Perceived last-place status most strongly predicts alt-right support

Evidence

Consistent with hypotheses, withinand between-group subjective status profile was a significant predictor of all four alt-right outcomes (see Table 5).Thus,forthesefoursignificantunivariateANOVAs,weconducted pairwise comparisons with a Least Significant Difference adjustment for multiple comparisons to probe the pattern of effects (see Table 6). Most critically, across all alt-right outcomes, participants who fell into our hypothesized “Last Place” profile expressed the strongest support for an altright political candidate, alt-right events/groups/social movements like January 6th, and the most support for alt-right ideologies (measured both via our own scale and a scale from prior work). — Erin Cooley, Jazmin L. Brown-Iannuzzi, Nava Caluori, Nicholas Elacqua, and William Cipolli, White Americans who perceive themselves…, 55

Critical to our hypotheses, both the Pilot Study and Study 1 replicated the emergence of a latent “Last Place” profile in which white participants placed their own status behind all other racial groups, including the racial ingroup (i.e., “white Americans”). That said, it is interesting to note that the placement of the ingroup varied between the two studies: Pilot participants in the “Last Place” profile placed the ingroup as behind, yet close to, both Black and Asian Americans; in contrast, Study 1 participants in the “Last Place” profile placed the ingroup in first place (although still quite close to Black and Asian Americans). This slight variability in ingroup placement across samples allows for two important insights. First, because the “Last Place” profile was most strongly linked to alt-right extremism in both samples (despite minor variations in where the ingroup was placed), this suggests that the association to alt-right beliefs may be influenced more strongly by the relative placement of the self vs. the relative placement of the ingroup. — Erin Cooley, Jazmin L. Brown-Iannuzzi, Nava Caluori, Nicholas Elacqua, and William Cipolli, White Americans who perceive themselves…, 94

Categorization

• XREF: Distinguishes perceived personal status from group-based relative deprivation theory (Runciman), where fraternal vs. egoistic deprivation diverges. — connects to: Feeling in last place racially predicts white endorsement of right-wing extremism. — Erin Cooley, Jazmin L. Brown-Iannuzzi, Nava Caluori, Nicholas Elacqua, and William Cipolli, White Americans who perceive themselves…, 12; Perceived racial last-place status, not objective low status, drives white Americans’ alt-right support. — Erin Cooley, Jazmin L. Brown-Iannuzzi, Nava Caluori, Nicholas Elacqua, and William Cipolli, White Americans who perceive themselves…, 60; Personal self-placement, not ingroup placement, most strongly predicts white alt-right attitudes. — Erin Cooley, Jazmin L. Brown-Iannuzzi, Nava Caluori, Nicholas Elacqua, and William Cipolli, White Americans who perceive themselves…, 94 (+1 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Erin Cooley, Jazmin L. Brown-Iannuzzi, Nava Caluori, Nicholas Elacqua, and William Cipolli, White Americans who perceive themselves…, 55; Erin Cooley, Jazmin L. Brown-Iannuzzi, Nava Caluori, Nicholas Elacqua, and William Cipolli, White Americans who perceive themselves…, 94

Broader Connections

• Perceived racial last-place status, not objective low status, drives white Americans’ alt-right support. #expands (0.95) — Erin Cooley, Jazmin L. Brown-Iannuzzi, Nava Caluori, Nicholas Elacqua, and William Cipolli, White Americans who perceive themselves…, 60
• Perceived last-place racial status decouples from objective socioeconomic disadvantage. #qualifies (0.78) — Erin Cooley, Jazmin L. Brown-Iannuzzi, Nava Caluori, Nicholas Elacqua, and William Cipolli, White Americans who perceive themselves…, 59
• Personal self-placement, not ingroup placement, most strongly predicts white alt-right attitudes. #complicates (0.75) — Erin Cooley, Jazmin L. Brown-Iannuzzi, Nava Caluori, Nicholas Elacqua, and William Cipolli, White Americans who perceive themselves…, 94