A recent research paper discusses analysis of datasets with information from over 164,000 participants. It found evidence that the recession led many Americans to adopt a mindset of lower class identity across the entire US. In the past, class identity, e.g., self-identity as working class or middle class, was stable That mindset was remarkably stable dating back to the 1940s. Based on this research, the effects of the recession were apparently powerful enough to lead a lot of people to change how they saw themselves and their class identity. That constitutes a major mental shift in affected people’s perceptions of reality.
During the 2007-2008 financial crisis, many Americans faced major losses in the form of unemployment or property foreclosure. At the same time, a cultural narrative shifted. The rise of movements like Occupy Wall Street popularized language about the “1% versus the 99%.” Many people became more aware of the gulf between themselves and truly wealthy people and corporations. That “1% vs the 99%” rhetoric emphasized that most Americans occupied a lower position relative to the economic elite.
So what? Maybe a lot of people’s perceptions of their class status decreased significantly. What does that have to do with anything? Good questions.
There is plenty of evidence to believe that people’s lower perception of class status has a lot to do with politics, political rhetoric and democracy. The evidence indicates that the lower class identity mental state was targeted and the concept weaponized and demagogued to support radical right authoritarianism. That’s so what.
Long, complicated story made short: Not surprisingly, authoritarian radical right demagoguery locked on and targeted people’s legitimate feelings of lower class status. Radical right elites used demagoguery to weaponize people’s feelings of lost status against democracy, the rule of law, targeted civil liberties (abortion, voting rights, etc.) and inconvenient truth (the stolen 2020 election lie, demagoguery about Trump’s 1/6 coup attempt, etc.). Playing on and irrationally manipulating people’s feelings and self-identity is about the most effective way known to persuade minds. Politicians, religions and special interests sometimes or often rely on irrational, manipulative demagoguery to deceive and persuade.
Conclusion: Anything humans feel, especially their sense of self-identity or group loyalty, that can be weaponized and used against them is fair game to be used against them. There’s no law against it. That has been the case and it always will be. Divide and conquer sums it up nicely. That is how authoritarian demagoguery is intended to work day-to-day. It has always worked that way. There is nothing new about this kind of mental warfare. It is inherent in the human condition. The sooner that society comes to understand this is how demagogic authoritarian political rhetoric actually works, the better off our democracy, rule of law, civil liberties and overall well-being will be.
Link to lay audience class status article: https://www.psypost.org/new-research-reveals-a-psychological-shift-triggered-by-the-2008-great-recession/
Link to the research article: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41417466/
Link to (a) Q&As 1-4, which deal with assessment of the research paper for validity because psychology is an error-prone science, and (b) Q&As 5-9, which are an analysis of the likely interaction of radical right demagoguery with people’s perceptions of lower class identity: https://www.perplexity.ai/search/how-solid-is-this-research-htt-BF2wVnyXR0WDCz0fzIP6DA?sm=d#8 (with links to sources)