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The Deservingness Heuristic and the Politics of Health Care

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  • Carsten Jensen
  • Michael Bang Petersen

Abstract

Citizens’ social policy opinions are strongly influenced by a simple heuristic: Are the recipients of social benefits deserving or not? Adding to this growing literature, we provide evidence that the deservingness heuristic does not treat all social benefits alike. Already at the level of preconscious processing, the heuristic displays a bias toward tagging the recipients of health care—that is, sick individuals—as deserving. This powerful, implicit effect overrides other opinion factors and produces broad‐based support among the public for health care—across levels of self‐interest, media frames, ideological divides, and national cultures. In contrast, when the deservingness heuristic is utilized for reasoning about unemployment benefits, implicit psychological constraints are fewer and political conflict erupts depending on differences in interest and worldviews. Using a variety of methodologies, we track this fundamental difference between the politics of health care and unemployment benefits from the level of implicit processing to the level of political attitudes.

Suggested Citation

  • Carsten Jensen & Michael Bang Petersen, 2017. "The Deservingness Heuristic and the Politics of Health Care," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 61(1), pages 68-83, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:amposc:v:61:y:2017:i:1:p:68-83
    DOI: 10.1111/ajps.12251
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    Cited by:

    1. Simon Munzert & Sebastian Ramirez-Ruiz & Başak Çalı & Lukas F. Stoetzer & Anita Gohdes & Will Lowe, 2022. "Prioritization preferences for COVID-19 vaccination are consistent across five countries," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-10, December.
    2. Jacques, Olivier & Noël, Alain, 2022. "The politics of public health investments," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 309(C).
    3. Schneider, Simone M. & Popic, Tamara, 2018. "Cognitive determinants of healthcare evaluations – A comparison of Eastern and Western European countries," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(3), pages 269-278.
    4. Druckman, James N. & Levy, Jeremy & Sands, Natalie, 2021. "Bias in education disability accommodations," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    5. Denburg, Avram E. & Ungar, Wendy J. & Chen, Shiyi & Hurley, Jeremiah & Abelson, Julia, 2020. "Does moral reasoning influence public values for health care priority setting?: A population-based randomized stated preference survey," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(6), pages 647-658.
    6. Peter Grand & Guido Tiemann, 2020. "The Deserving and the Undeserving: "Heuristic" or "Automatism"?," EconPol Working Paper 53, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    7. Sharon Baute & Francesco Nicoli & Frank Vandenbroucke, 2022. "Conditional Generosity and Deservingness in Public Support for European Unemployment Risk Sharing," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(3), pages 721-740, May.
    8. Charles Crabtree & John B. Holbein & J. Quin Monson, 2022. "Patient traits shape health-care stakeholders’ choices on how to best allocate life-saving care," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 6(2), pages 244-257, February.
    9. Carlo Michael Knotz & Mia Katharina Gandenberger & Flavia Fossati & Giuliano Bonoli, 2022. "A Recast Framework for Welfare Deservingness Perceptions," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 159(3), pages 927-943, February.
    10. Rasmus Wiese & Steffen Eriksen, 2024. "Willingness to pay for improved public education and public healthcare systems: the role of income mobility prospects," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 45(1), pages 55-76, March.
    11. Marc Helbling & Rahsaan Maxwell & Simon Munzert & Richard Traunmüller, 2022. "The importance of citizenship for deserving COVID-19 treatment," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-8, December.
    12. Muinde, Jacinta Victoria S. & Prince, Ruth Jane, 2023. "A new universalism? Universal health coverage and debates about rights, solidarity and inequality in Kenya," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 319(C).
    13. Immergut, Ellen M. & Schneider, Simone M., 2020. "Is it unfair for the affluent to be able to purchase “better” healthcare? Existential standards and institutional norms in healthcare attitudes across 28 countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    14. Bridgman, Aengus & Merkley, Eric, 2020. "All in this together: deservingness of government aid during the COVID-19 pandemic," OSF Preprints eyvhj, Center for Open Science.
    15. Bettina Schuck & Jennifer Shore, 2019. "How Intergenerational Mobility Shapes Attitudes toward Work and Welfare," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 682(1), pages 139-154, March.
    16. Olivier Jacques & Alain Noel, 2022. "Austerity Reduces Public Health Investment," CIRANO Working Papers 2022s-02, CIRANO.
    17. Busemeyer, Marius R., 2021. "Health care attitudes and institutional trust during the COVID-19 crisis: Evidence from the case of Germany," Working Papers 01, University of Konstanz, Cluster of Excellence "The Politics of Inequality. Perceptions, Participation and Policies".

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