Methodological framework: welfare support, deservingness opinions and welfare state policies

Laenen, Tijs

doi:10.4337/9781839101892.00012

Cited by 9 publications

(34 citation statements)

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“…The degree to which one pursues self-interest is contingent on the perceived economic need and effort of welfare recipients. Similarly, individuals’ altruistic behavior and sensitivity to a deservingness cue vary according to their socioeconomic conditions (Laenen 2020). On this note, beyond policy attitudes toward the elderly, our research provides important insights for understanding policy attitudes toward other marginalized groups such as immigrants, market outsiders, or ethnic minorities in many societies where politics are increasingly divided by newly emerging social cleavages.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These are two of the main criteria commonly used to define the perceived deservingness of welfare recipients in various strands of distributive justice theories and fairness literature in behavior economics, sociology, and political science (see Konow 2003; Van Oorschot 2000, 2006). There are other criteria for welfare deservingness such as birth, luck, and choice 1 that are widely discussed in the existing literature (see Buchanan 1986; Konow 2003; Laenen 2020). In our analysis, we do not consider birth, luck, and choice because aging is a life-course event that happens universally to every individual regardless of these factors.…”

Section: Perceived Salience Of Elderly Poverty and Conditional Altruismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While people care about need, economic need may not be enough, and many might be reluctant to make allocation decisions due to concerns about adverse incentive effects (Laenen 2020). In addition to economic need, people could further consider efforts in evaluating the welfare deservingness of senior citizens.…”

Section: Perceived Salience Of Elderly Poverty and Conditional Altruismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The impact of heuristics is conditioned by individuals’ characteristics. Among many, economic vulnerability can affect citizens’ response to a deservingness cue (Dimick, Rueda, and Stegmueller 2017; Laenen 2020; Rueda 2018). When people consider ideal social policies, they take into account the policies’ impact on their own welfare.…”

Section: Perceived Salience Of Elderly Poverty and Conditional Altruismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The findings of this research have important implications not only for the study of age-based social cleavages but also for research on policy attitudes. First, earlier studies emphasize the high perceived deservingness of the elderly (Gilens 2009; Goerres, Karlsen, and Kumlin 2020; Huddy, Jones, and Chard 2001; Laenen 2020). As a result, although many have examined the effects of deservingness heuristics, the focus has mainly been placed on support for the working-age poor or immigrants (Aarøe and Petersen 2014; Alesina, Miano, and Stantcheva 2018; Fong 2007; Jensen and Petersen 2017; Slothuus 2007, among many).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Deservingness Heuristics and Policy Attitudes toward the Elderly in an Aging Society: Evidence from Japan

Kweon

Choi

2021

Political Research Quarterly

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Deservingness theory contends that spending on the elderly is widely supported across age groups because, unlike other groups such as immigrants or the unemployed, senior citizens are perceived as morally worthy of social aid. However, through a survey experiment in Japan, a prototypical aging society, this study shows that in a state with a large population of senior citizens, there is a significant age gap in policy preferences with the working-age population demonstrating stronger opposition to government support for the elderly. To induce empathetic policy attitudes toward the elderly, therefore, effective issue framing is necessary. However, emphasizing economic need is not enough; it is only when both the elderly’s economic need and effort to work are emphasized that we see a positive attitudinal change among the working-age population. In addition, we find that the economically secure are more sensitive to senior citizens’ economic need and effort to work in determining their policy support. By contrast, the economically insecure exhibit unqualified support for the elderly. These findings demonstrate that deservingness for the elderly is not innate, but is driven by conditional altruism. Furthermore, our work emphasizes the importance of issue framing in generating intergenerational solidarity in a rapidly aging society.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Perceived Salience Of Elderly Poverty and Conditional Altruismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Perceived Salience Of Elderly Poverty and Conditional Altruismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Perceived Salience Of Elderly Poverty and Conditional Altruismmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Deservingness Heuristics and Policy Attitudes toward the Elderly in an Aging Society: Evidence from Japan

Kweon

Choi

2021

Political Research Quarterly

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How Does the Content of Deservingness Criteria Differ for More and Less Deserving Target Groups? An Analysis of Polish Online Debates on Refugees and Families with Children

Theiss

2022

J. Soc. Pol.

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The article analyses opinions on deservingness expressed by social media users in debates about social welfare granted to refugees and families with dependent children in Poland. The article’s focus is on the content of deservingness criteria. This term describes the variety of factual and specific expectations applied to beneficiaries within each of the deservingness criteria. Qualitative content analysis of Facebook comments led to the finding that when users evaluate beneficiaries’ deservingness, they take into account their control over their own neediness, attitude, reciprocity in relation to the general population, identity and the level of need. However, within each of these deservingness criteria there is a plenitude of diverse, specific, often contradictory concepts of what exactly the sign of (un)deservingness is. The study shows that in the case of refugees, a group deemed less deserving, those content categories are more demanding and exclusive. In particular, the content of the need category proved broad and biased toward favouring a generally ‘more deserving’ group. The understanding of families’ need was often based on collective relative deprivation and the assumption that those who are needy have been neglected in previous social welfare programs, whereas refugees’ ‘real need’ was often a logically empty category.

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Deserving Hukou: An Exploration of How Chinese People Evaluate Migrants’ Welfare Deservingness

Østerby-Jørgensen

2022

J. Soc. Pol.

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Within the welfare deservingness literature, the question of how people conceive of deservingness criteria is still underexplored. Theoretical insights indicate that identity and reciprocity criteria are more fluidly conceived by people than much deservingness literature describes. Through a qualitative analysis, I explore how Chinese people evaluate the deservingness of a group of Chinese nationals (identity) who contribute (reciprocity) but are excluded from welfare: intranational Chinese migrants. I find that Chinese people have multiple conceptions of identity and reciprocity criteria. Some conceive of identity through larger communities, such as the nation, while others conceive of it through local communities, such as the family. Reciprocity can be conceived of in a less conditional way, which means that contributions generally make one deserving, and in a more conditional way, where one’s deservingness depends on one’s ability to make more specific kinds of contributions. Welfare recipients’ deservingness becomes very dependent on respondents’ conceptions of these deservingness criteria.

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Methodological framework: welfare support, deservingness opinions and welfare state policies

Cited by 9 publications

References 0 publications

Deservingness Heuristics and Policy Attitudes toward the Elderly in an Aging Society: Evidence from Japan

Deservingness Heuristics and Policy Attitudes toward the Elderly in an Aging Society: Evidence from Japan

How Does the Content of Deservingness Criteria Differ for More and Less Deserving Target Groups? An Analysis of Polish Online Debates on Refugees and Families with Children

Deserving Hukou: An Exploration of How Chinese People Evaluate Migrants’ Welfare Deservingness

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