Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated food insecurity within the United States. Feeding America, a nonprofit, estimates that 40% of individuals who sought food assistance at the onset of the pandemic were doing so for the first time (White, 2020). Prior to the pandemic, perceptions of deservingness mediated opinions on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, colloquially known as food stamps. Essentially, individuals assign ‘deserving’ or ‘undeserving’ labels based on whether that recipient is unlucky or lazy, respectively (Hansen, 2019; Peterson, 2012). This research first evaluates if the pandemic has changed general perceptions of deservingness of food stamp recipients, as citizens may be more likely to categorize recipients as unlucky due to the public health crisis. If the pandemic has motivated people to label a majority of recipients as unlucky rather than lazy, then I seek to evaluate whether or not a COVID-19 frame of food stamps has the potential to create a long-term shift in public opinion on this federal food assistance program. [Hansen, Kristina Jessen. 2019. “Who Cares If They Need Help? The Deservingness Heuristic, Humanitarianism, and Welfare Opinions.” Political Psychology, 40(2): 413-430. Peterson, Michael Bang. 2012. “Social Welfare as Small-Scale Help: Evolutionary Psychology and the Deservingness Heuristic.” American Journal of Political Science, 56(10): 1-16. White, Martha C. 2020. “Millions of Americans Going Hungry As Pandemic Erodes Incomes and Destroys Communities.” NBC News, July. Web.]
Presenters
Amy SentementesAssistant Professor, Political Science, Queens University of Charlotte, North Carolina , United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
SNAP, Food stamps, Deservingness, Food insecurity
