News Media Reporting of Individuals Experiencing Homelessness Influences Support for Homeless Service Funding through Attitudes

This experimental study examined how labeling individuals in news stories as “homeless” influences support for homeless service funding among 818 MTurk workers. Moderated mediation analyses revealed indirect relationships between label used (“homeless,” “low income,” “no label”) and funding support through empathy and attitudes toward homelessness, moderated by participants’ political affiliation.