Human Foibles or Systemic Failure - Lay Perceptions of the 2008-09 Financial Crisis‎

We examined lay perceptions of the recent financial and economic crisis through 1707 questionnaires, ‎administered via internet, to a varied group of volunteers in a range of countries: France, the US, ‎Russia, Germany, Israel, and sub-Saharan Africa. Respondents graded the contribution of a large ‎number of possible factors to the crisis, and answered several complementary questions. We were able ‎to identify two major conceptions, one seeing the economy as comprised of individuals, with failings of ‎moral or cognitive character, and the other seeing the economy as a complex system, endowed with ‎some resilience, functioning in cycles. Support for the former view was stronger than for the latter. ‎Several demographic variables were found to affect these perspectives significantly, including SES, ‎economic training, religious beliefs, and the extent to which the respondent was personally affected by ‎the crisis.‎