A Registered Report on Place-Based Resentment : Exploring Urban-Rural Tensions in Sweden
(2025) In Journal of Experimental Political Science- Abstract
This Registered Report examines urban-rural tensions in Sweden - a historically egalitarian, multi-party welfare state with strong geographical equalization schemes, making it a least-likely case for place-based resentment theories. Using an online survey experiment (n = 2,051), we measured resentment through perceptions of in-group and out-group, and by experimentally varying whether political statements came from rural or urban politicians. Rural respondents showed stronger in-group identification, greater place-based resentment, and more negative stereotypes of their out-group than urban respondents. However, we find no evidence of place-based bias - that is, that rural respondents are less receptive to urban politicians' statements,... (More)
This Registered Report examines urban-rural tensions in Sweden - a historically egalitarian, multi-party welfare state with strong geographical equalization schemes, making it a least-likely case for place-based resentment theories. Using an online survey experiment (n = 2,051), we measured resentment through perceptions of in-group and out-group, and by experimentally varying whether political statements came from rural or urban politicians. Rural respondents showed stronger in-group identification, greater place-based resentment, and more negative stereotypes of their out-group than urban respondents. However, we find no evidence of place-based bias - that is, that rural respondents are less receptive to urban politicians' statements, or vice versa. These findings reveal clear urban-rural tensions in a context often considered unlikely for such divides, underscoring the role of regional identities in political discourse and policy in multi-party welfare states beyond Anglo-Saxon settings, while indicating that these tensions do not translate into systematic bias in evaluating political statements.
(Less)
- author
- Hansson, Kajsa LU ; Erlingsson, Gissur LU and Tinghög, Gustav
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- epub
- subject
- keywords
- affective polarization, place-based identity, Place-based resentment, social identity, survey experiment
- in
- Journal of Experimental Political Science
- publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105019227366
- ISSN
- 2052-2630
- DOI
- 10.1017/XPS.2025.10021
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s), 2025.
- id
- f117f49e-b15a-43ff-84c2-d77cc3201861
- date added to LUP
- 2026-01-19 15:01:07
- date last changed
- 2026-01-19 15:01:37
@article{f117f49e-b15a-43ff-84c2-d77cc3201861,
abstract = {{<p>This Registered Report examines urban-rural tensions in Sweden - a historically egalitarian, multi-party welfare state with strong geographical equalization schemes, making it a least-likely case for place-based resentment theories. Using an online survey experiment (n = 2,051), we measured resentment through perceptions of in-group and out-group, and by experimentally varying whether political statements came from rural or urban politicians. Rural respondents showed stronger in-group identification, greater place-based resentment, and more negative stereotypes of their out-group than urban respondents. However, we find no evidence of place-based bias - that is, that rural respondents are less receptive to urban politicians' statements, or vice versa. These findings reveal clear urban-rural tensions in a context often considered unlikely for such divides, underscoring the role of regional identities in political discourse and policy in multi-party welfare states beyond Anglo-Saxon settings, while indicating that these tensions do not translate into systematic bias in evaluating political statements.</p>}},
author = {{Hansson, Kajsa and Erlingsson, Gissur and Tinghög, Gustav}},
issn = {{2052-2630}},
keywords = {{affective polarization; place-based identity; Place-based resentment; social identity; survey experiment}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Cambridge University Press}},
series = {{Journal of Experimental Political Science}},
title = {{A Registered Report on Place-Based Resentment : Exploring Urban-Rural Tensions in Sweden}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/XPS.2025.10021}},
doi = {{10.1017/XPS.2025.10021}},
year = {{2025}},
}