Imagining Poor People as Black (And What That Means for Poor White People)

Undergraduates: Thomas Savransky, Neil Hester Thomas Savransky

Faculty Advisor: Kurt Gray
Department: Psychology & Neuroscience

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People are poor for different reasons. Some reasons are unfair circumstances, such as severe illness and mass unemployment, whereas other reasons seem more like personal failings, such as laziness and addiction. Previous research shows that individuals who express prejudice against poor people attribute poverty more to personal failings and less to unfair circumstances. However, recent research shows that people imagine both poor people and ¿¿¿welfare recipients¿¿¿ as African-American, regardless of their reported attitudes toward poor people. Thus, when people report their attitudes toward poor people, these attitudes might actually be about poor Black people. _x000D_
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We tested whether reported attitudes about ¿¿¿poor people¿¿¿ reflect attitudes about poor Black people. In study 1 (N = 100), we asked participants to make poverty attributions for photographs of ostensibly poor Black and White people, then indicate their attitudes about poor people. We found that attitudes about poor people only predicted poverty attributions for Black targets. This finding had two consequences: one, those who reported higher prejudice against poor people made harsher poverty attributions for poor Black targets. Two, those who reported lower prejudice against poor people made harsher poverty attributions for poor White targets. This study supported our predictions and showed that those who endorsed non-prejudiced beliefs about poor people actually show harsher judgments of poor White people. _x000D_