Political Sophistication and Attributions of Blame in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina

The governmental response to Hurricane Katrina was widely perceived to be flawed and inadequate. However, given the number of actors involved in coordinating relief efforts, both in the private sector and at all levels of government, attributions of responsibility vary widely. Drawing on the Theory of Heterogeneous Attribution, we explore the relationship between political sophistication and assessments of blame for the delayed governmental response. Using data from a survey of Louisiana residents, we find that citizens at higher levels of sophistication are less likely to find the federal government chiefly to blame, and more likely to fault actors at the state level. Moreover, less sophisticated respondents tend to focus blame disproportionately on the president, a tendency to which the more sophisticated are not as prone.

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