The Role of Values in Determining Welfare Attitudes

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.