The paradox of inequality: income inequality and belief in meritocracy go hand in hand

Inequality is on the rise: gains have been concentrated with a small elite, while most have seen their fortunes stagnate or fall. Despite what scholars and journalists consider a worrying trend, there is no evidence of growing popular concern about inequality. In fact, research suggests that citizens in unequal societies are less concerned than those in more egalitarian societies. How to make sense of this paradox? I argue that citizens’ consent to inequality is explained by their growing conviction that societal success is reflective of a meritocratic process. Drawing on 25 years of International Social Survey Program data, I show that rising inequality is legitimated by the popular belief that the income gap is meritocratically deserved: the more unequal a society, the more likely its citizens are to explain success in meritocratic terms, and the less important they deem nonmeritocratic factors such as a person’s family wealth and connections

Meritocracy, Elitism and Inequality

The appeal of meritocracy is plain to see, because it appears to promote equality of opportunity. However, in this paper we argue that meritocracy is also a deeply elitist project. Firstly, we place Michael Young in context to show how his critique of meritocracy should be understood as a socialist vision to ameliorate class divides. Secondly, we show how economic inequality in the UK has not generated systematic resistance: in fact, inequality and belief in meritocracy have gone hand in hand. Thirdly, we argue that people see their own lives as meritocratic rather than ascribed, and that such values are deeply embedded in popular life. We offer two explanations for how such views have come about, and show how they have helped construct a more unequal society

Adolescents' future in the balance of family, school, and the neighborhood:A multidimensional application of two theoretical perspectives

OBJECTIVE: Family, school, and neighborhood contexts provide cultural resources that may foster children's ambitions and bolster their academic performance. Reference group theory instead highlights how seemingly positive settings can depress educational aspirations, expectations, and performance. We test these competing claims. METHODS: We test these claims using the British Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (N = 4968). RESULTS: Results are broadly in line with the cultural resource perspective. However, important exceptions to this pattern point to reference group processes for children from low-educated parents, whose academic aspirations are especially low when they either attended an affluent school or lived in an affluent neighborhood—but not both, and for children from highly educated parents attending poor schools, whose realistic expectations of the future are higher than their peers in affluent schools. CONCLUSION: The resource perspective strongly predicts adolescents’ (ideas about) education, but reference group processes also play an important role in neighborhoods and schools.https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ssqu.13137Published versio

Inequality is a problem of inference: how people solve the social puzzle of unequal outcomes

A new wave of scholarship recognizes the importance of people’s understanding of inequality that underlies their political convictions, civic values, and policy views. Much less is known, however, about the sources of people’s different beliefs. I argue that scholarship is hampered by a lack of consensus regarding the conceptualization and measurement of inequality beliefs, in the absence of an organizing theory. To fill this gap, in this paper, I develop a framework for studying the social basis of people’s explanations for inequality. I propose that people observe unequal outcomes and must infer the invisible forces that brought these about, be they meritocratic or structural in nature. In making inferences about the causes of inequality, people draw on lessons from past experience and information about the world, both of which are biased and limited by their background, social networks, and the environments they have been exposed to. Looking at inequality beliefs through this lens allows for an investigation into the kinds of experiences and environments that are particularly salient in shaping people’s inferential accounts of inequality. Specifically, I make a case for investigating how socializing institutions such as schools and neighborhoods are “inferential spaces” that shape how children and young adults come to learn about their unequal society and their own place in it. I conclude by proposing testable hypotheses and implications for research

Visualizing belief in meritocracy, 1930–2010

In this figure I describe the long trend in popular belief in meritocracy across the Western world between 1930 and 2010. Studying trends in attitudes is limited by the paucity of survey data that can be compared across countries and over time. Here, I show how to complement survey waves with cohort-level data. Repeated surveys draw on a representative sample of the population to describe the typical beliefs held by citizens in a given country and period. Leveraging the fact that citizens surveyed in a given year were born in different time-periods allows for a comparison of beliefs across birth cohorts. The latter overlaps with the former, but considerably extends the time period covered by the data. Taken together, the two measures give a ?triangulated? longitudinal record of popular belief in meritocracy. I find that in most countries, popular belief in meritocracy is (much) stronger for more recent periods and cohorts

Confronting Racism of Omission: Experimental Evidence of the Impact of Information about Ethnic and Racial Inequality in the United States and the Netherlands

The COVID-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter movement have brought ethnic and racial inequalities to the forefront of public conversation on both sides of the Atlantic. However, research shows that people routinely overestimate the progress made towards equality and underestimate disparities between racial and ethnic majority and minority groups. Common among the American public is a naive belief in equal opportunity that stands in sharp contrast to the reality of structural racial inequity. Across the Atlantic, Dutch people’s self-perception of a tolerant, progressive, and egalitarian society means that racism and discrimination are topics often avoided, rendering invisible the stigmatization of ethnic and racial minorities. The result is racism of omission: ethnic and racial disparities are minimized and attributed to factors other than discrimination, which leads to legitimize inequities and justify non-intervention. Against this background, we field an internationally comparative randomized survey experiment to study whether (willful) ignorance about racial and ethnic inequality can be addressed through the provision of information. We find that facts about ethnic and racial inequality, on the whole, (1) have the greatest impact on people’s perceptions of inequality as compared to their explanations of inequality and policy attitudes, (2) register most strongly with majority-group White participants as compared to participants from minority groups, (3) cut across partisan lines, and (4) effect belief change most consistently in the Netherlands, as compared to the United States. We make sense of these findings through the lens of how ‘shocking’ the information provided was to different groups of participants

Confronting racism of omission: experimental evidence of the impact of information about ethnic and racial inequality in the United States and the Netherlands

The COVID-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter movement have brought ethnic and racial inequalities to the forefront of public conversation on both sides of the Atlantic. However, research shows that people routinely overestimate the progress made towards equality and underestimate disparities between racial and ethnic majority and minority groups. Common among the American public is a naive belief in equal opportunity that stands in sharp contrast to the reality of structural racial inequity. Across the Atlantic, Dutch people’s self-perception of a tolerant, progressive, and egalitarian society means that racism and discrimination are topics often avoided, rendering invisible the stigmatization of ethnic and racial minorities. The result is racism of omission: ethnic and racial disparities are minimized and attributed to factors other than discrimination, which leads to legitimize inequities and justify non-intervention. Against this background, we field an internationally comparative randomized survey experiment to study whether (willful) ignorance about racial and ethnic inequality can be addressed through the provision of information. We find that facts about ethnic and racial inequality, on the whole, (1) have the greatest impact on people’s perceptions of inequality as compared to their explanations of inequality and policy attitudes, (2) register most strongly with majority-group White participants as compared to participants from minority groups, (3) cut across partisan lines, and (4) effect belief change most consistently in the Netherlands, as compared to the United States. We make sense of these findings through the lens of how ‘shocking’ the information provided was to different groups of participants.Published versio

First Description of Natural and Experimental Conjugation between Mycobacteria Mediated by a Linear Plasmid

Background: in a previous study, we detected the presence of a Mycobacterium avium species-specific insertion sequence, IS1245, in Mycobacterium kansasii. Both species were isolated from a mixed M. avium-M. kansasii bone marrow culture from an HIV-positive patient. the transfer mechanism of this insertion sequence to M. kansasii was investigated here.Methodology/Principal Findings: A linear plasmid (pMA100) was identified in all colonies isolated from the M. avium-M. kansasii mixed culture carrying the IS1245 element. the linearity of pMA100 was confirmed. Other analyses suggested that pMA100 contained a covalently bound protein in the terminal regions, a characteristic of invertron linear replicons. Partial sequencing of pMA100 showed that it bears one intact copy of IS1245 inserted in a region rich in transposase-related sequences. These types of sequences have been described in other linear mycobacterial plasmids. Mating experiments were performed to confirm that pMA100 could be transferred in vitro from M. avium to M. kansasii. pMA100 was transferred by in vitro conjugation not only to the M. kansasii strain from the mixed culture, but also to two other unrelated M. kansasii clinical isolates, as well as to Mycobacterium bovis BCG Moreau.Conclusions/Significance: Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is one of most important mechanisms leading to the evolution and diversity of bacteria. This work provides evidence for the first time on the natural occurrence of HGT between different species of mycobacteria. Gene transfer, mediated by a novel conjugative plasmid, was detected and experimentally reproduced.Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Cooperacion Interuniversitaria UAM-Banco Santander con America Latina (CEAL), UAM, SpainConselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Microbiol Imunol & Parasitol, Escola Paulista Med, São Paulo, BrazilLab Nacl Comp Cient, Petropolis, BrazilUniv Autonoma Madrid, Fac Med, Dept Prevent Med, Madrid, SpainInst Adolfo Lutz Registro, Nucleo TB & Micobacterioses, São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Microbiol Imunol & Parasitol, Escola Paulista Med, São Paulo, BrazilFAPESP: FAPESP - 06/01533-9Web of Scienc

The paradoxical role of meritocratic selection in the perpetuation of social inequalities at school

The school system is intended to offer all students the same opportunities, but most international surveys reveal an overall lower achievement for students from disadvantaged groups compared with more advantaged students. Recent experimental research in social psychology has demonstrated that schools as institutions contribute with their implicit cultural norms and structure to the production of inequalities. This chapter examines the role that a structural feature of school, namely meritocratic selection, plays in this reproduction of inequalities at school. First, we describe how meritocracy in the educational system can hold paradoxical effects by masking the virtuous/vicious cycles of opportunities created by educational institutions. Second, we present recent research suggesting that selection practices relying on a meritocratic principle—more than other practices—can lead to biased academic decisions hindering disadvantaged students. We propose that inequalities in school might not just result from isolated failures in an otherwise functional meritocratic system, but rather that merit-based selection itself contributes to the perpetuation of inequalities at school