The Variation Between Subjective and Objective Class Positions in South Africa. The Distance Between Perception and Reality

ABSTRACT: The study is an exploratory attempt to assess the relationship between individuals' objective class position and subjective social positions in the South African hierarchy. While objective class dynamics have received much attention in South Africa, less is known about the subjective social position individuals place themselves. The study aims to make use of the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) dataset and assess the relationship between objective and subjective class positions in South Africa. The results show considerable variation between objective and subjective class positions, with a strong middling tendency among all objective class groups in South Africa. The study also shows that this middling tendency has increased in the last decade in South Africa, predominantly due to individuals overestimating their social positions. With a large share of South Africans living close or below the poverty line, there is a clear biasedness of South Africans placing themselves in the middle of society, deviating from their lower objective position. The study further measures the variation between objective and subjective social positions to create a novel class scheme of inflated, deflated, and concordant class perceptions. These biased perceptions are then compared to socio-economic characteristics, showing that gender, race, and education are closely related to bias perceptions in South Africa. Furthermore, the increasing nature of high inequality and social unrest events in South Africa prompts the study also to assess the different social and political attitudes by varying objective and subjective class schemes. The results show that among the subjective class identification, individuals in higher perceived class positions tend to be less angered towards inequality, have lower redistribution preferences, and perceive a weaker conflict between the rich and the poor. These results confirm the impact perceived social positions and biased perceptions could have on social and political attitudes in South Africa. Attitudes that have been considered relevant in voting behavior and social policy formulation models. The results of the paper provides some vital information for policy makers on the dynamics behind subjective class and bias perceptions in South Africa.