Economic outcomes reflect an intricate mixture of people's internal dispositions and external circumstances that are beyond their control. How, then, do people make sense of wealth and poverty? I suggest that attributions of economic outcomes are susceptible to various influences that can be grouped into two broad categories—who people are (i.e. personal influences) and what people see in the world (i.e. societal influences). Personal influences include people's ideological leanings and worldviews, socioeconomic standing, and experiences of economic success or failure. Societal influences include macroeconomic circumstances, cultural narratives, structural prejudices, and salient consumption behaviors by the rich and the poor. I discuss how these influences shape (and distort) attributions of economic outcomes and lay beliefs about wealth and poverty.

经济结果反映了人们的内部性格和超出他们控制范围的外部环境的错综复杂的混合。那么，人们如何理解财富和贫困呢？我认为经济结果的归因容易受到各种影响，这些影响可以分为两大类——人们是谁（即个人影响）和人们在世界上看到的东西（即社会影响））。个人影响包括人们的意识形态倾向和世界观、社会经济地位以及经济成功或失败的经历。社会影响包括宏观经济环境、文化叙事、结构性偏见以及富人和穷人的显着消费行为。我讨论了这些影响如何塑造（和扭曲）经济结果的归因，以及对财富和贫困的看法。