The Effects of Economic Insecurity on Policy Preferences

Technological change, the COVID-19 emergency, and other trends in recent years have contributed to rising economic insecurity among American households. Given the diverse and detrimental consequences of economic insecurity for households and individuals, it is imperative that we understand its consequences for political behavior. Here, we ask why do some people hold more positive views of policies aimed at mitigating labor market risk, and, how do experiences and perceptions of economic insecurity shape these policy preferences? We are interested in the differential effects of sociotropic (collective) versus egotropic (personal) insecurity on individuals' preferred unemployment insurance policy design. To answer these questions, we propose a survey experiment to manipulate respondents' perceptions of egotropic and sociotropic insecurity.