Middle-Class Attitudes Toward the Poor: Are They Changing?

Abstract

Poverty research in the 1960s and early 1970s explored the relationships between commitment to the work ethic and attitudes toward the poor, social welfare program choices for the poor, and related factors. Three groups of middle-class professionals (social workers, computer scientists, and public defenders) were surveyed to determine their commitments to the work ethic, knowledge about poor families, and social welfare program choices. Analysis of the data revealed moderately high and positive correlations between commitment to the work ethic and a wide variety of social welfare program choices.