Replication Data for: Perceiving Welfare State Sustainability: Fiscal Costs, Group Deservingness, or Ideology?

What shapes citizens’ perceptions of long-term welfare state sustainability? Past work hints at three explanations: information about fiscal pressure, deservingness views of recipient groups, and left-right ideology. We consider all three in an experiment exposing people to information about fiscal costs and/or low deservingness in the labour market domain. Left-right ideology functions as a moderator. Unlike past work, which has concentrated on demographic pressures, information about fiscal costs do not generate worries about sustainability (separately or combined with deservingness cues). Rather, left-right ideology moderates reactions. People on the left seem to question and counter-argue against fiscal pressure, such that when facing negative information, they develop more positive sustainability views. This counter-reaction co-exists with statistically insignificant effects in the negative direction among people on the right. These ideological contingencies arise without partisan cues, suggesting that welfare state pressure itself can be ideologically controversial in the labour market domain.