Frontiers in Social and Behavioral Science features new research in the flagship journals of the Social Science Research Council’s founding disciplinary associations. Every month we publish a new selection of articles from the most recent issues of these journals, marking the rapid advance of the frontiers of social and behavioral science.

Caste identities constrain occupational choices

Field experimental evidence from rural India reveals that workers are less willing to accept job offers for tasks that conflict with their caste identities, especially for tasks associated with castes that rank lower in the social hierarchy.

Author(s)
Suanna Oh
Journal
American Economic Review
Citation
Oh, Suanna. "Does Identity Affect Labor Supply?" American Economic Review 113, no. 8 (2023): 2055-83. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20211826 Copy
Abstract

How does identity influence economic behavior in the labor market? I investigate this question in rural India, focusing on the effect of caste identity on job-specific labor supply. In a field experiment, laborers choose whether to take up various job offers, which differ in associations with specific castes. Workers are less willing to accept offers that are linked to castes other than their own, especially when those castes rank lower in the social hierarchy. Workers forgo large payments to avoid job offers that conflict with their caste identity, even when these decisions are made in private.

The Capitol riot decreased public affiliation with the Republican Party and Donald Trump

Daily panel data from a large sample of US social media users reveals that the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 caused a large-scale decrease in expressions of identification with the Republican Party and Donald Trump in Twitter biographies.

Author(s)
Gregory Eady, Frederik Hjorth, and Peter Thisted Dinesen
Journal
American Political Science Review
Citation
Eady, Gregory, Hjorth, Frederik, and Peter Thisted Dinesen. "Do Violent Protests Affect Expressions of Party Identity? Evidence from the Capitol Insurrection." American Political Science Review 117, no. 3 (August 2023): 1151 - 1157. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055422001058 Copy
Abstract

The insurrection at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, was the most dramatic contemporary manifestation of deep political polarization in the United States. Recent research shows that violent protests shape political behavior and attachments, but several questions remain unanswered. Using day-level panel data from a large sample of US social media users to track changes in the identities expressed in their Twitter biographies, we show that the Capitol insurrection caused a large-scale decrease in outward expressions of identification with the Republican Party and Donald Trump, with no indication of reidentification in the weeks that followed. This finding suggests that there are limits to party loyalty: a violent attack on democratic institutions sets boundaries on partisanship, even among avowed partisans. Furthermore, the finding that political violence can deflect copartisans carries the potential positive democratic implication that those who encourage or associate themselves with such violence pay a political cost.

Improved gender equality in the Swedish labor market

A “multiverse” approach leveraging 82,944 different definitions of income mobility and drawing on Swedish register data for cohorts born 1958 to 1977 and their parents finds that improved gender equality in the labor market has increased intergenerational persistence in women’s earnings and the household incomes of both men and women.

Author(s)
Per Engzell and Carina Mood
Journal
American Sociological Review
Citation
Engzell, Per and Carina Mood. "Understanding Patterns and Trends in Income Mobility through Multiverse Analysis." American Sociological Review 88, no. 4 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1177/00031224231180607 Copy
Abstract

Rising inequalities in rich countries have led to concerns that the economic ladder is getting harder to climb. Yet, research on trends in intergenerational income mobility finds conflicting results. To better understand this variation, we adopt a multiverse approach that estimates trends over 82,944 different definitions of income mobility, varying how and for whom income is measured. Our analysis draws on comprehensive register data for Swedish cohorts born 1958 to 1977 and their parents. We find that income mobility has declined, but for reasons neglected by previous research: improved gender equality in the labor market raises intergenerational persistence in women’s earnings and the household incomes of both men and women. Dominant theories that focus on childhood investments have blinded researchers to this development. Methodologically, we show how multiverse analysis can be used with abduction—inference to the best explanation—to improve theory-building in social science.

New methods for cluster-randomized trials

New assumption-lean methods for cluster-randomized trials enable estimation of nonparametric intent-to-treat effects as well as network effects among compilers.

Author(s)
Hyunseung Kang and Chan Park
Journal
Journal of the American Statistical Association
Citation
Kang, Hyunseung and Chan Park. "Assumption-Lean Analysis of Cluster Randomized Trials in Infectious Diseases for Intent-to-Treat Effects and Network Effects." Journal of the American Statistical Association 118, no. 542 (2023): https://doi.org/10.1080/01621459.2021.1983437 Copy
Abstract

Cluster randomized trials (CRTs) are a popular design to study the effect of interventions in infectious disease settings. However, standard analysis of CRTs primarily relies on strong parametric methods, usually mixed-effect models to account for the clustering structure, and focuses on the overall intent-to-treat (ITT) effect to evaluate effectiveness. The article presents two assumption-lean methods to analyze two types of effects in CRTs, ITT effects and network effects among well-known compliance groups. For the ITT effects, we study the overall and the heterogeneous ITT effects among the observed covariates where we do not impose parametric models or asymptotic restrictions on cluster size. For the network effects among compliance groups, we propose a new bound-based method that uses pretreatment covariates, classification algorithms, and a linear program to obtain sharp bounds. A key feature of our method is that the bounds can become narrower as the classification algorithm improves and the method may also be useful for studies of partial identification with instrumental variables. We conclude by reanalyzing a CRT studying the effect of face masks and hand sanitizers on transmission of 2008 interpandemic influenza in Hong Kong.

Explaining the persistence of ineffective cultural practices

Selective overreporting of successful predictions of fetal sex in historical Chinese texts may have contributed to the cultural persistence of ineffective sex prediction practices.

Author(s)
Ze Hong and Sergey Zinin
Journal
American Anthropologist
Citation
Hong, Ze, and Sergey Zinin. "The psychology and social dynamics of fetal sex prognostication in China: Evidence from historical data." American Anthropologist 125, no. 3 (September 2023): 519-531. https://doi.org/10.1111/aman.13848 Copy
Abstract

Fetal sex prognostication has been a common practice in many human societies, yet most of the prognosticative methods do not perform better than chance. Why do these ineffective prognostication practices recur across societies and persist for long periods of time? In this article, we use historical texts of four different genres in traditional China (oracle bone inscriptions, dynastic history, encyclopedia, and local gazetteers) to examine the social and cognitive factors that lead to the overestimation of the predictive accuracy of sex prognostication and place fetal sex prognostication into a more general framework to understand the persistence of ineffective cultural practices. In particular, we present a detailed historical analysis showing that individuals often entertain considerable uncertainty regarding the accuracy of sex prognostication and quantitative data demonstrating a significant bias toward selectively reporting successes in (fictionalized) historical texts. We conclude by discussing how such reporting bias combined with humans’ imperfect information processing may help explain the persistence of ineffective technologies, such as divination, and magic in general.

Enslaved litigants in the British colonies, 1807 – 1833

Across British colonies in the 1820s, enslaved people petitioned magistrates for redress of violations of colonial statutes prohibiting abuse, affirming the rights of the enslaved to legal status as British subjects.

Author(s)
Max Mishler
Journal
The American Historical Review
Citation
Mishler, Max. "'Improper and Almost Rebellious Conduct': Enslaved People's Legal Politics and Abolition in the British Empire." American Historical Review 128, no. 2 (June 2023): 648–684. https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhad228 Copy
Abstract

The 1833 Slavery Abolition Act provided for the gradual emancipation of eight hundred thousand human beings. It also confirmed the sovereignty of King-in-Parliament over all people residing in British dominions and resolved a long-standing dispute over whether enslaved people were private property or royal subjects entitled to legal safeguards. This debate first emerged in the late eighteenth century but acquired additional urgency following the 1807 abolition of the slave trade, when attempts to mitigate slavery through the enactment of ameliorative statutes and procedural reforms encouraged enslaved people to petition magistrates for redress in cases of abuse. Slaves vigorously defended their newly granted rights to bodily protection, sustenance, and family preservation through the instigation of legal complaints against overseers, managers, and slave owners. By the 1820s, enslaved litigants across Britain’s empire were publicly and collectively petitioning colonial magistrates to intercede on their behalf. The judicialization of quotidian battles over the terms of enslavement refashioned colonial social relations, affirmed enslaved people’s status as British subjects, and generated volumes of case files that circulated back to the metropole, where the Colonial Office cited them in critical assessments of slave law and where abolitionists used them to press for immediate emancipation. Enslaved people’s legal activism was operationally antislavery; it eroded the power of colonial enslavers and prodded Parliament to pass the 1833 Abolition Act.

Rethinking theories of child development

Evidence from three bodies of research indicates that, contrary to classic developmental theories, nonobvious and abstract concepts may be central to young children’s thoughts, with both positive and negative welfare implications.

Author(s)
Susan Gelman
Journal
American Psychologist
Citation
Gelman, Susan. "Looking beyond the obvious." American Psychologist 78, no. 5 (2023): 667–677. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0001152 Copy
Abstract

A hallmark of human cognition is the capacity to think about observable experience in ways that are nonobvious—from scientific concepts (genes, molecules) to everyday understandings (germs, soul). Where does this capacity come from, and how does it develop? I propose that, contrary to what is classically assumed, young children often extend beyond the tangible “here-and-now” to think about hidden, invisible, abstract, or nonpresent entities. I review examples from three lines of research: essentialism, generic language, and object history. These findings suggest that, in some respects, the standard developmental story may be backward: for young humans, going beyond the obvious can be easy, and sticking with the here-and-now can be a challenge. I discuss the implications for how children learn, what is basic in human thought, and how tendencies that make us so smart and sophisticated can also be sources of distortion and bias.

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