Sociology
Status Inconsistency and the Dynamics of Social Mobility
Quick fact
Sociologist Gerhard Lenski found that people with inconsistent statuses—like high education but low income—tend to be more politically liberal and more supportive of social change than those with consistent statuses, even when their overall status is similar.
Why this is interesting
Imagine a person with a Ph.D. working as a taxi driver: are they upper class or lower class? Such mixed signals are everywhere, yet we usually assume social status is a single, clear rank.