Loading…
Agreement that large differences in income are needed as an incentive for people to work or achieve; the wording differs slightly between the 1984 and 1990 GSS items.
AI-matched An AI model grouped these questions and mapped their answers onto shared categories, and a second AI review checked and corrected the grouping and mapping. No person has checked it: compare the question wordings and the answer mapping below before reading the lines against each other.
Latest: 7% answered “Strongly agree” in GSS: Large income differences needed as incentive, 1990.
Shares of people whose answer maps onto these categories (non-answers and answers outside the scale are left out), because surveys differ in whether they offer “don’t know.” Each point is one survey wave at the middle of its field period. Lines from different surveys are never spliced together.
| Line | Question | Match | How answers map |
|---|---|---|---|
| GSS: Large income differences needed as incentive | Large income differences needed as incentive Here are different opinions about social differences in this country. Please tell me for each one whether you strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, or strongly disagree.
A. Only if differences in income are large enough is there an incentive for individual effort Caveat: Income only; middle options labeled 'agree'/'disagree' without 'somewhat' | equivalent | Agree strongly → Strongly agree; Agree → Agree somewhat; Disagree → Disagree somewhat; Disagree strongly → Strongly disagree |
| GSS: Large income differences are needed as an incentive | Large income differences are needed as an incentive Here are different opinions about social differences in this country. Please tell me for each one whether you strongly agree, somewhat, agree, somewhat disagree, or strongly disagree. READ EACH STATEMENT. CIRCLE ONE CODE FOR EACH.
F. Only if differences in income and social standing are large enough is there an incentive for individual effort. Caveat: Wording adds 'and social standing' to income differences | equivalent | Strongly agree → Strongly agree; Somewhat agree → Agree somewhat; Somewhat disagree → Disagree somewhat; Strongly disagree → Strongly disagree |