Class in Name Only: Subjective Class Identity, Objective Class Position, and Vote Choice in American Presidential Elections
Class in Name Only: Subjective Class Identity, Objective Class Position, and Vote Choice in American Presidential Elections
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名义上的阶级：主观阶级认同、客观阶级立场与美国总统选举中的投票选择
DOI：
10.1525/sp.2013.60.1.81
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发表时间：
2013
期刊：
影响因子：
3.2
通讯作者：
Steven M. Frenk
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Benjamin Sosnaud;David J. Brady;Steven M. Frenk
部分原因是美国人普遍倾向于认为自己是“中产阶级”，主观的阶级身份往往与客观的阶级地位不相符。本研究评估美国选民的主观阶级认同与其客观阶级立场的差异程度。然后，我们使用来自最近八次总统选举的美国国家选举研究数据来评估这种差异对投票行为的影响。根据主观阶级认同是否高于或低于客观阶级地位对被调查者进行编码，我们构建了一个新的膨胀、缩小和和谐的阶级认知图式。我们发现，美国人的主观和客观社会阶层之间存在着巨大的差异：超过三分之二的中上层阶级对自己的阶级地位有一个缩小的看法，只有一半的中产阶级有一致的看法，超过三分之一的工人阶级有膨胀的看法。我们还发现，这种差异取决于社会人口因素，尤其是种族和教育程度。分析最初显示了一种模式，即那些阶级观念过高的人更有可能投票给共和党。然而，一旦我们控制了种族和收入，这种关系就不重要了。
Partly because of the widespread tendency for Americans to think of themselves as “middle class,” subjective class identity often does not correspond to objective class position. This study evaluates the extent to which American voters' subjective class identities differ from their objective class positions. We then evaluate the implications of such differences for voting behavior using American National Election Studies data from eight recent presidential elections. Coding respondents according to whether subjective class identity is higher or lower than objective class position, we construct a novel schema of inflated, deflated, and concordant class perceptions. We find that there are substantial differences between Americans' subjective and objective social class: over two-thirds of the upper-middle class have a deflated perception of their class position, only half of the middle class have concordant perceptions, and more than a third of the working class have inflated perceptions. We also find that this divergence varies depending on sociodemographic factors, and especially race and education. The analyses initially show a pattern that those with inflated class perceptions are more likely to vote Republican. However, this relationship is not significant once we control for race and income.