Inequality and indignation

Edna Ullmann-Margalit and Cass R. Sunstein

Chapter 4 in Decisions and Social Norms, 2026, pp 88-111 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Inequalities often persist because both the advantaged and the disadvantaged stand to lose from change. Despite the probability of loss, moral indignation can lead the disadvantaged to seek to alter the status quo by encouraging them to sacrifice their material self-interest for the sake of equality. Experimental research shows that moral indignation is widespread. It also indicates that a propensity to apparently self-defeating moral indignation can turn out to promote people's material self-interest, if and because others will anticipate their actions. Nonetheless, potential rebels face collective action problems. Some of these can be reduced through the acts of ‘indignation entrepreneurs’. Law is relevant as well. By legitimating moral indignation and dissipating pluralistic ignorance, law can intensify and spread that indignation, thus increasing its expression. Alternatively, law can delegitimate moral indignation, or at least raise the cost of its expression, thus stabilizing a status quo of inequality.

Keywords: Inequality; Indignation; Norms; Partiality; Prisoner's Dilemma; Sex Equality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035397464
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