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Social Mobility and Psychometric Variation in a Group of Oxfordshire Villages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

J. B. Gibson
Affiliation:
Department of Population Biology, Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra
G. A. Harrison
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Anthropology
R. W. Hiorns
Affiliation:
Department of Biomathematics, University of Oxford
H. M. Macbeth
Affiliation:
Department of Social Studies, Oxford Polytechnic

Summary

The patterns of male social mobility among the contemporary populations of Otmoor are described in terms of both intra- and inter-generational mobility. The social classes are differentiated by IQ and it is shown that sons' IQ is more highly correlated with their class, after their social mobility than before it. In 85 father-son pairs the number of steps sons moved in the social scale is positively related to the magnitude of the difference between their IQ and that of their fathers. However, the relationship between social mobility and IQ appears to be entirely confined to non-locally born subjects and the social mobility among the locals, although of comparable dimension is essentially non-meritocratic. These findings are discussed in relation to the structure of the Otmoor populations and particularly the phenomenon of selective out-migration.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1983, Cambridge University Press

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