Abstract

Less-educated citizens report relatively low trust in institutions like politics, the judiciary and science, and find it harder to navigate these than more highly educated citizens. They also more often behave unhealthily and more frequently experience illnesses, and consequently die earlier. A pressing question is how to explain all these well-established educational divides, found in the Netherlands as well as many other western countries. In this inaugural lecture On life with low status, Jeroen van der Waal explores which role status differences play in that regard. How does feeling looked down upon because of their lifestyle shape less-educated citizens’ thinking, feeling, and acting? And how does that feeling explain their substantial differences with more-educated citizens when it comes to health, health-related behaviours, and political preferences? Jeroen van der Waal sketches an interdisciplinary research program that enables to answer those questions. It combines insights from political science, psychology, public health, and sociology, and enriches sociological survey and experimental research with physiological research on stress and emotions, and social-psychological research on implicit associations with lifestyle attributes. This promises to provide crucial insights for various scientific debates in a wide range of research fields, and for optimizing communication between institutional professionals on the one hand, and less-educated citizens, patients, and pupils on the other.Foto: Bob Bronshoff

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