Genotypic and phenotypic aspects of primary immunodeficiency diseases of the lymphoid system

This thesis focuses on the immunological phenotype, the mutation analysis, and the residual activity of mutated proteins in patients with PID of the lymphoid system. During this project, we have investigated possible genotype-(immuno)phenotype relationships in patients with antibody deficiencies and SCID. Consequently, mutation anal

Politicians' high-status signals make less-educated citizens more supportive of aggression against government: A video-vignette survey experiment

Various branches of the literature suggest that exposure tothe high‐status appearances and lifestyles of politicians incontemporary “diploma democracies” affects the attitudesand behavior of less‐educated citizens because it confrontsthem with their lower status in the political domain.Informed by this, we theorize that such exposure inspiresdocility (a lower subjective social status, weaker feelings ofpolitical entitlement) and revolt (anger, more support foraggression against government). To investigate this, weconducted an original, pre‐registered, video‐vignette survey experiment among a representative sample of theDutch population. While our findings likely generalize toother liberal democracies, the Dutch context is suitable totest our theorizing because low‐status and high‐statusappearances and lifestyles are found across the politicalarena, irrespective of politicians' substantive positions oruse of populist rhetoric. Each less‐educated respondent(n = 1390) was presented with a professionally producedvideo of an actor playing the part of a fictitious politician.This politician signaled either a low or a high status via hisappearance and lifestyle. The potentially confounding factors of his substantive positions and populist rhetoricwere randomized and controlled for. We find that exposureto the high‐status politician increased less‐educated citizens' support for aggression against the government.Through exploratory analyses, we assess how the responses of docility and revolt are interrelated, and howthey are shaped by less‐educated citizens' economic status

They don’t know what it’s like for us: why citizens with lower levels of education feel political discontent

Previous research suggests that citizens with lower levels of education are more likely to express dissatisfaction with politics. Drawing on new research in the Netherlands, Kjell Noordzij, Willem de Koster and Jeroen van der Waal explain why the distance these citizens feel from politicians fosters their discontent

The educational divide in climate change attitudes: Understanding the role of scientific knowledge and subjective social status

Research has frequently found that less-educated citizens are more skeptical about climate change and show less trust in climate science than their more-educated counterparts. We advance insights on why this educational divide exists by: 1) scrutinizing the relevance of the dominant knowledge-deficit explanation by uniquely using an objective measure of scientific knowledge; and 2) theorizing and empirically testing a novel explanation on the importance of subjective social status. Building on recent sociological insights, we theorize that less-educated citizens have a lower subjective social status and feel misrecognized by more-educated citizens, inciting frustration and opposition toward the attitudes and lifestyle of the latter. Because belief in and concern about climate change are predominantly embraced by more-educated citizens and have strong status connotations, less-educated citizens’ opposition to the lifestyle of more-educated citizens is likely also directed at the issue of climate change. We test hypotheses derived from both approaches by analyzing unique survey data gathered among members of a high-quality panel representative of the Dutch population. We focus on two outcome measures: climate change skepticism and distrust in climate science. We find that both the knowledge-deficit approach and the novel explanation involving subjective social status contribute to understanding the educational divide in climate change attitudes, in addition to other approaches covered by control variables such as income and political ideology. Our study concludes with a reflection on the theoretical implications of these findings and their practical implications for information campaigns, which our study suggests should be careful not to prime less-educated citizens’ perceived lower social standing

The educational divide in climate change attitudes: Understanding the role of scientific knowledge and subjective social status

Research has frequently found that less-educated citizens are more skeptical about climate change and show less trust in climate science than their more-educated counterparts. We advance insights on why this educational divide exists by: 1) scrutinizing the relevance of the dominant knowledge-deficit explanation by uniquely using an objective measure of scientific knowledge; and 2) theorizing and empirically testing a novel explanation on the importance of subjective social status. Building on recent sociological insights, we theorize that less-educated citizens have a lower subjective social status and feel misrecognized by more-educated citizens, inciting frustration and opposition toward the attitudes and lifestyle of the latter. Because belief in and concern about climate change are predominantly embraced by more-educated citizens and have strong status connotations, less-educated citizens’ opposition to the lifestyle of more-educated citizens is likely also directed at the issue of climate change. We test hypotheses derived from both approaches by analyzing unique survey data gathered among members of a high-quality panel representative of the Dutch population. We focus on two outcome measures: climate change skepticism and distrust in climate science. We find that both the knowledge-deficit approach and the novel explanation involving subjective social status contribute to understanding the educational divide in climate change attitudes, in addition to other approaches covered by control variables such as income and political ideology. Our study concludes with a reflection on the theoretical implications of these findings and their practical implications for information campaigns, which our study suggests should be careful not to prime less-educated citizens’ perceived lower social standing

The Educational Gradient in Trust in Politicians in the Netherlands: A Status-Based Cultural Conflict

Much of the educational gradient in trust in politicians remains unexplained by prevailing theories on material resources and institutional knowledge. Our novel explanation theorizes that: in its relationship with trust in politicians, education is a status indicator; and the lower trust in politicians among the less educated reflects the latter’s opposition to the former’s status signaling. Analyses of representative Dutch survey data (n = 1,296) demonstrate that indicators of affinity with elite culture do indeed largely underlie the a