Contact, Competition, and Polarization? White working class men’s to exposure to others at work

• In Event: Political, Social, and Welfare Consequences of Economic Inequality (Co-sponsored by Political Sociology Section)

Abstract

The electoral successes of Donald Trump and the appeal of racial populism is clearly associated with resentment among White working class men. Like others we see this outcome as potentially a function of economic grievances and populist political messaging. We also suspect that cross-race/cross-gender exposure at work may be an unexplored contributing factor. We produce the first estimates of White working class men’s exposure at work to co-workers and managerial/professional class non-whites and women. We document that on average more than half of White working class men’s working class co-workers are now non-white and or women. Cross-class exposure to professional/managerial co-workers are much lower, mostly limited to White women, and occur most commonly in the Northeast. As proof of concept we develop models of political polarization, focusing on shifts in votes from Obama to Trump. Consistent with conventional explanations, we find that states with larger White working classes, larger rural populations, and stagnant of declining economies see more vote switching to Trump. We also find that increased within working class exposure to women and cross-class exposure to non-whites are associated with more 2016 Trump votes. Provisionally this suggests that Trump’s misogynist and racist messages when coupled with workplace competition were important drivers of White working class vote switching to Trump.

Authors

• Donald Tomaskovic-Devey, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

• Jorge Quesada Velazco, Department of Organizatins, Copenhagen Business School