Race and White Rural Consciousness

• In Event: Putting White Racial Attitudes in Context

Abstract

The concept of rural consciousness has gained a significant amount of traction over the past several years as evidenced by hundreds of citations and inclusion within the most recent pilot of the ANES. However, many have questioned whether rural consciousness is appreciably different from racial prejudice. We assessed this issue by distributing a survey experiment to Wisconsinites living within a number of rural and urban communities. During the study, participants listed attributes that came to mind when they thought about Wisconsinites who live in cities. Afterward, participants completed a cognitive psychological instrument designed to estimate their mental representations of urbanites. We found that participants living in rural areas of Wisconsin—compared with urbanites—harbored more negative and more racialized impressions of city-dwelling Wisconsinites. In short, we found that rural consciousness is inextricably linked with racial prejudice. While rural consciousness may not be reducible to racism, it certainly plays a central role.

Author

• Matthew D. Nelsen, The University of Chicago