Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Would a tax by any other name smell the same to Americans? That’s what psychological researchers at Columbia University wanted to find out when they asked 898 taxpayers about hypothetical plans to help the environment by taxing products that spew a lot of carbon into the atmosphere. But instead of calling it a tax, researchers characterized it as an “offset”—which produced a significant change in response from participants in the survey.
Democrats, Republicans and independents liked the offset solution, were more likely to choose the “more expensive, albeit environmentally-friendly, product,” and were inclined to support legislative efforts to make the offsets mandatory.
But when the exact same plan was offered with the word “tax” in it, Republicans and independents tended to balk at the idea. Only Democrats were still willing to go along.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
You Say Offset, I Say Tax? Study Suggests Labels and Political Affiliation May Influence Preferences (Association for Psychological Science)
A Dirty Word or a Dirty World? (by David J. Hardisty, Eric J. Johnson and Elke U. Weber)
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