Pub Date : 2025-11-17DOI: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103281
Austin Horng-En Wang , Darrell Carter , Naseem Benjelloun , Dhritiman Banerjee , Sydney Cervantes
Polls reveal an increasing ideological polarization in recent decades, which is attributed to polarizing die-hard partisans. However, mainstream measures on polarization, including mean difference and overlap measures, ignore how moderates may indirectly contribute to polarization by leaving or (re)joining parties. This article mathematically distinguishes how partisans and nonpartisans contribute to polarization, respectively. The revised measures apply to four panel surveys: ANES1992-1996 (n = 588), ANES1994-1996 (n = 1302), ANES2000-2002 (n = 412), and ANES2016-2020 (n = 1977). The result shows that loyal partisans only account for 5% – 50% of the overall changes in ideological polarization we observed previously, and the remains are explained by detaching nonpartisans and newcoming partisans, who are usually ideologically moderates. The results and new measures offer insights into examining the heterogeneity of polarizations and help form new strategies for dealing with polarization.
{"title":"Polarized by moderates","authors":"Austin Horng-En Wang , Darrell Carter , Naseem Benjelloun , Dhritiman Banerjee , Sydney Cervantes","doi":"10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103281","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103281","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Polls reveal an increasing ideological polarization in recent decades, which is attributed to polarizing die-hard partisans. However, mainstream measures on polarization, including mean difference and overlap measures, ignore how moderates may indirectly contribute to polarization by leaving or (re)joining parties. This article mathematically distinguishes how partisans and nonpartisans contribute to polarization, respectively. The revised measures apply to four panel surveys: ANES1992-1996 (n = 588), ANES1994-1996 (n = 1302), ANES2000-2002 (n = 412), and ANES2016-2020 (n = 1977). The result shows that loyal partisans only account for 5% – 50% of the overall changes in ideological polarization we observed previously, and the remains are explained by detaching nonpartisans and newcoming partisans, who are usually ideologically moderates. The results and new measures offer insights into examining the heterogeneity of polarizations and help form new strategies for dealing with polarization.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48338,"journal":{"name":"Social Science Research","volume":"134 ","pages":"Article 103281"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2025-11-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145580001","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-15DOI: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103282
Paweł Matuszewski , Michał Rams-Ługowski
Political conspiracy theories (CTs) pose serious risks to democratic institutions, social trust, and policymaking. While prior research has examined the psychological, cultural, or network-structural correlates of conspiracy beliefs, the social mechanisms underlying their active transmission within online networks remain insufficiently understood. This study offers empirical application of Rogers’s diffusion of innovations theory to conspiracy theory transmission, providing a dynamic account of how individuals adopt, continue, or discontinue sharing such content. Drawing on nearly 15 million tweets, retweets, replies, and quotations produced or encountered by 98 politically active Polish X (formerly Twitter) accounts over 15 months, we investigate how network exposure shape CT diffusion. Using Bayesian unordered categorical regression and network data, we examined the conditions under which these accounts acted as CT spreaders, non-spreaders, converted spreaders, and converted non-spreaders. The results indicate that the proportion of CT-spreading nodes in an account’s immediate network, rather than their absolute number, is the strongest predictor of CT transmission. Even a small fraction (1–5 %) of conspiracy theorists in one’s network significantly increases the likelihood of spreading such content. Contrary to classic diffusion theories, single-contact ties proved more influential than reinforcement from repeated-contact ties in spreading CT content. This result challenges the conventional wisdom in network diffusion theory, suggesting that even complex contagions like conspiracy sharing may spread via minimal reinforcement under certain conditions.
{"title":"Social influence and network structure: How conspiracy theories spread on social media","authors":"Paweł Matuszewski , Michał Rams-Ługowski","doi":"10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103282","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103282","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Political conspiracy theories (CTs) pose serious risks to democratic institutions, social trust, and policymaking. While prior research has examined the psychological, cultural, or network-structural correlates of conspiracy beliefs, the social mechanisms underlying their active transmission within online networks remain insufficiently understood. This study offers empirical application of Rogers’s diffusion of innovations theory to conspiracy theory transmission, providing a dynamic account of how individuals adopt, continue, or discontinue sharing such content. Drawing on nearly 15 million tweets, retweets, replies, and quotations produced or encountered by 98 politically active Polish X (formerly Twitter) accounts over 15 months, we investigate how network exposure shape CT diffusion. Using Bayesian unordered categorical regression and network data, we examined the conditions under which these accounts acted as CT spreaders, non-spreaders, converted spreaders, and converted non-spreaders. The results indicate that the proportion of CT-spreading nodes in an account’s immediate network, rather than their absolute number, is the strongest predictor of CT transmission. Even a small fraction (1–5 %) of conspiracy theorists in one’s network significantly increases the likelihood of spreading such content. Contrary to classic diffusion theories, single-contact ties proved more influential than reinforcement from repeated-contact ties in spreading CT content. This result challenges the conventional wisdom in network diffusion theory, suggesting that even complex contagions like conspiracy sharing may spread via minimal reinforcement under certain conditions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48338,"journal":{"name":"Social Science Research","volume":"133 ","pages":"Article 103282"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2025-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145520425","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-15DOI: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103284
Xingyu Luo , Peipei Zhai , Xiaojun Sun , Gengfeng Niu
The pervasive notion that “the poor are warm but incompetent, and the rich are competent but cold” represents a prevalent social class stereotype. However, different theoretical views and empirical findings exist on this notion, which varies between inter- and intra-class perspectives and across cultures. Against this backdrop, this study employs an innovative research method (Fill-Mask Association Test, FMAT) to examine social class stereotypes in English and Chinese languages from inter- and intra-class perspectives. A total of 12 English and eight Chinese pretrained bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT) models were used to test the research questions. Results found no evidence of ambivalent stereotypes between social classes in either English or Chinese contexts. The rich were perceived as more competent and warmer than the poor, and the Chinese language reflected a more polarized view of warmth and competence across socioeconomic status groups than the English language. Additionally, a within-class stereotype emerged in which the rich were viewed as more competent than warm. These findings shed light on social class stereotypes in real-world textual contexts.
“穷人热情但无能，富人有能力但冷漠”这一普遍的观念代表了一种普遍的社会阶层刻板印象。然而，关于这一概念存在不同的理论观点和实证结果，在阶级间和阶级内以及不同文化之间存在差异。在此背景下，本研究采用了一种创新的研究方法（Fill-Mask Association Test， FMAT），从阶级间和阶级内的角度考察了英汉两种语言中的社会阶级刻板印象。共使用12个英文和8个中文预训练的双向编码器表示（BERT）模型来测试研究问题。结果发现，无论在英语还是汉语语境中，社会阶层之间都没有矛盾的刻板印象。富人被认为比穷人更有能力、更热情，而汉语在社会经济地位群体中反映出的热情和能力的观点比英语更为两极分化。此外，还出现了一种阶级内部的刻板印象，即富人被认为更有能力，而不是更热情。这些发现揭示了现实世界语境中的社会阶层刻板印象。
{"title":"Compensation or concordance between warmth and competence: Examining social class stereotypes in English and Chinese languages using natural language","authors":"Xingyu Luo , Peipei Zhai , Xiaojun Sun , Gengfeng Niu","doi":"10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103284","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103284","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The pervasive notion that “the poor are warm but incompetent, and the rich are competent but cold” represents a prevalent social class stereotype. However, different theoretical views and empirical findings exist on this notion, which varies between inter- and intra-class perspectives and across cultures. Against this backdrop, this study employs an innovative research method (Fill-Mask Association Test, FMAT) to examine social class stereotypes in English and Chinese languages from inter- and intra-class perspectives. A total of 12 English and eight Chinese pretrained bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT) models were used to test the research questions. Results found no evidence of ambivalent stereotypes between social classes in either English or Chinese contexts. The rich were perceived as more competent and warmer than the poor, and the Chinese language reflected a more polarized view of warmth and competence across socioeconomic status groups than the English language. Additionally, a within-class stereotype emerged in which the rich were viewed as more competent than warm. These findings shed light on social class stereotypes in real-world textual contexts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48338,"journal":{"name":"Social Science Research","volume":"134 ","pages":"Article 103284"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2025-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145528117","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-14DOI: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103280
Feinian Chen , Weixiang Luo
Using newly available data from the Chinese Private Life Survey, we examine the association between marital infidelity and assortative mating patterns within the context of China's evolving marital landscape, where educational homogamy (HW) becomes the norm but income hypergamy (H > W) still prevails. Our findings reveal a nuanced interplay of resources, status, and dependency within a highly gendered environment. Specifically, we observe that men display varying levels of marital infidelity risk based on their educational matching. Men in educational homogamous relationships exhibit the lowest risk, while those in educational hypergamous unions show increased risk. Conversely, men in educational hypogamous relationships (H < W) exhibit the highest likelihood of committing infidelity. Furthermore, this association is heavily influenced by relative income. For men in educational hypogamy, which represents a departure from traditional patriarchal norms, higher relative income amplifies infidelity risk while lower relative income diminishes it. Our study underscores the evolving and asymmetric nature of gender power dynamics within China's shifting marriage institution.
{"title":"The role of assortative mating in marital infidelity: Insights from China","authors":"Feinian Chen , Weixiang Luo","doi":"10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103280","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103280","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Using newly available data from the Chinese Private Life Survey, we examine the association between marital infidelity and assortative mating patterns within the context of China's evolving marital landscape, where educational homogamy (H<img>W) becomes the norm but income hypergamy (H > W) still prevails. Our findings reveal a nuanced interplay of resources, status, and dependency within a highly gendered environment. Specifically, we observe that men display varying levels of marital infidelity risk based on their educational matching. Men in educational homogamous relationships exhibit the lowest risk, while those in educational hypergamous unions show increased risk. Conversely, men in educational hypogamous relationships (H < W) exhibit the highest likelihood of committing infidelity. Furthermore, this association is heavily influenced by relative income. For men in educational hypogamy, which represents a departure from traditional patriarchal norms, higher relative income amplifies infidelity risk while lower relative income diminishes it. Our study underscores the evolving and asymmetric nature of gender power dynamics within China's shifting marriage institution.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48338,"journal":{"name":"Social Science Research","volume":"133 ","pages":"Article 103280"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2025-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145520424","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-10-28DOI: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103275
Bastian Mönkediek, Martin Diewald
Parental involvement in school is often highlighted as being part of the transmission belt through which unequal parental homes influence children's school performance, passing on advantages and disadvantages. However, particularly genetically informed studies have cast doubt on the causality of these associations. This paper examines several pathways of how gene-environment correlation and interaction may contribute to only spurious correlation between parental involvement in school and child's school grades. Our analysis is based on the first two waves of the German Twin Family Panel (TwinLife). We relate child-reported parental school involvement when the twins were 10–12 years old (2056 twins born 2003/2004) to their math and German grades at the same age and two years later. There was little evidence that differences in child-reported parental involvement in school contribute directly to differences in school grades. Associations found were mainly driven by environmental confounding. In contrast, concerns that observed associations could be due to genetic confounding were not confirmed. However, we found robust evidence for parental involvement moderating the effects of other facets of the environment shared by siblings on school grades. Although parental involvement did in most cases not have direct effects on school performance, our research adds another viewpoint on how parental involvement, SES and performance are related: The influence of certain facets of SES on school performance might vary by levels of parental involvement. Moreover, our results highlight the need to differentiate between dimensions of parental involvement and school subjects when studying the link between parenting behaviors and school performance.
{"title":"Does parental involvement in school affect children's school performance?","authors":"Bastian Mönkediek, Martin Diewald","doi":"10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103275","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103275","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Parental involvement in school is often highlighted as being part of the transmission belt through which unequal parental homes influence children's school performance, passing on advantages and disadvantages. However, particularly genetically informed studies have cast doubt on the causality of these associations. This paper examines several pathways of how gene-environment correlation and interaction may contribute to only spurious correlation between parental involvement in school and child's school grades. Our analysis is based on the first two waves of the German Twin Family Panel (TwinLife). We relate child-reported parental school involvement when the twins were 10–12 years old (2056 twins born 2003/2004) to their math and German grades at the same age and two years later. There was little evidence that differences in child-reported parental involvement in school contribute directly to differences in school grades. Associations found were mainly driven by environmental confounding. In contrast, concerns that observed associations could be due to genetic confounding were not confirmed. However, we found robust evidence for parental involvement moderating the effects of other facets of the environment shared by siblings on school grades. Although parental involvement did in most cases not have direct effects on school performance, our research adds another viewpoint on how parental involvement, SES and performance are related: The influence of certain facets of SES on school performance might vary by levels of parental involvement. Moreover, our results highlight the need to differentiate between dimensions of parental involvement and school subjects when studying the link between parenting behaviors and school performance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48338,"journal":{"name":"Social Science Research","volume":"133 ","pages":"Article 103275"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2025-10-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145418119","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-10-27DOI: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103279
Shu Hu , Xiaorong Gu
This paper investigates changes in the parental role in family formation in contemporary China. Existing studies often focus narrowly on spouse search or are limited to specific historical periods or locations. Expanding the intergenerational contract framework, we adopt a multidimensional approach that examines both parental influence over spouse choice and monetary support after marriage. Using data from the 2006 and 2017 Chinese General Social Survey, we construct marriage cohorts reflecting China's major social, political, and economic transitions to chart parental involvement in family formation over seven decades. We find a temporary decline in parental influence during the reform era of rapid modernization. Rather than a linear progression toward youth autonomy and independence, we observe lingering parental influence over spouse choice and deepening parental monetary support after marriage, particularly among those married in the 2010s. In addition, gender, hukou status, only child status, and father's education are significant predictors of parental monetary support. In the newly negotiated intergenerational contract, parents selectively retreat from or advance in different aspects of family formation, in response to modernization forces, China's familist culture, and the necessity of intergenerational interdependence in an increasingly neoliberal economy. The continued and divergent roles of parents in family formation have important implications for understanding generational dynamics within families and the reproduction of social inequality.
{"title":"Between autonomy and interdependence: The changing parental role in adult children's family formation in China","authors":"Shu Hu , Xiaorong Gu","doi":"10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103279","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103279","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper investigates changes in the parental role in family formation in contemporary China. Existing studies often focus narrowly on spouse search or are limited to specific historical periods or locations. Expanding the intergenerational contract framework, we adopt a multidimensional approach that examines both parental influence over spouse choice and monetary support after marriage. Using data from the 2006 and 2017 Chinese General Social Survey, we construct marriage cohorts reflecting China's major social, political, and economic transitions to chart parental involvement in family formation over seven decades. We find a temporary decline in parental influence during the reform era of rapid modernization. Rather than a linear progression toward youth autonomy and independence, we observe lingering parental influence over spouse choice and deepening parental monetary support after marriage, particularly among those married in the 2010s. In addition, gender, <em>hukou</em> status, only child status, and father's education are significant predictors of parental monetary support. In the newly negotiated intergenerational contract, parents selectively retreat from or advance in different aspects of family formation, in response to modernization forces, China's familist culture, and the necessity of intergenerational interdependence in an increasingly neoliberal economy. The continued and divergent roles of parents in family formation have important implications for understanding generational dynamics within families and the reproduction of social inequality.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48338,"journal":{"name":"Social Science Research","volume":"133 ","pages":"Article 103279"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2025-10-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145418118","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-10-25DOI: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103276
Yi Zhang , Xiaogang Wu
Public housing is recognized for changing the neighborhood socioeconomic landscape. In this study, we investigate the impact of public housing projects on the neighborhood socioeconomic composition in Hong Kong, an affluent city characterized by economic inequality and social divide. By employing a two-way fixed effects model on data that combines neighborhood census and administrative records, we identify that the share and count of low-income households increased with additional public housing projects in the neighborhoods. Conversely, we observe crowding out effects on high-income households due to public housing projects. Such associations are stronger in neighborhoods with higher initial economic status. Moreover, the effect on neighborhood composition is only evident for new public housing projects, whereas renewed public housing projects had little impact. The study contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the effects of public housing on neighborhoods and offers insights into designing public housing policies in a comparative perspective.
{"title":"Public housing and neighborhood composition in Hong Kong, 1981–2016","authors":"Yi Zhang , Xiaogang Wu","doi":"10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103276","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103276","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Public housing is recognized for changing the neighborhood socioeconomic landscape. In this study, we investigate the impact of public housing projects on the neighborhood socioeconomic composition in Hong Kong, an affluent city characterized by economic inequality and social divide. By employing a two-way fixed effects model on data that combines neighborhood census and administrative records, we identify that the share and count of low-income households increased with additional public housing projects in the neighborhoods. Conversely, we observe crowding out effects on high-income households due to public housing projects. Such associations are stronger in neighborhoods with higher initial economic status. Moreover, the effect on neighborhood composition is only evident for new public housing projects, whereas renewed public housing projects had little impact. The study contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the effects of public housing on neighborhoods and offers insights into designing public housing policies in a comparative perspective.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48338,"journal":{"name":"Social Science Research","volume":"133 ","pages":"Article 103276"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2025-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145363803","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-10-23DOI: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103262
Katharina Stückradt , Bram Lancee , Valentina Di Stasio
This study examines hiring managers' (i.e., employees with hiring responsibilities) support for hiring policies aimed at increasing diversity. Research has shown that some policies are more helpful in combating discrimination and increasing diversity than others, but we do not know whether those who apply the policies support them. This is surprising, because hiring managers' support for diversity policies is important for the successful implementation of policies. We discuss three motives underlying policy support: the desire for diversity, the goal of meritocratic hiring, and the maintenance of agency. Using data from an original conjoint experiment collected in the Netherlands (N = 512 individuals), we examine the extent to which hiring managers support diversity policies, whether they prefer other hiring policies, or if they favor the absence of regulations altogether. We find that, rather than policies that increase organizational diversity, hiring managers support policies that preserve their autonomy while maintaining established organizational policies. Marginal means analyses and multilevel regression models show that policy support aligns most strongly with the agency motive alongside concerns about fairness and merit-based selection. Hiring managers prefer an unstructured screening process and are reluctant to support hiring quota and the use of standardized or anonymous application forms. These preferences are particularly pronounced in smaller organizations and where little to no formalized hiring policies are in place. Our findings highlight the need for organizations to address hiring managers' complex motivational concerns, including desires for autonomy, fairness, and status quo maintenance, to ensure effective policy implementation.
{"title":"Doing diversity? Analyzing support for diversity policies with a conjoint experiment","authors":"Katharina Stückradt , Bram Lancee , Valentina Di Stasio","doi":"10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103262","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103262","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines hiring managers' (i.e., employees with hiring responsibilities) support for hiring policies aimed at increasing diversity. Research has shown that some policies are more helpful in combating discrimination and increasing diversity than others, but we do not know whether those who apply the policies support them. This is surprising, because hiring managers' support for diversity policies is important for the successful implementation of policies. We discuss three motives underlying policy support: the desire for diversity, the goal of meritocratic hiring, and the maintenance of agency. Using data from an original conjoint experiment collected in the Netherlands (N = 512 individuals), we examine the extent to which hiring managers support diversity policies, whether they prefer other hiring policies, or if they favor the absence of regulations altogether. We find that, rather than policies that increase organizational diversity, hiring managers support policies that preserve their autonomy while maintaining established organizational policies. Marginal means analyses and multilevel regression models show that policy support aligns most strongly with the agency motive alongside concerns about fairness and merit-based selection. Hiring managers prefer an unstructured screening process and are reluctant to support hiring quota and the use of standardized or anonymous application forms. These preferences are particularly pronounced in smaller organizations and where little to no formalized hiring policies are in place. Our findings highlight the need for organizations to address hiring managers' complex motivational concerns, including desires for autonomy, fairness, and status quo maintenance, to ensure effective policy implementation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48338,"journal":{"name":"Social Science Research","volume":"133 ","pages":"Article 103262"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2025-10-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145363804","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-10-22DOI: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103263
Samuel H. Kye , Thalia Tom
While demographers and policymakers have long documented the economic consequences of U.S. “brain drain” and “brain gain,” efforts to address these issues have rested on two key assumptions. First, existing accounts tend to view educational segregation as being driven by differences in the college-educated population found between broader-scaled entities (e.g., “winner” and “loser” cities that anchor metros). Second, it is often assumed that educational segregation is primarily driven by the exodus of human capital from rural, predominantly white communities. However, these assumptions neglect a longstanding body of sociological literature on residential segregation and neighborhood-level sorting. In this article, we use Census and American Community Survey (ACS) data and adopt a decomposition approach to test these assumptions directly. In contrast to the expectations associated with brain drain and brain gain perspectives, our results indicate that educational segregation is almost entirely attributable to neighborhood-level differences found in metropolitan areas, stemming especially from the relative differences between Black and Hispanic communities and their white and Asian counterparts. This indicates that existing policy prescriptions for addressing educational segregation may overlook the people and places most affected by these issues. Overall, our findings provide insight into a seldom studied axis of residential stratification and suggest that the forces shaping educational segregation are more complex than previously appreciated, laying the foundation for future research.
{"title":"What drives educational segregation and which communities are affected? Findings from a decomposition approach","authors":"Samuel H. Kye , Thalia Tom","doi":"10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103263","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103263","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>While demographers and policymakers have long documented the economic consequences of U.S. “brain drain” and “brain gain,” efforts to address these issues have rested on two key assumptions. First, existing accounts tend to view educational segregation as being driven by differences in the college-educated population found between broader-scaled entities (e.g., “winner” and “loser” cities that anchor metros). Second, it is often assumed that educational segregation is primarily driven by the exodus of human capital from rural, predominantly white communities. However, these assumptions neglect a longstanding body of sociological literature on residential segregation and neighborhood-level sorting. In this article, we use Census and American Community Survey (ACS) data and adopt a decomposition approach to test these assumptions directly. In contrast to the expectations associated with brain drain and brain gain perspectives, our results indicate that educational segregation is almost entirely attributable to neighborhood-level differences found in metropolitan areas, stemming especially from the relative differences between Black and Hispanic communities and their white and Asian counterparts. This indicates that existing policy prescriptions for addressing educational segregation may overlook the people and places most affected by these issues. Overall, our findings provide insight into a seldom studied axis of residential stratification and suggest that the forces shaping educational segregation are more complex than previously appreciated, laying the foundation for future research.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48338,"journal":{"name":"Social Science Research","volume":"133 ","pages":"Article 103263"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2025-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145363805","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-10-21DOI: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103272
Riccardo Valente , Sergi Vidal
Early-life relocations are often linked to developmental disruptions and poorer psychological outcomes. While their long-term implications are typically attributed to the frequency of residential moves, the role of social class changes accompanying those moves remains underexplored. To address this gap, we examine whether combined patterns of residential and social class mobility during childhood associate with adolescent locus of control at age 16 – the belief that one's outcomes are influenced by personal agency – and, in turn, adult mental health at age 34. Using five waves of the 1970 British Cohort Study, following participants from birth through 2004, we apply delta-adjusted inverse probability weighted mediation models to account for attrition and non-random missingness. We find that frequent moves are not inherently harmful. Instead, negative consequences primarily emerge when mobility is accompanied by downward class mobility within the family context. Conversely, moderate residential change in the context of upward class movement is connected to a stronger internal locus of control in adolescence and better mental health later in life. These associations hold independently of baseline socio-economic status. A complementary test of moves into South-East England – characterised as an ‘escalator’ region – yields similar results to those for upward social mobility, underscoring the role of opportunity structures in shaping psychological trajectories. Our findings emphasise the value of contextualising residential mobility within broader life-course trajectories and point to locus of control as a key mechanism linking early instability to later inequality.
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