Feeling Out of Place: Who Are the Non-rural Rural Identifiers?

• In Event: Rural Identities and Resentment

Abstract

Political science literature has suggested that rural identity stems from direct experience living in a rural area, and that this in turn impacts political behavior. Similarly, social psychology literature implies that it is necessary to first be a categorical part of a group (e.g., a rural resident) before social identification occurs (e.g., rural identity). Puzzlingly, however, non-trivial numbers of U.S. survey takers have never lived or grown up in a rural area while also indicating that they feel they belong to or identify as rural. How do these non-rural rural identifiers differ, demographically and politically, from rural identifiers who are rural residents? Using an original, three-wave YouGov survey panel of American adults (N = 2615), as well as ANES 2019 pilot data (N = 3165), I find that non-rural rural identifiers are less conservative and Republican than rural identifiers who live in rural areas, but are more right-leaning than people who do not identify as rural (regardless of their location). Though some demographic differences between rural and non-rural rural identifiers exist, rural identifiers regardless of current location are generally lower in educational attainment, more racially conservative, more anti-expert, and marginally lower in political interest than people who do not identify as rural. Finally, I find non-rural individuals who are born-again Christian and lower in education level - but not politically right-leaning - tended to increase their rural identity importance over time. In contrast, rural residents who are more Republican and lower in education level tended to indicate stronger rural identity over time. These results suggest that contemporary rural identity in the U.S. behaves similarly or differently for rural versus non-rural residents, depending on the topic. Further, for some rural identity may not be informed by direct lived experience; rather, it presents as a group affinity or a desire for group belonging according to broader cultural messaging on what it means to be rural.

Author

• Kristin Kay Lunz Trujillo, University of South Carolina