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Measuring Memberships in Collectives in Light of Developments in Cognitive Science and Natural-Language Processing

By on December 16, 2022 in Articles

Michael T. Hannan

Sociological Science December 16, 2022
10.15195/v9.a19

Abstract

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Which individuals and corporate actors belong in a collective, and who decides? Sociology has not had good analytical tools for addressing these questions. Recent work that adapts probabilistic representations of concepts and probabilistic categorization to sociological research opens opportunities for making progress on the measurement of memberships. It turns out that the probabilistic cognitive-based reformulation reveals unexpected connections to language models and natural-language processing. In particular, the leading probabilistic classifier BERT provides new and powerful ways to measure core concepts.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Michael T. Hannan: Graduate School of Business, Stanford University
E-mail: hannan@stanford.edu

Acknowledgments: I have drawn liberally from joint work with Glenn Carroll, Greta Hsu, Balázs Kovács, Gaël Le Mens, Giacomo Negro, Lászlo Pólos, Elizabeth Pontikes, and Amanda Sharkey. I thank them and Susan Olzak for their comments. They are not, of course, responsible for how I use their work here.

  • Citation: Hannan, Michael T. 2022. “Measuring Memberships in Collectives in Light of Developments in Cognitive Science and Natural-Language Processing.” Sociological Science 9:473-492.
  • Received: August 8, 2022
  • Accepted: September 28, 2022
  • Editors: Ari Adut, Ray Reagans
  • DOI: 10.15195/v9.a19


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Racially Distinctive Names Signal Both Race/Ethnicity and Social Class

By on December 12, 2022 in Articles

Charles Crabtree, S. Michael Gaddis, John B. Holbein, Edvard Nergård Larsen

Sociological Science December 12, 2022
10.15195/v9.a18

Abstract

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Researchers studying discrimination and bias frequently conduct experiments that use racially distinctive names to signal race or ethnicity. The evidence that these studies provide about racial discrimination depends on the assumption that the names researchers use differ only based on perceived race and not some other factor. In this article, we assess this common assumption using data from five different studies (n = 1,004; 2,002; 1,035; 5,631; 1,858) conducted at different times across four separate survey platforms (Lucid Marketplace, Lucid Theorem, MTurk, and Prolific). We find evidence that names commonly used to signal race/ethnicity also influence perceptions about socioeconomic status and social class. Specifically, we observe that Americans tend to think that individuals with names typically used by Black and Hispanic people have lower educational attainment and income and are of a lower social class. Even when we present respondents with the educational attainment of a named individual, respondents still perceive Black people as lower social class than White people. We discuss the implications of these findings for past and future experimental work that uses names to signal race. We also articulate the importance of choosing names that best approximate the quantity that scholars want to estimate.
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Charles Crabtree: Department of Government, Dartmouth College
E-mail: crabtree@dartmouth.edu; URL: charlescrabtree.com

S. Michael Gaddis: Senior Research Scientist, NWEA; Department of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles; and California Center for Population Research
E-mail: mgaddis@soc.ucla.edu; URL: stevenmichaelgaddis.com

John B. Holbein: Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, University of Virginia
E-mail: holbein@virginia.edu; URL: sites.google.com/site/johnbholbein/

Edvard Nergård Larsen: Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo
E-mail: e.n.larsen@sosgeo.uio.no; URL: sv.uio.no/iss/english/people/aca/edvardnl

Acknowledgments: We thank the service workers and small businesses in San Francisco’s Mission District for the bountiful supply of burritos that provided fuel for the authors’ intense writing retreat that resulted in this article. We also thank NBA League Pass.

  • Citation: Crabtree, Charles, S. Michael Gaddis, John B. Holbein, and Edvard Nergård Larsen. 2022. “Racially Distinctive Names Signal Both Race/Ethnicity and Social Class.” Sociological Science 9: 454-472.
  • Received: December 4, 2021
  • Accepted: February 21, 2022
  • Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Jeremy Freese
  • DOI: 10.15195/v9.a18


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Perceived Social Exclusion and Loneliness: Two Distinct but Related Phenomena

By on October 24, 2022 in Articles

Oliver Huxhold, Bianca Suanet, Martin Wetzel

Sociological Science October 24, 2022
10.15195/v9.a17

Abstract

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Perceived social exclusion refers to the subjective feeling of not being part of the macrolevel society. Loneliness arises if existing social relationships at the micro level are either quantitatively or qualitatively perceived as deficient. Here, we conceptualize and empirically demonstrate that both experiences are distinct but related constructs and investigate how they interact over time. The data set consists of 6,002 community-dwelling adults 40 to 85 years of age living in Germany assessed at two time points in 2014 and in 2017. Structural equation modeling analyses revealed that perceived social exclusion and loneliness are highly correlated. They share risks factors (i.e., socioeconomic factors, opportunities for social participation, and social network characteristics) but display different patterns of associations. In addition, loneliness may over time induce feelings of social exclusion but not vice versa. Overall, our findings underline that people get strong cues about their worth in society from their social relationships.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Oliver Huxhold: German Centre of Gerontology, Berlin, Germany
E-mail: oliver.huxhold@dza.de1

Bianca Suanet: Faculty of Social Sciences, Sociology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands
E-mail: b.a.suanet@vu.nl

Martin Wetzel: Department of Sociology, Martin-Luther-Universität, Halle-Wittenberg, Germany
E-mail: martin.wetzel@soziologie.uni-halle.de

  • Citation: Huxhold, Oliver, Bianca Suanet, and Martin Wetzel. 2022. “Perceived Social Exclusion and Loneliness: Two Distinct but Related Phenomena.” Sociological Science 9: 430-453.
  • Received: July 13, 2022
  • Accepted: August 11, 2022
  • Editors: Ari Adut, Kristen Schilt
  • DOI: 10.15195/v9.a17


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Local Policing and the Educational Outcomes of Undocumented College Students

By on October 12, 2022 in Articles

Joscha Legewie, Amy Hsin, Niklas Harder, Linna Martén

Sociological Science October 12, 2022
10.15195/v9.a16

Abstract

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A growing literature examines the impact of immigration and law enforcement on undocumented immigrants and their communities, but these studies are limited by the lack of reliable data on documentation status and their focus on federal immigration enforcement. Leveraging administrative student data from the City University of New York (CUNY) that reliably identify about 13,000 undocumented students among more than 350,000 first-year students, this article examines whether local policing practices that do not ostensibly target undocumented immigrants can affect the educational outcomes of undocumented young adults. Focusing on police stops around university campuses under the New York City Police Department’s Stop, Question, and Frisk program, our findings show a substantial negative effect of police stops around campus on course credits for undocumented men but no impact on GPA or on the likelihood of receiving zero credits in the following term (stop-out). The negative effect is larger for Black and South Asian undocumented young men, groups that experience heightened surveillance by the local police. In contrast, campus police stops have little effect on documented students or undocumented women. The results illustrate how local policing practices, even in so-called sanctuary cities, can have chilling effects on undocumented groups with important implications for the links between the criminal justice system, immigration, and social inequality.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Joscha Legewie: Department of Sociology, Harvard University
E-mail: jlegewie@fas.harvard.edu

Amy Hsin: Department of Sociology, Queens College, CUNY
E-mail: hsin.amy@gmail.com

Niklas Harder: DeZIM Institute, Berlin; Immigration Policy Lab, Stanford University and ETH Zurich
E-mail: harder@dezim-institut.de

Linna Martén: Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University; Immigration Policy Lab, Stanford University and ETH Zurich
E-mail: linna.marten@sofi.su.se

Acknowledgments: This research was funded by the Russell Sage Foundation (RSF Grant# 1811-09308). Replication code is available at https://osf.io/w9yxh/.

Supplemental Material

  • Citation: Legewie, Joscha, Amy Hsin, Niklas Harder, and Linna Martén. 2022. “Local Policing and the Educational Outcomes of Undocumented College Students.” Sociological Science 9: 406-429.
  • Received: July 19, 2022
  • Accepted: August 11, 2022
  • Editors: Ari Adut, Maria Abascal
  • DOI: 10.15195/v9.a16


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Proto-Bureaucracies

By on September 12, 2022 in Articles

Monica Prasad

Sociological Science September 12, 2022
10.15195/v9.a15

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The emergence of bureaucracy is often described as occurring at a particular historical period in a society, as a result of the pressures of war, the improvement of communication and transportation technologies, or societywide cultural changes. But recently many scholars have drawn attention to examples of meritocratic bureaucracies in societies otherwise organized according to patrimonial logics, what I call proto-bureaucracies. In this article I investigate one aspect of proto-bureaucracies that has not been examined in the literature: in a society characterized by patrimonial relations, the sudden introduction of meritocratic principles of recruitment may be interpreted as violating the principles of rewarding loyalty or kinship. This can fragment the political coalitions necessary to sustain a proto-bureaucracy. I argue through in-depth examination of one case, and secondary analysis of several others, that to manage the problem of exclusion successful proto-bureaucracies enact performative adherence to nonmeritocratic logics while protecting their meritocratic core. I argue that understanding contemporary proto-bureaucracies can help to develop an organizational strategy for strengthening governance and reducing corruption. The main lesson of proto-bureaucracies is that effective institutions generate exclusion, but meritocratic practices can be sustained if the exclusions they generate can be addressed in other ways.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Monica Prasad: Department of Sociology and Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University
E-mail: m-prasad@northwestern.edu

Acknowledgments: For comments on earlier versions of this article I am grateful to Sam Cohn, Erin McDonnell, Michael Roll, audience members at the American Sociological Virtual Engagement Event of 2020, and especially Dinsha Mistree, whose fascinating dissertation inspired this research and who has been an enthusiastic supporter throughout the project. I am also particularly grateful to the two faculty members at the new IIT who hosted me and facilitated my research.

Supplemental Material

  • Citation: Prasad, Monica. 2022. “Proto-Bureaucracies.” Sociological Science 9: 374-405.
  • Received: May 30, 2022
  • Accepted: July 12, 2022
  • Editors: Ari Adut, Gabriel Rossman
  • DOI: 10.15195/v9.a15


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Pathways to Skin Color Stratification: The Role of Inherited (Dis)Advantage and Skin Color Discrimination in Labor Markets

By on August 29, 2022 in Articles

Maria Abascal, Denia Garcia

Sociological Science August 29, 2022
10.15195/v9.a14

Abstract

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Research has uncovered associations between skin color and myriad outcomes. What drives these associations? We develop a theoretical framework that synthesizes the multiple pathways linking skin color with life chances. Skin color stratification should be conceptualized in historical, structural terms: as the result of unequal treatment and inherited (dis)advantage, that is, unequal resources transmitted by families with different skin tones. We assess the role of two pathways— discrimination and inherited (dis)advantage—for Blacks’ and Latinos’ employment, earnings, and occupational prestige. We use the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1997, which includes a visual skin color measure; multiple indicators of family background; and a sibling subsample that allows us, using fixed-effects models, to recover the effect of skin color net of family background. First, we find that darker skin tone is associated with worse labor market outcomes. Indicators of family background account for 29 to 44 percent of skin color’s associations with employment, earnings, and occupational prestige. Second, using sibling fixed-effects models, we find that darker skin tone is associated with worse labor market outcomes, but these associations are not statistically significant. In sum, our findings suggest that we pay attention to the multiple pathways linking skin color with life chances.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Maria Abascal: Department of Sociology, New York University
E-mail: m.abascal@nyu.edu

Denia Garcia: La Follette School of Public Affairs, University of Wisconsin–Madison
E-mail: dgarcia28@wisc.edu

Acknowledgments: We thank Siyeona Chang for invaluable research assistance. We are grateful to Jason Fletcher, Mike Hout, Patricia McManus, Rourke O’Brien, Edward Telles, and members of the Center for Research on Race and Ethnicity in Society workshop at Indiana University, Bloomington for their feedback. Both authors contributed equally to this work. Direct correspondence to Maria Abascal, 295 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10027, m.abascal@nyu.edu, and Denia Garcia, 1225 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706, dgarcia28@wisc.edu.

Supplemental Material

  • Citation: Abascal, Maria, and Denia Garcia. 2022. “Pathways to Skin Color Stratification: The Role of Inherited (Dis)Advantage and Skin Color Discrimination in Labor Markets.” Sociological Science 9: 346-373.
  • Received: May 31, 2022
  • Accepted: July 13, 2022
  • Editors: Ari Adut, Filiz Garip
  • DOI: 10.15195/v9.a14


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Becoming an Ideologue: Social Sorting and the Microfoundations of Polarization

By on August 1, 2022 in Articles

Craig M. Rawlings

Sociological Science August 1, 2022
10.15195/v9.a13

Abstract

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This article elaborates and tests the hypothesis that the sociopolitical segregation of interpersonal networks (i.e., social sorting) is at the root of recent polarization trends in the United States. After reviewing recent trends, the article outlines the micro-level pathways through which social sorting along sociopolitical lines leads individuals to become more ideological in their identities and attitude structures. It then tests these pathways using panel data from the General Social Survey, which includes detailed measures of individuals’ social ties, ideological identification, and attitudes across a wide array of issues. Results show two dominant pathways through which more socially sorted individuals become more ideological: a short pathway directly linking social sorting to more extreme ideological identities, and a longer pathway linking social sorting to more extreme ideological identities through an increasingly ideological alignment of individuals’ attitude structures. The shorter pathway predominates among conservatives and the longer pathway among liberals. These micro-level pathways are shown to generalize to different macro-level polarization trends in identities and attitude structures for conservatives and liberals. Findings therefore uphold core sociological principles while providing stronger social-structural foundations for a growing body of mainly psychological research on ideological asymmetries.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Craig M. Rawlings: Department of Sociology, Duke University
E-mail: craig.rawlings@duke.edu

Acknowledgments: For helpful comments on earlier drafts, I thank Chris Bail and Clayton Childress. I am grateful for insights provided by several members of Duke University’s Worldview Lab, including Christopher Johnston, Nicholas Restrepo Ochoa, and Steve Vaisey. For useful comments at a conceptual stage of this work, which was presented at the 2019 Network Ecology mini-conference at Stanford University, I thank Delia Baldassarri, Amir Goldberg, John Levi Martin, and Dan McFarland. Any errors or omissions are my own. Address correspondence to Craig M. Rawlings, Dept. of Sociology, Duke University, 270 Reuben-Cooke, 417 Chapel Dr., Durham, NC 27708.

Supplemental Material

  • Citation: Rawlings, Craig M. 2022. “Becoming an Ideologue: Social Sorting and the Microfoundations of Polarization.” Sociological Science 9: 313-345.
  • Received: March 13, 2022
  • Accepted: June 7, 2022
  • Editors: Arnout van de Rijt, Gabriel Rossman
  • DOI: 10.15195/v9.a13


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Black Protests in the United States, 1994 to 2010

By on May 30, 2022 in Articles

Pamela Oliver, Chaeyoon Lim, Morgan C. Matthews, Alex Hanna

Sociological Science May 30, 2022
10.15195/v9.a12

Abstract

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Using novel data, we provide the first panoramic view of U.S. Black movement protest events as reported in U.S. newswires between 1994 and 2010 and put our quantitative data into dialogue with qualitative accounts. Struggles during these years presaged the Black Lives protest waves of 2014 to 2016 and 2020. Protests increased after the 1995 Million Man March into 2001 but dropped abruptly after the 9/11 attacks. Collective action increased again at the end of the 2000s. Protests in response to police violence and other criminal-legal issues were major arenas of struggle and news coverage. Also common were issues of national identity including celebrations of Black history and Black solidarity, protests about Confederate symbols, and protests about White hate groups and hate crimes. Although Black people protested about a wide variety of issues, newswires focused disproportionately on incidents of police violence and perceived threats of Black violence. There is substantial continuity in issues, organizations, and activism between this earlier period and the Black Lives Movement of 2014 to 2020.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Pamela Oliver: Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin–Madison
E-mail: Pamela.Oliver@wisc.edu
ORCID: 0000-0001-7643-1008

Chaeyoon Lim: Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin–Madison
E-mail: chaeyoon.lim@wisc.edu
ORCID: 0000-0003-4527-4390

Morgan C. Matthews: Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin–Madison
E-mail: mmatthews5@wisc.edu
ORCID: 0000-0003-2721-1572

Alex Hanna: DAIR Institute
E-mail: alex.hanna@gmail.com
ORCID: 0000-0002-8957-0813

Acknowledgments: This research was funded by National Science Foundation grants SES1423784 and SES1918342. We thank David Skalinder and John Lemke for research assistance. This article is an extensively revised version that includes updated and corrected data of papers previously presented at conferences in 2017 and 2019.

Supplemental Material

Replication Package

  • Citation: Oliver, Pamela, Chaeyoon Lim, Morgan C. Matthews, and Alex Hanna. 2022. “Black Protests in the United States, 1994 to 2010.” Sociological Science 9: 275-312.
  • Received: November 24, 2021
  • Accepted: December 12, 2021
  • Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Sarah Soule
  • DOI: 10.15195/v9.a12


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Where Do Cultural Tastes Come From? Genes, Environments, or Experiences

By on May 23, 2022 in Articles

Mads Meier Jæger and Stine Møllegaard

Sociological Science May 23, 2022
10.15195/v9.a11

Abstract

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Theories in sociology argue that family background and individual experiences shape cultural tastes and participation. Yet, we do not know the relative importance of each explanation or the extent to which family background operates via shared genes or shared environments. In this article, we use new data on same-sex monozygotic and dizygotic twins from Denmark to estimate the total impact of family background (genetic and environmental) and individual experiences on highbrow and lowbrow tastes and participation and on omnivorousness in music and reading. We find that family background explains more than half of the total variance in cultural tastes and participation and in omnivorousness. Moreover, family background operates mainly via shared genes, with shared environments shaping cultural tastes to some extent, but not cultural participation. Our findings support theories claiming that family background is instrumental in shaping cultural tastes and participation but highlight the relevance of distinguishing genetic and environmental aspects of family background.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Mads Meier Jæger: Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen
E-mail: mmj@soc.ku.dk

Stine Møllegaard: Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen
E-mail: stinem@soc.ku.dk

Acknowledgments:We have presented earlier versions of this article at seminars at Uppsala University, the University of Lausanne, University of Oslo, and the University of Copenhagen. We thank participants at these seminars for constructive comments. The research presented in this article was funded by the Velux Foundation (grant number 00001700).

Supplemental Material
Comment Rejoinder

  • Citation: Jæger, Mads Meier, and Stine Møllegaard. 2022. “Where Do Cultural Tastes Come From? Genes, Environments, or Experiences.” Sociological Science 9: 252-274.
  • Received: January 19, 2022
  • Accepted: March 16, 2022
  • Editors: Arnout van de Rijt, Jeremy Freese
  • DOI: 10.15195/v9.a11


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"Choose the Plan That’s Right for You": Choice Devolution as Class-Biased Institutional Change in U.S. Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance

By on May 16, 2022 in Articles

Adam Goldstein, James Franklin Wharam

Sociological Science May 16, 2022
10.15195/v9.a10

Abstract

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This study examines the distributional consequences of U.S. employers’ efforts to devolve responsibility for managing their employees’ medical insurance risk. The logic of consumer choice has increasingly come to dominate insurance benefit design, requiring that employees learn to be their own actuaries. We ask, to what extent does the individuation of choice (between insurance plans with disparate levels of cost-sharing) alter the social stratification of out-of-pocket (OOP) medical expenditure burdens across socioeconomic status class strata? Our analysis draws on an insurance claims database from a large multi-employer commercial insurer, which includes information on plan offerings and realized OOP expenditure burdens for more than 37 million persons from 2002 to 2012. Consistent with expectations, the results of pooled difference-in-difference event study models reveal that transitions to devolved choice result in modestly greater increases in realized OOP burden among lower socioeconomic status enrollees, compared with the growth among higher-status enrollees. However, the magnitude of the increase in the between-class expenditure burden disparity is small in substantive terms.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Adam Goldstein: Princeton University School of Public and International Affairs
E-mail: amg5@princeton.edu

James Franklin Wharam: Duke University Department of Medicine and Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy
E-mail: james.wharam@duke.edu

Acknowledgments:This study was generously supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Scholars in Health Policy Research Program. The authors thank Robert LeCates and Fang Zhang for sharing data and assistance with variable derivation. Katherine Swartz, Paul Starr, Jeremy Cohen, and Simone Schneider provided helpful comments on earlier drafts. The study benefited from the feedback of audiences and participants at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholars in Health Policy Research Annual Meeting, the American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, and Princeton’s Center for the Study of Social Organization Seminar.

  • Citation: Goldstein, Adam, and James Franklin Wharam. 2022. “‘Choose the Plan That’s Right for You’: Choice Devolution as Class-Biased Institutional Change in U.S. Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance.” Sociological Science 9: 221-251.
  • Received: January 3, 2022
  • Accepted: March 21, 2022
  • Editors: Arnout van de Rijt, Cristobal Young
  • DOI: 10.15195/v9.a10


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