class inequality but for multiple axes of inequality.

中文翻译：

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自上而下的观点：主观流动性以及对阶级、种族和性别不平等的解释


人们普遍将不平等解释为个人失败而非结构性进程的结果，这是使美国不平等合法化并重现的强大文化机制。个人向下或向上流动的经历如何影响他们给出的解释？我们认为，对经济流动性的感知体验不仅可能影响美国人对经济不平等的理解，还可能更广泛地影响他们对社会不平等的看法。使用 1110 名美国居民的比例代表性调查数据，我们发现那些认为自己目前的经济阶层比成长时低的人（即，他们经历了主观向下流动）比阶层稳定的个人更有可能拒绝个人主义对经济不平等的解释并包括结构性不平等。相比之下，向上流动的人更有可能拒绝结构性解释。我们发现，流动性也与对种族和性别不平等给出个人主义或结构性解释的可能性相关。向下流动还与对与经济以及性别和种族不平等相关的再分配政策的更大支持有关。这些发现表明，经济流动性可能会影响对不平等的流行解释和对再分配政策的支持，不仅与阶级不平等有关，而且与多个不平等轴有关。