The
Role of Values in Determining Welfare Attitudes
Patrick
Kulesa and Alice H. Eagly
Abstract
Attitudes toward providing welfare assistance for
the poor were predicted to be rooted in two important social values,
communalism and the work ethic. Communalism was hypothesized to
underlie favorable welfare attitudes, and the work ethic to underlie
unfavorable welfare attitudes. To test these hypotheses, measures
of values and welfare attitudes were developed, and structural equation
models linking values and attitudes were estimated. Adequate model
fit was obtained in two separate samples after each value was linked
to favorable and unfavorable welfare attitudes. In a subsequent
experimental study, priming the communalism value led to more favorable
welfare attitudes among extreme liberals, whereas priming the work
ethic value led to more unfavorable welfare attitudes among extreme
conservatives. The moderating role of political ideology suggests
that the applicability of these values to welfare attitudes may
be especially high among extreme ideologues.
Patrick Kulesa, Department of
Psychology, Northwestern University Alice Eagly, Department of Psychology, Northwestern
University
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