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White Americans' fear of losing their socioeconomic standing in the face of demographic change may be driving opposition to welfare programs, even though whites are major beneficiaries of government poverty assistance, according to new research from the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University.
While social scientists have long posited that racial resentment fuels opposition to such anti-poverty programs as food stamps, Medicaid and Temporary Aid to Needy Families, this is the first study to show the correlation experimentally, demonstrating a causal relationship between attitudes to welfare and threatened racial status.
"With policymakers proposing cuts to the social safety net, it's important to understand the dynamics that drive the welfare backlash," said study lead author Rachel Wetts, a Ph.D. student in sociology at UC Berkeley. "This research suggests that when whites fear their status is on the decline, they increase opposition to programs intended to benefit poorer members of all racial groups."
The findings, to be published May 30 in the journal Social Forces, highlight a welfare backlash that swelled around the 2008 Great Recession and election of Barack Obama.
Notably, the study found anti-welfare sentiment to be selective insofar as threats to whites' standing led whites to oppose government assistance programs they believed largely benefit minorities, while not affecting their views of programs they thought were more likely to advantage whites.
"Our findings suggest that these threats lead whites to oppose programs they perceive as primarily benefiting racial minorities," said study senior author Robb Willer, a professor of sociology and social psychology at Stanford University.
[...] "Overall, these results suggest whites' perceptions of rising minority power and influence lead them to oppose welfare programs," Wetts said.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Saturday June 02 2018, @04:36PM (2 children)
Ah, typical SoyentNews spewage.
Take a study, challenge it the facts in it on the basis of some assertions that have no supporting facts and then claim the study is flawed.
SoylentNews poster thinks his ignorance trumps actual facts.
(Score: 1, Redundant) by requerdanos on Saturday June 02 2018, @04:45PM
See?
(Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday June 03 2018, @06:18AM
This is funny because it's basically the same discussion, with sides reversed, going on on other racially themed studies, which link specific races to increased propensity to commit crimes. But for those numbers your side digs deeper, while here numbers speaks for themselves (there are no numbers BTW), hypocrites much?
What are the facts here?
Whites fear declining status? Oh, but that is a good idea, because they are losing it to a generation of people brainwashed with the racist idea of white privilege. And the decline is real (is welfare working? in the clinton era, yep, but now?).
But what gave them their status? Their hard work? the hard work of the people "they" submitted? why letting them free? why work at all if you are privileged? The study do not care, of course. Because the implicit assumption is "evil white holds onto its unfair privilege". Ever noticed that propaganda is done with implicit assumptions, which go unchallenged as the debate will rage about the explicit ones?
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