### Headline

How Markets Shape Values and Political Preferences: A Field Experiment

### Abstract

What happens when people engage with financial markets? This question has long perplexed scholars, but it was difficult to answer empirically because market participation is often voluntary or self-selecting. Financial markets have exploded in recent decades – now we designed a large-scale field experiment using participants from across England who received substantial sums they could invest over a six-week period.

#### Our Approach

We assigned these citizens into several treatments that specifically tested different theoretical channels of influence:

• One group got unrestricted stock market access
• Another had ethical investment constraints
• A third handled public pensions
• And one was given no financial intervention at all

#### Key Findings

Familiarity with markets and confidence in their operation appeared to change citizens' perspectives:

• Subjects who invested freely leaned more rightward on issues of merit, deservingness, personal responsibility, and equality

• These market-invested participants also favored politically conservative positions across multiple policy domains

#### Why It Matters

This research shows that simply participating in financial markets can reshape societal values. The findings demonstrate how the spread of investment opportunities – far from being purely economic tools – carries underappreciated political consequences.