Fear and Loathing in the Heartland: Status Insufficiency, Resentment, and the Future of American Democracy

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Kitchens, J. (2018). Fear and Loathing in the Heartland: Status Insufficiency, Resentment, and the Future of American Democracy. Unc Charlotte Electronic Theses And Dissertations.
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Abstract

The current technological and economic transformations spurred by globalization are having detrimental effects on White rural communities’ social status. The status-power theory of social relations predicts that status insufficiency results in negative emotions. To remedy these negative emotions White rural residents are devaluing those they hold responsible for their current despair. To understand this phenomena more thoroughly, I utilize 2012 American National Election Survey (ANES) data to model geographic place of residence, racial resentment, and egalitarian attitudes. Results indicate that there is initial evidence of heightened racial resentment in rural areas that negatively effects egalitarian attitudes. However, it is the inclusion of demographic and political self-identification variables that emerge as more significant in predicting racial resentment and egalitarian attitudes.

Details
Author

Kitchens, Jordan

Title

Fear and Loathing in the Heartland: Status Insufficiency, Resentment, and the Future of American Democracy

Physical Description

1 online resource (56 pages) : PDF

Date

2018

Degree Granting Institution

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Abstract

The current technological and economic transformations spurred by globalization are having detrimental effects on White rural communities’ social status. The status-power theory of social relations predicts that status insufficiency results in negative emotions. To remedy these negative emotions White rural residents are devaluing those they hold responsible for their current despair. To understand this phenomena more thoroughly, I utilize 2012 American National Election Survey (ANES) data to model geographic place of residence, racial resentment, and egalitarian attitudes. Results indicate that there is initial evidence of heightened racial resentment in rural areas that negatively effects egalitarian attitudes. However, it is the inclusion of demographic and political self-identification variables that emerge as more significant in predicting racial resentment and egalitarian attitudes.

Genre

masters theses

Subjects--Topics

Sociology
Social psychology

Degree

M.A.

Keywords

Emotions
Ideology
Political Self-Identification
Resentment
Social Class
Social Status

Subject Area

Sociology

Advisor(s)

Dippong, Joseph

Committee Members

Fitzgerald, Scott
Moller, Stephanie

Degree Note

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2018.

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Rights Holder Information

Copyright is held by the author unless otherwise indicated.

Identifier

Kitchens_uncc_0694N_11714

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:1456