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Research Article | Special Issue: Psychology of Pushback

White Americans’ feelings of being “last place” are associated with anti-DEI attitudes, Trump support, and Trump vote during the 2024 U.S. presidential election

Alisa Kukharkin, Fiona Barber, Erin Cooley ORCID, Nava Caluori ORCID, Xanni Brown ORCID, Anshita Singh ORCID, William Cipolli ORCID, & Jazmin L. Brown-Iannuzzi ORCID
https://doi.org/10.56296/aip00046
Published: January 6, 2026
Copyright: The authors (CC BY 4.0)

Kukharkin, A., Barber, F., Cooley, E., Caluori, N., Brown, X., Singh, A., Cipolli, W., & Brown-Iannuzzi, J.L. (2026). White Americans’ feelings of being “last place” are associated with anti-DEI attitudes, Trump support, and Trump vote during the 2024 U.S. presidential election. advances.in/psychology, 1, e549398. https://doi.org/10.56296/aip00046

Kukharkin, Alisa, et al. "White Americans’ feelings of being “last place” are associated with anti-DEI attitudes, Trump support, and Trump vote during the 2024 U.S. presidential election." advances.in/psychology, vol. 1, no. 1, 2026, e549398. https://doi.org/10.56296/aip00046.

Kukharkin, Alisa, Fiona Barber, Erin Cooley, Nava Caluori, Xanni Brown, Anshita Singh, William Cipolli, and Jazmin L. Brown-Iannuzzi. 2026. "White Americans’ feelings of being “last place” are associated with anti-DEI attitudes, Trump support, and Trump vote during the 2024 U.S. presidential election." advances.in/psychology 1 (1): e549398. https://doi.org/10.56296/aip00046.

Kukharkin A, Barber F, Cooley E, Caluori N, Brown X, Singh A, et al. White Americans’ feelings of being “last place” are associated with anti-DEI attitudes, Trump support, and Trump vote during the 2024 U.S. presidential election. advances.in/psychology. 2026;1(1):e549398. doi:10.56296/aip00046.

Kukharkin, A. et al. (2026) 'White Americans’ feelings of being “last place” are associated with anti-DEI attitudes, Trump support, and Trump vote during the 2024 U.S. presidential election', advances.in/psychology, 1(1), e549398. Available at: https://doi.org/10.56296/aip00046.

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Due to racial wealth inequality in the U.S.—inequality that benefits White Americans on average—many Americans associate White people with wealth. Yet, many White Americans report feeling like they, personally, are “falling behind.” We conducted a five-wave longitudinal study with a representative quota sample of non-Hispanic, White Americans (N = 506) during the 2024 U.S. presidential election. We found that White Americans who feel they are falling behind White and Asian Americans, while also being close to being passed by Black and Hispanic Americans, within a perceived tight status hierarchy, reported the most support for DEI bans and Trump, controlling for objective status. Further, White Americans with these status perceptions were most likely to vote for Trump in the 2024 election. We conclude that White Americans’ subjective perceptions of their position in the racial economic hierarchy meaningfully relate to political attitudes and behavior.

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