Of ‘Welfare Queens’ and ‘Poor Carinas’: Social Constructions, Deservingness Messaging and the Mental Health of Welfare Clients

Abstract Politicians engage in, and the media amplifies, social constructions of welfare recipients as undeserving. Such messaging seeks to influence mass public opinion, but what are effects on target population receiving benefits? We test if deservingness affects recipients' mental health. To do so, we exploit a quasi-experiment entailing dramatic shift in after recipient Denmark became subject national debate, utilizing detailed administrative data ensuing consumption antidepressants by other recipients. find evidence that experienced worse health outcomes being exposed messaging, reflected 1.2-percentage-point increase use weeks following airing critical interview. Deservingness particularly affected more vulnerable groups who had history problems.