We study the extent to which people are misinformed about their relative position in the income distribution and the effects on preferences for redistribution of correcting faulty beliefs. We implement a tailor-made survey in Sweden and document that a vast majority of Swedes believe that they...

An individual’s beliefs about whether luck or effort determine how economically successful people are in life (luck/effort beliefs) are central for how she views society. In general, a person who thinks that luck is relatively more important than effort accepts less inequality, wants more...