White Americans who perceive themselves to be “last place” in the racial status hierarchy are most drawn to alt-right extremism

Economic inequality and alt-right extremism have reached historic highs in the U.S. We propose that high economic inequality may uphold stereotypes that white people are wealthy which may lead some white Americans to feel in the precarious position of falling behind their racial group’s high status. For white Americans who also feel that they are being passed in status by People of Color, such perceptions may make ideologies that aim to benefit white people particularly appealing. Across two studies (Pilot: N = 465; Study 1: N = 1,449), using representative quota sampling of non-Hispanic white Americans, we examine a measure of subjective status with latent profile analysis to identify white Americans who feel they are in “Last Place” (i.e., falling behind white, Black, Asian, and Latin Americans). Controlling for objective status, white Americans in this “Last Place” profile were most likely to support alt-right ideology, politics, and events.

Erin Cooley, Jazmin L Brown-Iannuzzi, Nava Caluori, Nicholas Elacqua, William Cipolli