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

1 online resource (56 pages) : PDF

2018

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

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.

masters theses

Sociology
Social psychology

M.A.

Emotions
Ideology
Political Self-Identification
Resentment
Social Class
Social Status

Sociology

Dippong, Joseph

Fitzgerald, Scott
Moller, Stephanie

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

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Kitchens_uncc_0694N_11714

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