TY - JOUR
T1 - They’re Coming for You! How Perceptions of Automation Affect Public Support for Universal Basic Income
AU - Haglin, Kathryn
AU - Jordan, Soren
AU - Ferguson, Grant
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2023.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Media stories on the economy tout automation as one of the biggest contemporary technological changes in America and argue that many Americans may lose their jobs because of it. Politicians and financial elites often promote a policy of Universal Basic Income (UBI) as a solution to the potential unemployment caused by automation, suggesting Americans should support UBI to protect them from this technological disruption. This linkage and basic descriptive findings are largely untested: we don’t know much about whether Americans support UBI, see automation as a threat to their job, or connect the two in any meaningful way. Using a Mechanical Turk survey of 3600 respondents, we examine the relationship between Americans’ perception of how much automation threatens their jobs, how much automation actually threatens their jobs, and their support for UBI. Our results indicate that while the public does not view automation as the same threat that elites do, Americans who believe their jobs will be automated are more likely to support UBI. These relationships, however, vary considerably by political party.
AB - Media stories on the economy tout automation as one of the biggest contemporary technological changes in America and argue that many Americans may lose their jobs because of it. Politicians and financial elites often promote a policy of Universal Basic Income (UBI) as a solution to the potential unemployment caused by automation, suggesting Americans should support UBI to protect them from this technological disruption. This linkage and basic descriptive findings are largely untested: we don’t know much about whether Americans support UBI, see automation as a threat to their job, or connect the two in any meaningful way. Using a Mechanical Turk survey of 3600 respondents, we examine the relationship between Americans’ perception of how much automation threatens their jobs, how much automation actually threatens their jobs, and their support for UBI. Our results indicate that while the public does not view automation as the same threat that elites do, Americans who believe their jobs will be automated are more likely to support UBI. These relationships, however, vary considerably by political party.
KW - automation
KW - partisanship
KW - public opinion
KW - universal basic income
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85176607331&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85176607331&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/08944393231212252
DO - 10.1177/08944393231212252
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85176607331
SN - 0894-4393
JO - Social Science Computer Review
JF - Social Science Computer Review
ER -