Distributive justice and occupational incomes: perceptions of justice determine perceptions of fact.

This paper investigates relationships between actual occupational incomes, perceived incomes and legitimate incomes. It is based on two Australian national surveys (N = 1000) conducted in 1988. Results indicate that the public believes that incomes ought to be much more equal than they currently are. There is support both for increasing low incomes and decreasing high incomes. However the public systematically misperceives the income distribution and erroneously believes that there is virtually no difference between legitimate incomes and actual incomes. The main implications for an empirically sound theory of distributive justice are that: (1) it is incorrect to assume that public perceptions of the distribution of social goods are even remotely accurate and (2) a normative standard of equality distorts perceptions of distributive outcomes. Perceptions of justice determine perceptions of fact rather than vice-versa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]