Decline of the Sociological Imagination? Social Perceptions of Economic Polarization in the United States, 1966-2009

• In Event: 3446 - Contemporary Issues in Public Opinion Research: Inequality, Representation, and Populism

Abstract

A growing literature finds that Americans’ tend to underestimate levels of socio-economic inequality. The paper examines the social bases of inequality perceptions historically by analyzing sixty-nine waves of Harris and Pew Survey data on whether Americans agree that "the rich get richer while the poor get poorer." This series offers a unique historical window into changing perceptions of inequality from 1966-2009. By this metric, trends in inequality perceptions are inversely correlated with trends in actual distributional inequality. Drawing on insights from the sociology of perception, we develop hypotheses linking (mis)perceptions to shifts in social context and social category membership. Union members and members of the “baby boomer” generation were consistently more likely to perceive inequality across the time period of our study, as were those who live in metropolitan areas with lower residential income segregation. Contrary to previous research, we find little evidence for the explanatory role of local environmental exposure to inequality. Finally, we examine our social institutional hypotheses historically by analyzing whether declines in union membership and cohort compositional shifts may explain historical shifts in aggregate perceptions of inequality.

Authors

• Hannah Waight, Princeton University

• Adam Goldstein, Princeton University