Rethinking Rural Identity and Rural Americans’ Policy Preferences and Values

• In Event: Rural Identities and Resentment

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened awareness of the gap between rural and urban Americans’ beliefs and values, especially as it relates to health policy and the role of government. What is less clear is why these gaps occur – is there a unique aspect to rural identity that exists, or are these opinions and behaviors ultimately reflective of other group identities, such as political affiliation, race, or religion?

A growing body of work has sought to understand what rural identity is, how to measure it, and how it influences rural Americans' role in the political process. Many existing narratives in both popular media and academic literature suggest that “rural identity” is largely a reflection of racial and economic resentment and rural Americans’ perception that urban elites look down on them; however this framing may underestimate the importance of strong place-based connectiveness and underlying values systems that may be linked to “rural identity.”
How "rural" is both defined by researchers and perceived by rural Americans themselves also influences how rural identity is studied. It is unclear how Americans' perception of their own place of residence influences the existence and effect of place-based identity on policy preferences and values. The lack of consistent and accurate measurement of what "rural" is further affects the way rural Americans' views are studied and how rural identity is understood by policymakers and researchers alike.

More work is needed to better understand the existence of rural identity, how it intersects with other established group identities, and how it informs rural Americans’ political behavior and views of major health and social policy issues. Using public opinion data from the 2020 American National Election Survey, I investigate how the existence and strength of place-based identity is associated with Americans’ values, beliefs, and opinions of health and social policy issues. I find evidence that rural Americans' views of numerous issues differ from those of non-rural Americans, even after accounting for other intersecting group identities. I also find that strength of place-based identity and how place of residence is perceived by rural Americans themselves differentially affects the relationships between place and policy views, suggesting the importance of incorporating subjective assessments of place in future work on rural identity.

Author

• Alee Lockman, Harvard University