Chapter 18 Quiz: Born Lucky? The Sociology of Structural Advantage

15 questions. Read each question carefully before checking the answer.

Question 1. Which of the following best describes Pierre Bourdieu's concept of "social capital"?

A) Money and financial assets held by individuals B) The aggregate of actual or potential resources linked to a network of institutionalized relationships C) Educational credentials and degrees D) The prestige and recognition that converts other forms of capital into social power

Show Answer **B — The aggregate of actual or potential resources linked to a network of institutionalized relationships.** Social capital is specifically about who you know and who will do something on your behalf. Economic capital (A) is money and financial assets. Institutionalized cultural capital is about credentials (C). Symbolic capital (D) describes the prestige that legitimates other forms of capital.

Question 2. The "Great Gatsby Curve" refers to which empirical finding?

A) Wealthy people are happier than poor people at a rate proportional to their wealth B) Countries with higher income inequality tend to have lower intergenerational mobility C) Social mobility in the United States peaked during the Gilded Age D) Literary representations of class predict actual class outcomes in the population

Show Answer **B — Countries with higher income inequality tend to have lower intergenerational mobility.** Miles Corak's research, visualized as the Great Gatsby Curve by Alan Krueger, shows this correlation: greater inequality predicts less mobility. The US and UK are at the high-inequality, low-mobility end; Scandinavian countries are at the opposite end.

Question 3. Which of the following is an example of "embodied cultural capital" in Bourdieu's framework?

A) A law degree from an elite university B) An inherited stock portfolio C) The conversational style, body language, and professional vocabulary absorbed from growing up around professionals D) Membership in an exclusive social club

Show Answer **C — The conversational style, body language, and professional vocabulary absorbed from growing up around professionals.** Embodied cultural capital is the habitus — unconsciously absorbed dispositions, mannerisms, and ways of presenting oneself. A law degree is institutionalized cultural capital (A). An inherited portfolio is economic capital (B). Club membership is social capital converted into symbolic recognition (D).

Question 4. What is the key finding of Bertrand and Mullainathan's 2004 audit study?

A) Hiring managers who read resumes carefully are less biased than those who skim B) Resumes with white-sounding names received approximately 50% more callbacks than identical resumes with Black-sounding names C) Black applicants with higher GPAs received equal callbacks to white applicants with lower GPAs D) Implicit bias training eliminated name-based discrimination in experimental conditions

Show Answer **B — Resumes with white-sounding names received approximately 50% more callbacks than identical resumes with Black-sounding names.** The study controlled for resume quality by randomly assigning names to equivalent resumes, and found a stark 50% callback gap. The "return on quality" (extra callbacks for better resumes) was also higher for white-sounding names.

Question 5. The chapter identifies "meritocracy" as having two components that are frequently conflated. What are they?

A) Economic meritocracy and cultural meritocracy B) Meritocracy as aspiration (moral ideal) and meritocracy as description (empirical claim) C) Individual meritocracy and institutional meritocracy D) Formal meritocracy and informal meritocracy

Show Answer **B — Meritocracy as aspiration (moral ideal) and meritocracy as description (empirical claim).** The chapter argues that meritocracy as an aspiration (rewards should go to talent and effort) is a reasonable ideal, but meritocracy as a description (rewards actually do go to talent and effort) is an empirical claim that the evidence substantially undermines.

Question 6. According to Branko Milanovic's research on the "citizenship premium," what fraction of global income variation is explained by country of birth and parental social class?

A) Approximately 10–20% B) Approximately 30–40% C) Approximately 50–60% D) Approximately 70–80%

Show Answer **C — Approximately 50–60%.** Milanovic's research found that roughly 50–60% of income variation globally can be explained by the country and social class you were born into — before any individual characteristics are considered. This is the "citizenship premium."

Question 7. What is the difference between "bonding capital" and "bridging capital" in Putnam's framework?

A) Bonding capital is financial; bridging capital is social B) Bonding capital is within-group, tight connections; bridging capital is cross-group, weaker connections C) Bonding capital is inherited; bridging capital is earned D) Bonding capital applies to work; bridging capital applies to personal life

Show Answer **B — Bonding capital is within-group, tight connections; bridging capital is cross-group, weaker connections.** Robert Putnam distinguishes bonding capital (tight, high-trust within-group ties that provide emotional support and safety nets) from bridging capital (cross-group connections that provide novel information and access to different networks). Priya had rich bonding capital but thinner bridging capital.

Question 8. Daniel Markovits argues in "The Meritocracy Trap" that:

A) Meritocracy is a fiction invented by the wealthy to justify unequal outcomes B) Even if meritocracy's ideals are accepted, its practice is self-defeating because the inputs to merit (education, preparation) are themselves class-determined C) Meritocracy functions well in education but fails in the labor market D) Meritocracy worked in the mid-20th century but became corrupted by globalization

Show Answer **B — Even if meritocracy's ideals are accepted, its practice is self-defeating because the inputs to merit are themselves class-determined.** Markovits's argument is that wealthy parents invest heavily in making their children meritocratically competitive — test prep, tutoring, elite activities — so the competition itself is class-structured. The credential reflects cultivated ability, not naked talent, and cultivation is expensive.

Question 9. John Rawls' "veil of ignorance" thought experiment is introduced in the chapter primarily to:

A) Argue that justice requires equal outcomes B) Illustrate what constitutive luck means — the luck of being who you are before doing anything C) Criticize capitalism on moral grounds D) Explain why meritocracy is impossible to achieve

Show Answer **B — Illustrate what constitutive luck means — the luck of being who you are before doing anything.** The veil of ignorance thought experiment (imagining you don't know who you'll be born as) is used in the chapter to illuminate constitutive luck — the fact that who we are born as, and into what circumstances, is entirely outside our control. Rawls used it for different philosophical purposes (designing just institutions).

Question 10. The chapter's central recurring theme, introduced here for the first time, is:

A) "Luck is not a force. It's an outcome." B) "The prepared mind doesn't wait for luck — it becomes a magnet for it." C) "Structural luck shapes the game; personal action plays the hand." D) "Lucky people are distinguished by what they do, not who they are."

Show Answer **C — "Structural luck shapes the game; personal action plays the hand."** This formulation, introduced in Chapter 18, is the central theme of Part 4. It captures the relationship between structural forces (which determine the board) and individual agency (which plays the hand). Options A and B are recurring phrases from earlier chapters.

Question 11. "Intersectionality" as applied to structural luck means:

A) The fact that all people experience both advantages and disadvantages B) Multiple systems of structural disadvantage interact multiplicatively, not additively C) Individual luck and structural luck intersect at specific life moments D) People at the intersection of multiple identities are more resilient than those with a single identity

Show Answer **B — Multiple systems of structural disadvantage interact multiplicatively, not additively.** Kimberlé Crenshaw's concept of intersectionality describes how multiple forms of structural disadvantage (race, gender, class, etc.) don't simply add together but interact to create compound effects more severe than any single factor predicts.

Question 12. "Symbolic capital" in Bourdieu's framework refers to:

A) Artistic and cultural achievements that carry symbolic meaning B) Prestige and recognition that converts other forms of capital into social power C) The symbolic value of educational credentials D) Social media followings and digital reputation

Show Answer **B — Prestige and recognition that converts other forms of capital into social power.** Symbolic capital is the overarching form that legitimates the others. It is the recognition and prestige that makes other advantages "count." Without symbolic capital, wealth becomes "nouveau riche," education becomes "not from the right school," and so on.

Question 13. Michael Sandel's concept of "meritocratic hubris" refers to:

A) The tendency of meritocratic systems to overestimate the importance of cognitive ability B) The psychological condition in which successful people believe they fully deserve their success and develop contempt for those who "fail" C) The overconfidence that leads entrepreneurs to take excessive risks in pursuit of merit D) The institutional arrogance of elite universities in setting academic standards

Show Answer **B — The psychological condition in which successful people believe they fully deserve their success and develop contempt for those who "fail."** Sandel argues in "The Tyranny of Merit" that even a functioning meritocracy produces a corrosive social psychology: winners feel they deserve everything they have, losers feel they deserve their failure, and the result is contempt flowing downward and self-blame flowing upward.

Question 14. Which statement best represents the chapter's position on structural luck and personal agency?

A) Structural luck is so powerful that individual agency has minimal effect on outcomes B) Individual agency is sufficient to overcome any structural disadvantage with sufficient effort C) Structural luck and personal agency both matter and interact — structure shapes the game, agency plays the hand D) Structural luck matters primarily for people born into poverty; agency matters primarily for people born into wealth

Show Answer **C — Structural luck and personal agency both matter and interact — structure shapes the game, agency plays the hand.** The chapter explicitly rejects both extreme positions: pure structural determinism (A) and pure agentive voluntarism (B). The correct framing is an interaction model in which both structural position and individual behavior shift probabilities, with their relative contributions varying by context.

Question 15. "Social closure" refers to:

A) The process by which social groups maintain exclusivity by limiting access to resources and opportunities B) The psychological tendency to close off new social relationships after forming stable ones C) The end of a social network's growth phase D) The formal exclusion of members from social institutions based on legal criteria

Show Answer **A — The process by which social groups maintain exclusivity by limiting access to resources and opportunities.** Social closure doesn't require active malice. It occurs naturally when people use their networks — referring friends' children, connecting colleagues, mentioning people they know personally — in ways that systematically favor people who are already in the network over those who are not.