October 7, 2021

Headlines Sway Perception of Social Security

Each new reminder in the annual Trustees’ Report that Social Security’s trust fund will be depleted sometime in the 2030s causes a new round of angst. Some 40 percent of the workers in one poll expect to receive nothing from Social Security when they retire.

The media often play into this sense of unease with sensational headlines like “Social Security and Medicare Funds Face Insolvency” (The New York Times) or “Trust Fund to Run Dry in 2035” (Fox Business).

While these headlines do their job of attracting readers’ attention, they don’t reflect the fact that the payroll taxes paid by employers and employees will keep rolling in. If policymakers take no steps to prevent the depletion, the tax revenues will still cover about three-fourths of future retirees’ benefits, according to the 2021 Trustee’s Report released in August.

But a new study by the Center for Retirement Research shows that headlines focused on the trust fund’s potential depletion can fuel misperceptions about Social Security’s viability. In reaction to news stories with alarming headlines, some workers in an online experiment said they would alter their retirement plans.

The experiment was conducted during the June lull in the pandemic when COVID was less of a distraction. Everyone in the experiment saw the same article – except for the headline and the first sentence, which essentially repeated the headline.

The workers who read articles with headlines emphasizing the trust fund’s depletion predicted they would start their benefits about a year earlier – presumably hoping to protect them somehow by locking them in early – than those who saw the staid headline – “Social Security Faces a Long-Term Financing Shortfall.”

Two headlines in the experiment sent a more blunt message: “Social Security Fund Headed Toward Insolvency in 2034, Trustees Find” and “The Social Security Trust Fund Will Deplete its Reserves in 2034.” The people who saw a final headline, which alluded to the trust fund’s depletion – “Revenues Projected to Cover Only 75 Percent of Scheduled Social Security Benefits after 2034” – said that they, too, were more likely to start their benefits earlier.

Headlines also influenced how much workers in the experiment expect to get from Social Security when they retire. …Learn More

February 12, 2019

Check Out Our Retirement Podcasts

Thousands of baby boomers retire every day and sign up for Social Security. Yet the payroll tax that funds their benefits is being levied on a shrinking share of workers’ aggregate earnings.

You might not know this but inequality and growing U.S. trade with China are among the forces that are behind this trend, Gal Wettstein explains in a new podcast about his research for the Center for Retirement Research (CRR).

This is the latest in a series of podcast interviews in which CRR researchers talk about their work on issues related to work, aging, and retirement. The podcasts are hosted by yours truly.

Others explore how motherhood reduces women’s Social Security benefits, the limited impact of cognitive decline on older workers, and the disparate impact of the same retirement age on different types of workers.

The podcasts – “CRR essentials” – are available in iTunes and online on the Center’s website. …Learn More