Educationism and the irony of meritocracy: Negative attitudes of higher educated people towards the less educated

Abstract

Social psychology has studied ethnic, gender, age, national, and other social groups but has neglected education-based groups. This is surprising given the importance of education in predicting people's life outcomes and social attitudes. We study whether and why people evaluate education-based in-groups and out-groups differently. In contrast with popular views of the higher educated as tolerant and morally enlightened, we find that higher educated participants show education-based intergroup bias: They hold more negative attitudes towards less educated people than towards highly educated people. This is true both on direct measures (Studies 1-2) and on more indirect measures (Studies 3-4). The less educated do not show such education-based intergroup bias. In Studies 5-7 we investigate attributions regarding a range of disadvantaged groups. Less educated people are seen as more responsible and blameworthy for their situation, as compared to poor people or working class people. This shows that the psychological consequences of social inequality are worse when they are framed in terms of education rather than income or occupation. Finally, meritocracy beliefs are related to higher ratings of responsibility and blameworthiness, indicating that the processes we study are related to ideological beliefs. The findings are discussed in light of the role that education plays in the legitimization of social inequality.

Socioeconomic status and the structure of the self‐concept

“…This is in line with the motive for self-enhancement, which drives people to emphasise positive aspects of themselves (Alicke and Sedikides, 2009). Consistent with this, research has found that individuals who have higher levels of education place more subjective importance on their educational-identities, and more education-based intergroup bias, compared to individuals with lower levels of education (Kuppens et al, 2015;2018).…”

“…Traditional social class groupings have been important sources of identity throughout history, were often central to political movements (e.g., labour and socialist movements, communism), and were closely tied to people's political and social attitudes (Manstead, 2018;Park et al, 2013). However, changes in UK government policy since the 1980s have brought about social changes that marginalized the working class and eroded the positive and community-based aspects of working class identities (Jones, 2011).…”

Social divides in the age of globalization

“…This asymmetric relationship might be amplified by the fact that even the lower-educated see their lack of education as an undesirable trait. Kuppens et al (2018) have shown that lower-educated people judged their own group to be more responsible for their disadvantaged situation.…”

“…In contrast to the infinite number of studies that for several decades have investigated prejudice against immigrants (Hainmueller and Hopkins 2014), social divides and more particularly tensions between members of different parties or different educational groups have hardly been studied so far, not even outside the cleavage literature. Kuppens et al (2018) were the first to provide a systematic analysis of whether and why people evaluate education-based in-groups and out-groups differently. Most research on partisan polarisation investigated attitudes towards different political parties or their candidates in the United States (Levendusky 2018;Mason 2015;Rogowski and Sutherland 2016;Webster and Abramowitz 2017).…”

Who aspires to have more? The impacts of social class and economic inequality on people’s desire for wealth and status

“…The concept of meritocracy refers to a society in which material wealth and social status are awarded on the basis of one's talent and hard work so that one's social class might be seen as a reflection of one's talent and hard work. As a result, people who endorse meritocratic beliefs tend to blame lower-class individuals for being lower-class (e.g., labelling them as stupid or lazy), and thereby hold more bias against lower-class individuals (Clery, Lee, & Kunz, 2013;Cozzarelli, Wilkinson, & Tagler, 2001;Darley & Gross, 1983;Fiske, 2010;Kuppens, Spears, Manstead, Spruyt, & Easterbrook, 2018). Notably, such a stigma associated with being poor might become even worse in more unequal societies.…”