This study investigates the attribution of blame for national economic problems to both governmental and nongovernmental actors. Using a model that incorporates perceptions of competing class interests, the study demonstrates the crucial role of both cognitive and affective components of economic group consciousness in blame attribution. It also reinforces the importance of both personal and collective economic grievances in determining target of blame.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BECK, N.
(1982) “Parties, administrations, and American macroeconomic outcomes.”Amer. Pol. Sci. Rev.76 (March): 83-93.
2.
BERNSTEIN, H.
(1981) “Kirkland leading major shifts by labor.”Los Angeles Times, Part I (November 18): 1, 24.
3.
BRADY, H. E.
and P. M. SNIDERMAN (1985) “Attitude attribution: a group basis for political reasoning.”Amer. Pol. Sci. Rev.79: 1061-1078.
4.
BUCHER, R.
(1957) “Blame and hostility in disaster.”Amer. J. of Sociology62 (March): 467-475.
5.
CAMPBELL, A.
, P. E. CONVERSE, W. E. MILLER, and D. E. STOKES (1960) The American Voter.New York: Wiley
6.
COLEMAN, J. S.
(1982) The Asymmetric Society.Syracuse, NY: Syracuse Univ. Press
7.
CONOVER, P. J.
(1985) “The impact of group economic interests on political evaluations.”J. of Politics13: 139-166.
8.
CONOVER, P. J.
and S. FELDMAN (1986) “Emotional reactions to the economy: I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore.”Amer. J. of Pol. Sci.30: 50-78.
9.
Economist
(1979) “The OPEC decade.” (December 29): 39-60
10.
EISENBEIS, R. A.
and R. B. AVERY (1972) Discriminant Analysis and Classification Procedure.Lexington, MA: Lexington
11.
FELDMAN, S.
(1982) “Economic self-interest and political behavior.”Amer. J. of Pol. Sci.26 (August): 446-466.
12.
FIORINA, M. P.
(1981) Retrospective Voting in American National Elections.New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press
13.
FISKE, S. T.
(1982) “Schema-triggered affect: applications to social perception,” pp. 55-78 in M. S. Clark and S. T. Fiske (eds.) Affect and Cognition.Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum
14.
GOLDTHORPE, J. H.
(1978) “The current inflation: towards a sociological account,” in F. H. Hirsch and J. H. Goldthorpe (eds.) The Political Economy of Inflation.Boston: Harvard Univ. Press
15.
GURIN, P.
, A. H. MILLER, and G. GURIN (1980) “Stratum identification and consciousness.”Social Psychology Q.43 (March): 30-47.
16.
HAMILL, R.
, M. LODGE, and F. BLAKE (1986) “The breadth, depth, and utility of class, partisan, and ideological schemata.”Amer. J. of Pol. Sci.30: 850-870.
17.
HAMILTON, D. L.
(1981) “Stereotyping and intergroup behavior: some thoughts on the cognitive approach,” pp. 333-353 in D. L. Hamilton (ed.) Cognitive Processes in Stereotyping and Intergroup Behavior.Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum
18.
HEWSTONE, M.
and J. M. F. JASPARS (1982) “Intergroup relations and attribution processes,” in H. Tajfel (ed.) Social Identity and Intergroup Relations.Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press
19.
HIBBS, D. Jr.
(1977) “Political parties and macroeconomic policy.”Amer. Pol. Sci. Rev.71 (December): 1467-1487.
20.
HIBBS, D. Jr.
(1982) “The dynamics of political support for American presidents among occupational and partisan groups.”Amer. J. of Pol. Sci.26 (May): 312-332.
21.
HICKS, A.
, R. FRIEDLAND, and E. JOHNSON (1978) “Class power and state policy: the case of large corporations, labor unions, and governmental redistribution in the American states.”Amer. Soc. Rev.43 (June): 302-315.
22.
KIEWIET, D. R.
(1981) “Policy-oriented voting in response to economic issues.”Amer. Pol. Sci. Rev.75: 448-459.
23.
KINDER, D. R.
and D. R. KIEWIET (1979) “Economic grievances and political behavior: the role of personal discontents and symbolic judgments in congressional voting.”Amer. J. of Pol. Sci.23 (August): 495-527.
24.
KINDER, D. R.
and W. R. MEBANE Jr. (1983) “Politics and economics in everyday life,” pp. 141-180 in K. R. Monroe (ed.) The Political Process and Economic Change.New York: Agathon
25.
KLUEGEL, J. R.
and E. R. SMITH (1986) Beliefs about Inequality: Americans' Views of What Is and What Ought to Be.New York: Aldine de Gruyter
26.
LAU, R. R.
and D. O. SEARS (1981) “Cognitive links between economic grievances and political responses.”Pol. Behavior3, 4: 279-302.
27.
LIPSET, S. M.
and W. SCHNEIDER (1983) The Confidence Gap: Business, Labor, and Champaign, IL: Institute for Personality and Ability Testing
28.
MILLER, W. E.
and A. H. MILLER (1976) The CPS 1976 American National Election Study [MDRF].Ann Arbor: Institute for Social Science Research [producer].Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor].
29.
PEFFLEY, M.
and J. T. WILLIAMS (1985) “Attributing presidential responsibility for national economic problems.”Amer. Pol. Q.13 (October): 393-425.
30.
PETTIGREW, T. F.
(1979) “The ultimate attribution error: extending Allport's cognitive analysis of prejudice.”Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin5: 461-476.
31.
SEARS, D. O.
, L. HUDDY, and L. G. SCHAFFER (1986) “A schematic variant of symbolic politics theory, as applied to racial and gender equality,” pp. 159-202 in R. R. Lau and D. O. Sears (eds.) Political Cognition.Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum
32.
SEARS, D. O.
, R. R. LAU, T. R. TYLER, and H. M. ALLEN Jr. (1980) “Self-interest versus symbolic politics in policy attitudes and 1976 presidential voting.”Amer. Pol. Sci. Rev.74: 670-684.
33.
SHAVER, K. G.
(1985) The Attribution of Blame: Causality, Responsibility, and Blameworthiness.New York: Springer-Verlag
34.
SIGELMAN, L.
and K. KNIGHT (1985) “Public opinion and presidential responsibility for the economy: understanding personalization.”Pol. Behavior7: 167-191.
35.
SNIDERMAN, P. M.
and R. A. BRODY (1977) “Coping: the ethic of self-reliance.”Amer. J. of Pol. Sci.21: 501-522.
36.
TATSUOKA, M. M.
(1970) Discriminant Analysis: The Study of Group Differences.Champaign, IL: Institute for Personality and Ability Testing
37.
TAYLOR, S. E.
(1981) “The interface of cognitive and social psychology,” pp. in J. H. Harvey (ed.) Cognition, Social Behavior, and the Environment.Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum
38.
VELTFORT, H. R.
and G. E. LEE (1943) “The Cocoanut Grove fire: a study in scapegoating.”J. of Abnormal and Social Psychology Clinical Supplement38: 138-154.
39.
VOGEL, D.
(1983) “The power of business in America: a re-appraisal.”British J. of Pol. Sci.13: 19-43.
40.
WEATHERFORD, M. S.
(1978) “Economic conditions and electoral outcomes: class differences in the political response to recession.”Amer. J. of Pol. Sci.22: 917-938.
41.
WEATHERFORD, M. S.
(1983) “Economic voting and the `symbolic politics' argument: a reinterpretation and synthesis.”Amer. Pol. Sci. Rev.77: 158-174.
42.
ZAJONC, R. B.
(1980) “Feeling and thinking: preferences need no inferences.”Amer. Psychologist35: 151-175.