2026/07/03 by Ronja Sczepanski, Geoffrey Evans · 3 voices
Social Sciences · #Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies #Social and Cultural Dynamics #Social Policy and Reform Studies
paper · doi:10.1080/01402382.2026.2692124
Class divisions over emerging policy issues are well-documented, yet the mechanisms driving these divisions remain underexplored. This article argues that perceptions of how the working class positions itself on divisive political issues, specifically immigration and the environment, fuel polarisation between opinion-based groups and self-identified social classes. Using a vignette survey experiment in the UK, we leverage the base-rate fallacy to manipulate respondents’ perceptions of the working class stance on these issues. Working class respondents feel significantly closer to opinion-based groups when they believe the working class is the majority within those groups, whether pro- or anti-immigration and pro- or anti-environment. Conversely, respondents with liberal orientations who perceive the working class as aligned with opposing camps express greater social distance from the working class, a pattern observed among both middle and working class respondents. Our findings illuminate how social and political polarisation are dynamically intertwined through perceptions of group opinion alignments.