Education, Identity and Well-Being Matt Easterbrook Toon Kuppens Tony Manstead SDAI -

SDAI Secondary Data Analysis Initiative project investigating education, identity, and well-being Investigation of link between education and diverse measures of well-being Role that identity plays in this link. Analysis with existing UK and international datasets Begun to unpack these findings with our own studies Future plans - SDAI 2

Education Institutional importance – Education level has become strong indicator of job status and salary De Graaf & Luijkx (1992); Pelleriaux (2001) Social importance – Increase in educational homogamy Kalmijn (1998); Smits, Ultee, & Lammers (1998) People’s educational background is easily discernible Kraus & Keltner, 2009 Education strongest predictor of a range of social attitudes and behaviours from diverse SES indicators Trautmann, van de Kuilen, & Zeckhauser (2013)

The ‘Education Effect’ Political Disengagement Racism Xenophobia Nationalism, Protectionism Lack of trust in government Authoritarianism Poorer Health Lower Subjective Well-Being Societal Well- Being Lower generalised Trust Personal Well- Being Lower levels of education is associated with:

Secondary Data Analysis Can we find evidence for the education effect in the UK, internationally, and over time? – Citizenship Survey Ns ≈ 10,000 – Understanding Society Ns ≈ 48,334 – British Social Attitudes Ns ≈ 3,000 – British Household Panel Survey Ns ≈ 40,000 – International Social Survey Programme 2003 Ns ≈ 45,000 – Controls: age, gender, income, marital status, employment status

In general, how is your health?

International Social Survey Programme: Negative perception of immigrants scale 7

British Social Attitudes: In general, how interested would you say you are in politics?

Summary Consistent evidence for the ‘education effect’ across a range of societal and personal well-being measures Evidence of the education effect in the UK, internationally, and longitudinally Stronger for political items than personal well-being or health.

Why? Scant empirical support for traditional explanations – Education allocates to environments – Education socialises people towards democratic and individualistic orientations Social identity as a new explanation – Education endowed with great meaning in society – Social status based strongly on education – Education used to understand and define self and others’ Tajfel & Turner, 1978; Turner et al., 1987 – People are attached to anonymous and generalised others 55% of respondents felt attached to anonymous, generalised others based on nothing but their level of education. But mainly those with higher levels of education. Stubager (2009)

Social Identity Positive social identities are associated with a range of positive outcomes – Self-esteem, well-being – Reduced intergroup conflict and aggression – Buffers against negative effects of stigma But it’s very hard for the low educated to form a positive identity – Defining feature is object of stigma and holds low status – Meritocratic beliefs encourage low status to be seen as legitimate Jetten, Schmitt, Branscombe, Garza, & Mewse, – Low education shown to suffer from stereotype threat: – Self-affirmation reduced gap between first- and continuing-generation students Harackiewicz et al., 2013

How important is your level of education to your sense of who you are?

Effect of identification Citizenship Survey

Rejection-identification model Recognition of stigma against one’s group increases identification Identification buffers against the negative affects of stigma – Branscombe & Schmitt, Recognised Low Status and Stigma Group identification Well-being

Strength of identification effect by qualification

SDAI Conclusions Education is associated with a range of personal and societal well-being measures Stronger associations for political items Education forms the basis for a social identity Educational social identities beneficial for well-being and societal attitudes Hard for low educated to construct positive social identities Educational social identities slightly more beneficial for those with lower levels of education

Experimental evidence ~ 350 paid online participants Multidimensional measure of identification Measured anti-Muslim bias Affective identification decreased anti-Muslim bias for the lower educated – Satisfaction with or esteem about education level Cognitive identification increased anti-Muslim bias for the lower educated – Salience of education to identity – Recognition of stigma or disadvantage attached to low status position? – Anger about relative deprivation? These effects only occur when education was made salient Identification items in secondary data analyses may be inadequate

SDAI 2 Building on the salience manipulation Using objective indicators rather than inadequate identification questions Investigate whether contextual variables that indicate the salience and weight of education in the local area moderate the education effect – Income and unemployment inequality by educational qualification in different neighbourhoods (LSOAs) – Size of different education groups – in areas with fewer people with no qualifications, their relative low status is likely to be more salience given they will be increasingly be interacting and observing higher status people.

Questions or comments?