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The protestant work ethic, human values and attitudes towards taxation
Journal of Economic Psychology 3 (1983) 113-128 North-Holland Publishing Company
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THE P R O T E S T A N T WORK ETHIC, H U M A N VALUES AND A T r I T U D E S T O W A R D S TAXATION
Adrian F U R N H A M * University College London, UK Received April 5, 1982; accepted August 31, 1982
The literature on demographic determinants of attitudes towards taxation was briefly reviewed. Whereas most previous studies concerned the relationship between such things as income, vote etc. and tax attitudes, this study examined the relationship between Protestant Work Ethic beliefs, social value systems and attitudes toward taxation. It was demonstrated that subjects who strongly endorsed the Protestant Work Ethic were more opposed to taxation than those who did not strongly endorse these beliefs. Further many of the instrumental and terminal value systems of subjects who were pro-taxation were significantly different from those who were anti-taxation. The results are discussed in terms of the psychology of lay-economic beliefs and implications for social change were noted.
I. Introduction Although psychological and sociological studies have looked at certain aspects of attitudes to work and leisure (Mirels and Garrett 1971), social security recipients (Kallen and Miller 1971), unemployment (Furnham 1982a), and poverty (Furnham 1982b), few studies have been done on various psychological determinants of people's attitudes to taxation. This however has not been due to a lack of interest in the area. As early as 1959, SchmOlders had proposed an assessment of the tax mentality of the public. More recently Lewis (1979, 1982) has proposed the introduction of fiscal psychology which may be defined as a behavioural approach to public finance. However, it would be incorrect to presume that no studies have been * The author is grateful to Mrs A. Angell for help in acquiring people to complete this study and Dr. P. Kelvin for critical comments on ideas presented in this paper. Reprint requests should be directed to Dr. Adrian Furnham, Department of Psychology, University College London, Gower Street, London WCI H, UK.
0167-4870/83/0000-0000/$03.00 © 1983 North-Holland.
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done in the area. Mueller (1963) suggested that surveys on public attitudes toward fiscal programmes give an understanding of the nature of people's fiscal preferences such as their origin, congruence and stability. She reported on three American nationwide studies done in the early 1960's that found, contrary to expectation, that upper income groups are no less favourably disposed toward the extension of government programmes than lower income groups. Further, willingness to pay taxes also rises with education though there seemed to be few age or political belief differences. She concluded that "the greater willingness of the upper income and better educated groups to pay taxes grows out of the desire to secure adequate government services and at the same time to avoid deficits" (1963: 233). Schm61ders' (1970) research into the tax mentality of people in various European countries found substantial differences among the different nationalities, partly as a function of each country's tax systems. He found that where the national tax system involves intensive enforcement and compliance, the costs are high and citizens are likely to be very resentful. Vogel (1974) in a well researched and documented paper reported on public opinions toward taxation in Sweden - the uses and burden of taxes, and attitudes towards tax evasion. On the basis of this study, the author devised a six-fold typology for describing different modes of adaptation to the tax system: Conformist-internalization, identification and compliance; Deviant - internalization, identification and compliance. "Tax payers exhibiting the first three types of adaptation do not practice tax evasion but conform to tax laws and regulations. In addition, those exhibiting the first type judge the system as fair, while those exhibiting the second type judge the system as fair but uphold the legitimacy of the laws and regulations. The third type of adaptation involves the withdrawal of support for laws and regulations but continuing conformity to tax laws for fear of being caught .... Tax payers exhibiting the fourth type see the system as unfair while those exhibiting the fifth type of adaptation see the tax system as fair but question the legitimacy of tax laws and regulations. Taxpayers exhibiting the sixth type of adaptation accept the legitimacy of tax laws and regulations but report evading taxes for reasons of group pressure" (1974: 509). More recently Citrin (1970) has criticized research in attitudes towards taxation while reviewing previous studies. He suggested that: " T h e individual's demand for government services (that is, his
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favourableness toward public spending) is viewed as a function of self-interest inferred from demographic traits, and generalized "tastes" for either particular kinds of services or for public rather than private goods p e r se, measured by political ideology and partizanship" (1979: 113). Citrin reported on a large poll which found that attitudes on public spending and taxation fell into two distinguishable and related clusters: positive attitudes towards spending on education, health, welfare, housing, transport and environmental protection went together as did opinions about police services, fire departments, correctional facilities and road construction. He criticizes the self-interest theory which predicts that people decide where to stand on taxing and spending issues by undertaking a cost-benefit analysis of the trade-offs between taxes paid and services received, as too simplistic. Of the demographic variables examined vote, home ownership and education showed most significant differences though there were some income, race and age differences as well. Similarly, Lewis (1979) constructed and used a 16 item attitude to taxation questionnaire which he administered to 200 British males who were categorized in terms of age, social class, income and political preference. He found that people with high incomes (over £6,000) as opposed to those with low incomes (below £6,000) feel tax avoidance is fair, believe that they do not have any unfair advantage in finding loopholes, and believe tax evaders of small amounts should be treated leniently. Because social class and party preference appeared to be poorly related to attitudes towards taxation, Lewis found no evidence for the "social orientation" model of tax attitudes. Nor did he find direct evidence of the "exchange" model of taxation, though he felt that respondents may rationalize their attitudes along those lines. He, however, concluded: "Tax mentality does differ from country to country according to different tax systems employed and the investigative zeal of the authorities but there are other no less important similarities in tax mentality which can be picked up by smaller experiments which concentrate on the particular perceptions and experiences of individual tax payers" (1979: 235). Thus it appears that most of the research in fiscal psychology has concentrated on demographic correlates of tax attitudes, and has neglected the relationship between socio-economic beliefs, values and attitudes towards taxation. There seem to be a number of important and relevant psychological concepts and measures that are related to a
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person's attitude toward taxation. These include the Protestant Work Ethic and the Values a person holds, both of which will be examined in this paper. Psychologists and sociologists have examined demographic, personality and attitudinal relationships and determinations of the Protestant Work Ethic (PWE). MacDonald (1972) found that high PWE scores tended to blame people, rather than the "system" for their sources of difficulty (poverty etc.). Similarly Furnham (1982c) found as predicted that subjects who strongly endorsed the PWE belief stressed negative individualistic explanations for unemployment and were by-and-large more against welfare payments than subjects who did not strongly endorse these beliefs. Based on this and other studies Furnham (1982c) concluded: "Thus the high PWE scorer is likely to explain poverty in terms of idleness and poor money management; wealth in terms of hard work, honesty and saving; unemployment in terms of laziness and lack of effort; and to be against both taxation and social security". This and other studies (Greenberg 1978; Mirels and Garrett 1971) suggest that high PWE scorers would be more against taxation than low PWE scorers.
Research into value systems would also appear to be highly germane to attitudes towards taxation. For instance, Rokeach (1973) found that attitudes to poverty were clearly related to a number of instrumental and terminal values as measured on his scale. "More generally the anti-poor care more on the whole for a sense of accomplishment, national security, salvation, wisdom, and being independent, responsible and self-controlled; they care less about a comfortable life, a world at peace, equality, happiness, being cheerful, clean, helpful, loving and obedient" (1973: 103). Similarly Feather (1975) found values to be closely related to attitudes towards poverty: "These results suggest that the degree to which people explain poverty in terms of social structural factors depends upon the relative importance they assign to those social and competence values that are relevant to the work situation. Thus, where equal opportunity is highly valued and competence devalued (relative to other values) structural/societal reasons become more prominent as important explanations for poverty" ( 1975: 139). Hence it would seem reasonable to expect that people who were pro-taxation would hold numerous different values from those who were anti-taxation. This study was therefore designed to look at the relationship between
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the Protestant Work Ethic (as measured by the Mirels and Garrett (1971) scale), Human Values (as measured by the Rokeach (1973) survey) and attitudes to taxation (as measured by Lewis (1979) questionnaire) among a normal population of working people. Previous research by Feather (1975), Furnham (1982a,b,c) and MacDonald (1972) suggest that both the PWE beliefs and human values would be directly related to taxation. 2. Method 2.1. Su~ecU
Sixty-five subjects took part in this experiment. There were 38 males and 27 females. They were all working adults of British origin and from working, lower middle and middle class backgrounds. They were all employed in full-time jobs including nursing, selling, engineering and local government administration. They were recruited personally and by advertisement to complete the questionnaire. 2.2. Materials
Subjects were given a booklet with three questionnaires. They were: (1) The Protestant Work Ethic Scale (Mirels and Garrett 1971). This is a 19 item inventory, which is rated on a 7 point agree-disagree scale. Of the 19 items, 16 are in the direction of high PWE and 3 in the direction of low PWE. Scores range from - 5 to 130. (2) Attitudes to Taxation (Lewis 1979). This is a 16 item inventory, which is rated on a 7 point agree-disagree scale. Of the 16 items, 8 are pro-taxation and 8 anti-taxation scores range from - 5 6 to +56. (3) Rokeach Value Survey (Rokeach 1973). This consists of lists of 18 values (terminal and instrumental values) which were rank-ordered separately. Respondents ranked the 18 terminal and then the 18 instrumental values in their "order of importance to you, as guiding principles in your life" using ~the standard instructions. 2.3. Procedure
For the most part subjects were tested in their place of work. The questionnaire was completed anonymously and feedback was provided
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immediately afterwards. The task took between 15 and 30 minutes. Subjects were debriefed immediately on completing the questionnaire, which provided considerable interest.
3. Results 3.1. A comparison with previous studies In order to determine the representativeness of this sample's responses, they were compared with a previous study using the same items. It can be seen from table 1, that with one exception, these results are very similar to those of Lewis (1979) who tested a considerably larger sample ( N = 200). The only exception is the second pair (items 4 and 12), where subjects appeared almost equally divided, though it should be pointed out that these statements are not exact opposites. A X2 analysis (on the agree and disagree items) were performed for each pair of two questions. In this study seven of the eight pairs revealed significant differences whereas in Lewis's study all eight were significant. However, overall the results were very similar as table 1 indicates. 3.2. The Protestant Work Ethic and attitudes towards taxation Firstly, t h e m e a n PWE score was calculated (55.7) and the subjects divided into high (>~ 56) and low (~< 55) scores. Following this a one-way ANOVA was computed on each of the 16 attitudes toward taxation scale which has been divided into 2 sections (positive and negative statements). Although a one-way ANOVA in this instance is not much more than a simple t-test it was felt that it would reveal the relationship between the PWE scores and each attitude to taxation item. Table 2 shows the means and F levels for the high and low PWE groups over the 16 statements, 4 of which show significant differences. Three significant differences are all in the same direction - namely high PWE scorers are more opposed to taxation than low PWE scorers. High PWE scorers believe more than low PWE scorers that we should say 'good luck' to people who avoid taxes; that taxes are an imposition, and that the taxes they pay are unreasonably high. Yet high PWE scorers believed less than low PWE scorers that the amount of tax that they
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Table 1 Percent responses to the attitude measures for each pair of items. The percentages in Brackets are from the study of Lewis 1979 ( N = 200). Agree
Disagree
38.4 (39.0)
58.4 (56.0)
3.2 (5.0)
58.4 (51.5)
35.3 (37.5)
6.3 (11.0)
47.6 (34.5)
38.4 (58.5)
24.0 (7.0)
47.6 (51.5)
43.0 (37.5)
9.4 (11.0)
49.2 (39.5)
36.9 (52.5)
13.9 (8.0)
23.1 (33.5)
42.6 (52.5)
12.3 (14.0)
The law should treat people who evade large amounts of tax leniently. 14) People who illegally evade large amounts of tax should be treated harshly by the law.
4.6 (8.5) 66.1 (85.5)
84.6 (87.5) 29.2 (11.0)
10.8 (4.0) 4.8 (3.5)
3) A similar n u m b e r of people would still evade tax even if taxation was reduced. 15) If people had to pay less tax, few people would attempt to evade paymerit.
87.6 (80.5)
9.2 (11.0)
3.2 (8.5)
29.2 (40.5)
63.0 (47.0)
7.8 (12.5)
76.9 (67.5)
13.4 (22.5)
9.7 (10.0)
33.8 (48.5)
52.3 (45.5)
13.9 (6.0)
1) People who earn more, who pay more in tax are more justified in finding legal loopholes to reduce their tax payment bill. lO) The avoidance of tax by discovery of legal loopholes is unfair as only the well off can afford to employ accountants to find them. 4)
We should say "good luck" to people who avoid tax by finding legal loopholes. 12) To avoid tax by finding legal loopholes in unethical. 2)
People who illegally evade small amounts of tax should be treated leniently by the law. 16) People who illegally evade small amounts of tax should be treated harshly by the law. 7)
5)
It is fair that high income earners pay proportionally more tax as this m e a n s that lower paid are able to receive services they otherwise would not be able to afford. 9) It is not fair that as people earn more money a greater proportion of earned income goes in income tax.
Uncertain
X2
X 2 = 9.2
p < 0.01
X 2 = 1.2 NS
X 2 = 16.1 p < 0.001
X 2 = 80.7 p < 0.001
X 2 = 80.7 p < 0.001
X z = 42.4
p < 0.001
A. Furnham / T h e work ethic, values and taxation
120 Table 1 (continued)
6)
I feel that taxation is an imposition.
11)
I feel that taxation is a method of paying for essential services for the c o m m o n good.
8) The amount of tax I pay is unreasonably high 13) The amount of tax that I pay is about right.
Agree
Disagree
Uncertain
X2
21.5 (24.5) 83.0 (88.5)
61.5 (54.5) 13.8 (6.0)
17.0 (21.0) 3.2 (5.5)
X 2 = 65.6 p < 0.001
49.2 (53.5) 40.0 (33.5)
24.6 (32.0) 40.0 (53.5)
26.4 (14.5) 20.0 (13.0)
X 2 = 4.10 p < 0.05
pay is about right which is in accordance with the above findings. However, the fact that only four differences are significant is rather disappointing, perhaps indicating only a weak relationship between PWE beliefs and attitudes to taxation. Overall the subjects agreed most with the statements indicating that even if taxes were reduced, people would still evade them, and that it is unfair that as people earn more money more of it goes into income tax. The statements that the subjects disagreed with most concerned the fact that the law should treat people leniently who evade large or small amounts of tax. On the whole the subjects appeared to disagree with the negative statements (Mean = 4.27, SD = 2.06) more than with the positive statements (Mean = 3.09, SD = 0.94). 3.3. Values and attitudes toward taxation
Firstly the subjects were divided into three groups (pro, intermediate, and anti) based on their attitudes toward taxation. This was done by subtracting the total agreement-disagreement scores on the eight favourable items from the total scores on the eight unfavourable items (Lewis 1979). Subjects whose scores were one standard deviation below this mean attitude to taxation score were labelled pro-taxation, and those one standard deviation above the mean were labelled anti-taxation. The results for the terminal and instrumental values will be discussed separately.
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Table 2 Means and F levels for high and low scorers on the Protestant Work Ethic Scale for each attitude to taxation statement. (1 = Agree; 7 = Disagree.)
Negative attitude statements - People who earn more, who pay more in tax are more justified in finding legal loopholes to reduce their tax payment/bill. People who illegally evade small amounts of tax should be treated leniently by the law. - We should say "good luck" to people who avoid tax by finding legal loopholes. - I feel that taxation is an imposition. The law should treat people who evade large amounts of tax leniently. - The amount of tax I pay is unreasonably high. It is not fair that as people earn more money a greater proportion of their earned income goes in income tax. - If people had to pay less tax, few people would attempt to evade payment.
Low PWE ( N = 36)
High PWE ( N = 29)
F level
4.30
4.72
0.48
4.72
4.93
0.19
4.11 5.47
3.65 4.20
2.63 b 7.24 a
6.36 3.80
6.03 2.96
0.97 3.79 b
1.99
1.98
0.49
4.80
4.44
0.43
3.94
3.41
0.90
3.88 4.05
3.68 3.82
0.70 0.15
2.05
2.06
0.00
2.69 3.94
2.89 4.72
0.17 2.99 b
2.30
2.58
0.40
1.97
1.58
1.16
-
-
-
Positive attitude statements - The avoidance of tax by discovery of legal loopholes is unfair as only the well off can afford to employ accountants to find them. People who illegally evade small amounts of tax should be treated harshly by the law. To avoid tax by finding legal loopholes is unethical. I feel that taxation is a method of paying for essential services for the common good. People who illegally evade large amounts of tax should be treated harshly by the law. The amount of tax that I pay is about right. It is fair that high income earners pay proportionally more tax as this means that lower paid are able to receive services they otherwise would not be able to afford. A similar number of people would still evade tax even if taxation was reduced. -
-
-
-
-
-
a p < 0.01
b p < 0.05
3.3.1. Terminal values To obtain the terminal value system of the three groups the median rankings were calculated. These are presented in table 3 and represent the mean ranks for the most important value (lowest median) to the
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A. Furnham /The
w o r k ethic, v a l u e s a n d t a x a t i o n
e~
2
u~
o .r.
•~,
n
o~ ea
II
2~
"= e~
V a~
V
A. Furnham / T h e work ethic, values and taxation
123
least important value (highest median). Firstly, a Kruskal-Wallis, non-parametric one-way analysis of variance was computed across each value for the three groups. Just under a quarter revealed significant differences. People with pro-tax attitudes assigned higher priority to a comfortable life, equality and social recognition but lower priority to freedom than people with anti-tax attitudes. On all four the intermediate groups were between the two other groups. Secondly, a discriminant analysis was done in order to distinguish the most discriminating variables between the three groups. This stepwise procedure enters variables into the analysis independently on the basis of their discriminating power. The "next best" discriminator is selected at each step until the addition of further variables fail to improve discrimination between the groups. The univariate F ratio of each variable indicates the extent of its power in discriminating independently of any other variable. The increment in explanatory power produced by adding each variable is indicated by the Rao's V statistics, which is the criterion for the ordering of variables for inclusion in the discriminant functions. Each subject is also assigned to one of t h e t h r e e groups on the basis of h i s / h e r responses and this assignment can be compared with actual groups membership and is expressed as a canonical correlation. A comfortable life was the value which most clearly differentiated between the three groups but additional discriminatory power was achieved by adding other values such as social recognition, equality and freedom. The canonical correlation of 0.53 was achieved, indicating that the discriminant function based on the values was moderately related to group membership. These results are quite understandable. Pro-tax subjects believe in the importance of a comfortable life and equality while anti-tax subjects assign higher priority to freedom. It is also interesting to notice that pro-tax subjects attached more importance to social recognition than anti-tax subjects perhaps suggesting that one benefit of the equalitarian views that they (the former) hold is the social recognition that they receive from others holding similar views.
3.3.2. Instrumental values A similar analysis to the terminal values were performed on the instrumental values - Kruskal-Wallis and discriminant analyses. Nearly half of the eighteen differences were significant between the three
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Table 4 Average values of the 3 attitude groups for instrumental values, and statistical analyses of the various differences.
Instrumental values
Pro ( N = 16)
1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) 12) 13) 14) 15) 16) 17) 18) a
Ambiguous Broadminded Capable Cheerful Clean Courageous Forgiving Helpful Honest Imaginative Independent Intellectual Logical Loving Obedient Polite Responsible Self-controlled
p < 0.01
Statistical analyses
Group means
10.67 7.29 7.17 7.73 12.50 9.55 9.02 8.23 4.50 12.20 10.26 12.52 10.61 5.91 14.23 10.76 6.15 10.88
Intermed ( N = 15)
7.50 10.73 5.93 11.46 12.93 10.80 9.53 10.46 6.20 12.06 8.00 9.40 11.13 8.53 14.46 9.33 4.06 7.46
Anti ( N = 34)
7.46 8.79 6.75 8.50 9.12 10.12 10.50 12.81 7.75 13.t2 5.96 11.43 10.50 9.75 14.12 7.62 7.18 10.50
Kruskal-Wallis
5.41 4.44 1.26 7.26 6.36 0.49 1.35 8.39 5.57 0.23 8.17 4.12 0.30 8.72 0.27 4.98 4.44 5.70
b
b b
a b a
a
Discriminant Analysis F to enter
Change in Rao's V
2.22 b 0.28 2.60 b 1.24 3.88 a 0.67 2.49 b 4.61 a 0.73 0.46 4.44 a 1.67 0.72 1.13 0.35 2.50 b 0.47 2.67 b
6.18 1.09 9.14 4.31 7.97 2.73 8.26 9.22 3.12 2.17 10.38 5.09 2.74 5.53 1.47 7.63 7.63 6.44
b a a a
a
b b b
b p < 0.05
groups. Pro-tax respondents assigned significantly lower priority to ambitious, clean and independent, and higher priority to loving and helpful, than anti-tax respondents. The intermediate group assigned significantly greater priority to self-controlled, and lesser priority to cheerful than the other two groups. The discriminant analysis showed that helpful, independent, clean and capable clearly differentiated between the three groups. A canonical correlation of 0.65 was achieved, which is higher than in the case for terminal values. These results are also interpretable in terms of the previous literature on value systems. Indeed these instrumental values also distinguished
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between those holding pro- and anti-poor attitudes (Rokeach 1973). That is those subjects who expressed negative attitudes towards the poor assigned priority to clean and independent and lower priority to loving and helpful than those who expressed positive attitudes to the poor. Similarly, Feather (1975) found those instrumental values which discriminated between those holding conservative beliefs and those not were independent, clean and capable amongst others in that these were associated with conservatism. Also Rim (1970) found almost the same instrumental values as those above distinguished between those scoring high and low on the F scale. It, therefore, appears that people holding anti-poor and authoritarian attitudes have similar value systems to those having anti-tax beliefs.
4. Discussion
This study has demonstrated that tax attitudes are statistically and logically linked to both beliefs about work and also human values. Thus it is not only demographic variables such as amount of income or age that differentiate people's tax beliefs but also specific beliefs and attitudes. This is quite in accordance with previous studies (Lewis 1978, 1982) who found some party political affiliation differences in tax attitudes such that Conservative and Liberal supporters advocate much greater tax reductions than do Labour supporters and those uncommitted. However, Lewis (1979) found no political party differences in a later study and concluded: " I f the ideological perspective of redistribution was indeed a central factor in tax attitudes it would be expected that at least some of the responses would be dependent on party political preferences, no such associations were recorded" (1979: 236). Thus, though voting preference may to some extent predict taxation attitudes they may also be explained in terms of certain psychological and political beliefs and value systems. However, the results of this study offer only modest grounds for believing that PWE beliefs and Rokeach's values are important determinants of tax attitudes. It was demonstrated that beliefs in the PWE are related to some attitudes towards taxation. As predicted those who strongly endorsed the PWE, believing that virtue will be rewarded, success is attendant purely upon effort, and that the poor and unemployed are to blame for their plight, are naturally against certain aspects of taxation, while on
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the whole those who do not endorse the PWE are pro-taxation. PWE beliefs have shown to be closely related to conservatism and authoritarianism, job satisfaction and motivation as well as an orientation towards the place of work and leisure in one's life (Furnham 1982c). Hence, it may be seen as a useful belief variable through which to examine attitudes towards taxation, though there may as well be many others. Similarly, examining a person's value system may provide one way of measuring their attitudes towards taxation. Rokeach (1973) has shown that values are associately closely to political beliefs (student protest, Communism), socio-economic belief (poverty), religion (church activism), racial differences (attitudes towards the Blacks) and dogmatism while Feather (1975) has shown that values are logically linked to a person's sex, education and income. Hence, tapping values too, may be an effective way of understanding and predicting attitudes towards taxation. This study demonstrated a number of instrumental and terminal values which clearly differentiate between those holding pro- and those holding anti-tax beliefs. At face value the PWE scale appears to be a subset of Rokeach's instrumental and terminal values. Yet preliminary analysis suggests PWE beliefs are related to only a small number of terminal and instrumental values primarily those associated with work, achievement and leisure. Clearly further work needs to be done to explore the relationship between these two variables, as well as their relationship to tax attitudes. This study revealed findings remarkably similar to those of Lewis (1979). Further as Lewis (1979) has shown there are a number of quite specific factors in the tax mentality. That is, tax attitudes are multidimensional. For instance, whereas there are differences between high and low PWE scorers on the items loading on factors dealing with belief that taxation was an imposition, there was no difference on the factor concerned with the relationship between evasion and level of taxation. Hence, it comes as no surprise that people Can agree to the same extent with two statements which on a superficial level may be seen as contradictory (compare: "I feel that taxation is a method of paying for essential services for the common good" with "It is not fair that as people earn more money, a greater proportion of their earned income goes in income tax"). The complexity of tax attitudes and their correlates might explain the equivocal findings in support of the various
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theories of attitudes (such as the "exchange" model or the "social orientation" model). Despite the importance of social psychological studies such as this into tax attitudes, limitations and difficulties in research of this kind should not be overlooked. The first is sampling, which is always problematic in research concerned with social attitudes. Small, homogeneous, unrepresentative samples make extrapolation to the population as a whole dangerous. Yet these results of this experiment are very similar to those of Lewis (1979), who used a different, bigger sample and hence provides some evidence for the representativeness and generalizability of these results. Secondly there is the problem of confounding variables. For instance it has been suggested that PWE beliefs are more a function of socio-economic status than belief differences and hence there is the possibility of confounding such variables as class, education, age and vote. However, more recent research (Furnham 1982a, b, c) suggests that the problems of confounding variables is not as problematic as first thought. Thirdly it should be recognized that beliefs, values and attitudes change over time as a function of different socio-economic conditions. Tax and welfare attitudes within a society may relate to the total amount of resources available, the economic and social realities of how much is available and whether it can be increased as well as dominant values and attitudes that have emerged as products of socialization. Thus it becomes necessary to replicate studies at different times to see if established relationships endure. Perhaps most important of all, no behavioural measure of actual tax behaviour is included in this study. All three variables examined (attitudes, values and beliefs) pertain to hypothetical constructs. That is, it has been implied that values and beliefs are related to attitudes towards taxation, which in turn should be related to actual tax behaviour, yet no measure of the latter was taken. Similarly it was maintained that both the Value Survey and the attitude to taxation scale were probably multidimensional yet no attempt was made to use a canonical correlation analysis to explore the relationship between specific value components and attitude components. The rank ordering method used on the Value Survey and the relatively small N meant that any factor solution would be unstable and hence prevented this sort of analysis. However, any future research in this area would be improved by using behavioural measures and multivariate analysis on attitude scores.
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Finally these results have implications with regard to the psychology of social change. Mirels and Garrett (1971) have pointed out that those endorsing the PWE appear to resist social change, and are fairly rigid and conservative in their views. Hence, strategies employed to promote acceptance and honesty in taxation may have to be quite different among groups who see economic failure and success as due to individual effort, than among groups who see poverty etc. as the consequence of an unequal society which denies some of its members the possibility of social mobility and material security.
References Citrin, J., 1979. Do people want something for nothing: public opinion on taxes and government spending. National Tax Journal 32, 113-129. Cochrane, R., M. Billig and M. Hogg, 1979. Politics and values in Britain: a test of Rokeach's two-value model. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 18, 159-165. Feather, N., 1975. Values in education and society. New York: Free Press. Furnham, A., 1982a. Explanations for unemployment in Britain. European Journal of Social Psychology 12, 335-352. Furnham, A., 1982b. Why are the poor always with us? Explanations for poverty in Britain. British Journal of Social Psychology 21, 311-322. Furnham. A., 1982c. The Protestant Work Ethic and attitudes towards unemployment. Journal of Occupational Psychology 55, 277-286. Greenberg, J., 1978. Equity, equality and the Protestant ethic. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 14, 217-226. Kallen, D. and D. Miller, 1971. Public attitudes towards welfare. Social Work 16, 83-90. Lewis, A., 1978. Perception of tax rates. British Tax Review 6, 358-366. Lewis, A., 1979. An empirical assessment of tax mentality. Public Finance 2, 225-237. Lewis, A., 1982. The psychology of taxation. Oxford: Martin Robertson. McDonald, A., 1972. More on the Protestant Work Ethic. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 39, 116-122. Mirels, H. and J. Garrett, 1971. Protestant ethics as a personality variable. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 36, 40-44. Mueller, E., 1963. Public attitudes toward fiscal programmes. Quarterly Journal of Economics 77, 210-235. Rim, Y., 1970. Values and attitudes. Personality 1,243-250. Rokeach, M., 1973. The nature of human values. New York: Free Press. SchmOlders, G., 1970. Survey research in public finance: a behavioural approach to fiscal policy. Public Finances 25, 300-306. Vogel, J., 1974. Taxation and public opinion in Sweden: an interpretation of recent survey data. National Tax Journal 27, 499-513.
113
THE P R O T E S T A N T WORK ETHIC, H U M A N VALUES AND A T r I T U D E S T O W A R D S TAXATION
Adrian F U R N H A M * University College London, UK Received April 5, 1982; accepted August 31, 1982
The literature on demographic determinants of attitudes towards taxation was briefly reviewed. Whereas most previous studies concerned the relationship between such things as income, vote etc. and tax attitudes, this study examined the relationship between Protestant Work Ethic beliefs, social value systems and attitudes toward taxation. It was demonstrated that subjects who strongly endorsed the Protestant Work Ethic were more opposed to taxation than those who did not strongly endorse these beliefs. Further many of the instrumental and terminal value systems of subjects who were pro-taxation were significantly different from those who were anti-taxation. The results are discussed in terms of the psychology of lay-economic beliefs and implications for social change were noted.
I. Introduction Although psychological and sociological studies have looked at certain aspects of attitudes to work and leisure (Mirels and Garrett 1971), social security recipients (Kallen and Miller 1971), unemployment (Furnham 1982a), and poverty (Furnham 1982b), few studies have been done on various psychological determinants of people's attitudes to taxation. This however has not been due to a lack of interest in the area. As early as 1959, SchmOlders had proposed an assessment of the tax mentality of the public. More recently Lewis (1979, 1982) has proposed the introduction of fiscal psychology which may be defined as a behavioural approach to public finance. However, it would be incorrect to presume that no studies have been * The author is grateful to Mrs A. Angell for help in acquiring people to complete this study and Dr. P. Kelvin for critical comments on ideas presented in this paper. Reprint requests should be directed to Dr. Adrian Furnham, Department of Psychology, University College London, Gower Street, London WCI H, UK.
0167-4870/83/0000-0000/$03.00 © 1983 North-Holland.
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done in the area. Mueller (1963) suggested that surveys on public attitudes toward fiscal programmes give an understanding of the nature of people's fiscal preferences such as their origin, congruence and stability. She reported on three American nationwide studies done in the early 1960's that found, contrary to expectation, that upper income groups are no less favourably disposed toward the extension of government programmes than lower income groups. Further, willingness to pay taxes also rises with education though there seemed to be few age or political belief differences. She concluded that "the greater willingness of the upper income and better educated groups to pay taxes grows out of the desire to secure adequate government services and at the same time to avoid deficits" (1963: 233). Schm61ders' (1970) research into the tax mentality of people in various European countries found substantial differences among the different nationalities, partly as a function of each country's tax systems. He found that where the national tax system involves intensive enforcement and compliance, the costs are high and citizens are likely to be very resentful. Vogel (1974) in a well researched and documented paper reported on public opinions toward taxation in Sweden - the uses and burden of taxes, and attitudes towards tax evasion. On the basis of this study, the author devised a six-fold typology for describing different modes of adaptation to the tax system: Conformist-internalization, identification and compliance; Deviant - internalization, identification and compliance. "Tax payers exhibiting the first three types of adaptation do not practice tax evasion but conform to tax laws and regulations. In addition, those exhibiting the first type judge the system as fair, while those exhibiting the second type judge the system as fair but uphold the legitimacy of the laws and regulations. The third type of adaptation involves the withdrawal of support for laws and regulations but continuing conformity to tax laws for fear of being caught .... Tax payers exhibiting the fourth type see the system as unfair while those exhibiting the fifth type of adaptation see the tax system as fair but question the legitimacy of tax laws and regulations. Taxpayers exhibiting the sixth type of adaptation accept the legitimacy of tax laws and regulations but report evading taxes for reasons of group pressure" (1974: 509). More recently Citrin (1970) has criticized research in attitudes towards taxation while reviewing previous studies. He suggested that: " T h e individual's demand for government services (that is, his
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115
favourableness toward public spending) is viewed as a function of self-interest inferred from demographic traits, and generalized "tastes" for either particular kinds of services or for public rather than private goods p e r se, measured by political ideology and partizanship" (1979: 113). Citrin reported on a large poll which found that attitudes on public spending and taxation fell into two distinguishable and related clusters: positive attitudes towards spending on education, health, welfare, housing, transport and environmental protection went together as did opinions about police services, fire departments, correctional facilities and road construction. He criticizes the self-interest theory which predicts that people decide where to stand on taxing and spending issues by undertaking a cost-benefit analysis of the trade-offs between taxes paid and services received, as too simplistic. Of the demographic variables examined vote, home ownership and education showed most significant differences though there were some income, race and age differences as well. Similarly, Lewis (1979) constructed and used a 16 item attitude to taxation questionnaire which he administered to 200 British males who were categorized in terms of age, social class, income and political preference. He found that people with high incomes (over £6,000) as opposed to those with low incomes (below £6,000) feel tax avoidance is fair, believe that they do not have any unfair advantage in finding loopholes, and believe tax evaders of small amounts should be treated leniently. Because social class and party preference appeared to be poorly related to attitudes towards taxation, Lewis found no evidence for the "social orientation" model of tax attitudes. Nor did he find direct evidence of the "exchange" model of taxation, though he felt that respondents may rationalize their attitudes along those lines. He, however, concluded: "Tax mentality does differ from country to country according to different tax systems employed and the investigative zeal of the authorities but there are other no less important similarities in tax mentality which can be picked up by smaller experiments which concentrate on the particular perceptions and experiences of individual tax payers" (1979: 235). Thus it appears that most of the research in fiscal psychology has concentrated on demographic correlates of tax attitudes, and has neglected the relationship between socio-economic beliefs, values and attitudes towards taxation. There seem to be a number of important and relevant psychological concepts and measures that are related to a
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person's attitude toward taxation. These include the Protestant Work Ethic and the Values a person holds, both of which will be examined in this paper. Psychologists and sociologists have examined demographic, personality and attitudinal relationships and determinations of the Protestant Work Ethic (PWE). MacDonald (1972) found that high PWE scores tended to blame people, rather than the "system" for their sources of difficulty (poverty etc.). Similarly Furnham (1982c) found as predicted that subjects who strongly endorsed the PWE belief stressed negative individualistic explanations for unemployment and were by-and-large more against welfare payments than subjects who did not strongly endorse these beliefs. Based on this and other studies Furnham (1982c) concluded: "Thus the high PWE scorer is likely to explain poverty in terms of idleness and poor money management; wealth in terms of hard work, honesty and saving; unemployment in terms of laziness and lack of effort; and to be against both taxation and social security". This and other studies (Greenberg 1978; Mirels and Garrett 1971) suggest that high PWE scorers would be more against taxation than low PWE scorers.
Research into value systems would also appear to be highly germane to attitudes towards taxation. For instance, Rokeach (1973) found that attitudes to poverty were clearly related to a number of instrumental and terminal values as measured on his scale. "More generally the anti-poor care more on the whole for a sense of accomplishment, national security, salvation, wisdom, and being independent, responsible and self-controlled; they care less about a comfortable life, a world at peace, equality, happiness, being cheerful, clean, helpful, loving and obedient" (1973: 103). Similarly Feather (1975) found values to be closely related to attitudes towards poverty: "These results suggest that the degree to which people explain poverty in terms of social structural factors depends upon the relative importance they assign to those social and competence values that are relevant to the work situation. Thus, where equal opportunity is highly valued and competence devalued (relative to other values) structural/societal reasons become more prominent as important explanations for poverty" ( 1975: 139). Hence it would seem reasonable to expect that people who were pro-taxation would hold numerous different values from those who were anti-taxation. This study was therefore designed to look at the relationship between
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117
the Protestant Work Ethic (as measured by the Mirels and Garrett (1971) scale), Human Values (as measured by the Rokeach (1973) survey) and attitudes to taxation (as measured by Lewis (1979) questionnaire) among a normal population of working people. Previous research by Feather (1975), Furnham (1982a,b,c) and MacDonald (1972) suggest that both the PWE beliefs and human values would be directly related to taxation. 2. Method 2.1. Su~ecU
Sixty-five subjects took part in this experiment. There were 38 males and 27 females. They were all working adults of British origin and from working, lower middle and middle class backgrounds. They were all employed in full-time jobs including nursing, selling, engineering and local government administration. They were recruited personally and by advertisement to complete the questionnaire. 2.2. Materials
Subjects were given a booklet with three questionnaires. They were: (1) The Protestant Work Ethic Scale (Mirels and Garrett 1971). This is a 19 item inventory, which is rated on a 7 point agree-disagree scale. Of the 19 items, 16 are in the direction of high PWE and 3 in the direction of low PWE. Scores range from - 5 to 130. (2) Attitudes to Taxation (Lewis 1979). This is a 16 item inventory, which is rated on a 7 point agree-disagree scale. Of the 16 items, 8 are pro-taxation and 8 anti-taxation scores range from - 5 6 to +56. (3) Rokeach Value Survey (Rokeach 1973). This consists of lists of 18 values (terminal and instrumental values) which were rank-ordered separately. Respondents ranked the 18 terminal and then the 18 instrumental values in their "order of importance to you, as guiding principles in your life" using ~the standard instructions. 2.3. Procedure
For the most part subjects were tested in their place of work. The questionnaire was completed anonymously and feedback was provided
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immediately afterwards. The task took between 15 and 30 minutes. Subjects were debriefed immediately on completing the questionnaire, which provided considerable interest.
3. Results 3.1. A comparison with previous studies In order to determine the representativeness of this sample's responses, they were compared with a previous study using the same items. It can be seen from table 1, that with one exception, these results are very similar to those of Lewis (1979) who tested a considerably larger sample ( N = 200). The only exception is the second pair (items 4 and 12), where subjects appeared almost equally divided, though it should be pointed out that these statements are not exact opposites. A X2 analysis (on the agree and disagree items) were performed for each pair of two questions. In this study seven of the eight pairs revealed significant differences whereas in Lewis's study all eight were significant. However, overall the results were very similar as table 1 indicates. 3.2. The Protestant Work Ethic and attitudes towards taxation Firstly, t h e m e a n PWE score was calculated (55.7) and the subjects divided into high (>~ 56) and low (~< 55) scores. Following this a one-way ANOVA was computed on each of the 16 attitudes toward taxation scale which has been divided into 2 sections (positive and negative statements). Although a one-way ANOVA in this instance is not much more than a simple t-test it was felt that it would reveal the relationship between the PWE scores and each attitude to taxation item. Table 2 shows the means and F levels for the high and low PWE groups over the 16 statements, 4 of which show significant differences. Three significant differences are all in the same direction - namely high PWE scorers are more opposed to taxation than low PWE scorers. High PWE scorers believe more than low PWE scorers that we should say 'good luck' to people who avoid taxes; that taxes are an imposition, and that the taxes they pay are unreasonably high. Yet high PWE scorers believed less than low PWE scorers that the amount of tax that they
A. Furnham / T h e work ethic, values and taxation
119
Table 1 Percent responses to the attitude measures for each pair of items. The percentages in Brackets are from the study of Lewis 1979 ( N = 200). Agree
Disagree
38.4 (39.0)
58.4 (56.0)
3.2 (5.0)
58.4 (51.5)
35.3 (37.5)
6.3 (11.0)
47.6 (34.5)
38.4 (58.5)
24.0 (7.0)
47.6 (51.5)
43.0 (37.5)
9.4 (11.0)
49.2 (39.5)
36.9 (52.5)
13.9 (8.0)
23.1 (33.5)
42.6 (52.5)
12.3 (14.0)
The law should treat people who evade large amounts of tax leniently. 14) People who illegally evade large amounts of tax should be treated harshly by the law.
4.6 (8.5) 66.1 (85.5)
84.6 (87.5) 29.2 (11.0)
10.8 (4.0) 4.8 (3.5)
3) A similar n u m b e r of people would still evade tax even if taxation was reduced. 15) If people had to pay less tax, few people would attempt to evade paymerit.
87.6 (80.5)
9.2 (11.0)
3.2 (8.5)
29.2 (40.5)
63.0 (47.0)
7.8 (12.5)
76.9 (67.5)
13.4 (22.5)
9.7 (10.0)
33.8 (48.5)
52.3 (45.5)
13.9 (6.0)
1) People who earn more, who pay more in tax are more justified in finding legal loopholes to reduce their tax payment bill. lO) The avoidance of tax by discovery of legal loopholes is unfair as only the well off can afford to employ accountants to find them. 4)
We should say "good luck" to people who avoid tax by finding legal loopholes. 12) To avoid tax by finding legal loopholes in unethical. 2)
People who illegally evade small amounts of tax should be treated leniently by the law. 16) People who illegally evade small amounts of tax should be treated harshly by the law. 7)
5)
It is fair that high income earners pay proportionally more tax as this m e a n s that lower paid are able to receive services they otherwise would not be able to afford. 9) It is not fair that as people earn more money a greater proportion of earned income goes in income tax.
Uncertain
X2
X 2 = 9.2
p < 0.01
X 2 = 1.2 NS
X 2 = 16.1 p < 0.001
X 2 = 80.7 p < 0.001
X 2 = 80.7 p < 0.001
X z = 42.4
p < 0.001
A. Furnham / T h e work ethic, values and taxation
120 Table 1 (continued)
6)
I feel that taxation is an imposition.
11)
I feel that taxation is a method of paying for essential services for the c o m m o n good.
8) The amount of tax I pay is unreasonably high 13) The amount of tax that I pay is about right.
Agree
Disagree
Uncertain
X2
21.5 (24.5) 83.0 (88.5)
61.5 (54.5) 13.8 (6.0)
17.0 (21.0) 3.2 (5.5)
X 2 = 65.6 p < 0.001
49.2 (53.5) 40.0 (33.5)
24.6 (32.0) 40.0 (53.5)
26.4 (14.5) 20.0 (13.0)
X 2 = 4.10 p < 0.05
pay is about right which is in accordance with the above findings. However, the fact that only four differences are significant is rather disappointing, perhaps indicating only a weak relationship between PWE beliefs and attitudes to taxation. Overall the subjects agreed most with the statements indicating that even if taxes were reduced, people would still evade them, and that it is unfair that as people earn more money more of it goes into income tax. The statements that the subjects disagreed with most concerned the fact that the law should treat people leniently who evade large or small amounts of tax. On the whole the subjects appeared to disagree with the negative statements (Mean = 4.27, SD = 2.06) more than with the positive statements (Mean = 3.09, SD = 0.94). 3.3. Values and attitudes toward taxation
Firstly the subjects were divided into three groups (pro, intermediate, and anti) based on their attitudes toward taxation. This was done by subtracting the total agreement-disagreement scores on the eight favourable items from the total scores on the eight unfavourable items (Lewis 1979). Subjects whose scores were one standard deviation below this mean attitude to taxation score were labelled pro-taxation, and those one standard deviation above the mean were labelled anti-taxation. The results for the terminal and instrumental values will be discussed separately.
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Table 2 Means and F levels for high and low scorers on the Protestant Work Ethic Scale for each attitude to taxation statement. (1 = Agree; 7 = Disagree.)
Negative attitude statements - People who earn more, who pay more in tax are more justified in finding legal loopholes to reduce their tax payment/bill. People who illegally evade small amounts of tax should be treated leniently by the law. - We should say "good luck" to people who avoid tax by finding legal loopholes. - I feel that taxation is an imposition. The law should treat people who evade large amounts of tax leniently. - The amount of tax I pay is unreasonably high. It is not fair that as people earn more money a greater proportion of their earned income goes in income tax. - If people had to pay less tax, few people would attempt to evade payment.
Low PWE ( N = 36)
High PWE ( N = 29)
F level
4.30
4.72
0.48
4.72
4.93
0.19
4.11 5.47
3.65 4.20
2.63 b 7.24 a
6.36 3.80
6.03 2.96
0.97 3.79 b
1.99
1.98
0.49
4.80
4.44
0.43
3.94
3.41
0.90
3.88 4.05
3.68 3.82
0.70 0.15
2.05
2.06
0.00
2.69 3.94
2.89 4.72
0.17 2.99 b
2.30
2.58
0.40
1.97
1.58
1.16
-
-
-
Positive attitude statements - The avoidance of tax by discovery of legal loopholes is unfair as only the well off can afford to employ accountants to find them. People who illegally evade small amounts of tax should be treated harshly by the law. To avoid tax by finding legal loopholes is unethical. I feel that taxation is a method of paying for essential services for the common good. People who illegally evade large amounts of tax should be treated harshly by the law. The amount of tax that I pay is about right. It is fair that high income earners pay proportionally more tax as this means that lower paid are able to receive services they otherwise would not be able to afford. A similar number of people would still evade tax even if taxation was reduced. -
-
-
-
-
-
a p < 0.01
b p < 0.05
3.3.1. Terminal values To obtain the terminal value system of the three groups the median rankings were calculated. These are presented in table 3 and represent the mean ranks for the most important value (lowest median) to the
122
A. Furnham /The
w o r k ethic, v a l u e s a n d t a x a t i o n
e~
2
u~
o .r.
•~,
n
o~ ea
II
2~
"= e~
V a~
V
A. Furnham / T h e work ethic, values and taxation
123
least important value (highest median). Firstly, a Kruskal-Wallis, non-parametric one-way analysis of variance was computed across each value for the three groups. Just under a quarter revealed significant differences. People with pro-tax attitudes assigned higher priority to a comfortable life, equality and social recognition but lower priority to freedom than people with anti-tax attitudes. On all four the intermediate groups were between the two other groups. Secondly, a discriminant analysis was done in order to distinguish the most discriminating variables between the three groups. This stepwise procedure enters variables into the analysis independently on the basis of their discriminating power. The "next best" discriminator is selected at each step until the addition of further variables fail to improve discrimination between the groups. The univariate F ratio of each variable indicates the extent of its power in discriminating independently of any other variable. The increment in explanatory power produced by adding each variable is indicated by the Rao's V statistics, which is the criterion for the ordering of variables for inclusion in the discriminant functions. Each subject is also assigned to one of t h e t h r e e groups on the basis of h i s / h e r responses and this assignment can be compared with actual groups membership and is expressed as a canonical correlation. A comfortable life was the value which most clearly differentiated between the three groups but additional discriminatory power was achieved by adding other values such as social recognition, equality and freedom. The canonical correlation of 0.53 was achieved, indicating that the discriminant function based on the values was moderately related to group membership. These results are quite understandable. Pro-tax subjects believe in the importance of a comfortable life and equality while anti-tax subjects assign higher priority to freedom. It is also interesting to notice that pro-tax subjects attached more importance to social recognition than anti-tax subjects perhaps suggesting that one benefit of the equalitarian views that they (the former) hold is the social recognition that they receive from others holding similar views.
3.3.2. Instrumental values A similar analysis to the terminal values were performed on the instrumental values - Kruskal-Wallis and discriminant analyses. Nearly half of the eighteen differences were significant between the three
A. Furnham / T h e work ethic, values and taxation
124
Table 4 Average values of the 3 attitude groups for instrumental values, and statistical analyses of the various differences.
Instrumental values
Pro ( N = 16)
1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) 12) 13) 14) 15) 16) 17) 18) a
Ambiguous Broadminded Capable Cheerful Clean Courageous Forgiving Helpful Honest Imaginative Independent Intellectual Logical Loving Obedient Polite Responsible Self-controlled
p < 0.01
Statistical analyses
Group means
10.67 7.29 7.17 7.73 12.50 9.55 9.02 8.23 4.50 12.20 10.26 12.52 10.61 5.91 14.23 10.76 6.15 10.88
Intermed ( N = 15)
7.50 10.73 5.93 11.46 12.93 10.80 9.53 10.46 6.20 12.06 8.00 9.40 11.13 8.53 14.46 9.33 4.06 7.46
Anti ( N = 34)
7.46 8.79 6.75 8.50 9.12 10.12 10.50 12.81 7.75 13.t2 5.96 11.43 10.50 9.75 14.12 7.62 7.18 10.50
Kruskal-Wallis
5.41 4.44 1.26 7.26 6.36 0.49 1.35 8.39 5.57 0.23 8.17 4.12 0.30 8.72 0.27 4.98 4.44 5.70
b
b b
a b a
a
Discriminant Analysis F to enter
Change in Rao's V
2.22 b 0.28 2.60 b 1.24 3.88 a 0.67 2.49 b 4.61 a 0.73 0.46 4.44 a 1.67 0.72 1.13 0.35 2.50 b 0.47 2.67 b
6.18 1.09 9.14 4.31 7.97 2.73 8.26 9.22 3.12 2.17 10.38 5.09 2.74 5.53 1.47 7.63 7.63 6.44
b a a a
a
b b b
b p < 0.05
groups. Pro-tax respondents assigned significantly lower priority to ambitious, clean and independent, and higher priority to loving and helpful, than anti-tax respondents. The intermediate group assigned significantly greater priority to self-controlled, and lesser priority to cheerful than the other two groups. The discriminant analysis showed that helpful, independent, clean and capable clearly differentiated between the three groups. A canonical correlation of 0.65 was achieved, which is higher than in the case for terminal values. These results are also interpretable in terms of the previous literature on value systems. Indeed these instrumental values also distinguished
A. Furnham / The work ethic, values and taxation
125
between those holding pro- and anti-poor attitudes (Rokeach 1973). That is those subjects who expressed negative attitudes towards the poor assigned priority to clean and independent and lower priority to loving and helpful than those who expressed positive attitudes to the poor. Similarly, Feather (1975) found those instrumental values which discriminated between those holding conservative beliefs and those not were independent, clean and capable amongst others in that these were associated with conservatism. Also Rim (1970) found almost the same instrumental values as those above distinguished between those scoring high and low on the F scale. It, therefore, appears that people holding anti-poor and authoritarian attitudes have similar value systems to those having anti-tax beliefs.
4. Discussion
This study has demonstrated that tax attitudes are statistically and logically linked to both beliefs about work and also human values. Thus it is not only demographic variables such as amount of income or age that differentiate people's tax beliefs but also specific beliefs and attitudes. This is quite in accordance with previous studies (Lewis 1978, 1982) who found some party political affiliation differences in tax attitudes such that Conservative and Liberal supporters advocate much greater tax reductions than do Labour supporters and those uncommitted. However, Lewis (1979) found no political party differences in a later study and concluded: " I f the ideological perspective of redistribution was indeed a central factor in tax attitudes it would be expected that at least some of the responses would be dependent on party political preferences, no such associations were recorded" (1979: 236). Thus, though voting preference may to some extent predict taxation attitudes they may also be explained in terms of certain psychological and political beliefs and value systems. However, the results of this study offer only modest grounds for believing that PWE beliefs and Rokeach's values are important determinants of tax attitudes. It was demonstrated that beliefs in the PWE are related to some attitudes towards taxation. As predicted those who strongly endorsed the PWE, believing that virtue will be rewarded, success is attendant purely upon effort, and that the poor and unemployed are to blame for their plight, are naturally against certain aspects of taxation, while on
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A. Furnham / T h e work ethic, values and taxation
the whole those who do not endorse the PWE are pro-taxation. PWE beliefs have shown to be closely related to conservatism and authoritarianism, job satisfaction and motivation as well as an orientation towards the place of work and leisure in one's life (Furnham 1982c). Hence, it may be seen as a useful belief variable through which to examine attitudes towards taxation, though there may as well be many others. Similarly, examining a person's value system may provide one way of measuring their attitudes towards taxation. Rokeach (1973) has shown that values are associately closely to political beliefs (student protest, Communism), socio-economic belief (poverty), religion (church activism), racial differences (attitudes towards the Blacks) and dogmatism while Feather (1975) has shown that values are logically linked to a person's sex, education and income. Hence, tapping values too, may be an effective way of understanding and predicting attitudes towards taxation. This study demonstrated a number of instrumental and terminal values which clearly differentiate between those holding pro- and those holding anti-tax beliefs. At face value the PWE scale appears to be a subset of Rokeach's instrumental and terminal values. Yet preliminary analysis suggests PWE beliefs are related to only a small number of terminal and instrumental values primarily those associated with work, achievement and leisure. Clearly further work needs to be done to explore the relationship between these two variables, as well as their relationship to tax attitudes. This study revealed findings remarkably similar to those of Lewis (1979). Further as Lewis (1979) has shown there are a number of quite specific factors in the tax mentality. That is, tax attitudes are multidimensional. For instance, whereas there are differences between high and low PWE scorers on the items loading on factors dealing with belief that taxation was an imposition, there was no difference on the factor concerned with the relationship between evasion and level of taxation. Hence, it comes as no surprise that people Can agree to the same extent with two statements which on a superficial level may be seen as contradictory (compare: "I feel that taxation is a method of paying for essential services for the common good" with "It is not fair that as people earn more money, a greater proportion of their earned income goes in income tax"). The complexity of tax attitudes and their correlates might explain the equivocal findings in support of the various
A. Furnham / T h e work ethic, values and taxation
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theories of attitudes (such as the "exchange" model or the "social orientation" model). Despite the importance of social psychological studies such as this into tax attitudes, limitations and difficulties in research of this kind should not be overlooked. The first is sampling, which is always problematic in research concerned with social attitudes. Small, homogeneous, unrepresentative samples make extrapolation to the population as a whole dangerous. Yet these results of this experiment are very similar to those of Lewis (1979), who used a different, bigger sample and hence provides some evidence for the representativeness and generalizability of these results. Secondly there is the problem of confounding variables. For instance it has been suggested that PWE beliefs are more a function of socio-economic status than belief differences and hence there is the possibility of confounding such variables as class, education, age and vote. However, more recent research (Furnham 1982a, b, c) suggests that the problems of confounding variables is not as problematic as first thought. Thirdly it should be recognized that beliefs, values and attitudes change over time as a function of different socio-economic conditions. Tax and welfare attitudes within a society may relate to the total amount of resources available, the economic and social realities of how much is available and whether it can be increased as well as dominant values and attitudes that have emerged as products of socialization. Thus it becomes necessary to replicate studies at different times to see if established relationships endure. Perhaps most important of all, no behavioural measure of actual tax behaviour is included in this study. All three variables examined (attitudes, values and beliefs) pertain to hypothetical constructs. That is, it has been implied that values and beliefs are related to attitudes towards taxation, which in turn should be related to actual tax behaviour, yet no measure of the latter was taken. Similarly it was maintained that both the Value Survey and the attitude to taxation scale were probably multidimensional yet no attempt was made to use a canonical correlation analysis to explore the relationship between specific value components and attitude components. The rank ordering method used on the Value Survey and the relatively small N meant that any factor solution would be unstable and hence prevented this sort of analysis. However, any future research in this area would be improved by using behavioural measures and multivariate analysis on attitude scores.
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Finally these results have implications with regard to the psychology of social change. Mirels and Garrett (1971) have pointed out that those endorsing the PWE appear to resist social change, and are fairly rigid and conservative in their views. Hence, strategies employed to promote acceptance and honesty in taxation may have to be quite different among groups who see economic failure and success as due to individual effort, than among groups who see poverty etc. as the consequence of an unequal society which denies some of its members the possibility of social mobility and material security.
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