Social perception and attribution of causality for poverty: which is the influence of thinking to myself or to others?

This study analyses how socio-economic categories and the distance from a condition of
poverty affect people's beliefs about poverty. The aim of the study is to better understand people's
perception and to suggest more adequate and shared interventions.
We have analyzed data from more than 2000 questionnaires trying to understand if socioeconomic
characteristics of the respondents or the distance perceived from condition of deprivation influence
their beliefs about poverty as something originated by individual or external forces. Income,
perceived economic status, age, educational level and working condition have been people's
characteristics taken into account in our analyses; the perceived distance between respondent and a
condition of poverty, on the other hand, has been detected focusing on different levels: respondent's
condition (you in a poverty condition); his friends' / acquaintances' condition (your group of
reference in a poverty condition); other people (poverty in general). We have also put in relation the
outcomes of comparing the effect of different distances between the phenomenon and the respondents
and their socio-economic characteristics.

Publication type: 
Contributo in atti di convegno
Author or Creator: 
Maurizio Norcia
Antonella Rissotto
Source: 
Information Engineering Research Institute (IERI) - "2nd International Conference on Applied Social Science", Kuala Lumpur (MALESIA), 1-2/02/2012
Date: 
2012
Resource Identifier: 
http://www.cnr.it/prodotto/i/323790
Language: 
Eng
ISTC Author: 
Maurizio Norcia's picture
Real name: