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Recent research suggests that many norms may be upheld by closet deviants who engage in enforcement so as to hide their deviance. But various empirical accounts indicate that audiences are often quite sensitive to this ulterior motive. Our theory and experimental evidence identify when inferences of ulterior motive are drawn and clarify the implications of such inferences. Our main test pivots on two contextual factors: (1) the extent to which individuals might try to strategically feign commitment and (2) the contrast between “mandated” enforcement, where individuals are asked for their opinions of deviance, and “entrepreneurial” enforcement, where enforcement requires initiative to interrupt the flow of social interaction. When the context is one where individuals might have a strategic motive and enforcement requires entrepreneurial initiative, suspicions are aroused because the enforcers could have remained silent and enjoyed plausible deniability that they had witnessed the deviance or recognized its significance. Given that the mandate for enforcement might be rare, a key implication is that norms might frequently be underenforced.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Minjae Kim: Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Email: minjae@mit.edu

Ezra W. Zuckerman Sivan: Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Email: ewzucker@mit.edu

Acknowledgements: We thank Ari Adut, Hannah Birnbaum, Ronald Burt, Vanessa Conzon, Daniel DellaPosta, Roberto Fernandez, Jae-Kyung Ha, Oliver Hahl, Kate Kellogg, Minkyung Kim, Josh Krieger, Aruna Ranganathan, Dawn Robinson, and Robb Willer; audiences in the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association session on attitudes, norms, and behaviors; and the Economic Sociology Working Group and Behavioral Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management for their helpful comments and feedback. All the usual disclaimers apply.

Citation: Kim, Minjae, and Ezra W. Zuckerman Sivan. 2017. “Faking It Is Hard to Do: Entrepreneurial Norm Enforcement and Suspicions of Deviance” Sociological Science 4: 580-610.
Received: July 17, 2017
Accepted: September 13, 2017
Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Mario Small
DOI: 10.15195/v4.a24

The Entrepreneur's Network and Firm Performance

By Parker Webservices on October 18, 2017 in Articles

Victor Nee, Lisha Liu, Daniel DellaPosta

Sociological Science, October 18, 2017
DOI 10.15195/v4.a23

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Diverse organizational forms coexist in China’s market economy, adapting and evolving in intensely competitive production markets. We examine the networks of founding chief executive officers of private manufacturing firms in seven cities of the Yangzi River Delta region in China. Through sequence analysis of ties that entrepreneurs relied on for help in the founding and critical events of their businesses, we identify three discrete forms of network governance: traditional kin-based, hybrid nonkin, and rational capitalist. We find that in traditional kin-based network governance, structural holes are linked to higher returns on assets and returns on equity. By contrast, in the rational capitalist form, structural holes and higher firm performance are not linked. We thus show that the content of the tie matters critically in the relationship between structural holes and firm performance.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Victor Nee: Department of Sociology, Cornell University
Email: victor.nee@cornell.edu

Lisha Liu: Department of Sociology, Cornell University
Email: ll733@cornell.edu.com

Daniel DellaPosta: Department of Sociology and Criminology, Pennsylvania State University
Email: djd78@psu.edu

Acknowledgements: Victor Nee gratefully acknowledges grants from the John Templeton Foundation (2005–2010; 2015–2018), research assistant support from the College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell University, and the Jan Wallander and Tom Hedelius Foundation (2011–2013). We thank Michael Macy, Anne Tsui, Brett de Bary, Rachel Davis, Mario Molina, Lucas Drouhot, and David Strang for their helpful comments on an earlier draft. Victor Nee received helpful feedback on his presentation of the article at the 2017 Conference of the International Network of Analytical Sociologists in Oslo, Norway, on June 5 and 6 and the Annual Meeting of the Academy of International Business in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from July 3 to 6. Lisha Liu and Daniel DellaPosta share equal responsibility in their contributions.

Citation: Nee, Victor, Lisha Liu, and Daniel DellaPosta. 2017. “The Entrepreneur’s Network and Firm Performance.” Sociological Science 4: 552-579.
Received: July 12, 2017
Accepted: September 5, 2017
Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Olav Sorenson
DOI: 10.15195/v4.a23

Revisiting Broken Windows: The Role of Neighborhood and Individual Characteristics in Reaction to Disorder Cues

By Parker Webservices on October 11, 2017 in Articles

Beate Volker

Sociological Science, October 11, 2017
DOI 10.15195/v4.a22

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The influential “broken windows” theory proposes that disorder cues in neighborhoods trigger littering and other antisocial behavior. Until now, the theory has been empirically tested only on a small scale and restricted to just one specific area. In this study, I investigated the effect of disorder cues on individual behavior once more, replicating and extending the original field experiments by Keizer, Lindenberg, and Steg (2008 and 2013). The data from 12,528 individuals were collected in 84 field experiments conducted in 33 neighborhoods. The results, based on multilevel techniques for binary data, show that the absolute effect of cues is smaller than originally thought and that neighborhood and individual characteristics moderate cue effects.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Beate Volker: Department of Sociology, University of Amsterdam
Email: b.volker@uva.nl

Acknowledgements: This study greatly benefitted from the seminar of the program group “Institutions, Inequalities, and Life Courses” at the University of Amsterdam; the participants of the symposium “Order in Context” at Utrecht University on March 31, 2016; and from comments by Henk Flap.

Citation: Volker, Beate. 2017. “Revisiting Broken Windows: The Role of Neighborhood and Individual Characteristics in Reaction to Disorder Cues” Sociological Science 4: 528-551.
Received: July 22, 2017
Accepted: August 8, 2017
Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Mario Small
DOI: 10.15195/v4.a22

Motherhood, Sex of the Offspring, and Religious Signaling

By Parker Webservices on September 27, 2017 in Articles

Ozan Aksoy

Sociological Science, September 27, 2017
DOI 10.15195/v4.a21

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Using Turkey’s 2013 Demographic and Health Survey, I find that among married women, having a single child as opposed to no children is associated with an approximately five-percentage-point increase in the likelihood of religious veiling. Furthermore, the likelihood of religious veiling increases as the number of a woman’s children increases. Robustness checks show that these associations are rather stable across the Muslim world. In addition, I use the sex of a woman’s first child as a natural experiment and find that in Turkey, having a son versus a daughter increases the likelihood of religious veiling by 2.2 percentage points. In contrast, having a child and the sex of the first child have no significant effects on unobservable religious behaviors, traditional values, and gender norms. These results are consistent with the hypothesis derived from signaling theory that women use veiling strategically to foster family reputation.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Ozan Aksoy: Department of Quantitative Social Science, University College London
Email: ozan.aksoy@ucl.ac.uk

Acknowledgements: I thank Aron Szekely, Francesco Billari, Alex Bryson, Diego Gambetta, Bilal Nasim, Nikki Shure, David Voas, and the participants of the University College London Department of Quantitative Social Science seminar for helpful suggestions and comments.

Citation: Aksoy, Ozan. 2017. “Motherhood, Sex of the Offspring, and Religious Signaling.” Sociological Science 4: 511-527.
Received: June 7, 2017
Accepted: July 27, 2017
Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Stephen Morgan
DOI: 10.15195/v4.a21

Marriage, Choice, and Couplehood in the Age of the Internet

By Parker Webservices on September 18, 2017 in Articles

Michael J. Rosenfeld

Sociological Science, September 18, 2017
DOI 10.15195/v4.a20

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How do the Internet and social media technology affect our romantic lives? Critics of the Internet’s effect on social life identify the overabundance of choice of potential partners online as a likely source of relationship instability. This study examines longitudinal data showing that meeting online does not predict couple breakup. Meeting online (and particularly meeting through online dating websites) predicts faster transitions to marriage for heterosexual couples. I do not claim to measure any causal effect of Internet technology on relationship longevity or marriage formation. Rather, I suggest that the data are more consistent with a positive or neutral association between Internet technology and relationships than with a negative association between the Internet and romantic relationships.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Michael J. Rosenfeld: Department of Sociology, Stanford University
Email: mrosenfe@stanford.edu

Acknowledgements: This project was generously supported by the National Science Foundation, grants SES-0751977 and SES-1153867, M. Rosenfeld principal investigator, with additional funding from Stanford’s Institute for Research in the Social Sciences and Stanford’s United Parcel Service endowment. Thanks to Reuben J. Thomas, Amanda Mireles, Kate Weisshaar, Jasmine Hill, Ariela Schachter, Taylor Orth, Stanford’s Graduate Family Workshop, and anonymous reviewers for comments on earlier drafts.

Citation: Rosenfeld. Michael J. 2017. “Marriage, Choice, and Couplehood in the Age of the Internet.” Sociological Science 4: 490-510.
Received: June 6, 2017
Accepted: August 8, 2017
Editors: Olav Sorenson, Stephen Morgan
DOI: 10.15195/v4.a20

How Black Are Lakisha and Jamal? Racial Perceptions from Names Used in Correspondence Audit Studies

By Parker Webservices on September 6, 2017 in Articles

S. Michael Gaddis

Sociological Science, September 6, 2017
DOI 10.15195/v4.a19

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Online correspondence audit studies have emerged as the primary method to examine racial discrimination. Although audits use distinctive names to signal race, few studies scientifically examine data regarding the perception of race from names. Different names treated as black or white may be perceived in heterogeneous ways. I conduct a survey experiment that asks respondents to identify the race they associate with a series of names. I alter the first names given to each respondent and inclusion of last names. Names more commonly given by highly educated black mothers (e.g., Jalen and Nia) are less likely to be perceived as black than names given by less educated black mothers (e.g., DaShawn and Tanisha). The results suggest that a large body of social science evidence on racial discrimination operates under a misguided assumption that all black names are alike, and the findings from correspondence audits are likely sensitive to name selection.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

S. Michael Gaddis: Department of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles
Email: mgaddis@soc.ucla.edu

Acknowledgements: An earlier version of this article was presented at the 2015 annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in Chicago, IL. Larry D. Schoen provided access to birth record data from New York. Anup Das, Qing Zheng, Betsy Cliff, and Neala Berkowski served as excellent research assistants on this project. I also thank Shawn Bauldry, Colleen Carey, Philip Cohen, Jonathan Daw, René Flores, Devah Pager, Lincoln Quillian, Charles Seguin, and Ashton Verdery for their helpful comments.

Citation: Gaddis, S. Michael. 2017. “How Black Are Lakisha and Jamal? Racial Perceptions from Names Used in Correspondence Audit Studies.” Sociological Science 4: 469-489.
Received: May 18, 2017
Accepted: June 12, 2017
Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Olav Sorenson
DOI: 10.15195/v4.a19

The Partial Deinstitutionalization of Affirmative Action in U.S. Higher Education, 1988 to 2014

By Parker Webservices on August 28, 2017 in Articles

Daniel Hirschman, Ellen Berrey

Sociological Science, August 28, 2017
DOI 10.15195/v4.a18

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Since the 1990s, affirmative action opponents have targeted colleges’ and universities’ race-conscious admissions policies and secured bans on the practice in eight states. Although scholarly and media attention has focused on these dynamics at a handful of elite institutions, little is known about race-conscious admissions across the broader field of higher education. We provide a descriptive, quantitative account of how different types of colleges and universities responded to this political context. Through analysis of almost 1,000 selective colleges and universities, we find a dramatic shift in stated organizational policy starting in the mid-1990s. In 1994, 60 percent of selective institutions publicly declared that they considered race in undergraduate admissions; by 2014, just 35 percent did. This decline varied depending on status (competitiveness) and sector (public or private). Race-conscious admissions remain the stated policy of almost all of the most elite public and private institutions. The retreat from race-conscious admissions occurs largely among schools lower in the status hierarchy: very competitive public institutions and competitive public and private institutions. These patterns are not explained by implementation of state-level bans. We suggest that the anti–affirmative action movement had a diffuse impact whose effects varied across different strata of American higher education.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Daniel Hirschman: Department of Sociology, Brown University
Email: daniel_hirschman@brown.edu

Ellen Berrey: Department of Sociology, University of Toronto
Email: ellen.berrey@utoronto.ca

Acknowledgements: We thank Prabhdeep Kehal for his excellent research assistance and instructive comments. Mikaila Mariel Lemonik Arthur, Ronit Dinovitzer, Steve Hoffman, Ashley Rubin, and Terri Taylor provided feedback that improved this article. Research funding was provided by Brown University’s Program in Business, Entrepreneurship and Organizations.

Citation: Hirschman, Daniel, and Ellen Berrey. 2017. “The Partial Deinstitutionalization of Affirmative Action in U.S. Higher Education, 1988 to 2014.” Sociological Science 4: 449-468.
Received: June 21, 2017
Accepted: July 28, 2017
Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Sarah Soule
DOI: 10.15195/v4.a18

A Taste of Inequality: Food's Symbolic Value across the Socioeconomic Spectrum

By Parker Webservices on August 10, 2017 in Articles

Priya Fielding-Singh

Sociological Science, August 10, 2017
DOI 10.15195/v4.a17

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Scholars commonly account for dietary disparities across socioeconomic status (SES) using structural explanations that highlight differences in individuals’ wealth, income, or location. These explanations emphasize food’s material value. But food also carries symbolic value. This article shows how food’s symbolic value helps drive dietary disparities. In-depth interviews with 160 parents and adolescents and 80 hours of observations with four families demonstrate how a family’s socioeconomic position in part shapes the meanings that parents attach to food. These differing meanings contribute to distinct feeding strategies across the socioeconomic spectrum: whereas low-SES parents use food to buffer against deprivation, high-SES parents provision food to fulfill classed values around health and parenting. The findings suggest that an understanding of how families’ material circumstances shape food’s symbolic value is critical to fully account for dietary differences across SES.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Priya Fielding-Singh: Department of Sociology, Department of Sociology, Stanford University
Email: priyafs@stanford.edu

Acknowledgements: This research was supported by Stanford University’s Vice Provost for Graduate Education and the Department of Sociology. I thank Tomás Jiménez, Michelle Jackson, Doug McAdam, Jeremy Freese, Christopher Gardner, Marianne Cooper, Caitlin Daniel, Kristine Kilanski, Aliya Rao, Melissa Abad, Jennifer Wang, Anshuman Sahoo, Adrienne Frech, and the students in my course, “The Social Determinants of Health,” for their constructive feedback on various drafts of this article. I am grateful to my collaborators at Hillview Central High School as well as to the families who participated in this research and shared their insights and experiences.

Citation:Fielding-Singh, Priya. 2017. “A Taste of Inequality: Food’s Symbolic Value across the Socioeconomic Spectrum.” Sociological Science 4: 424-448.
Received: June 15, 2017
Accepted: July 2, 2017
Editors: Mario Small
DOI: 10.15195/v4.a17

Social Class and Party Identification During the Clinton, Bush, and Obama Presidencies

By Parker Webservices on August 3, 2017 in Articles

Stephen L. Morgan, Jiwon Lee

Sociological Science, August 3, 2017
DOI 10.15195/v4.a16

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GSS Methodological Report No. 125, A Coding of Social Class for the General Social Survey

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Through an analysis of the 1994 through 2016 General Social Surveys, this article demonstrates that a substantial proportion of eligible voters within the working class turned away from solid identification with either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party during the Obama presidency. Even before the 2016 election cycle commenced, conditions were uncharacteristically propitious for a Republican candidate who could appeal to prospective voters in the working class, especially those who had not voted in recent presidential elections but could be mobilized to vote. These findings support the contested position that variation in party identification is a genuine leading indicator of electoral outcomes and perhaps also, in this case, of party realignment.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Stephen L. Morgan: Department of Sociology, Johns Hopkins University
Email: stephen.morgan@jhu.edu

Jiwon Lee: Department of Sociology, Johns Hopkins University
Email: jiwonlee@jhu.edu

Acknowledgements: We thank Danny Schlozman for a helpful orienting discussion of these topics as well as Andy Cherlin, Mike Hout, Jennifer Silva, and Tom Smith for comments on the penultimate draft.

Citation: Morgan, Stephen L., and Jiwon Lee. 2017. “Social Class and Party Identification During the Clinton, Bush, and Obama Presidencies.” Sociological Science 4: 394-423.
Received: June 12, 2017
Accepted: June 25, 2017
Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Sarah Soule
DOI: 10.15195/v4.a16

Improving the Measurement of Shared Cultural Schemas with Correlational Class Analysis: Theory and Method

By Parker Webservices on May 29, 2017 in Articles

Andrei Boutyline

Sociological Science, May 29, 2017
DOI 10.15195/v4.a15

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Measurement of shared cultural schemas is a central methodological challenge for the sociology of culture. Relational Class Analysis (RCA) is a recently developed technique for identifying such schemas in survey data. However, existing work lacks a clear definition of such schemas, which leaves RCA’s accuracy largely unknown. Here, I build on the theoretical intuitions behind RCA to arrive at this definition. I demonstrate that shared schemas should result in linear dependencies between survey rows—the relationship usually measured with Pearson’s correlation. I thus modify RCA into a “Correlational Class Analysis” (CCA). When I compare the methods using a broad set of simulations, results show that CCA is reliably more accurate at detecting shared schemas than RCA, even in scenarios that substantially violate CCA’s assumptions. I find no evidence of theoretical settings where RCA is more accurate. I then revisit a previous RCA analysis of the 1993 General Social Survey musical tastes module. Whereas RCA partitioned these data into three schematic classes, CCA partitions them into four. I compare these results with a multiple-groups analysis in structural equation modeling and find that CCA’s partition yields greatly improved model fit over RCA. I conclude with a parsimonious framework for future work.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Andrei Boutyline: Department of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley
Email: boutyline@berkeley.edu

Acknowledgements: This research was supported in part by fellowships from National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program and Interdisciplinary Graduate Education and Research Traineeship Program. I thank Ronald Breiger, Neil Fligstein, John Flournoy, Amir Goldberg, Monica Lee, Valden Kamph, James Kitts, Fabiana Silva, Matthew Stimpson, Stephen Vaisey, Robb Willer, and the participants of the Berkeley Mathematical, Analytical, and Experimental Sociology workshop for feedback on the article. I am also grateful to Amir Goldberg for generously discussing RCA and making its software implementation available online. Direct all correspondence to Andrei Boutyline at Department of Sociology, 410 Barrows Hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720. E-mail: boutyline@berkeley.edu