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Learning about inequality in unequal America

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As Western nations are increasingly divided by socioeconomic fault lines, how do we learn about the lives of others? Scholarship documents correlates of inequality beliefs but lacks a theoretical framework for studying belief formation. Jonathan Mijs develops an “institutional inference” model describing how adolescents learn about inequality in racially and socioeconomically homogeneous or heterogeneous institutional contexts.

Image courtesy of interviewee. June 18, 2024

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The discussion revolves around economic inequality in the United States, especially since the rise of neoliberal policies in the late 20th century. Jonathan, an academic, discusses how perceptions of inequality differ from objective realities, with many Americans holding a meritocratic belief that success stems solely from individual effort, which overlooks systemic issues.

The research aims to understand how individuals learn about inequality, particularly through their experiences in diverse or homogeneous settings like college. Drawing upon a large dataset from freshmen and their responses before graduation, the study examines how students' beliefs about meritocracy and racial discrimination evolve based on their educational environment and interactions.

Key findings reveal that students often become more skeptical of meritocratic assumptions and more aware of racial discrimination when exposed to diverse peers, especially those from different racial or ethnic backgrounds. However, the changes in belief are more pronounced among ethnic and racial minorities.

The implications call into question whether colleges are fulfilling their mission to prepare students for a diverse society, especially in light of recent Supreme Court rulings on affirmative action that may further limit campus diversity. Future research directions include exploring other social environments beyond college and how early experiences shape beliefs about inequality.

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X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

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Economic inequalities in many Western countries,

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and certainly in the United States, have grown,

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almost exponentially, since the, about the 1970s

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and 1980s, the advent of neoliberal policies in particular,

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to the point where around the two thousands,

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I would say, inequalities peaked to, to,

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basically where they hadn't been,

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since the Great Depression of the 1920s and thirties, right?

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So really ballooning, economic inequalities,

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income inequalities, wealth, concentration of wealth

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among just a, a handful of, of individuals.

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Um, and, and,

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and, meanwhile, America is also a society

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that's, that's highly segregated.

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Um, it's segregated along economic lines,

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and is second segregated along ethnic and, racial lines.

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Um, so that's sort of the objective reality

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that social scientists are, are, are documenting.

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But when you ask people about their,

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their beliefs about inequality, their views,

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their perspectives, you get a completely different picture

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of the society that they live in.

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Um, you get this fairly, meritocratic view,

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meaning a society where people who work hard are rewarded,

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and, you know, are become successful.

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And, the other side of that coin is that people

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who are struggling financially, who find themselves,

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down in the dumps must, be themselves to blame for it.

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Um, so that, that that continues to be, the kind

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of prevalence belief among many Americans,

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and it's no longer an American idiosyncrasy.

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We, we see, a growing, belief that, that,

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that people live in meritocratic society.

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We see that across societies in the western world really

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going hand in hand with, these, these growing

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and ballooning levels of inequality.

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My starting point is it's,

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it's a combination of factors.

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It's, in one sense it's,

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people really underestimate just

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how unequal their societies are.

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They just don't know. Uh, that's a big part of it.

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And one of the reasons why people don't know, is that,

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institutions, major institutions in, in society,

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think about neighborhoods, schools,

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workplaces have become increasingly segregated,

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not just in, in, in an ethnic and racial sense.

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That's the, that's the sense in which we tend

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to think about when we hear the word segregation,

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but in an economic sense, meaning that rich

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and poor,

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university educated versus non university educated people

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are, are no longer, interacting.

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They are working in separate workplaces altogether.

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Uh, they're their, they

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or their kids are going to separate schools altogether.

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They're living in different neighborhoods, even their,

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their social networks, not just online,

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but offline, who they know,

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who they date romantically.

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Uh, that has become to be marked, more

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and more, by,

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basically a fault line between rich and poor.

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So if this is the reality, I wondered,

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how do people even learn about the life of others?

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On one hand, literature, in sociology, economics,

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political science kind of describes this reality

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of growing economic inequalities.

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Um, there's also more

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and more research that,

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shows this increasing socioeconomic

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segregation, in society.

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Uh, so that's sort of the background really to the project.

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Um, now, how does that impact the way that people,

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see themselves, see others, and understand

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and make sense of their society?

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That's really the question I'm interested in,

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and that's something that hasn't been studied,

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all that much.

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Uh, there's a handful of studies that, that I,

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take inspiration from.

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Uh, so there's, there's some research

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that situates people's beliefs about inequality,

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by looking at, the neighborhoods that people live in.

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Uh, and they find generally that,

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the more economically diverse,

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the neighborhood a person lives in, the more aware they are

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of economic inequalities, not just in their immediate sort

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of social setting, but also the more unequal day they think,

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their society to be, at large.

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Uh, so there's this link between kind of what people see

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around them and how they think the, the society looks more,

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more generally, which is, I think, an intuitive link.

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Um, there's some research that the same may be true

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for schools, particularly, when people go to,

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in their kind of formative stages

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of their life in their youth

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and early adolescents, a a school setting that is,

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kind of, exposes them to, people from,

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from kind of all rungs of life,

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or ones in a social letter, I should say.

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Uh, then, that may be something that also, shapes

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and understand and sort of their

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understanding of inequality.

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And that's, that's really the intuition that I am working

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with in my paper,

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by looking specifically at one institution, which is,

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college, which is this, this, this,

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this institution that obviously is, has always been kind

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of considered the path into the middle class.

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So it's important in that sense.

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Uh, it, it, it really kind of provides not just,

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it's not just the, the kind of the instruction,

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like the things that we learned, the skills we develop in,

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in college, but it's also a social space in which students

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sometimes, up to, you know, four years

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or more years kind of spend surrounding themselves

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with others, on a campus that, is not,

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a reflection perfect, you know, reflection

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of their society at large, but it becomes their society.

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So I was really interested to see, how do people kind

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of, based on those experiences come to,

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Uh, develop an understanding of the society they live in,

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in this very, very formative stage of their life.

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A theoretical starting point is,

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is just this pretty simple model where I posit that,

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it is through our own experiences,

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and it's through our kind of vicarious experiences, meaning,

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the experiences of the people that are close to us,

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that we come to kind of understand,

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how inequality works, how much inequality there is,

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and what are the causes of those inequality.

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So it's, it's kind of information

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and experiences that reach us by our, our own experiences

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and by the people that we surround ourselves with,

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which means that, that it's crucial, to look at the kind

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of settings that, that, that form,

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or that constitute this importance, setting to,

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to our, to our early life,

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like the neighborhoods in which we grow up,

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the schools we attend,

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and then later, the workplaces that, that come to,

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you know, sort of be, be a site

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where we spend much of our, much of our time.

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Um, so how are those settings configured? Really?

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Are these settings that expose us to a wide variety

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of people from across our society?

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Or are they more homogeneous settings in which we only

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encounter others who share our economic position?

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Um, same levels of education, same levels of income,

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thereabouts.

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And, and, and if it,

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and distinguishing between the two, like the diverse

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and the non-diverse, the homogeneous

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or the heterogeneous setting, how does that, how does

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that impact the way that we come to understand our society?

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I am, drawn here on a, very large data set

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that I kind of put together, from two sources.

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Uh, one is a, a survey called the Freshmen Survey,

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which is, a series of questions fairly short

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that are asked to students in their first year, often

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around freshman orientation, really at the beginning

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of their college trajectory.

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Um, and, and then I have another, questionnaire

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that is asked to those very same students about four years

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later, before they graduate college.

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Um, and there's a few questions that are repeated such

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that I can directly compare people's responses, right,

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as they're starting their college journey

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and their responses by the time they graduate.

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So I can look at, whether people kind of

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hold onto their init initial beliefs

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or whether they change their beliefs.

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And specifically I'm interested in,

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their views about inequality.

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So there's two dimensions to this.

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One is, do they believe that,

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the United States is a society where,

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working hard is, is rewarded?

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And, and that's what, what, what leads to success?

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And do they believe that, racial discrimination is,

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a major problem, in their society, contemporarily,

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or if, if that's the thing of the past?

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Um, so I'm looking at basically belief change in those two,

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important views, about American society.

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It's about 150,000 students across about four

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to 500 universities, really, across the country.

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So these are really highly selective universities,

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private universities, they're also public universities.

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They're, they're also much less selective universities.

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But what they all share is, they, they have a,

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a they provide a, a, a campus experience.

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And oftentimes,

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most ca cases students are living on campus as well.

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So what I'm looking at then is, first of all,

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how does the, overall kind of composition

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of the student body, so who, are attending this college,

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how does that influence people's beliefs?

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And, and can that account for the belief change

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that, that I observe?

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And then specifically, I'm looking at one aspect of the,

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college setting, which is the roommate

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that a person has in college.

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Uh, so oftentimes in the first year, students are more

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or less, randomly assigned to a student,

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or there may be a particular algorithm

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or particular approach that the administrators take.

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But the important, the important thing is

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that students themselves tend to have no

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or very little say in who gets to be their roommate.

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Uh, now, later they can, they can often,

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provide their preferences and, and,

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and roommate configurations change.

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But, but there's an important aspect to who,

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people room with that is beyond their control.

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And that makes it a really interesting,

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variable in, in my analysis.

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Uh, so, so that's the one I really zoom in on.

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Um, and specifically,

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I'm looking at whether over those four years of, of college,

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whether,

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students find themselves in a roommate situation

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with someone from a different ethnic

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or ratio group from their own,

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and whether that really has an impact on their

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beliefs about the inequality.

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Now, what do I find?

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Um, I find evidence, pretty much in, in, in line

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with what I, what I hypothesize,

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but with some really, really important, and, and, and,

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and, problematic, really,

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unexpected findings.

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So the general pattern is that,

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over the four years of college, students tend

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to become a little bit less believing in meritocracy.

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Uh, generally, they become more critical of the notion

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that racial discrimination is a thing of the past,

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and they become less believing that, success is,

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is something that you can make, that, that, that,

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that hard work is always rewarded in society.

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Uh, so that's a general trend,

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but I find it really, really, really matters what kind

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of college you go to specifically who your,

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we interact with in that college.

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And it really, really matters who your roommate is.

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So generally, if you are exposed to,

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a person from a different ethnic

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and racial group through your roommate, configuration,

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and, and, and I, and I argue that this is not just kind of,

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sort of an, ephemeral, contact

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or interaction, you know, this is a person you really get

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to know because you're sharing a space with them, often

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for, for an extended period.

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So it's through that, experience I find in my research

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that people tend to become,

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less believing in meritocracy.

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So there's something in that experience,

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and less believing that racial

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discrimination is a problem of the past.

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So there's something in that experience that, that sort of,

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inter-ethnic interracial, encounter and, and, and,

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and extended, contact that people,

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that makes people, lose, some

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of their faith in meritocracy

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and become more, more critical, about the state

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of inequality in our society.

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Now, this is something that in a way,

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could be a good thing.

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Uh, if you, to the extent that people have kind

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of misperceptions

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and underestimate inequality in their society, it, it,

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it could be very welcome for them to have something kind

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of correct that misperception

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and actually, start

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to see society really for what it's right.

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That's, that's sort of perhaps what I was, I was hoping

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to find as a, as a sociologist concerned

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about, about inequalities.

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Now, what I find, though, is that

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this general pattern is especially true, for ethnic

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and racial minorities.

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So it's their exposure to a white roommate that makes them,

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especially, lose faith in meritocracy, and,

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and, and especially, critical of the state

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of racial inequality in their society,

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looking just at white students.

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However, I still find evidence of,

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of them losing faith in meritocracy,

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but it's not, by any means as large of an effect

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as I find for ethnic and racial minorities.

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So I find very minimal belief change among white students,

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and quite, quite big shifts in beliefs across ethnic

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and racial minorities, whereas,

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I suppose I would've maybe expected

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or even hoped to find the reverse, there's something in

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that, encounter that I think could be, eye-opening.

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Um, it could be kind of an enriching experience

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to really get to know a person from kind

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of an older other different walk of life,

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and learn to start to empathize with that person, start

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to see the world through their eyes.

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Uh, but that same experience for, a, a person who is,

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in an ethnic or racial minority

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or who grew up poor for instance,

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could also be a very painful experience to be exposed

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and confronted with the privilege, of another person,

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to, to be reminded,

14:36.405 --> 14:39.345
and confronted with all the things that you, you didn't have

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that they took for granted.

14:41.365 --> 14:43.665
Uh, right. So there's something in that experience,

14:43.665 --> 14:46.385
that my research suggests that is really, really powerful,

14:46.685 --> 14:49.025
and a catalyst for people to change their beliefs.

14:49.345 --> 14:51.805
I guess the first thing that I wanted to sort of,

14:52.115 --> 14:57.045
reflect on is do colleges, fulfill their kind

14:57.045 --> 15:01.125
of civic mission to pair students for, for, you know,

15:01.125 --> 15:05.165
life in American societies, in society, singular,

15:05.545 --> 15:08.765
do they, kind of,

15:09.835 --> 15:11.385
train the leaders of tomorrow?

15:11.385 --> 15:12.905
Right? These are kind of the mission statements

15:12.905 --> 15:14.465
of many, many colleges.

15:14.925 --> 15:18.625
Um, and I find that, to the extent

15:18.695 --> 15:23.185
that they do expose students to, you know, a, a a a,

15:23.465 --> 15:26.585
a broad spectrum of society, cross-section, really,

15:26.605 --> 15:28.225
of society, then, then yes,

15:28.415 --> 15:29.585
they are fulfilling their mission.

15:30.005 --> 15:32.705
But often, the reality is that that's not

15:32.895 --> 15:34.625
what the college campus resembles.

15:34.625 --> 15:36.865
That's not what the student body looks like.

15:37.205 --> 15:41.585
Uh, student bodies, tend to actually be much more,

15:42.005 --> 15:46.265
homogeneous, much less diverse than,

15:46.545 --> 15:47.745
American society at large.

15:48.045 --> 15:52.545
And as such university settings, colleges are actually,

15:52.815 --> 15:57.705
hindering people from really, seeing the society

15:57.725 --> 16:01.625
for what it is and are not, not quite, contributing

16:01.845 --> 16:05.265
to their or, or kind of, living up to the goal

16:05.485 --> 16:08.985
of preparing students, for, for, you know,

16:08.985 --> 16:12.665
important, important, work or roles

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or responsibilities, in American society.

16:15.925 --> 16:17.345
Uh, so that's the first thing that,

16:17.345 --> 16:18.745
that I, that I, looked at.

16:18.925 --> 16:22.385
The second is, and that's very, very, very current.

16:22.965 --> 16:25.225
Um, what does something like the,

16:25.525 --> 16:28.865
the Supreme Court's ruling on affirmative action?

16:29.215 --> 16:30.705
What does that mean? Or,

16:30.805 --> 16:33.105
or, what would be the consequence of

16:33.105 --> 16:34.985
that in the light of my findings?

16:35.405 --> 16:37.985
Um, and, and, and there, I'm, I'm really troubled

16:37.985 --> 16:41.945
because, my research suggests just, just how important,

16:42.605 --> 16:47.025
and, and kind of, you know, mind, mind changing,

16:47.115 --> 16:50.105
these experiences, across ethnic

16:50.105 --> 16:51.385
and racial fault lines could be.

16:51.725 --> 16:55.225
Um, while at the same time, this ruling means

16:55.225 --> 16:58.865
that universities, colleges have fewer, tools

16:59.005 --> 17:03.345
and ways to create a more diverse, campus space.

17:03.845 --> 17:07.345
Uh, meaning that these, experiences are gonna be,

17:07.595 --> 17:11.265
fewer, not, not more, more frequent in, in the past.

17:11.725 --> 17:14.425
Uh, and, and the exactly the kind of belief change

17:14.615 --> 17:17.105
that I think could be, could be constructive,

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could be eye-opening, are likely

17:19.205 --> 17:20.905
to become, more rare.

17:21.055 --> 17:23.145
This is just, one study

17:23.375 --> 17:25.585
that looks at one particular setting,

17:25.805 --> 17:27.985
but a lot of people in the United States

17:27.985 --> 17:29.185
have not gone to college.

17:29.685 --> 17:32.825
Uh, in fact, we don't know where, where we're heading,

17:32.885 --> 17:35.145
but, but maybe college becomes a less important

17:35.145 --> 17:36.665
institution in the future.

17:37.125 --> 17:39.865
So, it's really important to, I think,

17:39.865 --> 17:41.865
study other, settings, right?

17:41.865 --> 17:45.225
So I've mentioned the neighborhood as an important space

17:45.245 --> 17:46.945
and place in which people,

17:46.945 --> 17:48.225
learn about themselves and others.

17:48.565 --> 17:50.765
Uh, the same goes for the workplace,

17:50.825 --> 17:52.965
but maybe social networks more generally,

17:52.995 --> 17:54.325
both online networks

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and offline networks, is where, I think, we,

17:58.945 --> 18:01.125
we can, we can learn a lot, from

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what constitutes a person's social settings.

18:04.005 --> 18:07.245
Where do they draw their, their, their, understanding

18:07.305 --> 18:08.565
of their society from,

18:08.985 --> 18:12.685
and what are the particular experiences that are really,

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that really inform their views about their societies?

18:16.465 --> 18:18.605
And what are the kind of turning points,

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where people may really come to reevaluate their views?

18:22.145 --> 18:25.045
Is indeed sort of their, adolescence, is that sort

18:25.045 --> 18:26.685
of the most important stage?

18:27.065 --> 18:30.925
Uh, do beliefs about inequality get formed even earlier?

18:30.975 --> 18:32.405
There are some research that shows

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that even small children have really strong,

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fairness beliefs, right?

18:36.645 --> 18:38.405
They can, they can, they can really feel that

18:38.465 --> 18:39.845
and sense that something is unjust,

18:40.025 --> 18:43.725
and they can also really pick up on, inequalities.

18:43.795 --> 18:45.725
Like, like they can recognize

18:45.925 --> 18:47.125
affluence, they can recognize poverty.

18:47.785 --> 18:51.165
So, so basically, did I look at the right stage

18:51.165 --> 18:53.085
of people's lives, or should we be looking earlier

18:53.785 --> 18:56.565
and then later in adulthood, do people's beliefs,

18:56.745 --> 18:58.205
do they continue to be malleable?

18:58.625 --> 19:02.205
Um, are people open to some extent to change their minds?

19:02.585 --> 19:06.945
Or, do people's beliefs kind of, you know,

19:07.245 --> 19:08.705
get stuck in place at some point?

19:09.165 --> 19:11.265
Um, and that I think will really, really help.

19:11.525 --> 19:13.465
Um, also think about,

19:13.605 --> 19:17.705
if we are concerned about people's, misunderstanding

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of equality, their underestimation of inequalities

19:20.345 --> 19:23.145
and such, if we're concerned about misinformation,

19:23.145 --> 19:24.585
misperceptions,

19:24.605 --> 19:27.345
and the likes, then where do we target our,

19:27.405 --> 19:28.425
our interventions?

19:28.765 --> 19:31.105
How can we de develop, I think,

19:31.295 --> 19:33.025
effective information campaigns?

19:33.245 --> 19:35.825
And by we, I mean, that could be a nonprofit organization

19:35.825 --> 19:38.865
that could be, schools as part of their mission,

19:38.955 --> 19:41.705
could be government, it could be, could be any kind of body.

19:41.765 --> 19:44.225
But I think it's really, really important to,

19:44.375 --> 19:48.145
have this kind of research to, guide, those efforts.

00:00 - Economic inequalities in many Western countries, and certainly in the United States, have grown, almost exponentially, since the, about the 1970s and 1980s, the advent of neoliberal policies in particular, to the point where around the two thousands, I would say, inequalities peaked to, to,

00:23 - basically where they hadn't been, since the Great Depression of the 1920s and thirties, right? So really ballooning, economic inequalities, income inequalities, wealth, concentration of wealth among just a, a handful of, of individuals. and, and, and, meanwhile, America is also a society that's, that's highly segregated. it's segregated along economic lines, and is second segregated along ethnic and, racial lines.

00:53 - so that's sort of the objective reality that social scientists are, are, are documenting. But when you ask people about their, their beliefs about inequality, their views, their perspectives, you get a completely different picture of the society that they live in. you get this fairly, meritocratic view, meaning a society where people who work hard are rewarded, and, you know, are become successful. And, the other side of that coin is that people

01:26 - who are struggling financially, who find themselves, down in the dumps must, be themselves to blame for it. so that, that that continues to be, the kind of prevalence belief among many Americans, and it's no longer an American idiosyncrasy. We, we see, a growing, belief that, that, that people live in meritocratic society. We see that across societies in the western world really going hand in hand with, these, these growing and ballooning levels of inequality.

02:02 - My starting point is it's, it's a combination of factors. It's, in one sense it's, people really underestimate just how unequal their societies are. They just don't know. that's a big part of it. And one of the reasons why people don't know, is that, institutions, major institutions in, in society, think about neighborhoods, schools, workplaces have become increasingly segregated,

02:32 - not just in, in, in an ethnic and racial sense. That's the, that's the sense in which we tend to think about when we hear the word segregation, but in an economic sense, meaning that rich and poor, university educated versus non university educated people are, are no longer, interacting. They are working in separate workplaces altogether. they're their, they or their kids are going to separate schools altogether.

02:55 - They're living in different neighborhoods, even their, their social networks, not just online, but offline, who they know, who they date romantically. that has become to be marked, more and more, by, basically a fault line between rich and poor. So if this is the reality, I wondered, how do people even learn about the life of others? On one hand, literature, in sociology, economics,

03:22 - political science kind of describes this reality of growing economic inequalities. there's also more and more research that, shows this increasing socioeconomic segregation, in society. so that's sort of the background really to the project. now, how does that impact the way that people, see themselves, see others, and understand and make sense of their society?

03:45 - That's really the question I'm interested in, and that's something that hasn't been studied, all that much. there's a handful of studies that, that I, take inspiration from. so there's, there's some research that situates people's beliefs about inequality, by looking at, the neighborhoods that people live in. and they find generally that, the more economically diverse,

04:07 - the neighborhood a person lives in, the more aware they are of economic inequalities, not just in their immediate sort of social setting, but also the more unequal day they think, their society to be, at large. so there's this link between kind of what people see around them and how they think the, the society looks more, more generally, which is, I think, an intuitive link. there's some research that the same may be true for schools, particularly, when people go to, in their kind of formative stages

04:38 - of their life in their youth and early adolescents, a a school setting that is, kind of, exposes them to, people from, from kind of all rungs of life, or ones in a social letter, I should say. then, that may be something that also, shapes and understand and sort of their understanding of inequality. And that's, that's really the intuition that I am working with in my paper,

05:04 - by looking specifically at one institution, which is, college, which is this, this, this, this institution that obviously is, has always been kind of considered the path into the middle class. So it's important in that sense. it, it, it really kind of provides not just, it's not just the, the kind of the instruction, like the things that we learned, the skills we develop in, in college, but it's also a social space in which students sometimes, up to, you know, four years

05:35 - or more years kind of spend surrounding themselves with others, on a campus that, is not, a reflection perfect, you know, reflection of their society at large, but it becomes their society. So I was really interested to see, how do people kind of, based on those experiences come to, develop an understanding of the society they live in, in this very, very formative stage of their life. A theoretical starting point is, is just this pretty simple model where I posit that,

06:09 - it is through our own experiences, and it's through our kind of vicarious experiences, meaning, the experiences of the people that are close to us, that we come to kind of understand, how inequality works, how much inequality there is, and what are the causes of those inequality. So it's, it's kind of information and experiences that reach us by our, our own experiences and by the people that we surround ourselves with, which means that, that it's crucial, to look at the kind

06:40 - of settings that, that, that form, or that constitute this importance, setting to, to our, to our early life, like the neighborhoods in which we grow up, the schools we attend, and then later, the workplaces that, that come to, you know, sort of be, be a site where we spend much of our, much of our time. so how are those settings configured? Really? Are these settings that expose us to a wide variety

07:07 - of people from across our society? Or are they more homogeneous settings in which we only encounter others who share our economic position? same levels of education, same levels of income, thereabouts. And, and, and if it, and distinguishing between the two, like the diverse and the non-diverse, the homogeneous or the heterogeneous setting, how does that, how does that impact the way that we come to understand our society?

07:34 - I am, drawn here on a, very large data set that I kind of put together, from two sources. one is a, a survey called the Freshmen Survey, which is, a series of questions fairly short that are asked to students in their first year, often around freshman orientation, really at the beginning of their college trajectory. and, and then I have another, questionnaire that is asked to those very same students about four years later, before they graduate college.

08:10 - and there's a few questions that are repeated such that I can directly compare people's responses, right, as they're starting their college journey and their responses by the time they graduate. So I can look at, whether people kind of hold onto their init initial beliefs or whether they change their beliefs. And specifically I'm interested in, their views about inequality. So there's two dimensions to this.

08:35 - One is, do they believe that, the United States is a society where, working hard is, is rewarded? And, and that's what, what, what leads to success? And do they believe that, racial discrimination is, a major problem, in their society, contemporarily, or if, if that's the thing of the past? so I'm looking at basically belief change in those two, important views, about American society. It's about 150,000 students across about four

09:07 - to 500 universities, really, across the country. So these are really highly selective universities, private universities, they're also public universities. They're, they're also much less selective universities. But what they all share is, they, they have a, a they provide a, a, a campus experience. And oftentimes, most ca cases students are living on campus as well. So what I'm looking at then is, first of all, how does the, overall kind of composition

09:36 - of the student body, so who, are attending this college, how does that influence people's beliefs? And, and can that account for the belief change that, that I observe? And then specifically, I'm looking at one aspect of the, college setting, which is the roommate that a person has in college. so oftentimes in the first year, students are more or less, randomly assigned to a student, or there may be a particular algorithm

10:04 - or particular approach that the administrators take. But the important, the important thing is that students themselves tend to have no or very little say in who gets to be their roommate. now, later they can, they can often, provide their preferences and, and, and roommate configurations change. But, but there's an important aspect to who, people room with that is beyond their control. And that makes it a really interesting,

10:28 - variable in, in my analysis. so, so that's the one I really zoom in on. and specifically, I'm looking at whether over those four years of, of college, whether, students find themselves in a roommate situation with someone from a different ethnic or ratio group from their own, and whether that really has an impact on their beliefs about the inequality.

10:50 - Now, what do I find? I find evidence, pretty much in, in, in line with what I, what I hypothesize, but with some really, really important, and, and, and, and, problematic, really, unexpected findings. So the general pattern is that, over the four years of college, students tend to become a little bit less believing in meritocracy. generally, they become more critical of the notion

11:22 - that racial discrimination is a thing of the past, and they become less believing that, success is, is something that you can make, that, that, that, that hard work is always rewarded in society. so that's a general trend, but I find it really, really, really matters what kind of college you go to specifically who your, we interact with in that college. And it really, really matters who your roommate is. So generally, if you are exposed to,

11:50 - a person from a different ethnic and racial group through your roommate, configuration, and, and, and I, and I argue that this is not just kind of, sort of an, ephemeral, contact or interaction, you know, this is a person you really get to know because you're sharing a space with them, often for, for an extended period. So it's through that, experience I find in my research that people tend to become, less believing in meritocracy.

12:16 - So there's something in that experience, and less believing that racial discrimination is a problem of the past. So there's something in that experience that, that sort of, inter-ethnic interracial, encounter and, and, and, and extended, contact that people, that makes people, lose, some of their faith in meritocracy and become more, more critical, about the state of inequality in our society.

12:41 - Now, this is something that in a way, could be a good thing. if you, to the extent that people have kind of misperceptions and underestimate inequality in their society, it, it, it could be very welcome for them to have something kind of correct that misperception and actually, start to see society really for what it's right. That's, that's sort of perhaps what I was, I was hoping

13:04 - to find as a, as a sociologist concerned about, about inequalities. Now, what I find, though, is that this general pattern is especially true, for ethnic and racial minorities. So it's their exposure to a white roommate that makes them, especially, lose faith in meritocracy, and, and, and especially, critical of the state of racial inequality in their society, looking just at white students.

13:32 - However, I still find evidence of, of them losing faith in meritocracy, but it's not, by any means as large of an effect as I find for ethnic and racial minorities. So I find very minimal belief change among white students, and quite, quite big shifts in beliefs across ethnic and racial minorities, whereas, I suppose I would've maybe expected or even hoped to find the reverse, there's something in that, encounter that I think could be, eye-opening.

14:02 - it could be kind of an enriching experience to really get to know a person from kind of an older other different walk of life, and learn to start to empathize with that person, start to see the world through their eyes. but that same experience for, a, a person who is, in an ethnic or racial minority or who grew up poor for instance, could also be a very painful experience to be exposed and confronted with the privilege, of another person,

14:34 - to, to be reminded, and confronted with all the things that you, you didn't have that they took for granted. right. So there's something in that experience, that my research suggests that is really, really powerful, and a catalyst for people to change their beliefs. I guess the first thing that I wanted to sort of, reflect on is do colleges, fulfill their kind of civic mission to pair students for, for, you know, life in American societies, in society, singular,

15:05 - do they, kind of, train the leaders of tomorrow? Right? These are kind of the mission statements of many, many colleges. and I find that, to the extent that they do expose students to, you know, a, a a a, a broad spectrum of society, cross-section, really, of society, then, then yes, they are fulfilling their mission. But often, the reality is that that's not

15:32 - what the college campus resembles. That's not what the student body looks like. student bodies, tend to actually be much more, homogeneous, much less diverse than, American society at large. And as such university settings, colleges are actually, hindering people from really, seeing the society for what it is and are not, not quite, contributing to their or, or kind of, living up to the goal of preparing students, for, for, you know,

16:08 - important, important, work or roles or responsibilities, in American society. so that's the first thing that, that I, that I, looked at. The second is, and that's very, very, very current. what does something like the, the Supreme Court's ruling on affirmative action? What does that mean? Or, or, what would be the consequence of that in the light of my findings?

16:35 - and, and, and there, I'm, I'm really troubled because, my research suggests just, just how important, and, and kind of, you know, mind, mind changing, these experiences, across ethnic and racial fault lines could be. while at the same time, this ruling means that universities, colleges have fewer, tools and ways to create a more diverse, campus space. meaning that these, experiences are gonna be, fewer, not, not more, more frequent in, in the past.

17:11 - and, and the exactly the kind of belief change that I think could be, could be constructive, could be eye-opening, are likely to become, more rare. This is just, one study that looks at one particular setting, but a lot of people in the United States have not gone to college. in fact, we don't know where, where we're heading, but, but maybe college becomes a less important

17:35 - institution in the future. So, it's really important to, I think, study other, settings, right? So I've mentioned the neighborhood as an important space and place in which people, learn about themselves and others. the same goes for the workplace, but maybe social networks more generally, both online networks and offline networks, is where, I think, we,

17:58 - we can, we can learn a lot, from what constitutes a person's social settings. Where do they draw their, their, their, understanding of their society from, and what are the particular experiences that are really, that really inform their views about their societies? And what are the kind of turning points, where people may really come to reevaluate their views? Is indeed sort of their, adolescence, is that sort of the most important stage?

18:27 - do beliefs about inequality get formed even earlier? There are some research that shows that even small children have really strong, fairness beliefs, right? They can, they can, they can really feel that and sense that something is unjust, and they can also really pick up on, inequalities. Like, like they can recognize affluence, they can recognize poverty. So, so basically, did I look at the right stage

18:51 - of people's lives, or should we be looking earlier and then later in adulthood, do people's beliefs, do they continue to be malleable? are people open to some extent to change their minds? Or, do people's beliefs kind of, you know, get stuck in place at some point? and that I think will really, really help. also think about, if we are concerned about people's, misunderstanding of equality, their underestimation of inequalities

19:20 - and such, if we're concerned about misinformation, misperceptions, and the likes, then where do we target our, our interventions? How can we de develop, I think, effective information campaigns? And by we, I mean, that could be a nonprofit organization that could be, schools as part of their mission, could be government, it could be, could be any kind of body. But I think it's really, really important to,

19:44 - have this kind of research to, guide, those efforts.

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