<p>This article examines whether and to what extent the lifestyles of social groups are linked to their attitudes regarding key areas of political conflicts. Scholarly debates on new societal cleavages posit that conflicts over migration, climate policy, or sexual diversity pit social groups with fundamentally different identities, values, and ways of life against one another. Despite the theoretical salience of such concepts, they have received little empirical attention in polarization research to date. Drawing on recent German survey data and an established lifestyle typology, our analyses demonstrate that substantial attitudinal differences do indeed exist across lifestyle types, though these differences do not amount to a fundamental opposition between them. Modernized groups, whose lifestyles are characterized by greater biographical openness, tend to hold more progressive attitudes on migration, sexual diversity, and climate protection than traditionally oriented groups. For migration and climate issues, the resource level of one’s lifestyle also matters: Progressive attitudes are more pronounced among those whose lifestyles reflect elevated levels of economic and cultural capital. In contrast, lifestyle differences prove largely irrelevant for attitudes about economic redistribution. Lifestyle thus appears consequential for those issues commonly labeled as “culture wars” in public discourse. Multivariate analyses suggest that lifestyle differences represent an independent factor shaping sociopolitical attitudes, comparable in magnitude to class and educational differences.</p>

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Bodenständige gegen Weltoffene? Lebensführung und Polarisierung in Deutschland

  • Thomas Lux,
  • Steffen Mau,
  • Linus Westheuser

摘要

This article examines whether and to what extent the lifestyles of social groups are linked to their attitudes regarding key areas of political conflicts. Scholarly debates on new societal cleavages posit that conflicts over migration, climate policy, or sexual diversity pit social groups with fundamentally different identities, values, and ways of life against one another. Despite the theoretical salience of such concepts, they have received little empirical attention in polarization research to date. Drawing on recent German survey data and an established lifestyle typology, our analyses demonstrate that substantial attitudinal differences do indeed exist across lifestyle types, though these differences do not amount to a fundamental opposition between them. Modernized groups, whose lifestyles are characterized by greater biographical openness, tend to hold more progressive attitudes on migration, sexual diversity, and climate protection than traditionally oriented groups. For migration and climate issues, the resource level of one’s lifestyle also matters: Progressive attitudes are more pronounced among those whose lifestyles reflect elevated levels of economic and cultural capital. In contrast, lifestyle differences prove largely irrelevant for attitudes about economic redistribution. Lifestyle thus appears consequential for those issues commonly labeled as “culture wars” in public discourse. Multivariate analyses suggest that lifestyle differences represent an independent factor shaping sociopolitical attitudes, comparable in magnitude to class and educational differences.