Telling voters how much billionaires pollute actually makes them *less* likely to want to fix the climate.
March 20, 2026
Original Paper
Blame the Billionaires? Media exposure to carbon inequality polarises climate policy support
SocArXiv · e5j2h_v1
The Takeaway
While it seems intuitive that 'blaming the rich' would rally populist support for climate action, this experiment found it backfires with anti-elite voters, making them more skeptical of the policies. This suggests that linking climate change to class inequality might be a losing strategy for the very people most angry at the establishment.
From the abstract
Does carbon inequality affect support for climate policies? Previous research suggests that awareness of inequality increases policy support, but relies on stylised treatments far from real-world conditions. We present a pre-registered experiment in France in which respondents were shown real newspaper headlines, and measure effects on policy support and willingness to donate to a climate organisation. In contrast with previous work, we find no average effect of carbon inequality information. Ho