Perceptions of poverty attributions in Europe: a multilevel mixture model approach

Poverty Attributions and the Perceived Justice of Income Inequality

“…The influence of social context on attributions has recently gained more attention in the literature. Researchers report, for example, different patterns of poverty attribution depending on a country's religious traditions and level of poverty (Lepianka et al 2010) or social development (da Costa and Dias 2014). Despite this critical attention to context, attempts to explain contextual variations in the perceived justice of income inequality by accounting for differences in poverty attributions remain sparse.…”

“…In the main, empirical studies accept this distinction and analyze the structure of poverty attributions and its determinants (e.g., Cozzarelli, Wilkinson, and Tagler 2001;Niemelä 2008;Robinson 2009;Saunders 2003). Feagin (1972Feagin ( , 1975 points to fatalistic attributions that ascribe poverty to luck and fate, what others call the fate-blame dimension of poverty attribution (da Costa and Dias 2014;Lepianka, Gelissen, and van Oorschot 2010;van Oorschot and Halman 2000). We rely on the traditional two-dimensional attribution structure (Heider 1958) because it best reflects our hypotheses, but we do not claim this structure is exceptional.…”

“…On the one hand, several studies have shed light on factors related to distributive beliefs and perceptions of inequality across social contexts (e.g., Aalberg 2003; Evans, Kelley, and Peoples 2010; Osberg and Smeeding 2006). On the other hand, survey research on poverty beliefs has strongly relied on the concept of attribution, which identifies the main causes associated to poverty (e.g., da Costa and Dias 2014; Kallio and Niemelä 2014; Lepianka, Gelissen, and van Oorschot 2010). Despite evident conceptual links, research on distributive justice beliefs and research on poverty attribution have developed parallel agendas.…”

“… 1 Feagin (1972, 1975) points to fatalistic attributions that ascribe poverty to luck and fate, what others call the fate-blame dimension of poverty attribution (da Costa and Dias 2014; Lepianka, Gelissen, and van Oorschot 2010; van Oorschot and Halman 2000). We rely on the traditional two-dimensional attribution structure (Heider 1958) because it best reflects our hypotheses, but we do not claim this structure is exceptional. …”

Causes of Poverty – What Do the Poor Think? Poverty Attribution and Its Behavioural Effects

“…And, although a whole body of research shows that, presently, most people causally attribute poverty to nonindividual factors, to economic, structural factors -market failures, unemployment and the failure of the government in providing the needed economic stability [6], the perceptions that poor people have a clear and identifiable contribution to their difficult situation continue to co-exist. In fact, studies show that people confronted to economic difficulties, people that actually experience poverty first hand, are inclined, to a greater extent, to attribute poverty to social causes compared to people that are better off from an economic/financial perspective [2], [3]. Also, highly developed countries attribute rather individualistic and fatalistic causes to poverty; while the least developed countries explain poverty based on the injustices of the society [3].…”