title: Life at Both Ends of the Ladder: Education-Based Identification and Its Association With Well-Being and Social Attitudes.
abstract: Level of formal education is an important divide in contemporary societies; it is positively related to health, well-being, and social attitudes such as tolerance for minorities and interest in politics. We investigated whether education-based identification is a common underlying factor of these education effects. Indeed, education-based identification was stronger among the higher educated, especially for identification aspects that encompass education-based group esteem (i.e., the belief that one's educational group is worthy and that others think so, too). Furthermore, while group esteem had beneficial effects across educational levels, aspects of identification that were unrelated to group esteem had positive effects for the higher educated but not for the less educated. Thus, the less educated do not benefit from the psychologically nourishing effect of identification that exists for other groups. The stigma and responsibility related to low education could be a common explanation for a wide range of outcomes.
authors.affiliation: University of Groningen, The Netherlands t.kuppens@rug.nl.
authors.forename: Toon
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kuppens
authors.affiliation: University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.
authors.forename: Matthew J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Easterbrook
authors.affiliation: University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Russell
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Spears
authors.affiliation: Cardiff University, UK.
authors.forename: Antony S R
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Manstead
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001290:Attitude; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012649:Self Concept; D012933:Social Identification; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: education; identification; political attitudes; prejudice; well-being