Tax aversion as an implicit phenomenon

The term “tax aversion” refers to a dislike of taxes which is stronger than the reaction to \r\nother types of payments. Although many scholars have found that the word “tax” elicits \r\nnegative feelings, contrasting findings have been obtained when tax aversion has been \r\nmeasured as an explicit tendency. The present study suggests a complementary perspective on \r\ntax aversion, suggesting that tax aversion might operate as both a latent phenomenon and an \r\nexplicit propensity. We propose that tax aversion may stem from an inner predisposition rather \r\nthan an explicit and rational attitude. Such intuition drove the present research, aimed at \r\nmeasuring tax aversion at an implicit level and examining the relationship between implicit, \r\nexplicit, and behavioral measures of tax aversion. Across three studies, we employed the \r\nImplicit Association Test (IAT) alongside traditional measures to explore implicit tax aversion \r\nand its behavioral implications. The novelty of this research lies in the use of the IAT to measure \r\nimplicit tax aversion, examining its relationship with explicit measures, such as the TAX-I \r\n(Kirchler & Wahl, 2010), as well as with the behavioral outcomes of tax aversion based on the \r\nstudy conducted by Sussman and Olivola (2011). Consistent with our hypothesis, the findings \r\nsupport the idea that tax aversion can operate as a latent phenomenon. Furthermore, the implicit \r\nhostility measured through the IAT appears to be linked to the behavioral outcomes of tax \r\naversion; contrarily, no relationship was found with explicit tax-related attitudes.