Western (or "First World’) societies continue to be confronted by the ever growing problem of "Third World" poverty. Financial donations from "Western "publics are one possible contribution to seeking remedies, but these partly depend on donor experience and perceptions, which are likely to be indirect and subject to attributional biases. Exposing such biases may help to correct them. This paper compares attributions for Third World poverty between Brazilian "actors" living in a developing economy and Australian "observers" living in a more industrialised one. One hundred textile workers completed Harper et al.’s Causes of Third World Poverty Questionnaire and Lerner’s Just World Scale, with both scales back-translated into Portuguese for the Brazilians. Australians were more likely to stress natural disasters, reflecting the focus of their own media, whereas Brazilians consistently emphasised national corruption. These findings indicate the influence of local perspective, thereby implying that there is scope for donor publics to be sensitised to alternative perceptions of poverty.