102). The haves also create moral divisions to distance themselves from the have-nots.
Cognitive distancing also puts the poor at a disadvantage. It manifests as "negative beliefs about [the poor's] characteristics, negative expectations about their behavior, and the attribution that their poverty is caused by their own failings" (Lott, 2002, p. 102). Lott points out how pervasive stereotyping of the poor can be, specifically since middle-class people (and even politicians) will freely ascribe negative character traits to welfare recipients as a general group. Lott cites studies in which perceptions about poor people are measured, all of which find that the stereotypical depiction of the poor as lazy or lacking in initiative is pervasive in our culture.
Lott also covers institutional distancing, which is comprised of distancing in education, housing, and health care, and politics. She found research that suggested that dramatic differences existed in the way that government...
Housing distancing finds low-income people being uprooted from their neighborhoods by gentrification campaigns. Health care and legal disparities mean that access to basic human rights like justice system and protecting one's own health are unequal. Lastly there is a disparity in how poor people are approached politically, typified by the insistence on the use of the term "working class," so as to obscure America's poverty problem.
Interpersonal distancing is the last component that Lott dissects. In daily life, poor people find themselves maligned or mistreated with disturbing frequency. Lott ends by calling for the psychological community to be proactive in researching this issue and responding by fighting against distancing.
References
Lott, B. (2002). Cognitive and behavioral distancing from the poor. American Psychologist, 57(2), 100-110.…
