Opposing Misperceptions of Wealth: Liberals overestimate their neighbourhoods’ wealth in wealthier neighbourhoods, while Conservatives overestimate their neighbourhoods’ wealth in poor neighbourhoods

Although perceptions of wealth are shaped by people’s social environment and ideological beliefs, few studies integrate these two perspectives. We address this oversight by examining the association between participants’ actual and estimated average neighbourhood household income and whether political orientation moderates this relationship. Using a large, nationwide random sample of New Zealand adults (N = 14,853), our results reveal that both liberals and conservatives overestimated the wealth of their own neighbourhoods—but these differences only emerged in the poorest and wealthiest neighbourhoods. Specifically, in poor neighbourhoods, conservatives were less accurate than liberals at estimating the average income of their neighbourhood. In rich neighbourhoods, liberals were less accurate than conservatives at this same task. The implications of these results for understanding (mis)perceptions of wealth on both sides of the political spectrum are discussed.