Attributions for poverty in Finland: a non-generic approach

Abstract

This article analyses three specific categories of the poor – immigrants, families with children and the retired – and compares the perceptions gained from this analysis to generic attributions of the causes of poverty. It examines whether different explanations can be attributed to certain socio-economic characteristics and political ideologies. The data derive from a survey conducted in Finland in 2008. The results indicate that the public shares distinctive causal beliefs when it comes to the different categories of the poor. When moving from the retired to families with children and to immigrants, support for explanations that blame the individual increases and support for explanations that blame structural conditions decreases. In addition, when the poor are divided into specific categories the dominant three-tier typology of poverty explanations does not seem to hold. Instead, the public is more likely to distinguish between internal and external reasons for non-generic poverty. The results suggest that the hypotheses of in-group favouritism and self-interest are supported. In addition, political ideology is strongly associated with attributions for poverty.