The Role of Implicit Biases and Explicit Attitudes Toward the Poor in Donation Choices

We examined how individuals' implicit biases and explicit attitudes toward the poor may be associated with the types of social programs people chose to give to. Participants included 112 students. When people believed that poverty is due to internal causes (e.g., people are lazy) or if they held implicit biases that the poor are irresponsible, they were more likely to avoid unconditional cash transfer (UCT) or in-kind donation (IKD) and choose conditional cash transfer. When people believed that poverty is due to external (e.g., poor economy) or cultural causes (e.g., born poor), they were more likely to choose UCT or IKD. People's affective/positive feelings toward the poor using implicit and explicit measures were not associated with donation choice. Our study highlighted differences between affective feelings versus cognitive beliefs about the poor, and that both implicit and explicit forms of cognitive beliefs can be associated with one's giving choices.