The Urban–Rural Divide in People’s Minds: Stereotypes of Urbanites and Ruralites in Nine European Countries

Abstract 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.