Replication Data for: The Urban-Rural Divide in People’s Minds: Stereotypes of Urbanites and Ruralites in Nine European Countries

Recent scholarship increasingly views the reemergence of the urban-rural divide in political behavior through the lens of social identity theory. Given this understanding of political divisions between cities and the countryside, it is crucial to investigate how urban and rural social groups are perceived, specifically, to what extent these groups are associated with entrenched stereotypes. Examining the urban-rural divide in people's minds through a conjoint experiment, this paper sheds light on stereotypes of urbanites and ruralites in nine European countries. The results indicate that rural residents are typically viewed as Eurosceptic, anti-immigrant, working-class, older, and less educated. By contrast, typical urbanites are perceived as Europhile, pro-immigrant, upper-middle-class, younger, and university-educated. These perceptions are not held uniformly, however. Individuals tend to project their own characteristics onto others, perceiving those similar to themselves as more typical members of their place-based in-group. Likewise, a similar logic emerges regarding the relationship between urban-rural stereotypes and affect. While individuals tend to express warmer feelings toward those they perceive as typical members of their place-based in-group, these affective evaluations critically depend on whether individuals themselves align with the stereotypes in question. Overall, these findings provide systematic evidence on stereotyping along the urban-rural divide. By way of that, they further underscore the importance of a social identity perspective to political divisions between urban and rural residents.近年来，学界愈发倾向于借助社会认同理论（social identity theory）的视角，阐释政治行为领域城乡分化的复现现象。基于这一关于城乡政治分化的认知基础，探究城乡社会群体的公众认知现状至关重要，具体而言，即厘清两类群体在多大程度上与根深蒂固的刻板印象存在关联。本研究借助联合实验（conjoint experiment）探析民众认知中的城乡分化议题，揭示了九个欧洲国家范围内民众对城市居民与农村居民的刻板印象图景。研究结果显示，农村居民通常被认知为疑欧主义者、反移民群体、工薪阶层、年龄偏大且受教育程度偏低。与之形成鲜明对比的是，典型的城市居民则被认为是亲欧主义者、支持移民群体、中上层阶级、年龄偏轻且受过高等教育。不过，这类认知并非普遍一致。个体往往会将自身特质投射到他人身上，认为与自身相似者更契合其所在地域的内群体典型特征。同样，在城乡刻板印象与情感倾向的关联中，也存在类似的逻辑路径。尽管个体往往会对自己认知中属于地域内群体典型特征的群体表达更为积极的情感，但这类情感评价的核心取决于个体自身是否与所讨论的刻板印象相匹配。总体而言，本研究的发现为城乡分化维度下的刻板印象研究提供了系统性实证证据。借此，研究进一步凸显了社会认同理论视角对于解析城乡居民政治分化的重要价值。