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The Effects of Beneficiary Targeting on Public Support for Social Policies
Author(s) -
Lawrence Eric,
Stoker Robert,
Wolman Harold
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
policy studies journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.773
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1541-0072
pISSN - 0190-292X
DOI - 10.1111/psj.12014
Subject(s) - ideology , heuristics , beneficiary , politics , political science , identification (biology) , social identity theory , public economics , public policy , social group , social psychology , public domain , identity (music) , public relations , public administration , psychology , economics , law , computer science , philosophy , botany , physics , theology , acoustics , biology , operating system
We assess the tendency for the public to use group‐centric policy evaluations with evidence from a survey experiment concerning two issues within the social policy domain, health care and aid to cities. By randomly varying target group identity within each issue and using both negatively and positively regarded groups our evidence shows that differences exist in the tendency for members of the public to use group‐centric heuristics. Group‐centric evaluations are related to party identification and political ideology. Across both issues conservatives and R epublicans are more likely than liberals or D emocrats to adopt a group‐centric heuristic. Partisan and ideological differences suggest that established theories miss the mark by emphasizing how universal policy designs are preferred to designs that target unpopular groups.