[E] Who Is to Blame ? Framing and Socio-economic health inequality aversion
Le 4 déc. 2025 de 13h00 à 14h00
à Pau, en salle des thèses DEG, à Bayonne, en salle 110 via Teams.
Abstract
This paper investigates how responsibility framing shapes public aversion to socio-economic health inequalities. Using a nationally representative experimental survey of 4,508 respondents, we elicit preferences across eight scenarios capturing disparities in preventive care, access to providers, waiting times, avoidable hospitalizations, and mortality. Respondents are randomly assigned to a control group receiving neutral descriptions or a treatment group exposed to framing that emphasizes individual responsibility for health outcomes. Results show that responsibility framing significantly reduces inequality aversion across all domains, indicating greater acceptance of health disparities when presented as self-inflicted. The effect is heterogeneous: men are consistently less inequality-averse than women, and framing further widens this gender
gap. Income is negatively associated with aversion but plays a smaller moderating role. Preexisting responsibility beliefs do not significantly interact with framing, suggesting that framing operates as a general heuristic rather than reinforcing prior attitudes. These findings highlight the power of framing to shift distributive preferences and raise concerns about its potential to weaken public support for equity-oriented health policies.
