The Laboratory for Comparative Social Research announces the next regular seminar, which will be held in Moscow (Krivokolenny Pereulok, 3, room 3-333) on March, 21 at 17-00 p.m. Hye Won Kwon (Higher School of Economics, Laboratory for Comparative Social Research), Steven Hitlin (University of Iowa, Department of Sociology) will deliver a report “Do they value what we value?: The role of education in drawing value boundaries between in- and out-groups”.

Humans universally categorize groups as “us” and “them,” but little work examines the extent that perceived values play a crucial role in distinctions between in- and out-groups. Previous work often explores a targeted, single in/out group distinction, limiting our understanding about more realistic perceptions about in- and out-groups, where people have an array of groups at one time. Additionally, we know little about the content underlying why and how people draw the distinction against members of a certain group such as political opponents, homosexuals, or those who use different languages. Using cross-cultural survey data collected in the U.S. and South Korea, we offer a novel cross-cultural exploration of drawing value boundaries between in- and out-groups using a wide range of possible in- and out-groups. We find higher educated people in both countries use more internally consistent values to draw boundaries against out-groups. That is, highly educated people who categorize their in-group as prioritizing openness to change values tend to perceive their out-group as de-emphasizing those same, or prioritizing conservation (theoretically opposing) values; for the less educated, it appears that out-group discrimination is not necessarily linked to a coherent set of values but reflects an unarticulated general prejudice.

Everyone interested is invited!

Working language is English.

Videoconference with St. Petersburg office of the LCSR (room 303, 55-2, Sedova st.) will be provided. Guests from St. Petersburg are invited to make a request for a pass to the building to Olesya Volchenko (ovolchenko@hse.ru) by 12 am of the seminar’s day.

Guests from Moscow are invited to make a request for a pass to the building to Anastasia Ionova (aionova@hse.ru) by 12 am of the seminar’s day.

Also after the seminar, a videotape will be put up after the summary of the presentation.