Diplomatic Relations in a Virtual World

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Aaron Bramson ◽  
Kevin Hoefman ◽  
Koen Schoors ◽  
Jan Ryckebusch
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Balance Theory ◽  
Structural Balance ◽  
Political Alliances ◽  
Using Data

Abstract We apply variations and extensions of structural balance theory to analyze the dynamics of geopolitical relations using data from the virtual world Eve Online. The highly detailed data enable us to study the interplay of alliance size, power, and geographic proximity on the prevalence and conditional behavior of triads built from empirical political alliances. Through our analysis, we reveal the degree to which the behaviors of players conform to the predictions of structural balance theory and whether our augmentations of the theory improve these predictions. In addition to studying the time series of the proportions of triad types, we investigate the conditional changes in triad types and the formation of polarized political coalitions. We find that player behavior largely conforms to the predictions of a multipolar version of structural balance theory that separates strong and weak configurations of balanced and frustrated triads. The high degree of explanatory power of structural balance theory in this context provides strong support for both the theory and the use of virtual worlds in social science research.

scholarly journals Causality and Pleiotropy in the Association Between Bullying Victimization in Adolescence and Depressive Episodes in Adulthood

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tina Kretschmer ◽  
Felix C. Tropf ◽  
Nynke M. D. Niezink
Keyword(s):  
Causal Effect ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Cholesky Decomposition ◽  
Elevated Risk ◽  
Bullying Victimization ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Depressive Episodes ◽  
Shared Genetic

Children and adolescents who are victims or perpetrators of bullying victimization are at elevated risk for maladjustment problems, concurrently and in the long run. Previous studies suggest that this correlation is partly explained by genetic influence. However, whether the genetic correlation is independent of a causal effect of victimization on maladjustment remains unclear. Using data from 2,510 females from the TwinsUK registry, we applied an innovative extension of the Cholesky decomposition to investigate to what extent the association between victimization in adolescence and self-reported depressive episodes in adulthood is caused by shared genetic effects (pleiotropy), and to what extent it is due to a phenotypic causal relationship. We find that around 60% of the association between victimization and self-reported depressive episodes is due to a causal effect of victimization on depressive episodes, and 40% is due to pleiotropic effects. These findings underline the importance of integrating genetic information into social science research and demonstrate a neat strategy to elucidate causal mechanisms in the absence of experimental designs.

Religious Persecution in Cross-National Context: Clashing Civilizations or Regulated Religious Economies?

2007 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
pp. 633-658 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian J. Grim ◽  
Roger Finke
Keyword(s):  
Government Regulation ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Social Regulation ◽  
Clash Of Civilizations ◽  
Religious Persecution ◽  
Religious Economies ◽  
Role Of Religion

Despite the high visibility of religiously charged international social conflicts, the unique role of religion often is overlooked in social science research and theory. Some studies ignore religion, others conflate religion with other identities. Virtually all lack adequate data. We respond to these deficiencies by testing a theory-driven model of a particular form of social conflict, religious persecution. We investigate the proposition that religious regulation leads to religious persecution. Using measures coded from the 2003 International Religious Freedom Reports, we consider how both social regulation and government regulation of religion in 143 countries affect the level of religious persecution. We also consider and test competing hypotheses, particularly Huntington's clash-of-civilizations thesis. We find strong support for the religious economies arguments and only limited support for the clash-of-civilizations thesis and other competing arguments.

scholarly journals Does Self-Assessed Health Reflect the True Health State?

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (21) ◽  
pp. 11153
Author(s):  
Pavitra PAUL ◽  
Ulrich NGUEMDJO ◽  
Natalia KOVTUN ◽  
Bruno VENTELOU
Keyword(s):  
Population Health ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Probit Model ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Perceived Health ◽  
Health State ◽  
Repeated Response ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Self Assessed Health

Self-assessed health (SAH) is a widely used tool to estimate population health. However, the debate continues as to what exactly this ubiquitous measure of social science research means for policy conclusions. This study is aimed at understanding the tenability of the construct of SAH by simultaneously modelling SAH and clinical morbidity. Using data from 17 waves (2001–2017) of the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey, which captures repeated response for SAH and frequently updates information on clinical morbidity, we operationalise a recursive semi-ordered probit model. Our approach allows for the estimation of the distributional effect of clinical morbidity on perceived health. This study establishes the superiority of inferences from the recursive model. We illustrated the model use for examining the endogeneity problem of perceived health for SAH, contributing to population health research and public policy development, in particular, towards the organisation of health systems.

scholarly journals Testing two theories for generating signed networks using real data

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Doreian ◽  
Andrej Mrvar
Keyword(s):  
Strong Support ◽  
Real Data ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Comparative Test ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Balance Theory ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Structural Balance ◽  
Psychological Theories

Multiple social processes generate social network structures. We use relaxed structural balance, a generalization of classic structural balance, to facilitate a direct comparative test of two social psychological theories regarding network generation. One is structural balance theory. The other concerns differential popularity. These theories predict distinctive signed blockmodels. We use two well known empirical temporal signed data sets presenting an opportunity for comparing the two theories in terms of their predictions about blockmodel representations of these networks. The results provide strong support for differential popularity, differential disliking, and mutual disliking within a subset of actors. While there is evidence that structural balance was also operating, it seems the lesser process for the data used in these tests. We also examine the unequal distributions of receiving positive and negative ties. Both tend to become more unequal over time. Suggestions for future research are provided.

scholarly journals Predicting Layoff among Fragile Families

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 237802311880975 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caitlin E. Ahearn ◽  
Jennie E. Brand
Keyword(s):  
Data Science ◽  
Prediction Models ◽  
Social Process ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Fragile Families ◽  
Psychological Consequences ◽  
Exogenous Shock ◽  
Economic Role ◽  
Using Data

The loss of a job is the loss of a major social and economic role and is associated with long-term negative economic and psychological consequences for workers and families. Modeling the causal effects of a social process like layoff with observational data depends crucially on the degree to which the model accounts for the characteristics that predict loss. We report analyses predicting layoff in the Fragile Families data as part of the Fragile Families Challenge. Our model, grounded in empirical social science research on layoff, did not perform substantially worse than the best-performing model using data science techniques. This result is not fully unforeseen, given that layoff functions as a relatively exogenous shock. Future work using the results of the Challenge should attend to whether small improvements in prediction models, like those we observe across models of layoff, nevertheless significantly increase the validity of subsequent models for causal inference.

scholarly journals On the Relationship between My Avatar and Myself

1970 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul R Messinger ◽  
Xin Ge ◽  
Eleni Stroulia ◽  
Kelly Lyons ◽  
Kristen Smirnov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Real World ◽  
Second Life ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
The Real ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Relationship

What is the relationship between avatars and the people they represent in terms of appearance and behavior? In this paper, we hypothesize that people (balancing motives of self-verification and self-enhancement) customize the image of their avatars to bear similarity to their real selves, but with moderate enhancements. We also hypothesize that virtual-world behavior (due to deindividuation in computer-mediated communication environments) is less restrained by normal inhibitions than real-world behavior. Lastly, we hypothesize that people with more attractive avatars than their real selves will be somewhat more confident and extraverted in virtual worlds than they are in the real world. We examine these issues using data collected from Second Life residents using an in-world intercept method that involved recruiting respondents’ avatars from a representative sample of locations. Our quantitative data indicate that, on average, people report making their avatars similar to themselves, but somewhat more attractive. And, compared to real-world behavior, respondents indicate that their virtual-world behavior is more outgoing and risk-taking and less thoughtful/more superficial. Finally, people with avatars more attractive than their real selves state that they are more outgoing, extraverted, risk-taking, and loud than their real selves (particularly if they reported being relatively low on these traits in the real world). Qualitative data from open-ended questions corroborate our hypotheses.

A social science data-fusion tool and the Data Management through e-Social Science (DAMES) infrastructure

2010 ◽  
Vol 368 (1925) ◽  
pp. 3859-3873 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guy C. Warner ◽  
Jesse M. Blum ◽  
Simon B. Jones ◽  
Paul S. Lambert ◽  
Kenneth J. Turner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Data Fusion ◽  
Data Management ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Science Data ◽  
Project Approach ◽  
Computing Power ◽  
Social Science Data ◽  
Using Data

The last two decades have seen substantially increased potential for quantitative social science research. This has been made possible by the significant expansion of publicly available social science datasets, the development of new analytical methodologies, such as microsimulation, and increases in computing power. These rich resources do, however, bring with them substantial challenges associated with organizing and using data. These processes are often referred to as ‘data management’. The Data Management through e-Social Science (DAMES) project is working to support activities of data management for social science research. This paper describes the DAMES infrastructure, focusing on the data-fusion process that is central to the project approach. It covers: the background and requirements for provision of resources by DAMES; the use of grid technologies to provide easy-to-use tools and user front-ends for several common social science data-management tasks such as data fusion; the approach taken to solve problems related to data resources and metadata relevant to social science applications; and the implementation of the architecture that has been designed to achieve this infrastructure.

scholarly journals RACE AS LIVED EXPERIENCE

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 349-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
John A. Garcia ◽  
Gabriel R. Sanchez ◽  
Shannon Sanchez-Youngman ◽  
Edward D. Vargas ◽  
Vickie D. Ybarra
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Skin Color ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Dominant Factor ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Multiple Measures ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Reported Health

AbstractA growing body of social science research has sought to conceptualize race as a multi-dimensional concept in which context, societal relations, and institutional dynamics are key components. Utilizing a specially-designed survey, we develop and use multiple measures of race (skin color, ascribed race, and discrimination experiences) to capture race as a “lived experience” and assess these measures’ impact on Latinos’ self-rated health status. We model these measures of race as lived experience to test the explanatory power of race, both independently and as an integrated scale, with categorical regression, scaling, and dimensional analyses. Our analyses show that our multiple measures of race have significant and negative effects on Latinos’ self-reported health. Skin color is a dominant factor that impacts self-reported health both directly and indirectly. We then advocate for the utilization of multiple measures of race, adding to those used in our analysis, and their application to research regarding inequities in other health and social outcomes. Our analysis provides important contributions to research across a wide range of health, illness, social, and political disparities for communities of color.

scholarly journals The Role of Individual Officer Characteristics in Police Shootings

2020 ◽  
Vol 687 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Greg Ridgeway
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Police Department ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Using Data

Assessing whether individual characteristics of police officers such as age, race, and prior performance influence police behavior has been a long-standing topic of social science research. The effect of officer characteristics on their risk of shooting people is confounded by police assignments and by the environmental factors associated with those assignments. This article provides a method to separate out the influence of individual officer characteristics from environmental factors. Using data from the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and the Major Cities’ Chiefs Association (MCCA), the analysis finds that police officers who join the NYPD later in their careers have a lower shooting risk: for each additional year of their recruitment age, the odds of being shooters declines by 10 percent. Both officer race and prior problem behavior (e.g., losing a firearm, crashing a department vehicle) predict up to three times greater odds of shooting, yet officers who made numerous misdemeanor arrests were four times less likely to shoot.

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