Mike Hout

My research uses demographic methods to study social change in inequality, religion, and politics mostly in the USA and Europe, but occasionally in other countries. For much of my career, I have been involved with the General Social Survey (GSS), a long-running NSF project. My current work uses the GSS to study changing occupational hierarchies and social mobility and long-term trends associated with political polarization . 

I am on the Board of the Societal Expert Action Network (SEAN), sponsored by the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education (DBASSE) at the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine. SEAN is now focused on NASEM’s Climate Change Crossroads and the opioid crisis. During Covid, our focus was the application of behavioral and social science knowledge to fighting the pandemic. We issued a number of Rapid Expert Consultations advising the nation on how social science evidence could contribute to social policies and public health. Click on the link below to read more:

https://www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/societal-experts-action-network