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This did not occur before I started my PhD. It does not occur when I simply say I’m a graduate student. I only say this when people ask what I do as a living (I do not namedrop this).

This tends to occur when I vocalize a strong opinion or disagree with another person’s viewpoint. They might say "not everyone has a PhD like you".

Ever since I started my PhD some people keep pinning certain behaviors on me because I'm a PhD student, and therefore I must somehow be arrogant/entitled etc.

To be clear, this has only happened a very small number of times, so I suspect it is not because of my behavior.

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    Because those people are dumber than you. They are jealous of your intelligence and talents. – SmallChess Mar 24 '17 at 09:57
  • I have had this experience, and it continues even after the PhD completion - I ignore it. It is possibly a sign of them expressing their own inadequacies. –  Mar 24 '17 at 10:06
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    That's what I call the anti-Nitschean sylogism. Short version: I don't know what I am talking about, hence I am right. Long version: I don't know what I am talking about. The natural reply would be "I noticed that". But that would be rude, so you are forced to lie "yeah, me neither". Now not only your advantage in knowledge vanished, but the other person has moral superiority: he admitted that he has no knowledge, while you did not confess to the same crime. – Jan-Christoph Schlage-Puchta Mar 24 '17 at 10:09
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    Real life examples are "I am not a climate scientist, but...", "You as a physician should know that [some quackery] works", "We did not have/We had to do ... , and it did not do us any harm". – Jan-Christoph Schlage-Puchta Mar 24 '17 at 10:12
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    @Jan-ChristophSchlage-Puchta: I seem to be missing something. How is your comment related to this question? – O. R. Mapper Mar 24 '17 at 10:24
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    Since it's only happened "a very small number of times", it's probably got little to do with academia. Some people respond to disagreement with personal attacks, and in that case they'll seize on whatever is to hand for the personal attack. If you were a fishmonger rather than a PhD student, those same people would have responded with "What would you know, you're just a fishmonger?". – Pont Mar 24 '17 at 10:33
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    @O.R.Mapper: What I mean is that the OP's problem has nothing to do with the OP, nor with having a Ph.D., but is the consequence of a general dirty method to win an argument. Since it works, people use it. If someone who knows more than me contradicts me, I accuse them for knowing more then me. And they won't even think I am stupid, but, like the OP, question themselves. Have I been rude? Have I been arrogant? are more common questions then Was everything I said logically sound? – Jan-Christoph Schlage-Puchta Mar 24 '17 at 10:46
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    If people attack you for something that you are rather something that you do, it's saying more about them than about you. And yes, you are being attacked for "being a PhD student" rather than what you do ("studying"). Stay away from them if you can. Also, recommended reading is Feynman's experience as a young professor at Cornell. – Captain Emacs Mar 24 '17 at 11:47
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is an expression of frustration phrased as rhetorical question rather than a real question. – henning Mar 24 '17 at 14:03
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    Voted to reopen, because the OP has described a real problem (at least in the U.S.). – aparente001 Mar 25 '17 at 00:36

1 Answers1

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This did not occur before I started my PhD. It does not occur when I simply say I’m a graduate student. I only say this when people ask what I do as a living (I do not namedrop this).

As others have commented already, it may just be that one meets nasty people every once in a while. However, it could also be a sign that people perceive you as giving yourself airs - e.g. because you [even unconsciously] put an emphasis on the PhD student rather than on your profession.

Side note: Personally, when people ask me what I do for my living, I say "I'm a chemist" (not PhD, nor postdoc - nor did I answer "PhD student"). People around me answer either by "I'm a PhD student at university/institute/in field" or by "profession" or by "profession and currently working on my PhD thesis", and what they answer is quite context dependent: meeting people outside academia, it tends to be "profession".

Assume you meet a carpenter who is journeyman (= holds a qualification to work in that profession). Consider them answering "I'm journeyman" vs. "I'm carpenter" or even "I'm pursuing my master [craftsman]". At least to me the journeyman answer would sound decidedly weird, and while "I'm working at my master's" sounds less weird in English than in my mother tongue (because we have different words for the crafts master and the academic master) the expected answer would certainly be "carpenter" unless you are in a context where most people are carpenters. You could also say that the expected type of answer is the one that carries most information.

I think the appropriate answer is quite culture-dependent (and culture being even within vs. outside academia).

This tends to occur when I vocalize a strong opinion or disagree with another person’s viewpoint. They might say "not everyone has a PhD like you".

Others have commented already that this may be an ad hominem attack (who you are rather than what your argument is worth) which tells more about the other than about you.
OTOH, it could also be that the others perceive you as trying to gain [unfairly] by putting weight on your being a PhD student and respond to this. (That would be the equivalent error from your side: again who you are rather than what arguments are worth).

aparente001
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