Social Welfare as Small‐Scale Help: Evolutionary Psychology and the Deservingness Heuristic

Abstract

Public opinion concerning social welfare is largely driven by perceptions of recipient deservingness. Extant research has argued that this heuristic is learned from a variety of cultural, institutional, and ideological sources. The present article provides evidence supporting a different view: that the deservingness heuristic is rooted in psychological categories that evolved over the course of human evolution to regulate small-scale exchanges of help. To test predictions made on the basis of this view, a method designed to measure social categorization is embedded in nationally representative surveys conducted in different countries. Across the national- and individual-level differences that extant research has used to explain the heuristic, people categorize welfare recipients on the basis of whether they are lazy or unlucky. This mode of categorization furthermore induces people to think about large-scale welfare politics as its presumed ancestral equivalent: small-scale help giving. The general implications for research on heuristics are discussed.

Happy to Help? A systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of performing acts of kindness on the well-being of the actor

“…And so we do not know whether: people who have lost touch with their families derive more pleasure from acts of kin altruism; or whether people are happier giving to children as opposed to adults. We do not know whether, as mutualism predicts, people are be happier giving to in-group as opposed to outgroups; or whether, as reciprocal altruism predicts, people are happier giving to unlucky, as opposed to lazy, recipients (Petersen, 2012). Nor do we know whether ambitious people (with more resources to spare) seeking status are happier engaging in acts of competitive altruism, whether single people who are courting are happier helping help potential mates, or whether there are any sex differences in the satisfaction derived from different kinds of helping (Balliet, Li, Macfarlan, & Van Vugt, 2011).…”

Does a competent leader make a good friend? Conflict, ideology and the psychologies of friendship and followership

“…Research shows that views on mass politics emerge from mechanisms designed to manage small-scale social interaction (Petersen, 2012), and differences in political ideology have been shown to relate to basic differences in how individuals understand and approach the social world (Alford, Funk, & Hibbing, 2005;Duckitt & Sibley, 2010;Hibbing, Smith & Alford, 2013, 2014Jost, Federico, & Napier, 2009;Oxley et al, 2008). 2 In particular, research has demonstrated a clear link between conservative ideology and perceived level of between-group conflict.…”

Social Welfare and the Psychology of Food Sharing: Short-Term Hunger Increases Support for Social Welfare

“…By implication, it is highly unlikely that any dedicated -psychology of the welfare state‖ exists. Rather, we expect individuals to form opinions about this novel form of income and wealth redistribution using mechanisms selected for the structurally similar ancestral problem of food sharing (Cosmides and Tooby 2006;Petersen 2012; see also Alford & Hibbing 2004;Fowler and Schreiber 2008;Smith et al 2011). If so, any factor regulating motivations in the context of interpersonal food sharing should also factor into welfare opinions, including hunger.…”

“…Sniderman, Brody, and Tetlock 1991). Extending the emerging integration of political science and the life sciences (e.g., Alford & Hibbing 2004;Fowler & Schreiber 2008;Hatemi and McDermott 2011;Sidanius & Kurzban 2003;Smith et al 2011), our analyses provide a window into the deep psychological processes behind political attitudes: we argue that these systematic fluctuations indicate that people's political attitudes emerge from a sophisticated psychology that has, on the one hand, been highly adaptive over the course of human evolution but was, on the other hand, primarily designed to function in contexts very different from modern mass politics (Cosmides and Tooby 2006;Fowler and Schreiber 2008;Petersen 2012).…”