This paper investigates whether the individual misperception of income distributions helps explain why, opposite to Meltzer and Richard (1981), higher initial inequality levels do not correlate positively with redistribution. I conduct a representative survey experiment in Brazil, France, Germany, Russia, Spain, and the United States, providing a personalized information treatment on the income distribution to a randomly chosen subsample. Most respondents misperceive their own position in the income distribution. These biases differ by country and the true income position. Misperceptions of the median income relate negatively to misperceived income positions, showing evidence for biased reference points. Correcting misperceptions slightly shifts the demand towards less redistribution in Germany and Russia which appears to be driven by respondents with a negative position bias. Apart from Spain and the US, treatment reactions lead to a convergence of the demand for redistribution across countries. The treatment also alters trust levels in government and beliefs about the importance of luck but not equally across bias types.

中文翻译：

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对收入分配的误解：来自随机调查实验的跨国证据

本文研究了个人对收入分配的误解是否有助于解释为什么与Meltzer和Richard（1981）相反，较高的初始不平等水平与再分配没有正相关关系。我在巴西，法国，德国，俄罗斯，西班牙和美国进行了代表性调查实验，为随机选择的子样本提供了有关收入分配的个性化信息处理。大多数受访者误以为自己在收入分配中的地位。这些偏见因国家和实际收入状况而异。对中位数收入的误解与对收入状况的误解负相关，这表明参考点存在偏差。纠正误解会稍微改变需求，使德国和俄罗斯的重新分配减少，这似乎是由持负面立场偏见的受访者推动的。除西班牙和美国外，治疗反应还导致各国之间重新分配的需求趋于一致。这种待遇还改变了政府的信任度和对运气重要性的信念，但在偏见类型上却不一样。