Replication Data for Who is Perceived as Deserving? How Social Identities Shape Attitudes about Disaster Assistance in the United States

Research has shown that as the size of government assistant programs grow, and the recipients of such programs are increasingly non-white or non-citizen, public support for these programs declines. We examine this phenomenon on the question of deservingness in federal disaster assistance. Utilizing a 2018 survey experiment that leverages two devastating hurricanes – Maria and Harvey – that hit different parts of the U.S in 2017, we explore how the social identities of race and ethnicity and partisanship affect attitudes about disaster deservingness. Our results demonstrate that while federal disaster assistance enjoys broad support, this support is contingent on perceptions about the disaster victim and type of assistance. Respondents were less likely to support disaster assistance to Hurricane Maria affected individuals than to those affected by Hurricane Harvey. Moreover, white and Republican respondents were more likely to favor market-based assistance while race and ethnic minority and Democratic respondents were more likely to support more generous forms of disaster assistance. These findings have important implications for the allocation of disaster funds as climate change intensifies and the frequency of billion-dollar disaster events increase, against a backdrop of political polarization and heightened social vulnerability due to changing population demographics.