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The "mill worker's son" heuristic: How voters perceive politicians from working-class families-And how they really behave in office

Publication ,  Journal Article
Carnes, N; Sadin, ML
Published in: Journal of Politics
January 1, 2015

Politicians often highlight how hard their families had it when they were growing up, presumably in the hopes that voters will see them as more supportive of policies that benefit middle-and working-class Americans. What do voters actually infer from how candidates were raised? And what should they infer? We use a set of candidate evaluation experiments (and an external validity test drawing on actual congressional election returns) to study how Americans perceive politicians raised in more and less affluent families. We then compare these perceptions to data on how lawmakers brought up in different classes actually behave in office. Although voters often infer that politicians from less privileged families are more economically progressive, these lawmakers don't actually stand out on standard measures of legislative voting. The "mill worker's son" heuristic appears to be a misleading shortcut, a cue that leads voters to make faulty inferences about candidates' political priorities.

Duke Scholars

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Published In

Journal of Politics

DOI

EISSN

1468-2508

ISSN

0022-3816

Publication Date

January 1, 2015

Volume

77

Issue

1

Start / End Page

285 / 298

Related Subject Headings

  • Political Science & Public Administration
  • 4408 Political science
  • 1606 Political Science
 

Citation

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Chicago
ICMJE
MLA
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Carnes, N., & Sadin, M. L. (2015). The "mill worker's son" heuristic: How voters perceive politicians from working-class families-And how they really behave in office. Journal of Politics, 77(1), 285–298. https://doi.org/10.1086/678530
Carnes, N., and M. L. Sadin. “The "mill worker's son" heuristic: How voters perceive politicians from working-class families-And how they really behave in office.” Journal of Politics 77, no. 1 (January 1, 2015): 285–98. https://doi.org/10.1086/678530.
Carnes, N., and M. L. Sadin. “The "mill worker's son" heuristic: How voters perceive politicians from working-class families-And how they really behave in office.” Journal of Politics, vol. 77, no. 1, Jan. 2015, pp. 285–98. Scopus, doi:10.1086/678530.
Journal cover image

Published In

Journal of Politics

DOI

EISSN

1468-2508

ISSN

0022-3816

Publication Date

January 1, 2015

Volume

77

Issue

1

Start / End Page

285 / 298

Related Subject Headings

  • Political Science & Public Administration
  • 4408 Political science
  • 1606 Political Science