Causal Beliefs about Social Determinants of Depression, Poverty and Mortality

It is widely established that social determinants influence multiple adverse life outcomes such as becoming depressed, living in poverty, and mortality. Although causal beliefs are core to understanding public views on these issues, studies of beliefs about social causes have occurred in parallel literatures with diverging outcomes of interest and methodological approaches. We ask which social determinants are perceived to be causally important, how these are weighted relative to non-social causes and whether this differs for different outcomes. In a pre-registered study, 1,000 UK general-public respondents rated the causal influence of 43 individual-level social vs. non-social risk factors for becoming depressed, living in poverty, and reduced life expectancy. We use a much wider range of adverse social risk factors and outcomes than in any previous examination of causal beliefs. To understand whether causal attributions relate to individual characteristics, we collected information on political orientation, subjective socioeconomic status, sense of control and material deprivation. We find that UK respondents perceive a causal role for social determinants that is comparable to that of non-social factors. Overall, respondents saw a stronger causal role of social risk factors for living in poverty and becoming depressed than for mortality. Aligning towards the political left and having a lower sense of control (higher perceived constraints) were independently associated with higher causal ratings of social determinants. Avenues for future research are discussed as well as the correspondence between causal beliefs and academic models of social determinants.