Linking cause and solution: Predicting support for poverty alleviation proposals

Abstract

There are multiple alternative proposals for alleviating poverty, but unless these receive public support they are unlikely to be implemented. Drawing on Feagin's work, this research predicted support for different poverty alleviation proposals among Australians based on individual characteristics and attitudes, including explanations for poverty. Overall, participants (N ¼ 526) favoured the minimum income proposal (traditional welfare) significantly more than the guaranteed jobs or equal income proposals. The results indicated differences in predictors of support for each proposal, but structural causes of poverty had the most consistent effect across all three. Other variables included gender, age, having received welfare, selfreported social class, self-reported financial situation, egalitarianism, conservatism, and support for individualistic explanations for poverty. The results suggested that Australians prefer traditional welfare-style measures to alleviate poverty, compared to the other proposals examined here. Support for all proposals, however, was predicated on people's beliefs being consistent with those underlying the proposal. Those interested in implementing more radical solutions to address poverty need to emphasise the relations between the causes of poverty and the solutions to it in order to increase public support.

A latent profile analysis of attributions for poverty: Identifying response patterns underlying people’s willingness to help the poor

“…As for the antecedents, those who are young, male, and European attribute poverty to the individual more than do those who are old, female, and from a minority group, respectively (Hastie, 2010;Kluegel & Smith, 1986;Morçöl, 1997;Skitka, Mullen, Griffin, Hutchinson, & Chamberlin, 2002). Levels of political conservatism also positively correlate with people's tendency to make internal attributions (Cozzarelli, Wilkinson, & Tagler, 2001;Hine & Montiel, 1999;Shirazi & Biel, 2005;Zucker & Weiner, 1993).…”

“…Specifically, it is likely that certain life experiences and/or developmental changes affect how people evaluate poverty. Indeed, research shows that people who have personal experiences with being poor tend to be more supportive of policies aimed addressing poverty than are people who are of high SES (Hastie, 2010). As such, identifying the factors that affect the stability of people's latent profile membership-a major aim of latent transition analysis (see Collins & Lanza, 2010)-will help unpack the complexity of people's beliefs about the underlying causes of poverty.…”

Introduction to the Australian Psychologist special section on Poverty and Poverty Reduction

“…This special section includes two papers, one speaking to the problem of understanding attitudes towards anti-poverty schemes (Hastie, 2010), the other on mobilising action (Thomas, McGarty, & Mavor, 2010). The articles focus on poverty reduction within Australia (Hastie, 2010) and internationally (Thomas et al, 2010).…”

“…This special section includes two papers, one speaking to the problem of understanding attitudes towards anti-poverty schemes (Hastie, 2010), the other on mobilising action (Thomas, McGarty, & Mavor, 2010). The articles focus on poverty reduction within Australia (Hastie, 2010) and internationally (Thomas et al, 2010). They describe Australians' engagement with national government schemes for poverty reduction (Hastie, 2010) and with activist projects to promote internationallymandated social change (Thomas et al, 2010).…”

Using a capabilities approach to understand poverty and social exclusion of psychiatric survivors

“…Access to basic human resources, such as adequate housing and income, contributes to feelings of positive self worth, life satisfaction, social network development and community integration (Cameron and Arthurson 2007;Hastie 2010). However, psychiatric survivors are considered one of the most socially excluded and marginalized groups in our society (Morgan et al 2007;Stuart 2008).…”