iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Arno Van Hootegem 🌱 @arnovanhootegem.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Companies are now selling genetic testing on IVF-created embryos to select ‘your best baby’. We argue that this presents a new source of pressure for parents and will widen reproductive inequalities! In @nathumbehav.nature.com with @gaiaghirardi.bsky.social and @kph3k.bsky.social!

nature.com

Embryo screening and the new reproductive divide

Nature Human Behaviour - Embryo screening and the new reproductive divide

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Arno Van Hootegem 🌱 @arnovanhootegem.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

New preprint from my stay at @invest-flagship.bsky.social! 🧐 Do genes moderate earning declines following endogenous and exogenous job loss? 📉 Those with a higher PGI for depression experience a larger drop in earnings, but only for exogenous job loss 🧠 We discuss implications for GxE! 🧬

osf.io

OSF

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Ana Catalano Weeks @anacweeks.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

@annanhelgoy.bsky.social & I wrote about our recent article with Lou Timlin for @theconversation.com Our research shows that family-friendly policies such as remote working and care reimbursement increase women councillors' willingness to run for office again. theconversation.com/being-a-coun...

theconversation.com

Being a councillor is still a difficult career for women – why this matters for democracy

The fixes could be cheap and easy, though.

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Arno Van Hootegem 🌱 @arnovanhootegem.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Six years after publishing my first PhD article in Social Justice Research, I am now joining their editorial team as an associate editor 👨🏻‍💻 Can’t wait to be on the other side of ‘awaiting editorial decision’ 🫣

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Staffan Kumlin @staffankumlin.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Our project "Struggling Women and Men: Political-Democratic Gender Gaps in a High-trust Welfare State" is looking for a PhD fellow. www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

jobbnorge.no

PhD Research Fellowship in Political Science (3-4 years) (303073) | University of Oslo

Job title: PhD Research Fellowship in Political Science (3-4 years) (303073), Employer: University of Oslo, Deadline: Tuesday, September 1, 2026

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Arno Van Hootegem 🌱 @arnovanhootegem.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

How do people learn about equality of opportunity? 🤔 Through their own experiences, their family & friends and the media! 👯‍♂️ Individuals who experienced upward mobility and those who frequently watch reality TV perceive more equality. 📺 With @a-gugushvili.bsky.social as wonderful lead author!

journals.sagepub.com

What Are the Channels of Equality of Opportunity Perceptions in Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom? - Alexi Gugushvili, Arno Van Hootegem, 2026

Views on equality of opportunity influence perceptions of fairness and redistributive attitudes, and yet the sources associated with these views remain underexp...

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Arno Van Hootegem 🌱 @arnovanhootegem.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

So happy to have been part of this project! 😍 We show that parental divorce increases children’s risk of separation, but this intergenerational cycle of divorce is in part due to environmental and genetic confounding! 🙃 With the brilliant @rutheva.bsky.social and @torkildl.bsky.social! 🤓

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Kathryn Paige Harden @kph3k.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

reposting for the Monday crowd— This week in my newsletter I discussed the “Have your best baby” campaign by Nucleus Genomics as an example of what @gaiaghirardi.bsky.social and @arnovanhootegem.bsky.social have called “commodification on steroids” open.substack.com/pub/kathrynp...

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Fartein Ask Torvik @torvik.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

Who wants to join us in Oslo to study how health influences educational underperformance? We are hiring PhDs postdocs candidates for our funded project. We will follow children from birth to emerging adulthood, using behavioural genetic methods and large datasets 945000.webcruiter.no/Main/Recruit...

945000.webcruiter.no

Two positions as either PhD or postdoctoral fellow on health determinants of education

Do you want to research how health influences school performance and leads to intergenerational inequality? We have two vacant 3-year positions as a PhD fellow or postdoctoral research fellow in the p...

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Maria L. Andersen @mlandersen.com · 20/11/2025

New preprint📈📉 What happens to health and work when people become grandparents? Using Norwegian register data on all individuals born 1950-1960, we use event-study models comparing grandparents to not-yet grandparents to track changes in health and labour supply. 🔗 www.ssrn.com/abstract=571...

Figure showing event-study plots centred around the birth of one's first grandchild. The left plot shows health changes, the right shows labour market changes (separated by grandparent gender).

The image shows the following abstract:

The Cost of Caring: Gendered Health and Labour Market Effects of Grandparenthood

While the effects of the transition to parenthood are well-researched, less is known about how the transition to grandparenthood affects health and labour market outcomes. Using comprehensive Norwegian register data covering the entire population born between 1950 and 1960, we examine the effects of first-born grandchildren born during 2007–2018. Employing event-study models with person-year records, we compare grandparents to not-yet grandparents. Our findings reveal a sharp increase in the likelihood of respiratory infections during the first two years of grandparenthood, with infections increasing by 56% for women and 31% for men. Additionally, grandparenthood modestly reduces the likelihood of doctor’s visits related to mental disorders (4.5%) and cardiovascular health (3.3%). Grandmothers also see a decline in musculoskeletal-related visits (3.8%). These health-related changes coincide with notable gendered effects on labour market participation. Ten years after the birth of their first grandchild, employed women are 12% less likely to hold full-time positions compared to a 2% reduction for men. Overall, our findings demonstrate that the transition to grandparenthood significantly reshapes health and economic outcomes for both women and men. The larger effects observed for women likely reflect their greater involvement in informal childcare provision. Our results underscore the intersection of health, family dynamics, and gendered labour market behaviours in late adulthood.

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Arno Van Hootegem 🌱 @arnovanhootegem.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

There’s a new kid in town! Companies are now selling IVF and embryo selection based on genetic testing for traits related to health and even intelligence. We outline methodological and ethical concerns, and warn against risks for social inequality. With the fantastic @gaiaghirardi.bsky.social

fertstert.org

Embryo selection based on polygenic prediction risks reinforcing social inequality

The rise of companies offering embryo selection based on genetic testing has triggered heated debate about ethical acceptability, as well as the accuracy and scientific validity of these techniques. W...

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Rosa Cheesman @rosacheesman.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

Interdisciplinary paper with @paulhufe.net Astrid Sandsør and Nicolai Borgen now out in PNAS! www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.... Causal evidence of gene-environment interaction for reading test scores based on: 🧬 Exogenous within-family genetic differences 🏫 Exogenous variation in school value added

pnas.org

The genetic lottery goes to school: Better schools compensate for the effects of students’ genetic differences

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Arno Van Hootegem 🌱 @arnovanhootegem.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

How much of the intergenerational transmission of SES is due to social factors? To answer this, shared 🧬 between parents and children need to be considered. In our new study, we use two designs to account for genetic confounding. We find that roughly 20 percent is due to social factors!

academic.oup.com

Social origins and socioeconomic outcomes: a combined twin and adoption study

Abstract. Parents and children tend to have similar socioeconomic status (SES). Sociological theory has often emphasized the role of social mechanisms in i

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Perline Demange @perlinedemange.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

In Oslo? We still have some seats left for our conference on Social Science and Genetics on the 12-13th June! More info and registration: www.sv.uio.no/psi/english/... @uio.no

sv.uio.no

Genetics and Social Sciences Conference 2025 - Department of Psychology

Genetics and Social Sciences Conference 12–13th June 2025

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Irene Teulings @ireneteulings.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

New preprint out on the link between gratitude and wellbeing: who benefits most and under what circumstances? Across four studies with 220,314 individuals from 67 countries, we investigated whether individual, contextual, or cultural differences moderated this relationship. osf.io/preprints/ps...

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Gaia Ghirardi @gaiaghirardi.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

New pub (w/ @fabriberna.bsky.social) highlighting how family socioeconomic background plays a key role in shaping genetic associations: advantaged families both compensate for and amplify their children’s genetic propensities for education doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103174 👇🧵

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Arno Van Hootegem 🌱 @arnovanhootegem.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

The times they are A-changin’! Today marks the end of my time as a postdoc at @uio.no! Enjoyed working on social science genetics with @torkildl.bsky.social! On to a postdoc at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health to work on inequalities in mental health with @jowoern.bsky.social!

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Arno Van Hootegem 🌱 @arnovanhootegem.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

New article out by these two fantastic scholars! 👏 They find that the mental load is highly gendered and erodes labour market and political participation. Give it a read! 🙌

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Ruth Eva Jørgensen @rutheva.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

My firstborn PhD paper is out 🎉 with @rosacheesman.bsky.social @torkildl.bsky.social and Ole Andreassen. Higher genetic dispositions for EA and sociodemographic factors decrease the risk of partnership dissolution, while dispositions for internalizing symptoms and risk behavior increase the risk 💔

soc.de

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Arno Van Hootegem 🌱 @arnovanhootegem.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

There is a new study showing that women are substantially underrepresented in tenured positions (with country and field variation). At the same time we know that women do more academic service work and take up a disproportional amount of household labour. So higher burdens, less reward 👎👎👎👎

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Arno Van Hootegem 🌱 @arnovanhootegem.bsky.social · 17/02/2024

An acceptance feels extra nice when co-authored with your partner and best friend! Stay tuned for our paper on formative experiences and perceptions of system abuse, soon in EJPR! This is a new level of assortative mating/friendship. @annanhelgoy.bsky.social @miroslavnemcok.bsky.social

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Anna Helgøy @annanhelgoy.bsky.social · 07/02/2024

Super excited to see my first PhD paper published! It looks into the welfare attitudes of part-time workers, and finds that through their experience of financial partner dependency, they prefer optional familialism in family policy. It’s open access! Here: academic.oup.com/sp/advance-a...

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Miroslav Nemčok @miroslavnemcok.bsky.social · 24/01/2024

1/ Curious about the influence of public services on political distrust and populist support? Check out our latest article in Public Management Review featuring @arnovanhootegem.bsky.social and @staffankumlin.bsky.social , all from UiOslo doi.org/10.1080/1471... plsky polisky policysky

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Jan Heisig @jpheisig.bsky.social · 11/01/2024

🚨JOB ALERT 🚨 We're hiring 3 postdocs for the new Einstein Center Population Diversity. Work with a fantastic team of social scientists and biomedical researchers in the city of Berlin! Details: bit.ly/3RX0GpZ Apply by Feb 7 & dm or email for questions.

bit.ly

3 Postdoctoral Research Fellows (f/m/x) / ID 242

The research units Skill Formation and Labor Markets (Director: Professor Heike Solga) and Health and Inequality (Head: Professor Jan Paul Heisig) at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center (WZB) are...

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Arno Van Hootegem 🌱 @arnovanhootegem.bsky.social · 18/12/2023

Two weeks left to apply! Organized with @rutheva.bsky.social @gaiaghirardi.bsky.social, Torkild Lyngstad and Karri Silventoinen. We will have presentations by Gregory Clark, Evelina Akimova and @fctropf.bsky.social! So apply to join this exciting group in Oslo. Accommodation and food are covered!

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Arno Van Hootegem 🌱 @arnovanhootegem.bsky.social · 17/11/2023

I am visiting in spring and I am very excited about it! It’s is a great opportunity, so apply for next autumn!

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Jani Erola @janierola.net · 27/10/2023

Our working paper ”Genes and Equality of Opportunity: Lessons from a highly egalitarian country” now available in SocArXiv. Joint work with @tibaier.bsky.social and Hannu Lehti that has been cooking for a very long time… #sociology #demography @invest-flagship.bsky.social osf.io/preprints/so...

osf.io

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Arno Van Hootegem 🌱 @arnovanhootegem.bsky.social · 18/10/2023

Did educational expansion make cognitive ability more predictive of attainment? Meritocratic logics would suggest so. Our results reveal the opposite pattern: a decoupling between ability and education over birth cohorts! Out now in Scientific Reports! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Wim Van Lancker @wimvanlancker.be · 11/10/2023

Are you an early career researcher working on social policy and/or social work related issues within #sociology? Apply for the Jos Berghman welfare studies stipend and come join our team at KU Leuven in Belgium for a three month research stay. All details here 👉 www.spsw.be

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Rense Nieuwenhuis @rnieuwenhuis.bsky.social · 05/10/2023

We are hiring a Postdoc in sociology at SOFI! The postdoc will focus on the conditions under which parenting leaves either promote working-life inclusion, or exclusion – with attention to policy interplay. The position is part of our "sustainable synergies" program. www.su.se/english/abou...

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