This chapter reviews the current literature’s findings on how political and social interactions s... more This chapter reviews the current literature’s findings on how political and social interactions shape voter turnout and other forms of political participation. Current studies, which use a wide range of methodological approaches, from natural experiments and surveys to mathematical modeling, have demonstrated that political networks are a crucial component of any analysis of political behavior. Debates over the potentially negative impact of political disagreement on participation have differentiated the negative impact of political isolation from the neutral impact of heterogenous political discussion environments, while also exploring factors that might moderate an individual’s response to disagreement. Many of the studies reviewed in this chapter reflect an increasing interest in how research design and analysis may be used to disentangle the various mechanisms through which networks might shape political behavior, as well as to distinguish between the relative impact of selectio...
Schelling’s model of segregation has long been considered a para-digmatic example of emergent beh... more Schelling’s model of segregation has long been considered a para-digmatic example of emergent behavior, as in the model seemingly tolerant individual choices produce complete racial segregation. The Forse and Parodi article takes issue with both the mathematical and substantive characterization of Schelling’s model. At a mathematical level, they argue that the model’s behavior is not emergent, paradoxical, non-linear or otherwise complex. Instead, they claim that the level of segregation is a linear function of individual preferences for segregation. Substantively, Forse and Parodi argue that tolerant individual choices do not produce segregation, and therefore that racial ghettos do not « result from innocent decisions. » While the authors identify important issues, their conclusions are potentially misleading and merit fuller discussion in light of contemporary research into segregation in particular and analytical sociology and complex social system dynamics more broadly.
To what extent do social networks shape a person’s vote choice? Using data on political networks ... more To what extent do social networks shape a person’s vote choice? Using data on political networks gathered during a novel, multi-wave panel study conducted during the 2010 election cycle in the UK, we argue that although people may choose to discuss politics more often with those who hold similar political views, remaining disagreements in political discussion networks can still have a substantial impact on vote choice. Our study is the Vrst large scale, general population sample survey to track changes in an individual’s named political discussion partners over the course of an election campaign, and thus provides a unique opportunity to study the simultaneous processes of selection and inWuence in political discussion. We use these data to identify two social processes at work during the 9 months prior to the election: “selection”, or the likelihood that people choose discussion partners based on their political views, and “inWuence”, the convergence of views between discussion par...
Scholarship on the political gender gap in the US has attributed women’s political views to their... more Scholarship on the political gender gap in the US has attributed women’s political views to their greater compassion, yet has never tested such claims with direct empirical evidence. Using the only nationally representative survey to include both psychometrically validated measures of compassion with appropriate political variables, we show that women’s compassion does not help explain the gender gap in partisanship. Instead, the gap can be accounted for by gender differences in egalitarian political values. Our findings suggest that the political gender gap is not a result of women’s essentialized natures, but instead a response to the same social inequality and hierarchy that produces political divisions along lines of race, ethnicity, and other social cleavages. Authors: Scott Blinder, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Meredith Rolfe, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Massachusetts, Amherst...
Social scientists use two different methods for collecting information on the people with whom in... more Social scientists use two different methods for collecting information on the people with whom individuals discuss politics. Some surveys ask respondents to provide information about the people with whom they discuss “important matters,” while other studies ask for information specifically on the individual’s political discussants. Drawing on three of the most recently collected sources of data on this subject, we compare social network data that have been collected in these two different ways. The majority of our results show that the network data provided by survey respondents are very similar regardless of which network generator procedure is used. These results suggest that we do not consciously select specific individuals with whom to discuss politics. Instead, the individuals with whom we choose to discuss politics are the same people with whom we discuss other important matters in our lives. This finding has significant methodological and substantive implications for studies ...
... We are grateful to Indrek Seppo for help with the initial processing of ELFS data, and to Jan... more ... We are grateful to Indrek Seppo for help with the initial processing of ELFS data, and to Jane Roberts and the Roper Center for assistance with the Social Capital Benchmark Data University of Alicante University of Oxford §Tartu University 1 Page 2. (Giddings, 2002). ...
Background The vast majority of existing research on corporate reputation clearly accepts the bas... more Background The vast majority of existing research on corporate reputation clearly accepts the basic tenets of methodological individualism, or the belief that explanations must be given in terms of the individual actions and interactions that give rise to social phenomena. Thus, following DiMaggio and Powell (1983), Fombrun and his co-authors (Fombrun 1996, Rindova & Fombrun 1999, Fombrun & Rindova 2000) have described corporate reputations as aggregations of individual images of a corporation “that crystallize into reputational ...
This chapter reviews the current literature’s findings on how political and social interactions s... more This chapter reviews the current literature’s findings on how political and social interactions shape voter turnout and other forms of political participation. Current studies, which use a wide range of methodological approaches, from natural experiments and surveys to mathematical modeling, have demonstrated that political networks are a crucial component of any analysis of political behavior. Debates over the potentially negative impact of political disagreement on participation have differentiated the negative impact of political isolation from the neutral impact of heterogenous political discussion environments, while also exploring factors that might moderate an individual’s response to disagreement. Many of the studies reviewed in this chapter reflect an increasing interest in how research design and analysis may be used to disentangle the various mechanisms through which networks might shape political behavior, as well as to distinguish between the relative impact of selectio...
Schelling’s model of segregation has long been considered a para-digmatic example of emergent beh... more Schelling’s model of segregation has long been considered a para-digmatic example of emergent behavior, as in the model seemingly tolerant individual choices produce complete racial segregation. The Forse and Parodi article takes issue with both the mathematical and substantive characterization of Schelling’s model. At a mathematical level, they argue that the model’s behavior is not emergent, paradoxical, non-linear or otherwise complex. Instead, they claim that the level of segregation is a linear function of individual preferences for segregation. Substantively, Forse and Parodi argue that tolerant individual choices do not produce segregation, and therefore that racial ghettos do not « result from innocent decisions. » While the authors identify important issues, their conclusions are potentially misleading and merit fuller discussion in light of contemporary research into segregation in particular and analytical sociology and complex social system dynamics more broadly.
To what extent do social networks shape a person’s vote choice? Using data on political networks ... more To what extent do social networks shape a person’s vote choice? Using data on political networks gathered during a novel, multi-wave panel study conducted during the 2010 election cycle in the UK, we argue that although people may choose to discuss politics more often with those who hold similar political views, remaining disagreements in political discussion networks can still have a substantial impact on vote choice. Our study is the Vrst large scale, general population sample survey to track changes in an individual’s named political discussion partners over the course of an election campaign, and thus provides a unique opportunity to study the simultaneous processes of selection and inWuence in political discussion. We use these data to identify two social processes at work during the 9 months prior to the election: “selection”, or the likelihood that people choose discussion partners based on their political views, and “inWuence”, the convergence of views between discussion par...
Scholarship on the political gender gap in the US has attributed women’s political views to their... more Scholarship on the political gender gap in the US has attributed women’s political views to their greater compassion, yet has never tested such claims with direct empirical evidence. Using the only nationally representative survey to include both psychometrically validated measures of compassion with appropriate political variables, we show that women’s compassion does not help explain the gender gap in partisanship. Instead, the gap can be accounted for by gender differences in egalitarian political values. Our findings suggest that the political gender gap is not a result of women’s essentialized natures, but instead a response to the same social inequality and hierarchy that produces political divisions along lines of race, ethnicity, and other social cleavages. Authors: Scott Blinder, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Meredith Rolfe, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Massachusetts, Amherst...
Social scientists use two different methods for collecting information on the people with whom in... more Social scientists use two different methods for collecting information on the people with whom individuals discuss politics. Some surveys ask respondents to provide information about the people with whom they discuss “important matters,” while other studies ask for information specifically on the individual’s political discussants. Drawing on three of the most recently collected sources of data on this subject, we compare social network data that have been collected in these two different ways. The majority of our results show that the network data provided by survey respondents are very similar regardless of which network generator procedure is used. These results suggest that we do not consciously select specific individuals with whom to discuss politics. Instead, the individuals with whom we choose to discuss politics are the same people with whom we discuss other important matters in our lives. This finding has significant methodological and substantive implications for studies ...
... We are grateful to Indrek Seppo for help with the initial processing of ELFS data, and to Jan... more ... We are grateful to Indrek Seppo for help with the initial processing of ELFS data, and to Jane Roberts and the Roper Center for assistance with the Social Capital Benchmark Data University of Alicante University of Oxford §Tartu University 1 Page 2. (Giddings, 2002). ...
Background The vast majority of existing research on corporate reputation clearly accepts the bas... more Background The vast majority of existing research on corporate reputation clearly accepts the basic tenets of methodological individualism, or the belief that explanations must be given in terms of the individual actions and interactions that give rise to social phenomena. Thus, following DiMaggio and Powell (1983), Fombrun and his co-authors (Fombrun 1996, Rindova & Fombrun 1999, Fombrun & Rindova 2000) have described corporate reputations as aggregations of individual images of a corporation “that crystallize into reputational ...
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