Occupational Bias and Mobility

Abstract

APERSON'S evaluation of differentiated positions in the social structure tends to be affected by his own position. Members of the upper class in a Southern community, for example, differ in their conception of its class structure from members of the lower class, and each social stratum is evaluated more favorably by its own members than by others.' Correspondingly, one expects ratings of occupations on a preference scale to be influenced by the rater's own occupational status. Two possible sources of such bias in occupational ratings can be distinguished-ego involvement and group identification. Thus, when a is asked what the general standing of lawyer is, he is, in effect, confronted by the task of estimating the social worth of his own occupational identity. The fact that an occupational designation becomes a symbol of the individual's social identity may distort his judgment. But even when the individual's ego is not involved, his group identification may be, as in the case of a asked to rate physician or any other professional. The common orientation and social ties that unite the members of related occupations into an in-group and distinguish them from other occupational groups may also interfere with making impartial judgments. The present paper is concerned with the effect of this group identification on occupational ratings, that is, not with bias toward one's own specific occupation but with bias toward the various occupations in one's occupational group. Occupationally mobile persons have or had close social contacts with people in very different occupations, and they are probably not so well integrated in their present social stratum as those who have been born and raised in it. If attachment to a social stratum limits an individual's perspective and introduces a bias into his evaluation of occupations, social mobility should broaden his perspective and reduce this bias. Two hypotheses are implied by these considerations: (1) the members of each occupational group will give disproportionately high ratings to the various occupations in that group; (2) occupationally mobile persons will be less biased in favor of their own occupational group than those whose occupational status does not differ from that of their father. After having tested these hypotheses, some reformulations in accordance with the empirical findings will be suggested.