Working-class anxieties about upper-class rejection dampen support for equalitarian movements

Evidence

These fears, while plausible and all too human on the face of it, emerged unexpectedly from the interview material designed to capture ideas and emotions on other aspects of class status. They highlight a resistance to equalitarian movements that might bring the working class and this rejecting superior class—whether it is imaginary or not—in close association. If these were revolutionaries, one might phrase their anxieties: “Will my victims accept me?” But they are not revolutionaries. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2243

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: working-class resistance to egalitarianism is not only about losing relative advantage but about fear of social rejection in intimate encounters with the class above.
• XREF: connects to: Staunch-democrat students’ egalitarianism reflected status insecurity, not socialist conviction — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2351; The 1951 election mobilized middle-class women against the egalitarian welfare state — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 202; Working-class people desire welfare-state measures while fearing equality itself. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology: Key Readings, 2139 (+1 more)