Evaluating How Stigma, Perceived Control, and Race Shape Welfare Deservingness in the U.S.

• In Event: Social Equity and Economic Policies

Abstract

American welfare attitudes are shaped by both racial attitudes and perceptions of beneficiaries’ deservingness—factors that are fundamentally intertwined but analytically distinct—yet U.S.-focused theoretical development of welfare deservingness has largely stalled since the early 2000s. At the same time, European scholars have developed robust frameworks to systematically measure the factors that shape perceptions of welfare deservingness, which remain underexplored in the U.S. context. Because these frameworks were developed and tested primarily in European contexts, much of what we know about the racialization of welfare attitudes in the United States is not engaged within this research. Moreover, these frameworks have undertheorized how the stigma attached to welfare recipients shapes perceived deservingness. This may be an especially consequential factor in the post-welfare reform U.S. context, where increasingly stringent and punitive welfare program elements designed to encourage “personal responsibility” further stigmatize recipients. By drawing on insights from these deservingness frameworks, I examine how deservingness criteria operate in the U.S. context using an original survey of nearly 2,000 Black and White Americans. In the survey, I experimentally manipulate the type of welfare (government, cash, housing, or food assistance) and prompt respondents to evaluate the deservingness of hypothetical recipient groups. I find three key patterns. First, attitudes are similarly structured between Black and White respondents along two lines in particular: (1) the perceived level of control recipients have over their personal circumstances and (2) public stigma associated with the target group. Specifically, welfare recipient groups characterized by low perceived control and low levels of stigma are consistently rated as more deserving by both racial groups of respondents. Second, despite these similar orderings, Black respondents consistently rated welfare recipient groups as more deserving than White respondents across all recipient groups, revealing meaningful racial differences in baseline deservingness assessments. Third, benefit type also affects deservingness perceptions, with respondents from both racial groups rating welfare recipients as more deserving of food assistance relative to housing or cash assistance. These findings demonstrate that deservingness criteria structure perceptions of welfare deservingness within racial groups, not only between them, even as baseline attitudes continue to differ by race. This study also offers guidance for policymakers and advocates working to design and communicate welfare policies that build broad public support.

Author

• Caroline Amelia Roddey, Northwestern University
  Presenting Author