This paper applies a conjoint experiment to analyze the cultural and economic sources of social status. The great potential of the concept of social status to capture perceptions of decline is now widely recognized in political science. Phenomena like the increasing success of radical right parties have been traced back to a sense of status loss - not being respected and valued by society anymore - among their voters. However, the multidimensional nature of status has not been sufficiently addressed yet, as economic as well as cultural grievances could drive this sense of status loss. This paper addresses this gap by disentangling economic and cultural dimensions of social status, made possible by an innovative conjoint design.

The paper proceeds in two steps: First, it examines the separate influence of socioeconomic and sociocultural characteristics on the perceived status hierarchy. Does a sense of societal worth depend solely on socioeconomic factors like income, education and occupation? Or do sociocultural factors like gender, race and sexuality also play a role? Second, it takes into account how both dimensions interact in their influence on status perceptions. For example, do cultural gender norms shape the prestige of occupations in a diverging way for men and women?

This paper relies on original survey data from Switzerland, a country with a strong radical right party. The embedded conjoint experiment asked respondents to situate fictive people with randomized characteristics on the societal hierarchy. Overall, the paper lays a foundation for understanding perceptions of decline more closely.