[Toshi]

Last-place aversion.

Before today, I hadn't heard of this concept described by this very term, but I'd certainly heard of its effects. I think it's an important concept, as it provides a model for the seemingly paradoxical lack of support for redistributive policies from the very people that would benefit from such policies. Think Joe The Plumber. Think poor Southern white people voting Republican year after year. Think of black youths in LA targeting just-barely-less-poor Korean shopkeepers in the Rodney King riots.

Kuziemko et al. describe last-place aversion as such:

We hypothesize that there is a basic, psychological aversion to feeling that one is in 'last place,' which could increase competition and inhibit political unity among members of low-income groups. Instead of uniting in pursuit of common interests, working class groups may wish to punish the groups slightly below or above themselves, with the hope of having at least one group 'below' them.

They go much further than mere description of the concept in their paper, linked below, and confirm its existence experimentally (second-to-last place person in a game where a ladder of income distribution is created artificially is the least generous) and by parsing survey data regarding support for minimum wage increases and for whites' attitudes towards blacks.

This last bit is the most interesting to me. Rather than summarize I'll just quote the whole relevant paragraph from their introduction, emphasis added by me:

In the General Social Survey, white support for redistribution toward blacks increases with self-assessed place in the income distribution. In particular, moving from self-reported 'average' to 'below average' income is associated with a large decrease in white support for policies that aid blacks, but moving from 'average' to 'above average' has little effect, suggesting that the aversion to aid for blacks is concentrated among those whites who perceive themselves in danger of being in 'last place.' Moreover, while other 'illiberal' or 'intolerant' positions generally decrease with income among whites, they tend not to display the same sharp drop between below and average income. For example, subjects who report having average income are generally just as nativist, homophobic, anti-semetic and intolerant of unpopular speech as those who report having below average income.

Intrigued? Read the whole draft NBER working paper by Kuziemko et al. here: http://www.princeton.edu/~kuziemko/lpa_draft.pdf

 

[stevew]

horsesh!t.

i don't wish to punish anyone.

 

[Toshi]

horsesh!t.

i don't wish to punish anyone.

Are you perceiving yourself as nearly at the bottom of any pile? If not then this doesn't really apply to you.

 

[jonKranked]

horsesh!t.

i don't wish to punish anyone.

i want to punish everyone.

 

[$tinkle]

toshi: if all blacks/browns/non-whites high jumped over me, do you know how good that would be for everyone?

*especially me*?

but if they are pulled up *at the expense of me*, that's another discussion

note the distinction: one is of self-effort, while the other is of a third party acting w/ extreme prejudice

 

[stevew]

48 pages later we learn that people are naturally stingy motherfvckers?

 

[$tinkle]

48 pages later we learn that people are naturally stingy motherfvckers?

not all:

 

[Inclag]

So in summarization, scholars with a lot of letters and acronyms behind their names have came up with their own terminology to describe a person as stupid/racist.

 

[stevew]

So in summarization, scholars with a lot of letters and acronyms behind their names have came up with their own terminology to describe a person as stupid/racist.

and that handing out money hasn't really helped.

 

[Silver]

From a strictly pop psychology point of view, it seems intuitive to explain the Joe the Plumbers of the world like this. Stupid fat white guys have been coasting for years, hearing that they can be president one day too, because that's the American dream. And they could look at Watts or the housing projects and think, "Hey, I'm better than that!"

Now there's a black president. Hilarity ensues.

I have a last place aversion when I'm riding too. I don't have to be the first to the top of the hill, but goddamn I'm not going to be last.

 

[jimmydean]

I have a last place aversion when I'm riding too. I don't have to be the first to the top of the hill, but goddamn I'm not going to be last.

Rules to live by.

On that note, going from the Navy PT standards to the Army standards was like this. In the Navy you ask "What is my minimum for my age group" and in the Army it was more about the Max.

I found it funny (but I also got in great shape in the Army, go figure).

 

[MikeD]

swing low, sweet chariot.