Why More Equal Societies Do Better
Authors to discuss groundbreaking book at Northwestern

In The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger, epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett address an important idea—how social inequality in nations around the world accounts for almost every modern social ill, affecting rich and poor alike.

The authors will discuss their book, recently published in the United States, at a January 12 event organized by Cells to Society (C2S): The Center on Social Disparities and Health at the Institute for Policy Research (IPR) and the Department of Medical Social Sciences (MSS) in the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. The talk will take place on Tuesday, January 12, from 4:00 to 5:15 p.m. at Hardin Hall in the Rebecca Crown Center, 633 Clark Street, on the University’s Evanston Campus. It is free and open to the public.

In their talk, Wilkinson and Pickett will address the trends they found and offer suggestions for shifting to a more sustainable—and ultimately, more just—society. Using data from about 200 different sources, including the United Nations, World Bank, World Health Organization and U.S. Census, the authors chart the effects of inequality in the world’s 50 richest countries, in addition to disparities between U.S. states. They find inequality to be the common factor behind a range of problems, including illiteracy, stress, teen pregnancy, and high crime rates. Furthermore, they find more unequal societies are bad for almost everyone within them—the well-off and the poor.

“By applying a population-based perspective to their analysis of inequality, Wilkinson and Pickett provide a compelling, global perspective on the harmful implications of health disparities,” said Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, director of C2S, an IPR faculty fellow, and professor of human development and social policy.  

Wilkinson and Pickett are also co-founders of The Equality Trust, a London-based nonprofit that promotes the principles of their book. Professor David Cella, chair of MSS and an IPR faculty associate noted that this association creates a "bridge to carry their research findings from a not-for-profit enterprise to the public by promoting strategies to reduce health disparities. It also exemplifies the C2S/IPR and MSS joint mission of rapidly translating science into policy and application."

The Spirit Level is the culmination of 30 years of research and more than a dozen papers co-authored by Wilkinson and Pickett. An Amazon best seller in the United Kingdom, the book was short-listed for Research Project of the Year by Times Higher Education and selected as one of the top 10 books of the decade by the New Statesman.

About Drs. Wilkinson and Pickett
Richard Wilkinson is professor emeritus of medical epidemiology at the University of Nottingham Medical School and honorary professor at University College London. He has played a formative role in international research into the impact of social inequality on health. Wilkinson holds a master’s from the University of Pennsylvania.

Kate Pickett is professor of epidemiology at the University of York and a U.K. National Institute for Health Research Career Scientist. She has written extensively on social inequalities, the health of women and children, and epidemiological methods. She holds a master’s in nutritional sciences from Cornell University and a PhD in epidemiology from the University of California, Berkeley.

For more information about the event, contact Patricia Lasley at c2s@northwestern.edu or 847-467-6905.