Selfish Meritocrats? The role of beliefs in meritocratic wealth inequality, social preferences, and fairness views for charitable giving

The proposed study explores the role of meritocratic beliefs, fairness views, and social preferences in explaining the relationship between economic inequality and charitable donations. While rising inequality is often thought to increase charitable giving to remedy social issues, existing research shows that inequality may instead decrease individual donations. One reason for this seeming contradiction may be that the impact of inequality on prosocial behaviour depends on individuals’ perceptions about causes of inequality rather than the actual extent of inequality. In the Western world, the notion of meritocratic fairness is crucial for this link: inequality due to unequal effort is often seen as fair, while inequality due to external circumstances is seen as unfair. We therefore expect that individuals’ meritocratic beliefs, the conviction that societal success is reflective of a meritocratic process, are crucial for explaining the (missing) link between inequality and giving. Our main research question is: To what extent does information about the non-meritocratic nature of wealth inequality affect meritocratic beliefs and charitable giving? Building on recent advances in the literature on preferences for redistribution, we further conjecture that giving is jointly determined by individuals’ meritocratic beliefs, social preferences, and fairness views. Our second research question is: Do fairness views and social preferences alter the effects of meritocratic beliefs on charitable giving? The core of this study is an information provision experiment. Representative data (quota sampling) will be obtained via Prolific. In the first phase, participants receive information about wealth inequality in Austria and are asked about their beliefs, fairness views, and social preferences. They then make an incentivized donation decision to our collaboration partner the Austrian Red Cross, ensuring that real money is at stake. In the second phase, half of the participants receive information about the non-meritocratic nature of Austrian wealth inequality, including data on social mobility. The control group receives no additional information. In the third phase, we elicit participants’ updated beliefs and a second donation decision. The data collection for this experiment will take place online in November 2025. we are confident to be able to present findings by April 2026. Explaining the missing link between wealth inequality and charitable giving will contribute to both the literature on the effect of inequality on prosocial behaviour and the literature on preferences for redistribution. Likewise, they are relevant for nonprofit organizations’ fundraising, which is particularly important in times of growing inequality with tight public budgets.