Why poor? Representations and causal attributions for poverty and wealth

This study analyses the attributions of causality and the representations about poverty and wealth in order to better understand people's perception and to suggest adequate and shared interventions. The data we analyzed refer to a 2008 research which has been carried out on 2000 participants in Italy. A Principal Component Analysis has allowed the identification of three components relating to internal, external and metaphysical attributions for the phenomena of poverty and wealth. Following analysis have showed significant relations between attributions and factors like real economic status (income), perceived socio-economic status, sex, age, education level, political orientation, working condition and media use. We have also compared respondent's perception of the phenomenon (his representation of impoverishing factors, related to himself or to others) and his attributional style, focusing on possible relations between the outcomes of this comparison and other socio-economic categories.