Essays
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The Others as Social Context: On the Importance of Strategic Interaction - Diekmann, Andreas
An action is defined as “strategic” when the consequences of ego's action depend on the action of alter. Situations of strategic interaction are numerous in daily life, business, and politics. Other peoples' opportunities of actions form ego's strategic context. The dynamics of the impact of the strategic context on ego's action can be modeled by means of game theory. We discuss three examples of strategic interaction models: “Diffusion of responsibility,” Boudon's “logic of relative frustration,” and the problem of social exchange and trust. We demonstrate the effects of the strategic context on the opportunities and beliefs of actors. In contrast to nonstrategic rational choice theory, beliefs and opportunities are not assumed as exogenous. The analysis of the strategic context contributes to a better understanding of the microlevel effects and the macrolevel implications. However, the strict rationality requirements of game models are often violated. In these situations, evolutionary models based on principles of learning and adaptions are more adequate than models based on assumptions of strict rationality. -
The Politically Motivated Reasoning Paradigm, Part 1: What Politically Motivated Reasoning Is and How to Measure It - Kahan, Dan M.
Recent research identifies politically motivated reasoning as the source of persistent public conflict over policy‐relevant facts. This essay, the first in a two‐part set, presents a basic conceptual model—the Politically Motivated Reasoning Paradigm—and an experimental setup—the PMRP design—geared to distinguishing the influence of PMRP from a truth‐seeking Bayesian process of information processing and from recurring biases understood to be inimical to the same. It also discusses alternative schemes for operationalizing “motivating” group predispositions and the characteristics of valid study samples for examining this phenomenon. -
The Politically Motivated Reasoning Paradigm, Part 2: Unanswered Questions - Kahan, Dan M.
This is the second in a pair of essays on politically motivated reasoning. The first presented a conceptual model of this dynamic: the “Politically Motivated Reasoning Paradigm” (PMRP). This essay uses PMRP to highlight a set of unsettled issues, including the rationality of politically motivated reasoning; the association of it with ideological conservatism; the power of monetary incentives to neutralize it; and the interaction of it with expert judgment. -
The Role of Cultural, Social, and Psychological Factors in Disease and Illness - Scott, Robert A.
Understanding the effects of social, psychological, and cultural processes on the body raises age‐old questions that remain perplexing puzzles still today. Research by biomedical, social, and behavioral scientists on the role played by these factors in causing disease and people's subjective experience of it promises to advance understanding of issues about the connections between mind and body. This essay summarizes findings from relevant areas of research, identifies the most promising lines of inquiry to date, poses questions that remain to be investigated going forward, and concludes with speculation about possible applications of existing and prospective new knowledge in health‐related and other arenas of social practice. -
The Sexual Division of Labor - Bird, Rebecca Bliege
Many evolutionary arguments fossilize a human division of labor as one of man the hunter, and woman the gatherer, with differences in labor arising out of the effectiveness of efficiency. We suggest here that arguments based solely on the efficiency of labor specialization among heterosexual married pairs over‐generalize divisions of labor that are, in reality, much more diverse. Divisions of labor can be based on age, as well as on gender, and are not limited solely to monogamous marital pairs. Divisions of gender take the form more generally not of meat and vegetables, but of the acquisition of high and low variance foods. Some differences in labor may be the result of conflicting interests, others emerging from common goals, and still others from the power of patriarchy. Differences in labor patterns may not be designed solely, or even primarily, to provision children, but may also be shaped by the social goals of both sexes. -
Trends in Street Crime and the Crime Drop - Rosenfeld, Richard
After rising for nearly three decades, rates of street crime have declined in the United States since the early 1990s. Researchers have attributed the crime swings to changes in the economy, age structure, imprisonment, and drug markets. Recent studies also highlight the role of immigration, abortion policy, and policing. A major challenge for future research on crime trends is to explain why street crime did not increase during the Great Recession of 2008–2009. National research agencies should devote attention to the question of why and how crime rates change over time.