Poster #5 - Applying the NICER Framework to US Welfare Attitudes: Updating Deservingness Research with Recent Survey Data

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Abstract

While American welfare attitudes were extensively studied in the years surrounding reforms in the 1990s, contemporary frameworks for measuring welfare deservingness, developed by Western European scholars, have remained untested in the US context. In particular, the NICER criteria (need, identity, control, effort, reciprocity), a relatively recent adaptation of previous frameworks for measuring deservingness, has not been applied to US survey research. Given the distinct and racialized welfare history in the US alongside heightened scrutiny of welfare assistance, the relative lack of updated welfare attitudes and deservingness research has created a critical research gap for policymakers and scholars. Drawing on the significant body of literature that emphasizes racial differences in welfare attitudes, I hypothesize that Black respondents will rate recipients as more deserving across all benefit types (food, cash, and housing) than White respondents. Consistent with the control criterion of the NICER framework, I also expect that both Black and White respondents will view recipients with less control over their circumstances as more deserving of welfare assistance. To test these hypotheses, I analyzed online survey data from a sample of 1000 Black Americans and 1000 White Americans that was collected in March 2024. As predicted, Black respondents rated all recipient types as more deserving than White respondents across all benefit types. However, both groups followed the same pattern in how benefit type shaped their judgments: recipients were consistently seen as more deserving of food assistance compared to cash or housing assistance. Both groups also rated recipients perceived as having less control over their circumstances as more deserving overall. These results highlight the utility of applying the NICER criteria to the US context while revealing divergences that warrant further study, in particular how they translate to policy preferences.

Author

• Caroline Roddey, Northwestern University
  Presenting Author