The purpose of this paper is to assess the classical theoretical propositions of Wirth and Stouffer regarding the independent impact of urban and suburban residency on beliefs about racial inequality. This paper further assesses the impacts of these social locations over a three-decade period. While scholars pose that city size positively impacts behavior, there is debate regarding the impact of these locations over time. Using the General Social Survey, findings demonstrate that while urbanism continues to have an independent impact on beliefs, the impact of suburban residency is much weaker and inconsistent. Analyses of over time trends reveal that the gap between urban and rural residents appears to have increased, with rural residents expressing more intolerant beliefs about the causes of racial inequality over time. These findings are further discussed in a broader theoretical context. 1. Introduction In their now classic works on city size and subcultures, Louis Wirth [1] and Samuel Stouffer [2] proposed that urbanization creates an environment that encourages more tolerant attitudes among inhabitants. Testing this proposition, subsequent research has shown that individuals in larger communities tend to exhibit more tolerant attitudes toward a host of “different” groups, lifestyles, and characteristics [3–11]. In terms of beliefs deemed “unpopular,” “different,” and/or “deviant,” Wilson [12], for example, found greater levels of tolerance among urban residents than among rural residence. Specifically, Wilson [12] found a greater willingness to extend civil liberties to groups like atheists, communists, homosexuals, racists, and militarists among urbanites than among rural residents. Greater tolerance toward homosexuality, extramarital sex, premarital sex, and pornography is also found among urban than nonurban dwellers [9, 12, 13]. Abrahamson and Carter [3] more generally show that nonurban residents’ disapproval of issues sometimes used to signal tolerance including civil liberties, euthanasia, and prohibition. Of immediate concern to the current paper, past research has looked at the impact of urban on racial attitudes in particular [4, 10, 14]. Tuch [10], for example, found more liberal attitudes toward interracial marriage and voting for an African American for US president among urban residents than among rural residents. More recent research, however, suggests a more complex relationship between urbanism and racial attitudes. In terms of survey items measuring “principles of equality” [8], urbanites exhibit more liberal attitudes than rural
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