Stereotypes of the Homeless:
The Target’s Perspective
Carolyn Weisz, Psychology
Renée Houston, Communication Studies
University of Puget Sound
Contact: cweisz@ups.edu. Please do not cite without permission of authors.
Student Assistants:
Carrie Clark, Karen Czerniak, Sonia Ivancic, Tom Van Heuvelen,
Alex Westcoat, Natalie Whitlock, Jenny Yu
Supported by
The Pierce County Road Home Leadership Team and the Boeing Company
Introduction
Homeless individuals face potential health and safety risks,
and they are also the targets of social stigma. Research suggests
that attitudes toward homeless people are extremely negative (e.g.,
Fiske, Cuddy, Glick, & Xu, 2002; Harris & Fiske, 2006; Phelan,
Link, Moore & Stueve, 1997). As part of an interdisciplinary
project on homelessness in Pierce County, WA, this research
examined homeless people’s own perceptions of their group as well
as their beliefs about how their group is perceived by others.
Homeless individuals’ beliefs about negative attitudes others hold
toward them are important to understand because these beliefs may
affect job- and help-seeking behaviors, and other variables related
to well-being. We predicted that these beliefs would be quite
negative, and, specifically, more negative than homeless individuals’
own beliefs about their group and than perceptions reported by
individuals with homes.
Introduction
Homeless individuals face potential health and safety risks,
and they are also the targets of social stigma. Research suggests
that attitudes toward homeless people are extremely negative
(e.g., Fiske, Cuddy, Glick, & Xu, 2002; Harris & Fiske, 2006;
Phelan, Link, Moore & Stueve, 1997). As part of an
interdisciplinary project on homelessness in Pierce County, WA,
this research examined homeless people’s own perceptions of
their group as well as their beliefs about how their group is
perceived by others. Homeless individuals’ beliefs about
negative attitudes others hold toward them are important to
understand because these beliefs may affect job- and helpseeking behaviors, and other variables related to well-being. We
predicted that these beliefs would be quite negative, and,
specifically, more negative than homeless individuals’ own
beliefs about their group and than perceptions reported by
individuals with homes.
Participants and Methods
Homeless Sample
• 214 homeless adults (116 men and 98 women) recruited at many locations
throughout Pierce County, WA, completed surveys orally or in writing. They
received a $20 gift card.
• Age: 19-65 years.
• Race: 55% White, 21% Black, 8% Native American, 5% Hispanic, 1% Asian, 10%
Mixed or Other.
• 43% reported having a diagnosed mental illness. 44% reported a drug or alcohol
addiction. 30% reported currently using drugs or alcohol on a regular basis.
Comparison Sample
• 50 business leaders and residents were recruited from three sources: a master
mailing list of Pierce County businesses, the Qwest-dex phone book, and a list of
citizens who had participated in a survey on attitudes on an Affordable Housing
Levy. Participants completed a survey prior to engaging in focus group
discussions on homelessness. They received $50.
Stereotype Measure
• Homeless and non-homeless participants indicated whether they thought
five statements representing negative stereotypes about the homeless were
true or false.
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–
–
–
–
Most of the homeless are drug addicts or alcoholics.
Most of the homeless do not want to work.
The homeless are largely responsible for petty crime.
Large homeless populations create fear and danger in communities.
Most homeless people don’t want to be helped.
• Homeless participants also indicated the answer that they thought nonhomeless individuals would choose most often for each item, and
answered a battery of other measures.
Table 1. “True” Responses to Statements about Homeless
People
Item
Homeless
Believe
( n = 209)
Homeless
Think Others
Believe
(n = 209)
NonHomeless
Responses
(n = 50)
Most of the homeless are drug
addicts or alcoholics.
35.7%
83.1%
38.0%
Most of the homeless do not want to
work.
23.4%
74.5%
20.0%
The homeless are largely responsible
for petty crime.
24.4%
75.8%
20.4%
Large homeless populations create
fear and danger in communities.
56.8%
80.8%
88.0%
Most homeless people don’t want to
be helped.
12.1%
69.5%
8.0%
Mean number of “True” responses
out of 5 (SD)
1.55b
(1.32)
3.89a
(1.70)
1.74b
(1.14)
Results
Our primary analyses compared the sum of true responses for
the five items for the homeless participants (alpha = .57), the
homeless participants’ beliefs about the outgroup responses (alpha
= .88), and the non-homeless participants (alpha = .53). As
expected, homeless participants thought outgroup members would
endorse significantly more items as true than outgroup members
actually endorsed, t(251) = 8.49, p < .001, and than homeless
individuals endorsed as true themselves, t(191) = 16.08, p < .05
(See Table 1). The mean number of items actually endorsed by
homeless and non-homeless individuals did not differ, t(243) = .94,
p = .35.
Analyses of individual items were conducted using chi-square
and McNemar tests. For the four items that involved negative
characteristics of homeless people, the frequency of true responses
was higher for homeless individuals’ perceptions of the outgroups’
responses than for their own beliefs, ps < .001, and the actual
beliefs reported by the non-homeless, ps < .001. Homeless and
non-homeless individuals’ own responses did not differ for these
items, ps > .10.
For the single item describing beliefs about the effects of
homeless individuals on the community (i.e., create fear and
danger), homeless individuals’ beliefs about the responses of the
non-homeless and the non-homeless’ own responses did not differ,
p > .10, and were both higher than homeless individuals own
beliefs, p < .001.
Exploratory analyses revealed that the responses of the
homeless sample did not vary by gender, but that White homeless
participants thought the outgroup had more negative impressions of
the homeless than did non-White homeless participants, F(1, 175) =
21.62, p < .001. There were no effects of race or gender for
homeless individuals’ own responses.
Discussion
Our findings suggest that homeless individuals believe that
they are viewed quite negatively by those who do not share their
homeless status. Moreover, they perceive these negative
stereotypes as more extreme than the views they hold themselves
about homeless individuals as a group. These findings add to the
larger literature on stigma which examines perceptions of
discrimination from the target’s perspective (e.g., Levin & van Laar,
2006; Major & O’Brien, 2005).
We also found that homeless people’s perceptions of negative
stereotypes held about them are more negative than the
perceptions reported by a sample of non-homeless individuals
from the same community. It is difficult to discern whether this
difference reflects inaccurate perceptions held by the homeless or
reporting biases by the non-homeless. The fact that non-homeless
individuals were more willing to endorse a statement about the
negative effect of homeless people on the community than
statements about negative characteristics of homeless people
suggests that some form of social desirability bias or modern
prejudice (e.g., Gaertner & Dovidio, 1986) may indeed be present.
Regardless of the accuracy of perceptions by homeless people
about the negative attitudes others hold about them, these beliefs
may have important practical consequences. Our ongoing research
will examine links between homeless people’s perceptions of stigma
and outcomes related to well-being and behavior. For example,
individuals who fear negative judgment or treatment may be less
likely to apply for jobs, join community organizations, or seek help
or services.
References
Fiske, S. T., Cuddy, A. J. C., Glick, P., & Xu, J. (2002). A model of (often
mixed) stereotype content: Content and warmth respectively follow from
perceived status and competition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
82, 878-902.
Gaertner, S. L., & Dovidio, J. F. (1986). The aversive form of racism. In J. F.
Dovidio & S. L. Gaertner (Eds.) Prejudice,
discrimination, and racism (pp. 61-89). San Diego: Academic Press.
Harris, L. H., & Fiske, S. T. (2006). Dehumanizing the lowest of the low:
Neuroimaging responses to extreme out-groups. Psychological Science, 17,
847-853.
Levin, S., & van Laar, C. (Eds.) (2006). Stigma and group inequality: Social
psychological perspectives. Mahway, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Major, B., & O’Brien, L. T. (2005). The social psychology of stigma. Annual
Review of Psychology, 56, 393-421.
Phelan, j. C., Link, B. G., Moore, R. E., & Stueve, A. (1997). The stigma of
homelessness: The impact of the label “homeless’ on attitudes toward
poor persons. Social Psychology Quarterly, 60, 323-337.