A study done in Bennington, Vermont, in 1954 found that McCarthy received disproportionately strong support from small businessmen and relatively little support from salaried employees with the same education. By contrast, occupation was found to have little bearing on political tolerance, as compared with the stong relationship between political tolerance, and educational achievement. A comparison of McCarthy's popular support in 1954 with that of the Nazis before they took power suggets that small businessmen in both situations were reacting against the main defining features of modern industrial society, while salaried employees in both situations were responding to the success or failure of the economy.
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Martín Trow (1958) studied this question.