To blame or just unfortunate?

Abstract

This study looked at three theoretical approaches as antecedent for attitudes toward the poor. Moral Foundation Theory (MFT), which consists of five foundations, was argued to have more explanatory capacity then Belief in a just-world (BJW) and System-justification (SJ). Furthermore, attributions of poverty were considered (internal, external and cultural/fatalistic), which were found by using factor analysis. To answer the main question, a regression analysis was performed. The study found that Fairness (MFT) was the most important predictor of attitudes, compared to any of the other measures. To see if cognitive evaluations contribute to this affective attitude, mediation analysis was performed. It showed that external attributions mediate the effect of Fairness on affective attitudes. SJ has a moderate negative effect on attitudes, and was not mediated by internal attitudes. No effect was found between BJW and attitudes toward the poor. The study argues that cooperative strategies (Fairness) have an important effect on attitudes toward the poor. It furthermore found indications for differences between American and European samples.