When Politics Override Place: How Political Affiliation Supersedes Rural Identity

Abstract

How does partisan identity impact rural identity? While prior research has found associations between rural identity and partisanship, few studies experimentally validate this relationship. Using two separate experiments–a partisan prime and a conjoint–we explore the relationship between rural identity and partisan identity to show that when partisan identity is in conflict with rural identity, the partisan identity dominates. Our findings indicate that the relationship between partisan identity and rural identity is asymmetrical for Democrats and Republicans. For Republicans, rural identity often reinforces their partisan identity. However, for Democrats, rural identity is subordinate to their partisan identity. That is, Democrats weaken their rural identity when primed to think about their partisan identity and Democrats’ partisan identity supersedes the expression of a rural identity when rating hypothetical candidates. Overall, when rural and small town Democrats are thinking in a partisan mindset, their rural identity becomes less salient.