COMBO: Social class definitions disparate

Researchers investigating issues of social status use a variety of factors to determine a person’s class, which is recognized as a vague concept with shifting meanings, psychology professor Susan Fiske said. The most significant factors are parents’ income and highest level of education, but these two factors are by no means exhaustive, and many others are often examined, she explained.

The results of the COMBO survey reveal that there is some discrepancy among members of the same income bracket as to which social class they belong to. For example, among those respondents who described their families as upper-middle class were individuals whose parents earned below $25,000 in the respondents’ senior year of high school as well as others whose parents earned more than $1 million.

The COMBO survey also found that, of the 98 respondents who were the first in their immediate family to attend college, 31 identified their families as upper-middle class.

Fiske, who studies stereotypes of people in the lower, middle and upper classes, suggested that students might report that they belong to a higher social class because “they realize that, by going to Princeton, they are changing their social class” since income and education level are very tightly correlated.

The results do not distinguish between respondents who are American and those who are international students.

The correlation between income and class also varies for American students, Fiske said, suggesting that the trends observed can be explained by an American desire to be a part of the positively viewed middle class.

“If you look at just middle class, it has a huge range, almost the entire span of incomes,” she said. The income ranges for those who identified as lower class and upper class in the survey, by contrast, are much more condensed.

She explained that Americans desire to be a part of the middle class because of the negative images of both the upper and lower classes.

“Most people see the middle class as the ‘in’ group and, as a result, want to consider themselves a part of it,” Fiske said.

Wilson School professor Stanley Katz agreed. “Those who aren’t as wealthy want to associate with those who are more wealthy, and those who are wealthier than that don’t like to be considered as such,” he said.

Fiske explained that many students might experience a similar phenomenon when discussing where they are studying. Attending Princeton often carries stereotypes of wealth and elitism, so students may present themselves differently in different social situations, she said.

Some might say, “ ‘I go to school in New Jersey,’ but that, too, carries negative stereotypes,” she noted. “So you could get people saying, ‘I go to school outside New York.’ ”