Social class bias in welfare sanctioning judgements: Experimental evidence from a nationally representative sample

Abstract In this study, we examine whether welfare deservingness judgements in the United Kingdom are affected by a bias against claimants from stigmatised social class backgrounds. Kingdom, as other countries, stereotypes of perceived ‘underclass’ widespread. Political and media discourse frequently portrays members lazy, feckless not genuinely need support. Yet despite strong academic interest deservingness, existing research has largely neglected role judgements. To address gap, use novel vignette experiment administered to representative sample British respondents provide first direct evidence discrimination with signifiers. We find that public more likely endorse sanction claimant an background than otherwise identical less background. also asked justify their decisions and, applying computational methods analyse these free‐text responses, be blamed for violating conditions benefit, while backgrounds often given ‘benefit doubt.’ Our findings have important implications our understanding relationship between perceptions, potentially differential treatment benefits system.