Locus of responsibility, perceived dangerousness, and just world beliefs as predictors of reported willingness to help homeless persons.

摘要

he purpose of the present study was to determine to what extent attitudinal variables and demographic characteristics of respondents predict reported willingness to help subgroups of homeless persons. Participants included 291 (64% female and 36% male) predominantly (88%) Caucasian adult college students with a mean age of 38 years. Participants completed a packet that included a demographic questionnaire, the Modified Attitudes Toward Homeless Persons Scale, the Just World Beliefs Scale, a rank ordering of the perceived causes of homelessness, and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (including items specific to homeless persons). Criterion variables were reported overall willingness to help homeless persons and subgroups of homeless persons who were presented as being displaced, as having mental illness problems, or as having substance abuse problems. Predictor variables included locus of responsibility beliefs, just world beliefs, perceived dangerousness of homeless persons, and demographic items.;Mental illness and substance abuse were endorsed as the most common causes of homelessness. Participants reported a greater willingness to help displaced homeless persons (t = 8.21, p ;Of the 52% of the variance accounted for in reported overall willingness to help homeless persons, perceived dangerousness accounted for 36% and locus of responsibility accounted for approximately 15% of the variance. Just world beliefs did not add a significant predictive contribution. Separate regression analyses found that political orientation was the best single demographic predictor, accounting for 20% of the variance in overall willingness to help. There was a main effect for locus of responsibility (Rao's R = 35.89, p