Events

Abstract: 

Genetic factors shape socioeconomic outcomes, but their influence is not fixed: it varies with the environments in which individuals live. Yet most gene-environment interaction research conceptualises the environment narrowly, focusing on family background or neighbourhood context. This talk proposes a macro-sociological framework for understanding how institutions, understood as policies that structurally alter access to resources and opportunity, moderate the relationship between genetic inequalities and life chances.

Drawing on two quasi-experimental studies set in the United Kingdom, I examine how institutional changes at different stages of the life course affect the relationship between genes and life outcomes. The first study exploits the Education Act of 1944, which abolished secondary school fees and extended compulsory schooling by one year, finding that the reform reduced the association between a polygenic index for educational attainment and socioeconomic outcomes by between one-fifth and one-third of a standard deviation. The second study examines the 2003 Child Tax Credit expansion, a policy-induced income shock in early childhood, and finds the opposite pattern: income increases amplified genetic inequalities in developmental outcomes, with genetically advantaged children benefiting disproportionately more.

Together, these findings suggest that the relationship between genes and life chances is systematically shaped by the design and reach of institutions. I argue that we need a theory of equalising versus amplifying institutions, one that identifies what it is about specific policy architectures that either attenuates genetic inequalities or concentrates benefits among the already-advantaged. This theoretical agenda has direct implications for how sociologists evaluate the success of redistributive reform, and for the emerging dialogue between sociogenomics and political philosophy on equality of opportunity.

The Sociology Seminar Series for Trinity Term is convened by Jasmin Abdel Ghany and Nontokozo Langwenya. For more information about this or any of the seminars in the series, please contact sociology.secretary@nuffield.ox.ac.uk.