A third of Britons believe they have changed social class, survey finds

More than a third of Britons say they have changed social class, with upper-middle and upper-class people most likely to identify as belonging to more than one class, according to a survey. Working-class people were the least likely to say they had changed class or identified with more than one, with 70% saying they were in the same social category they were born into, the study by research firm Attest found. Researchers coined the term “polyclass” to describe the equivalent of 6 million British people who identified as belonging to more than one class at once. The survey of 2,000 people also found an entrenched sensitivity about the topic, with nearly half of respondents saying they had felt judged for their class, and most ranking social class above age, gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation in terms of how they think others see them. Dominic Abrams, a professor of social psychology and director of the Centre for the Study of Group Processes at the University of Kent, said he thought the term “polyclass” was useful at a time when class boundaries were far more blurred than in previous generations. Traditional categorisations such as ABC1, denoting the middle classes , were no longer necessarily signals of belief or attitude, and not even necessarily signs of class. “The supposed class alignment with different political parties seems to be breaking down. So [traditional categorisations are] not terribly helpful any more,” Abrams said. …