Pulling Up the Ladder: Enduring Adversity Increases Opposition to Reform

Is it correct to assume that individuals who have previously overcome adversity are more likely to help others facing similar challenges? We identify conditions where prior hardship reduces support for easing others’ obstacles. We propose that this “pulling up the ladder” effect emerges when individuals associate past adversity with valued achievement: easing the process for others can invalidate their prior hardship and diminish their accomplishment. We provide evidence for this hypothesis through a series of studies. We first demonstrate that recent immigrants are less likely to support easing immigration restrictions compared to a matched group of US-born citizens from the same ethnic background. In controlled experiments, participants whose accomplishments were directly linked to experiencing adversity become less willing to reduce similar hardships for future participants compared to those going through the exact same experience without the link. Finally, we provide evidence for the mechanism: people “pull up the ladder” to protect their achievements' perceived value. Our results have implications for understanding exclusionary attitudes and the limits of shared experience in motivating support for reform.