To what extent do people’s perceptions of the progressivity of the tax system affect their preferences for tax policy? We explore this question by carrying out an information provision survey experiment with a representative sample of around 4,000 respondents from the United States. Our information treatment involves showing respondents factual information about how total tax rates vary across income groups in the United States, which highlights how the richest 400 Americans pay lower rates than any other income group. This design allows us to offer one of the first experimental tests of Scheve and Stasavage’s influential theory about how the state treating the rich beneficially leads to compensatory demand for progressive taxation. We also go beyond that, by looking at how perceptions of tax progressivity affect citizens’ preferences for a wide range of other taxes including regressive taxes.