Michael Hout

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Michael Hout (born May 14, 1950) is an American sociologist and a professor at New York University. He has also taught at the University of Arizona and the University of California, Berkeley. Hout studies social inequality, religion, and politics, using large surveys and census data. A major focus of his work is social mobility—how education, class, race, and gender affect people’s life chances—and how long‑term trends shape political and social life.

Education and career
Hout grew up in Pittsburgh. He earned a BA in sociology and history from the University of Pittsburgh in 1972, then went to Indiana University Bloomington, where he earned an MA (1973) and a PhD in sociology (1976) under Phillips Cutright. He began as an assistant professor at the University of Arizona in 1976, became an associate professor at UC Berkeley in 1985, and was a visiting professor at University College Dublin in 1991. He stayed at Berkeley until 2013, when he moved to New York University to become a professor and director of its Center for Advanced Social Science Research.

He has led important projects like the General Social Survey (GSS) and the American Opportunity Study. He has served on the board of the Societal Expert Action Network (SEAN) and helped develop social science methods that support policy and public health research. He and his colleagues also worked on digitizing occupational data so researchers could study long‑term trends with a consistent coding system.

Key ideas and contributions
Hout is known for using careful statistical methods to study how people move up or stay stuck in the social ladder. He has shown how education affects mobility and how changing job structures and social class shape opportunities across generations. His work on Ireland’s education system, for example, showed that simply expanding education does not automatically reduce inequality; economic and cultural factors also matter.

Notable books and articles
- Inequality by Design: Cracking the Bell Curve Myth (1996) argues that while intelligence is only one piece of the puzzle, rising inequality is driven by social and educational factors, not just genetics.
- Century of Difference (with Claude S. Fischer) describes how American public opinion and social life changed over the 20th century.
- The Truth about Conservative Christians (with Andrew Greeley) examines the beliefs, politics, and diversity within conservative Christian groups.
- Maximally Maintained Inequality: Expansion, Reform, and Opportunity in Irish Education, 1921–75 looks at how educational expansion can leave class differences intact.
- Following in Father’s Footsteps and others explore how family background and education interact to shape mobility.

Awards and honors
Hout has been elected to several prestigious bodies: the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1997), the National Academy of Sciences (2003), the American Philosophical Society (2006), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2021). He has received several major awards from sociological associations, including the Robert M. Hauser Distinguished Scholar Award (2018), the Otis Dudley Duncan Award (2007), and the Clifford C. Clogg Memorial Award (1996). In 2016, University College Dublin awarded him an honorary Doctor of Letters.

Personal
Hout’s early life in Pittsburgh shaped his interest in how family, education, and community affect opportunity. He was influenced by mentors like David Montgomery and Brian Vargus during his time at Pitt. He continues to advance sociological methods and policy‑relevant research through his work at NYU and beyond.