Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Perceptions of poverty attributions in Europe: a multilevel mixture model approach

  • Published:
Quality & Quantity Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The perception of the causes of poverty has long been recognized as a very important factor in the broader study of this social phenomenon. This study covers 15 European Union countries and considers three types of poverty attributions: individualistic, societal, and fatalistic. The individualistic view perception believes the poor are responsible for their situation, the societal perspective blames society for poverty and the fatalistic view considers poverty to be the result of bad luck or fate. A multilevel mixture model with three clusters of countries and six clusters of individuals was identified. Despite the generalization of the social explanations of poverty at the individual or micro level, there are also groups that emphasize more individualistic explanations, blaming the poor for their condition. At the country or macro level, the most developed cluster believes in the individualistic and fatalistic causes of poverty, whereas the least developed clusters explain poverty based on the injustices of society. There is diversity in the way these countries perceive poverty.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. The second wave of the European Social Survey took place in 1990 in some non-European countries such as Canada and United States of America.

References

  • Abouchedid, K., Nasser, R.: Poverty attitudes and their determinants in Lebanon’s plural society. J. Econ. Psychol. 22, 271–282 (2001)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bullock, H.: Attributions for poverty: a comparison of middle-class and welfare recipient attitudes. J. Appl. Soc. Psychol. 29(10), 2059–2082 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cozzarelli, C., Wilkinson, A., Tagler, M.: Attitudes toward the poor and attributions for poverty. J. Soc. Issues 57(2), 207–227 (2001)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dewilde, C.: The multidimensional measurement of poverty in Belgium and Britain: a categorical approach. Soc. Indic. Res. 68, 331–369 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dias, J., Vermunt, J.: Latent class modeling of website users’ search patterns: implications for online market segmentation. J. Retailing Consum. Serv. 14(6), 359–368 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • European Commission (1977) The perception of poverty in Europe (Eurobarometer 5), Brussels. http://ec.europa.eu

  • European Commission (1990) The perception of poverty in Europe in 1989 (Eurobarometer 32), Brussels. http://ec.europa.eu

  • European Commission (2007) Poverty and exclusion (Special Eurobarometer 279/Wave 67.1), Brussels. http://ec.europa.eu

  • European Commission (2010) Poverty and social exclusion (Special Eurobarometer 321/Wave 72.1), Brussels. http://ec.europa.eu

  • Eurostat (2010) Database with at-risk-of-poverty rate after social transfers. http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu

  • Feather, N.: Causal attributions and beliefs about work and unemployment among adolescents in state and independent secondary schools. Aust. J. Psychol. 35, 211–232 (1983)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Furnham, A.: Explanations for unemployment in Britain. Eur. J. Soc. Psychol. 12, 335–352 (1982)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Halman, L., van Oorschot, W.: Popular perceptions of poverty in Dutch Society. WORC Paper 99.11.01, Tilburg University, Tilburg (1999)

  • Hayati, D., Karami, E.: Typology of causes of poverty: the perception of Iran farmers. J. Econ. Psychol. 26, 884–901 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heider, F.: The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations. Wiley, New York (1958)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hox, J.: Multilevel Analysis: Techniques and Applications. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunt, M.: The individual, society, or both? A comparison of black, latino, and white beliefs about the causes of poverty. Soc. Forces 75(1), 293–322 (1996)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kim, K., Lee, Y., Lee, Y.: A multilevel analysis of factors related to poverty in welfare states. Soc. Indic. Res. 99, 391–404 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kreft, I., de Leeuw, J.: Introducing Multilevel Modeling. Sage, London (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  • Kreidl, M.: Perceptions of poverty and wealth in Western and post-communist countries. Soc. Justice Res. 13(2), 151–176 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ljubotina, O., Ljubotina, D.: Attributions of poverty among social work and non-social work students in Croatia. Croatian Med. J. 48, 741–749 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  • Morçöl, G.: Lay explanations for poverty in Turkey and their determinants. J. Soc. Psychol. 137(6), 728–738 (1997)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nándori, E.: Subjective poverty and its relation to objective poverty concepts in Hungary. Soc. Indic. Res. 102, 537–556 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nasser, R., Abouchedid, K., Khashan, H.: Perceptions of the causes of poverty comparing three national groups: Lebanon, Portugal, and South Africa. Curr. Res. Soc. Psychol. 8(7), 101–118 (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  • Niemelä, M.: Perceptions of the causes of poverty in Finland. Acta Sociologica 51(1), 23–40 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Papacostas A (2007) Eurobarometer 67.1: Cultural values, poverty and social exclusion, developmental aid and residential mobility, Brussels. http://www.icpsr.umich.edu

  • Pirani E (2012) Evaluating contemporary social exclusion in Europe: a hierarchical latent class approach. Qual. Quant. 47(2), 923–941

    Google Scholar 

  • Reutter, L.I., Veenstra, G., Stewart, M.J., Raphael, D., Love, R., Makwarimba, E., McMurray, S.: Public attributions for poverty in Canada. Can. Rev. Sociol. Anthrop. 43(1), 1–22 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Savelkoul, M., Scheepers, P., van der Veld, W., Hagendoorn, L.: Comparing levels of anti-Muslim attitudes across western countries. Qual. Quant. 46(5), 1617–1624 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • UNDP (2009) Human Development Report. Overcoming barriers: human mobility and development. UNDP, Washington, DC. http://hdr.undp.org

  • van Oorschot, W., Halman, L.: Blame or fate, individual or social: an international comparison of popular explanations of poverty. Eur. Soc. 2(1), 1–28 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vermunt, J.K.: Multilevel latent class models. Sociol. Methodol. 33, 213–239 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zucker, G., Weiner, B.: Conservatism and perceptions of poverty: an attributional analysis. J. Appl. Soc. Psychol. 23, 925–943 (1993)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Portugal), Grant PTDC/CS-DEM/108033/2008.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Business Research Unit (UNIDE-IUL), Lisbon, Portugal

    Leonor Pereira da Costa & José G. Dias

Authors
  1. Leonor Pereira da Costa
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. José G. Dias
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Leonor Pereira da Costa.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

da Costa, L.P., Dias, J.G. Perceptions of poverty attributions in Europe: a multilevel mixture model approach. Qual Quant 48, 1409–1419 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-013-9843-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-013-9843-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation