Changing the narrative on wealth inequality
Public perceptions of and attitudes towards wealth, the wealthy and wealth inequality are complex. Understanding what they are, and how they can be shifted by different ways of communicating is a democratic imperative.
This project arose out of a conversation with our project partner and funder, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), who were interested in understanding the effect of narratives on people’s perceptions and attitudes towards wealth inequality. Our previous work on political discourse and inequality (like this article by Savage & Vaughan, Durability in Inequality Discourse in the UK Public Sphere, Vaughan & Kerr's Visual representations of wealth inequality in political communication and Kerr’s (2024) Wealth, Poverty and Inequality: Let’s Talk Wealtherty and Oppel’s (2023) Communication matters: Sensitivity in fairness evaluations across wealth inequality expressions and levels) allowed us to co-design a multi-stage project in dialogue with JRF, with a focus on outputs that social change actors could use in their work.
Highlights:
- Talking about wealth inequality: how to increase critical orientations and support for redistribution
9 June 2025
A new report with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation looking at perceptions of, and attitudes towards, wealth and wealth inequality — and how to increase public support for a fairer distribution.