Zero-sum thinking and the roots of US political differences

Sahil Chinoy, Nathan Nunn, Sandra Sequeira and Stefanie Stantcheva

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: We investigate the origins and implications of zero-sum thinking: the belief that gains for one individual or group tend to come at the cost of others. Using a new survey of 20,400 US residents, we measure zero-sum thinking, political preferences, policy views, and a rich array of ancestral information spanning four generations. We find that a more zero-sum mindset is strongly associated with more support for government redistribution, race- and gender-based affirmative action, and more restrictive immigration policies. Zero-sum thinking can be traced back to the experiences of both the individual and their ancestors, encompassing factors such as the degree of intergenerational upward mobility they experienced, whether they immigrated to the United States or lived in a location with more immigrants, and whether they were enslaved or lived in a location with more enslavement.

Keywords: zero-sum; redistribution; political values; cultural transmission (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 D91 H23 J15 J16 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 45 pages
Date: 2026-03-13
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pol
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in American Economic Review, 13, March, 2026, 116(3), pp. 1052 – 1096. ISSN: 0002-8282

Downloads: (external link)
https://researchonline.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/128930/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:128930

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library LSE Library Portugal Street London, WC2A 2HD, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LSERO Manager ().