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What Are You Talking about? Discussion Frequency of Issues Captured in Common Survey Questions

By on May 2, 2025 in Articles

Turgut Keskintürk, Kevin Kiley, Stephen Vaisey

Sociological Science May 2, 2025
10.15195/v12.a12

Abstract

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Social science surveys regularly ask respondents to generate opinions or positions on issues deemed to be of political and social importance, such as confidence in government officials or federal spending priorities. Many theories assume that interpersonal deliberation is a primary mechanism through which people develop positions on such issues, but it is unclear how often the issues captured by such questions become a topic of conversation. Using an original survey of 2,117 American adults, we quantify how often people report discussing the issues tapped by 88 questions in the General Social Survey’s core questionnaire, as well as how often respondents say they individually reflect on these issues, how important they believe them to be, and how sensitive they believe it would be to discuss those issues. We find that the majority of respondents report discussing the majority of issues fewer than once or twice a year, with the modal response that respondents have never discussed an issue in the past year. At the same time, some topics—such as religious beliefs and generic appraisals of political leaders—come up quite frequently, and a small number of respondents report frequently discussing most items. We consider the implications of these findings for theories of belief formation.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Turgut Keskintürk: Contributed equally. Department of Sociology, Duke University
E-mail: turgut.keskinturk@duke.edu

Kevin Kiley: Contributed equally. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, North Carolina State University
E-mail: kkiley@ncsu.edu

Stephen Vaisey: Department of Sociology and Political Science, Duke University
E-mail: stephen.vaisey@duke.edu

Supplemental Materials

Reproducibility Package: The data and code to reproduce the full set of analyses are provided at https://osf.io/u8b7v.

  • Citation: Keskintürk, Turgut, Kevin Kiley, Stephen Vaisey. 2025. “What Are You Talking about? Discussion Frequency of Issues Captured in Common Survey Questions” Sociological Science 12: 256-276.
  • Received: January 2, 2025
  • Accepted: March 26, 2025
  • Editors: Ari Adut, Peter Bearman
  • DOI: 10.15195/v12.a12

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Do Employers Care about Past Mobility? A Field Experiment Examining Hiring Preferences in Technology and Non-Technology Jobs

By on April 28, 2025 in Articles

Matissa Hollister, Nicole Denier, Xavier St-Denis

Sociological Science April 28, 2025
10.15195/v12.a11

Abstract

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Research in previous decades found that employers imposed penalties on job applicants with a past history of frequent moves across employers, and yet mobility across employers is more common in today’s economy and perhaps even a valuable career strategy. While popular discourse and some academic literature has portrayed highly mobile careers as widespread and broadly accepted, other studies have suggested that such careers may only thrive in specific pockets of the labor market, particularly high-technology jobs. We conducted a field experiment in the United States to assess employer responses to resumes with three levels of past mobility. We found significant variation in employer mobility preferences, with jobs in human resources, financial reporting, marketing, and IT penalizing high-mobility applicants. In contrast, very stable work histories were penalized when hiring software testers. Counter to expectations, high-technology employers did not broadly embrace mobility. These findings suggest that employers follow occupation-specific mobility expectations, and as a consequence must balance competing mobility orientations within their workforce. Workers, meanwhile, must face the challenges of navigating a precarious labor market while also being mindful of the impact that their cumulative mobility may have on future job opportunities.
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Matissa Hollister: Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University
E-mail: matissa.hollister@mcgill.ca (corresponding author)

Nicole Denier: University of Alberta
E-mail: nicole.denier@ualberta.ca

Xavier St-Denis: Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS)
E-mail: xavier.st-denis@ucs.inrs.ca

Acknowledgements: This article was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Insight Grant #435-2018-1340. We would like to thank our research assistants for their diligent work on this project: Christopher Oleh, Kabir Sethi, Gabriel Rincon, Jenna Latiok, Alexandre Zoller, Kelsey Lindquist, Khanh Ha Le, Min Kwon, Hasan Can Bilgen, Onyu Choi, Van Vai Vivien Lee, and Suzan Zhu.

Supplemental Materials

Reproducibility Package: An anonymized version of the data and the codes used for analysis are available at: https://doi.org/10.5683/SP3/6U8BKC.

  • Citation: Hollister, Matissa, Nicole Denier, Xavier St-Denis. 2025. “Do Employers Care about Past Mobility? A Field Experiment Examining Hiring Preferences in Technology and Non-Technology Jobs” Sociological Science 12: 232-255.
  • Received: October 6, 2023
  • Accepted: November 9, 2024
  • Editors: Ari Adut, Nan Dirk de Graaf
  • DOI: 10.15195/v12.a11

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Literary Fiction Indicates Early Modernization in China Prior to Western Influence

By on April 23, 2025 in Articles

Ying Zhong, Valentin Thouzeau, Nicolas Baumard

Sociological Science April 23, 2025
10.15195/v12.a10

Abstract

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Modernization refers to the shift from traditional values to individual autonomy and self-development, driven by economic development. Previously considered unique to Western culture, modernization has now emerged as a global phenomenon, with East Asia playing a leading role. This article explores the possibility that modernization might have occurred outside the Western world prior to Western influence. We pioneered a novel approach for understanding the evolution of Chinese values by creating a unique and comprehensive database of narrative fiction. This database includes all major Chinese narrative fiction from the Tang dynasty (7th century) to the present, encompassing 3,496 works from mainland China and 3,338 modern works from Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. It also provides a systematic comparison of ancient fictions and their modern adaptations (e.g., Journey to the West ). Our findings confirm that modernization has been underway in China since the late twentieth century. Surprisingly, a similar rise in modern values was detected as early as the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, coinciding with significant economic development. This era saw an increasing expression of romantic love, open-mindedness, and reciprocal cooperation. However, this shift was not sustained, leading to a significant reassertion of traditional values from the late eighteenth century until the early twentieth century. These findings not only highlight the nuanced dynamics of early modernization beyond Western contexts but also demonstrate that values are dynamic, evolving constantly in response to economic development, thereby challenging the binary distinction between WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic) and non-WEIRD societies.
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Ying Zhong: Institut Jean Nicod, Département d’études cognitives, École normale supérieure
E-mail: yingzhong196@gmail.com

Valentin Thouzeau: Institut Jean Nicod, Département d’études cognitives, École normale supérieure
E-mail: valentinthouzeau@gmail.com

Nicolas Baumard: Institut Jean Nicod, Département d’études cognitives, École normale supérieure
E-mail: nbaumard@gmail.com

Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC) grant 202106220093. We also thank the members of the Evolution and Social Cognition team for their helpful comments on our work.

Supplemental Materials

Reproducibility Package: The data analyzed in this article are available at https://osf.io/5bkqa. All replication codes and detailed instructions for replication can also be accessed at the same link. The pre-registration documents are available at https://osf.io/9nxpe.

  • Citation: Ying, Zhong, Valentin Thouzeau, and Nicolas Baumard. 2025. “Literary Fiction Indicates Early Modernization in China Prior to Western Influence” Sociological Science 12: 202-231.
  • Received: December 2, 2024
  • Accepted: January 31, 2025
  • Editors: Ari Adut, Kieran Healey
  • DOI: 10.15195/v12.a10

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The Sequential Rise of Female Religious Leadership

By on March 20, 2025 in Articles

Jeremy Senn, Jörg Stolz

Sociological Science March 20, 2025
10.15195/v12.a9

Abstract

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In his seminal work “Ordaining Women,” Mark Chaves (1997b) highlighted the phenomenon of “loose coupling” regarding female religious leadership: congregations often display inconsistencies between their stated policies and actual practices. Some congregations declare openness to female leadership but do not practice it, whereas others officially forbid female leadership yet have women in leadership roles. Our article identifies a theoretical mechanism producing this inconsistency. We propose that congregations typically first loosen their formal rules governing female access to leadership and only later allow women to occupy leadership positions in practice. This two-stage process results in a temporal lag between rule change and practice change, creating the observed “loose coupling,” where rules are often more gender egalitarian than practice. Using two waves of the National Congregation Survey Switzerland covering all religious traditions, we test our theory both on the aggregate and the unit level and find strong support for it. Simulations further indicate that certain characteristics of the organizational population of congregations, such as their low attrition rate, may explain a large part of the lag between rule change and practice change.
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Jeremy Senn: Institut de Sciences Sociales des Religions (ISSR), University of Lausanne (UNIL)
E-mail: jeremy.senn@unil.ch

Jörg Stolz: Institut de Sciences Sociales des Religions (ISSR), University of Lausanne (UNIL)
E-mail: joerg.stolz@unil.ch

Acknowledgements: We thank Jean-Philippe Antonietti for statistical advice and the editors as well as an anonymous reviewer for very helpful comments on how to reframe the article.

Supplemental Materials

Reproducibility Package: A replication package with instructions, data, and R-code has been made publicly available on the Open Science Framework (OSF): https://osf.io/qhb5d/

  • Citation: Senn, Jeremy, Jörg Stolz. 2025. “The Sequential Rise of Female Religious Leadership” Sociological Science 12: 180-201.
  • Received: September 19, 2024
  • Accepted: January 24, 2025
  • Editors: Arnout van de Rijt, Stephen Vaisey
  • DOI: 10.15195/v12.a9

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Commuting and Gender Differences in Job Opportunities

By on March 14, 2025 in Articles

Silvia Avram

Sociological Science March 14, 2025
10.15195/v12.a8

Abstract

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Women tend to commute shorter distances and earn lower wages. The theory suggests that more mobile workers are likely to command higher wages, in part because they have access to more job opportunities. We show how information on employment concentration and commuting patterns can be linked to build an index of labor market opportunities, using linked administrative and household survey data from the UK. Although labor markets are porous, commonly used measures of employment concentration require well-defined geographical boundaries. We overcome this problem by combining employment concentration indices calculated using areas of different sizes and using the individual commuting costs as weights. We show that women have higher commuting costs and, as a result, their labor markets are smaller and their job opportunities are more limited.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Silvia Avram: University of Essex, Institute for Social and Economic Research
E-mail: savram@essex.ac.uk

Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council through grants ES/T015748/1 and ES/S012486/1. The author is grateful to Sociological Science editors and reviewers for feedback.

Supplemental Materials

Reproducibility Package: The data used in this research include the Business Structure Database (DOI: 10.5255/UKDA-SN-6697-15); Understanding Society: Waves 1–11, 2009–2020 and Harmonised BHPS: Waves 1–18, 1991–2009: Special Licence Access, Census 2001 Lower Layer Super Output Areas ( DOI: 10.5255/UKDA-SN-6670-13); and Understanding Society: Waves 1–11, 2009–2020 and Harmonised BHPS: Waves 1–18, 1991–2009 (DOI:10.5255/UKDA-SN-6614-16). All three are available free of charge via the UK Data Service. The syntax code for reproducing results can be found at: https://osf.io/zscpf/?view_only=ccb1d3bb40c1400cacfe55382dababd3

  • Citation: Avram, Silvia. 2025. “Commuting and Gender Differences in Job Opportunities” Sociological Science 12: 158-179.
  • Received: December 3, 2024
  • Accepted: January 20, 2025
  • Editors: Arnout van de Rijt, Cristobal Young
  • DOI: 10.15195/v12.a8

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Inequality and Total Effect Summary Measures for Nominal and Ordinal Variables

By on February 5, 2025 in Articles

Trenton D. Mize, Bing Han

Sociological Science February 5, 2025
10.15195/v12.a7

Abstract

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Many of the topics most central to the social sciences involve nominal groupings or ordinal rankings. There are many cases in which a summary of a nominal or ordinal independent variable’s effect, or the effect on a nominal or ordinal outcome, is needed and useful for interpretation. For example, for nominal or ordinal independent variables, a single summary measure is useful to compare the effect sizes of different variables in a single model or across multiple models, as with mediation. For nominal or ordinal dependent variables, there are often an overwhelming number of effects to examine and understanding the holistic effect of an independent variable or how effect sizes compare within or across models is difficult. In this project, we propose two new summary measures using marginal effects (MEs). For nominal and ordinal independent variables, we propose ME inequality as a summary measure of a nominal or ordinal independent variable’s holistic effect. For nominal and ordinal outcome models, we propose a total ME measure that quantifies the comprehensive effect of an independent variable across all outcome categories. The added benefits of our methods are both intuitive and substantively meaningful effect size metrics and approaches that can be applied across a wide range of models, including linear, nonlinear, categorical, multilevel, longitudinal, and more.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Trenton D. Mize: Departments of Sociology & Statistics (by courtesy) and The Methodology Center at Purdue University
E-mail: tmize@purdue.edu

Bing Han: Department of Sociology, Purdue University
E-mail: han644@purdue.edu

Acknowledgements: We thank Shawn Bauldry and the audience at The Methodology Center at Purdue’s work-in-progress series for their helpful comments on this article. We also thank Jonathan Horowitz for a well-timed question that pushed us to further develop the methods for nominal and ordinal outcomes.

Reproducibility Package: All data and coding files needed to reproduce all results shown in this article are available at both www.trentonmize.com/research and OSF (osf.io/myehf/). In addition to the replication files, simplified template/example Stata and R files are also available in the same locations.

  • Citation: Mize, Trenton D., Bing Han. 2025. “Inequality and Total Effect Summary Measures for Nominal and Ordinal Variables” Sociological Science 12: 115-157.
  • Received: November 27, 2024
  • Accepted: January 7, 2025
  • Editors: Arnout van de Rijt, Kristian B. Karlson
  • DOI: 10.15195/v12.a7

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Validating Factorial Survey Experiments: Response to Comment

By on January 27, 2025 in Articles

Andrea G. Forster, Martin Neugebauer

Sociological Science January 27, 2025
10.15195/v12.a6

Abstract

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In Forster and Neugebauer (2024), we examine to what extent a factorial survey (FS) on invitations of fictitious applicants can replicate the findings of a nearly identical field experiment conducted with the same employers. In addition to exploring the conditions under which FSs provide valid behavioral predictions, we varied the topic sensitivity and tested whether behavioral predictions were more accurate after filtering out respondents who provided socially desirable answers or did not exert sufficient effort in responding to FS vignettes. Across these conditions, the FS results did not align well with the real-world benchmark. We conclude that researchers must exercise caution when using FSs to study (hiring) behavior. In this rejoinder, we respond to the critique of our study by Pickett (2025).
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Andrea G. Forster: Utrecht University
E-mail: a.g.forster@uu.nl (Corresponding author)

Martin Neugebauer: Karlsruhe University of Education
E-mail: martin.neugebauer@ph-karlsruhe.de

  • Citation: Forster, Andrea G., Martin Neugebauer. 2024. “Validating Factorial Survey Experiments: Response to Comment” Sociological Science 12: 106-114.
  • Received: December 6, 2024
  • Accepted: December 6, 2024
  • Editors: Arnout van de Rijt
  • DOI: 10.15195/v12.a6


Invalidating Factorial Survey Experiments Using Invalid Comparisons Is Bad Practice: Learning from Forster and Neugebauer (2024)


Factorial Survey Experiments to Predict Real-World Behavior: A Cautionary Tale from Hiring Studies

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Invalidating Factorial Survey Experiments Using Invalid Comparisons Is Bad Practice: Learning from Forster and Neugebauer (2024)

By on January 27, 2025 in Articles

Justin T. Pickett

Sociological Science January 27, 2025
10.15195/v12.a5

Abstract

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Forster and Neugebauer’s (2024) invalidation study is invalid. Their conclusion that factorial survey (FS) experiments “are not suited for studying hiring behavior” (P. 901) is unjustified, because their claim that they conducted a field experiment (FE) and FS with “nearly identical” designs is false (P. 891). The two experiments included: (1) different factor levels (for three factors), (2) different unvalidated applicant names (to manipulate ethnicity), (3) different applicant photos, (4) different fixed factors (e.g., applicant stories about moving), and (5) different experimental settings (e.g., testing, instrumentation, and conditions of anonymity). In the current article, I discuss each of these major design differences and explain why it invalidates Forster and Neugebauer’s (2024) comparison of their FE and FS findings. I conclude by emphasizing that social scientists are better served by asking why FE and FS findings sometimes differ than by assuming that any difference in findings across the experimental designs invalidates FS.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Justin T. Pickett: School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany, SUNY
E-mail: jpickett@albany.edu

  • Citation: Pickett, T. Justin. 2025. “Invalidating Factorial Survey Experiments Using Invalid Comparisons Is Bad Practice: Learning from Forster and Neugebauer (2024)” Sociological Science 12:97-105.
  • Received: September 27, 2024
  • Accepted: October 1, 2024
  • Editors: Arnout van de Rijt, Stephen Vaisey
  • DOI: 10.15195/v12.a5


Validating Factorial Survey Experiments: Response to Comment


Factorial Survey Experiments to Predict Real-World Behavior: A Cautionary Tale from Hiring Studies

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The Genetics of Partnership Dissolution

By on January 20, 2025 in Articles

Ruth Eva Jørgensen, Rosa Cheesman, Ole A. Andreassen, Torkild Hovde Lyngstad

Sociological Science January 20, 2025
10.15195/v12.a4

Abstract

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There is a genetic component to divorce risk, but little is known about which and how genetically influenced traits are involved. This study makes three major contributions to address these gaps. First, we link genetic data from the Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) to population register data and estimate the total influence of common genetic variants on partnership dissolution (N = 121, 408). Then, we identify heritable traits associated with partnership dissolution using event-history analysis and a broad set of polygenic indices. Finally, we assess whether associations are robust to controls for confounding in within-sibling models. Significant heritability estimates were found for both females (h2SNP = 0.09; SE = 0.01; p < 0.0001) and males (h2SNP = 0.03; SE = 0.01; p < 0.0001). Genetic dispositions for educational attainment and other sociodemographic factors decrease the probability of partnership dissolution, whereas dispositions for internalizing symptoms and risk behavior increase the likelihood of partnership dissolution. Integrating genetics and sociodemographic approaches can shed new light on the causes of partnership dynamics by helping us understand what drives the selection processes throughout the life course.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Ruth Eva Jørgensen: Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo.*
E-mail: r.e.jorgensen@sosgeo.uio.no

Rosa Cheesman: PPROMENTA, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo
E-mail: r.c.g.cheesman@psykologi.uio.no

Ole A. Andreassen: NORMENT, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo
E-mail: ole.andreassen@medisin.uio.no

Torkild Hovde Lyngstad: Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo
E-mail: t.h.lyngstad@sosgeo.uio.no

Acknowledgements: This research is part of the OPENFLUX project, which has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement no. 818420). The Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Cohort Study is supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Health and Care Services and the Ministry of Education and Research. We are grateful to all the participating families in Norway who take part in this on-going cohort study. We thank the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) for generating high-quality genomic data. This research is part of the HARVEST collaboration, supported by the Research Council of Norway (#229624). We also thank the NORMENT Centre for providing genotype data, funded by the Research Council of Norway (#223273), Southeast Norway Health Authority, and KG Jebsen Stiftelsen. We further thank the Center for Diabetes Research, the University of Bergen, for providing genotype data and performing quality control and imputation of the data funded by the ERC AdG project SELECTionPREDISPOSED, Stiftelsen Kristian Gerhard Jebsen, Trond Mohn Foundation, the Research Council of Norway, the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the University of Bergen, and the Western Norway Health Authorities (Helse Vest). The version of the genotype data used is MobaPyschGen v1. We are very grateful to Alexandra Havdahl and Elizabeth Corfield for access to this version of the data. The authors are grateful to the Sociological Science editors and reviewers for feedback.

Supplemental Materials

Reproducibility Package: See paper for data availability statement. Access to administrative data from Statistics Norway can be applied for at Statistics Norway (https://www.ssb.no/mikrodata/) and access to MoBa Genetics can be applied for at the Norwegian Public Health Institute (https://www.fhi.no/studier/moba/). Code for data preparation and analysis is available at https://github.com/torkildl/genetics-dissolution.

  • Citation: Jørgensen, Ruth Eva, Rosa Cheesman, Ole A. Andreassen, Torkild Hovde Lyngstad. 2025. “The Genetics of Partnership Dissolution” Sociological Science 12: 76-96.
  • Received: October 24, 2024
  • Accepted: December 7, 2024
  • Editors: Arnout van de Rijt, Bart Bonikowski
  • DOI: 10.15195/v12.a4

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Straight Jacket: The Implications of Multidimensional Sexuality for Relationship Quality and Stability

By on January 15, 2025 in Articles

Yue Qian, Yang Hu

Sociological Science January 15, 2025
10.15195/v12.a3

Abstract

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The quality and stability of couple relationships have far-reaching consequences for the well-being of individual partners and patterns of family change. Although much research has compared the quality and stability of same-sex and different-sex relationships, the multidimensional nature of sexuality has received insufficient attention in this scholarship. Individuals in same-sex (different-sex) partnerships do not necessarily identify as gay/lesbian (straight) or report exclusive same-sex (different-sex) attraction—a phenomenon we term “identity/attraction–partnership inconsistency.” By analyzing nationally representative longitudinal data collected between 2017 and 2022, we show that identity/attraction–partnership inconsistency is common among U.S. adults, ranging from 2 percent of men in different-sex partnerships to 41 percent of women in same-sex partnerships. Regression results show that such inconsistency is associated with lower relationship quality and higher relationship instability, and these negative ramifications are particularly pronounced among individuals, notably men, in different-sex partnerships. Our findings uncover the implications of multidimensional sexuality for relationship dynamics and outcomes given the rigid institutionalization of different-sex couplehood and the close normative regulation of men’s heterosexuality. Our study highlights the importance of incorporating multiple dimensions of sexuality and their interplays into research on couple relationships and family change.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Yue Qian: Department of Sociology, The University of British Columbia
E-mail: yue.qian@ubc.ca

Yang Hu: Department of Sociology, Lancaster University
E-mail: yang.hu@lancaster.ac.uk

Acknowledgements: Yue Qian and Yang Hu share joint first authorship.

Supplemental Materials

Reproducibility Package: The data analyzed in this article are available from the Stanford Libraries Social Science Data Collection at https://data.stanford.edu/hcmst2017. All replication codes for this project are available at https://osf.io/n32ty/.

  • Citation: Qian, Yue, Yang Hu. 2025. “Straight Jacket: The Implications of Multidimensional Sexuality for Relationship Quality and Stability” Sociological Science 12: 51-75.
  • Received: October 21, 2024
  • Accepted: December 7, 2024
  • Editors: Ari Adut, Michael Rosenfeld
  • DOI: 10.15195/v12.a3


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