The Rich in Public Opinion

What We Think When We Think about Wealth

By: Rainer Zitelmann

Narrated by: Scott R. Smith

What do people in the United States and Europe think about the rich? There are several thousand books and articles on stereotypes and prejudices directed at women, people of various races or nationalities, and even the poor. In contrast, there has only been sporadic research into stereotypes about the rich, and no published comprehensive, scientific study on the topic—until now.

In The Rich in Public Opinion: What We Think When We Think about Wealth, historian and sociologist Rainer Zitelmann examines attitudes about wealth and the wealthy in four industrialized Western countries: Germany, the United States, France, and Great Britain.

Consisting of three parts, this book first surveys the literature about stereotypes and prejudices. Zitelmann then reports on never-before-seen data commissioned by the polling firm Ipsos MORI and from the Allensbach Institute, which conducted identical surveys of residents of four countries regarding various aspects of their attitudes toward wealth. Lastly, The Rich in Public Opinion looks at the portrayal of the rich in media and film.

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