The process of causal attribution of poverty: preliminary results of a survey in Italy

This study aims to explore the causes attributed to poverty and wealth. We sought to understand the various factors these phenomena are linked to, how people perceive them, and how individuals experiencing poor social conditions are viewed. The data for our analysis were gathered in 2008 by the Evaluation Research Group at the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies – National Research Council, as part of a research project on family poverty funded by the Regional Authority of Lazio, Italy. This project's objective was to examine the economic conditions of a sample of 2,000 individuals in Lazio, with a focus on their welfare perceptions. To collect comprehensive quantitative and qualitative data, we used a semi-structured questionnaire that incorporated items from a study by Czech sociologist Martin Kreidl (2000) on the causal attribution of poverty and wealth.