Exposure to poverty affects the rich and the poor differently

Western individuals have the opportunity to choose their own place of residence. As a result, residential areas have become increasingly divided between the affluent and the impoverished.

On the other hand, Finland's public sector has rapidly accumulated debt, leading to reductions in income transfers from the wealthy to the poor. This issue has sparked intense opposition, as evidenced by Antti Lindtman's strong May Day speech.

An intriguing question in all of this concerns how people react when they encounter poor individuals. Most studies have suggested that exposure to impoverished individuals is positively associated with support for income redistribution, but conflicting results have also been observed.

In this regard, interesting new findings emerged from a Danish study that addressed inconsistencies in previous research using longitudinal survey panel data from 2008, 2011, and 2017. It appeared that increasing exposure of affluent individuals to poverty in their own communities decreased support for income redistribution policies.

Conversely, increased encounters with impoverished individuals raised support for income redistribution among lower-income groups. In other words, seeing the poor elicited vastly different reactions regarding income redistribution policies among individuals of different income levels.

The result aligns with the observation that affluent individuals tend to move away from areas where poorer populations have also settled, for one reason or another. Consequently, the prices in these desirable residential areas have risen; examples include the difference between the affluent Westend in Espoo and the more affordable Suvela, favored by immigrants.

However, the study left open the explanation for why encountering the poor had such a strong and varied impact on the attitudes toward income redistribution policies among the wealthy and less wealthy individuals. Each person may come up with more or less enlightened guesses, but information on the reasons behind this fact is only available through new studies specifically designed to address this question.

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
Attitudes towards immigrants are not becoming more positive in Western countries
Traditional beliefs turned out to be wisdom
Sexual harassment and bullying in working life