Behind Bars and Beyond: A Vignette Experiment to Explore Public Willingness to Assist Families Impacted by Incarceration

To assess public support for families impacted by incarceration, we embedded a vignette experiment in a YouGov survey ( N = 1,300) posed as a social media post asking for help for a family facing housing instability. We manipulated the reason for hardship, who are impacted in the family, the race of the affected family, and number of “likes” on the post. Respondents are less likely to support direct (donating and volunteering) or government (tax for short-term housing assistance) action if the family is in need due to current or former incarceration rather than a car accident, whether at fault or not. Respondents also express less sympathy for families impacted by incarceration and open-ended responses suggest stigma by association among other explanations.