DIMENSIONS OF SOCIOTROPIC BEHAVIOR - GROUP-BASED JUDGMENTS OF FAIRNESS AND WELL-BEING

Theory: Drawing on theories of group-based effects on political judgme nts, we argue that group-level economic perceptions may complement the familiar pocketbook and sociotropic indicators as determinants of pol itical evaluations. We examine three processes by which groups may inf luence political judgement: group membership, group identification, an d group comparison. Hypotheses: We hypothesize that people hold group- level economic perceptions that are independent from family-level and national-level appraisals, and that these group-level perceptions infl uence political judgments. Further, we develop a series of specific hy potheses regarding the influence of group membership, group identifica tion, and group comparison on the link between economic perceptions an d political evaluations. Methods: Our dependent variable is the presid ential vote choice, with data from the 1984 South Bend Study. We estim ate a series of logistic regression models of the presidential vote to explore if and how group-level economic perceptions affect the vote c hoice. Results: People do hold group-level economic perceptions that a re largely independent from economic judgments regarding the family an d the nation as a whole. Group-based economic assessments affect the p residential vote choice, but, surprisingly, this influence is not a fu nction of group membership, group identification, or traditional forms of group comparison such as relative deprivation. Instead, findings p oint to the significance of a unique form of group comparison, sociotr opic fairness: voters are substantially more likely to judge the presi dent favorably if they feel that class groups have enjoyed similar rat her than dissimilar changes in economic performance.