Perceptions are everything: individuals’ normative attitudes toward inequality and political participation in Europe

Abstract The notion that national-level income inequality shapes individuals’ traditional political participation choices, based on differences in individuals’ income levels, is weakening. The inclusion of individuals’ perceptions of and attitudes toward inequality has undermined two essential assumptions of this relationship, namely that all individuals can both correctly assess national-level inequality and that they respond to inequality in accordance with their socio-economic group. Using the European Values Surveys (1990–2017) in more than 40 countries, we examine inequality perceptions and political participation, including non-traditional political participation. We find that when individuals’ normative inequality attitudes are introduced, (1) the interactions between individuals’ income levels and changes in national-level income inequality nearly universally disappear. And more importantly, (2) normative attitudes have significant and consistent effects on political participation choices such that negative orientations toward inequality attenuate traditional forms of political participation and motivate a number of non-traditional forms.