How Long-Held Perceptions of Deservingness Continue to Shape Public Attitudes About Program Eligibility

The literature has established that the politics of the welfare state are often shaped by perceptions of deservingness based on the behaviors and characteristics of target populations as well as their race and ethnicity. How are public attitudes affected when confronted with target populations along these two dimensions simultaneously? We fielded an online survey (N = 4077) that included an experiment that exposed respondents to four scenarios including a woman with disabilities, a single mother, a healthy single woman, and a woman with opioid addiction as well as racially/ethnically identifiable names (White, Black, Asian, Hispanic). We found evidence that respondents favored eligibility for groups generally considered to be deserving over those considered undeserving based on their behaviors and characteristics. This finding held across all four races/ethnicities as well as in various subgroup analyses. Race and ethnicity did not affect respondents' attitudes. Welfare politics continue to be shaped by long-held perceptions of deservingness. Related Articles: Luypaert, Anouk, and Peter Thijssen. 2024. “The comparative politics of solidarity: Political party discourse across three welfare state regimes.” Politics & Policy 52(5): 935–962. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12625. König, Pascal D. 2015. “Moral Societal Renewal or Getting the Country Back to Work: Welfare State Culture as a Resource and a Constraint for Policy Discourse.” Politics & Policy 43(5): 647–78. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12130. Van Doorn, Bas W. 2015. “Pre- and Post-Welfare Reform Media Portrayals of Poverty in the United States: The Continuing Importance of Race and Ethnicity.” Politics & Policy 43(1): 142–162. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12107.