RATIONAL-CHOICE THEORIES OF ANTICIPATORY SOCIALIZATION AND ANTICIPATORY NON-SOCIALIZATION

Abstract

This paper illuminates from a rational-choice perspective socialization as purposive commitment to certain patterns of social behavior. In particular, the paper provides from this perspective new theoretical insights into the Mertonian concept of anticipatory socialization, the concept of relative deprivation that Stouffer et al. introduced and Merton and Rossi elaborated, and a new related concept, anticipatory non-socialization. Using binary choice models, this paper clarifies for each of the three concepts, how interdependence of actions emerges and leads to different social consequences under different structural constraints on the possible consequences of actions and different initial conditions of population inequality/heterogeneity. Various unintended consequences of purposive action under such interdependence are deduced, some already known from empirical research, others presented as hypotheses to be tested in the future—several are paradoxical. This analysis of a set of interrelated social phenomena and a coherent set of choice models thus shows how the rational-choice perspective, not previously applied to anticipatory socialization and anticipatory non-socialization, can be a fruitful source of new insights about these phenomena.