Publication type
Journal Article
Authors
Publication date
June 1, 2024
Summary:
In this study, we investigate the relationship between individual and neighbourhood deprivation and the decision to vote for Brexit in the 2016 referendum. Our analysis uses data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study and the English Index of Multiple Deprivation, and employs multilevel models to account for individual-level deprivation, neighbourhood deprivation, and larger-scale regional deprivation. We also examine the interaction between these scales. On average, we find that individual, neighbourhood, and wider area deprivation are associated with a higher likelihood of voting Leave. However, the effect of neighbourhood deprivation is heterogeneous and depends on the broader spatial context: living in deprived neighbourhoods (and to a lesser extent experiencing personal deprivation) has a stronger effect on voting behaviour in more affluent regions. Conversely, the effect of individual and neighbourhood deprivation is close to zero and statistically insignificant in more deprived areas of the country. These results suggest that social comparison processes of in-groups and out-groups operate within larger regional contexts. Our study thus highlights the role of individual and regional deprivation, but also their intersection, in shaping political attitudes and outcomes.
Published in
European Sociological Review
Volume and page numbers
Volume: 40 , p.479 -492
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcad057
ISSN
02667215
Subjects
Notes
Open Access
© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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