Cumulative Inequality and Attitude Formation

Abstract

This study examines the role of educational attainment in moderating age-related changes in attitudes toward immigration from a cumulative inequality perspective on attitude formation over the life course. Using multi-cohort panel data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), the analysis investigates how concerns about immigration evolve across different life course stages and how these trajectories differ by level of education. While prior research shows that higher education is associated with more liberal worldviews and that attitudes can change in response to critical life events, the interplay between education, aging, and attitudinal change remains insufficiently understood. To address this gap, the study develops a life course polarization model, which posits that education buffers against increases in anti-immigration attitudes as individuals age. Overall, the results contribute to debates on the stability versus malleability of attitudes over the life course by demonstrating that attitudinal change is shaped by cumulative inequalities and life course transitions, with education playing a central role in structuring long-term attitude trajectories.
 

Short bio 

Fabian Kratz is a postdoctoral researcher in sociology at LMU Munich and holds a Ph.D. in Economics and Social Sciences from FAU Erlangen–Nuremberg (summa cum laude). His research focuses on social stratification and life course processes, with particular emphasis on social origin, education, subjective and objective well-being, and political attitudes. Methodologically, he specializes in causal inference with observational data, including mediation and decomposition methods and panel data analysis. His work has been published in journals such as European Sociological Review and Social Science & Medicine. He is
a member of RC28 (ISA) and regularly teaches quantitative methods and analytical sociology.
 

Discussant

Leo Azzollini, Univeristà di Trento 

Registration

Send an e-mail to csis@unitn.it by 21st January 2026, 23:59.