Socioeconomic gradients in mortality new questions about personality and IQ

项目摘要 一些人提出，SES在死亡率上的不平等可以用个体特征的影响来解释 对后来的自闭症和死亡率都有影响。这种所谓的“间接选择”模式具有深远的影响 不仅是为了社会理论，也是为了公共政策。关于政策是否应该 健康是个人责任的问题，取决于责任心和智商等特征，或者作为一种 社会责任问题取决于个人无法控制的社会经济因素。然而， 许多理论都表明，间接选择模型的标准版本可能过于夸张。 至少在三个方面过于简单化。首先，出生时的社会经济环境可能会带来“不幸的运气”。 不仅影响后来的SES，而且还影响个体特征。这种影响力的强大可能解释了一些 明显的个性和智商似乎在解释成年期社会支持和早年之间的联系方面起到了作用 死亡率。第二，间接选择模型中的关键途径可能因性别和性别而异 种族/民族。体制障碍可能会减少精英特质在经济和健康方面的好处 妇女、少数民族和那些在有限的机会结构中成长的人。第三，许多人认为 对智商(可能还有个性)的测量在社会阶层和种族之间存在系统性的偏见。如果为真，则 特征在SES中的明显作用和种族差异在死亡率中的作用可能被虚假地夸大或系统性地 扭曲了。我们已经仔细地为该项目超过94,000名成员的55年死亡率跟踪奠定了基础 天才--1960年高中期间和平均29-30岁时的全国队列抽样调查 很多年了。这个样本是史无前例的，将美国国家的广度和心理的深度结合在一起 测量。有关于参与者童年SES、认知能力和 高中时的个性，29-30岁时获得SES。我们还利用该队列的独特方面 历史语境--林登·约翰逊的反贫困之战--关于静态和变化的地方的探索性问题 经济机会结构和制度化种族歧视。我们的死亡率数据收集 接近PT人群(72-73岁)自然预期寿命的终点，使我们能够专注于 过早死亡--可以说是健康不平等最敏感的晴雨表。我们团队的特点是混合了 来自个性和社会学的专家(包括PT调查主任)包括一名少数民族健康专家 和历史学家，并由一位过去几年来专注于这些问题的私家侦探领导。我们的项目是 因此，准备测试和完善关于人格和智商可能在 社会死亡不平等。

Project Summary Some have proposed that SES inequalities in mortality can be explained by the influence of individual traits upon both later SES and mortality. This so-called “indirect selection” model has far-reaching implications not only for social theory, but also for public policy. Vigorous debate exists over whether policies should treat health as a matter of personal responsibility dependent upon traits such as Conscientiousness and IQ, or as a matter of social responsibility dependent upon socioeconomic factors outside the individual's control. However, converging strands of theory suggest that the standard version of the indirect selection model may be overly simplistic in at least three respects. First, the “brute luck” of socioeconomic circumstances at birth likely influences not only later SES, but also individual traits. The strength of this influence likely explains some of the apparent role personality and IQ seem to play in explaining associations between adulthood SES and earlier mortality. Second, key pathways in the indirect selection model likely vary across both gender and race/ethnicity. Institutional barriers may reduce the economic and health benefits of meritocratic traits among women, minorities, and those growing up within limited opportunity structures. Third, many argue that the measurement of IQ (and possibly personality) is systematically biased across social class and race. If true, the apparent role of traits in SES and race differences in mortality could be spuriously inflated or systematically distorted. We have carefully set the stage for a 55-year mortality follow-up of over 94,000 members of Project Talent--a national cohort sampled during high school in 1960, and again when they were on average 29-30 years old. The sample is unprecedented in combining national US scope with depth of psychological measurement. Detailed information exists on the childhood SES of participants, cognitive ability and personality in high school, and attained SES by age 29-30. We also leverage unique aspects of the cohort's historical context—Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty—in exploratory questions on static and changing local economic opportunity structure and institutionalized racial discrimination. Our mortality data-collection approximates the end of the natural life expectancy of the PT cohort (age 72-73), allowing us to focus on premature mortality--arguably, the most sensitive barometers of health inequalities. Our team features a mix of experts from personality and sociology (including the PT Survey Director), includes a minority health expert and historian, and is led by a PI who has focused on these issues for the past several years. Our project is thus poised to test and refine pivotal au currant conjectures about the role personality and IQ may play in social mortality inequalities.