Life chances such additional factors as social mobility and social equality. Other factors include those related to one's socioeconomic status, such as gender, race, and ethnicity. While some of those factors, like age, race or gender, are random, Weber stressed the link between life chances and the non-random elements of the three-component theory of stratification – how social class, social status and political affiliation affect each individual's life. In other words, individuals in certain groups have in common a specific causal component of their life chances: they are in similar situation, which tends to imply a similar outcome to their actions. Weber
Life chances be since life chances and social class go hand in hand and both reinforce each other. According to Weber this is because life chances are largely determined by economic factors such as social class. The phenomenon of how you perceive things actually affecting the tangible outcomes of life chances is explained by Robert K. Merton's theory of "self fulfilling prophecy" which he discusses in his book Social Theory and Social Structure. Essentially what it means is that individuals can tell themselves something like, "I'm lower class, my family has always been lower class, there's no chance I'm ever going to