The OPENFLUX project uses genetic data and methods to study how our social surroundings shape our opportunities and life choices—in short, how important are genetics, families, and environments in determining life outcomes. Important research on equality of opportunity, educational expansion, changing family structures, and the transmission of advantage between generations all motivate a role for genetics. Rather than treating genetic methods as silent on context, the project turns this criticism into a tool by studying how genetic effects vary across societies, time periods, and institutions.
These questions matter for policy. Whether inequality is driven by inherited differences or by social circumstances shapes what interventions can work—from widening educational access to reducing poverty across generations.
The project has three objectives. The first is to examine whether societies have become more open over time, as theory suggests that inherited differences matter more when opportunity structures expand or social norms are unsettled. Results show limited overall support for this idea, but with a clear exception for women: as barriers to women's advancement fell across birth cohorts, social background influences on their educational and income outcomes declined, while men's showed little change.
The second objective is to examine the balance between genetic and environmental influences on life outcomes. For most outcomes, the environment shared by siblings within a family proved less important than sociological theory predicts. The clearest exception is parental divorce, where family disruption reduces the degree to which children can realise their inherited potential.
The third objective is to examine what parents transmit to children beyond their DNA. A key finding is that the indirect influence of parents' genes on children's outcomes reflects multigenerational social inequality across extended family networks, not simply parenting processes inside the household. Social origins also have genuine independent effects on adult outcomes.
Taken together, the results show that genetic methods can directly test social theories about inequality and opportunity, and that context—gender equality, family structure, institutional setting—consistently shapes whether inherited differences translate into outcomes.
