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Why Do Liberals Drink Lattes?
AJS; American Journal of Sociology
|October 1, 2015
Summary
Political divisions now shape lifestyle choices, from leisure to personal morality. This study uses extensive data to show how social dynamics amplify these ideological differences, creating distinct political stereotypes.
Area of Science:
- Social Sciences
- Political Science
- Sociology
Background:
- Popular discourse suggests political ideology influences lifestyle choices, including consumption, leisure, and morality.
- Anecdotal evidence points to a growing divide in personal and cultural preferences along political lines.
Purpose of the Study:
- To provide comprehensive empirical evidence for the existence of
- lifestyle politics
- and
- culture wars
- .
- To investigate the underlying mechanisms driving ideological differences in lifestyle choices.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of 22,572 pairwise correlations from the General Social Survey (1972-2010).
- Computational experiments modeling social dynamics of homophily and influence.
Main Results:
- Empirical support found for widespread ideological divisions in lifestyle across various domains.
- Demographic factors alone do not sufficiently explain observed lifestyle differences.
- Social dynamics of homophily and influence significantly amplify initial affinities between lifestyle and ideology.
Conclusions:
- Lifestyle politics is a robust phenomenon driven by social reinforcement mechanisms.
- These dynamics create and solidify stereotypical lifestyle-ideology pairings, such as "latte liberals" and "bird-hunting conservatives".
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