scholarly journals The Effects of Provincial and Individual Religiosity on Deviance in China: A Multilevel Modeling Test of the Moral Community Thesis

Author(s):  
Xiuhua Wang ◽  
Sung Joon Jang

This paper examines the moral community thesis in the secular context of China. Using multilevel logistic regression, we test (1) whether both individual- (measured by affiliation with institutional religion) and aggregate-level religiosity (measured by the number of religious sites per 10,000 people in province) are inversely related to law and rule violations at the individual level and (2) whether the province-level religiosity enhances the inverse relationship between individual religiosity and the deviant behaviors. Results from analyzing data from the 2010 China General Social Survey and the Spatial Explorer of Religions show that both individual- and aggregate-level religiosity are inversely related to the odds of violating the law and various rules of government, transportation, workplace, and other organizations. However, the cross-level interactions are not significant across models, indicating that the contextual religiosity does not increase the effect of individual-level religiosity on deviance. Implications of findings for the moral community thesis are discussed.

2008 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 433-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER K. ENNS ◽  
PAUL M. KELLSTEDT

This article presents evidence that both micro (individual level) and macro (aggregate level) theories of public opinion overstate the importance of political sophistication for opinion change. It is argued that even the least politically sophisticated segment of society receives messages about the economy and uses this information to update attitudes about political issues. To test this hypothesis, the authors have used General Social Survey data to construct a 31-item measure of policy mood, disaggregated by political sophistication, that spans from 1972 to 2004. They found that all the subgroups generally changed opinion at the same time, in the same direction, and to about the same extent. Furthermore, they show that groups at different sophistication levels change opinions for predominantly the same reasons.


2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (6) ◽  
pp. 766-793 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaun Bowler

A large body of aggregate-level work shows that government policies do indeed respond to citizen preferences. But whether citizens recognize that government is responsive is another question entirely. Indeed, a prior question is whether or not citizens value responsiveness in the way that academic research assumes they should in the first place. Using comparative data from the European Social Survey, this article examines how citizens see government responsiveness. We show that several key assumptions of the aggregate-level literature are met at the individual level. But we also present results that show that attitudes toward representation and responsiveness are colored, sometimes in quite surprising ways, by winner–loser effects. In a finding that stands in some contrast to the normative literature on the topic, we show that these sorts of short-term attitudes help shape preferences for models of representation. In particular, we show that the distinction between delegates and trustees is a conceptual distinction that has limits in helping us to understand citizen preferences for representation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (9) ◽  
pp. 1561-1572 ◽  
Author(s):  
Runxi Zeng ◽  
Yanchao Chen ◽  
Huajun Li

We examined which factors promote Chinese citizens' participation in collective action at the individual level. Using data from the 2010 China General Social Survey, we applied logistic regression analysis to explore the relationships between unfair experience, interests involved, political efficacy, and the likelihood of participation in collective action. Results showed that people who have experienced unfair treatment from the government are more likely than other people are to participate in collective action. If people think that collective action is closely related to their own interests, they are more likely to participate than are those who do not think so. Also, people with high internal political efficacy are more likely to participate in collective action than are those with low internal political efficacy. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
pp. 816-826 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gilad Feldman ◽  
Huiwen Lian ◽  
Michal Kosinski ◽  
David Stillwell

There are two conflicting perspectives regarding the relationship between profanity and dishonesty. These two forms of norm-violating behavior share common causes and are often considered to be positively related. On the other hand, however, profanity is often used to express one’s genuine feelings and could therefore be negatively related to dishonesty. In three studies, we explored the relationship between profanity and honesty. We examined profanity and honesty first with profanity behavior and lying on a scale in the lab (Study 1; N = 276), then with a linguistic analysis of real-life social interactions on Facebook (Study 2; N = 73,789), and finally with profanity and integrity indexes for the aggregate level of U.S. states (Study 3; N = 50 states). We found a consistent positive relationship between profanity and honesty; profanity was associated with less lying and deception at the individual level and with higher integrity at the society level.


2021 ◽  
pp. 089976402110573
Author(s):  
Zhiming Liu ◽  
Haiwei Jia

In this article, we extend Wilson and Musick’s concept of cultural capital, which was defined as the culture of benevolence, to a multilevel concept and build a multilevel cultural capital theory about individual (nonmandatory) volunteering based on religious beliefs, political values, belief in social justice, and belief in social trust in the context of volunteering in China. Data from the 2012 Chinese General Social Survey, China’s national and comprehensive large-scale social survey project, are used to empirically investigate the influences of individual-level cultural capital (values of benevolence) and contextual-level cultural capital (cultural climate of benevolence) on individual volunteering. In terms of individual-level cultural capital, membership in the Chinese Communist Party (China’s ruling party), belief in social justice, and belief in social trust have significant positive relationships with individual volunteering. In terms of contextual-level cultural capital, the religious climate and justice climate in a province have significant positive effects on individual volunteering.


1980 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 516-523 ◽  
Author(s):  
William L. Moore

Two segmented methods of performing conjoint anal/sis, clustered and componential segmentation, are compared with each other as well as with individual level and totally aggregate level analyses. The two segmented methods provide insights to the data that (1) are not obtainable at the aggregate level and (2) are in a form that is more easily communicated than the information from the individual level analysis. The predictive power of the clustered segmentation method is higher than that of componential segmentation, and both are superior to the aggregate analysis but inferior to individual level analysis.


2019 ◽  
pp. 004912411987596
Author(s):  
Tim Futing Liao

In common sociological research, income inequality is measured only at the aggregate level. The main purpose of this article is to demonstrate that there is more than meets the eye when inequality is indicated by a single measure. In this article, I introduce an alternative method that evaluates individuals’ contributions to inequality as well as the between-group and within-group components of these individual contributions. I first highlight three common inequality measures, the Gini index and two generalized entropy measures—Theil’s T and Theil’s L indices—by presenting their individual components as a method for evaluating inequality. Five artificial data examples illustrate the use of these individual components first. An empirical analysis of the 2007 and 2017 Current Population Survey data then focuses on the differences in inequality revealed by such individual inequality components between the 2007 and 2017. The individual-level inequality measures can reveal patterns of inequality concealed by single measures at the aggregate level. In particular, the Gini individual measures differentiate cases better than the generalized entropy measures and tend to have smaller standard errors in a regression analysis.


2019 ◽  
Vol 148 (2) ◽  
pp. 417-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Glatz ◽  
Anja Eder

Abstract This paper offers elaborate analyses regarding the effects of social- as well as institutional trust as parts of social capital on subjective well-being (SWB) by using data from the European Social Survey, including 36 countries and eight time-points between 2002 and 2016. We analyze (1) The development of trust and SWB on the aggregate level; (2) The effect of trust on SWB on the individual cross-sectional level; and (3) The longitudinal and cross-sectional effect of trust on SWB on the aggregate level while considering control variables based on previous research. We observe a weak positive trend regarding social trust as well as SWB over time, but no significant change in institutional trust. However, trends are far from homogeneous across countries. In accordance to previous studies, we find a positive effect of social trust on SWB. This effect holds on the individual cross-sectional level for every participating country, but also on the longitudinal level. In view of institutional trust, we see a positive effect on SWB on the individual and aggregate cross-sectional level, but not over time. Thus, this study particularly sheds new light on this relation, indicating that it´s cross-sectional relation is due to confounding variables. Moreover, we observe no relation between economic growth and SWB after controlling for unemployment, but a positive effect of decreasing unemployment and inflation on SWB. Our data suggests that establishing an environment with high social trust across Europe would be rewarded with a happy society.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heejung Chung ◽  
Pia S. Schober

Many researchers assume a one-dimensionality of gender ideology constructs and/or stability of dimensions across countries and time, yet these assumptions have rarely been tested. WE apply factor analyses on two waves of the International Social Survey Programme in 2002 and 2012, and comparable European countries to test this. Our results show that gender ideologies can be distinguished into distinctive domains that relate to mother’s employment, women’s work, men’s role in the family, and finally women’s breadwinning. These dimensions have be found to be relatively stable across countries and time. Results from regression models investigating different aspects of the gender division of labour suggest that distinguishing dimensions is less important when considering gender ideologies at the individual level but can make a big difference when examining gender culture at the country level.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabian Stephany

Trust explains the functioning of markets, institutions or society as a whole. It is a key element in almost every commercial transaction over time and might be one of the main explanations of economic success and development. In Europe, the determinants of (generalized) trust have been investigated in the past. Most scholars have focused on aggregate (national) levels of trust. However, it can be assumed that driving forces, which foster or diminish trust, act at a sub-national level. Regional clusters remain undetected. With the use of the European Social Survey 6 and modern spatial diagnostics, this work examines the individual and regional determinants of trust in 88 European NUTS1 regions in 26 countries. There are two main findings. First, wealth, linguistic fragmentation, and religious ideologies shape trust on a regional level, education, income, and membership in associations foster trust on an individual level. Secondly, the study unravels regional dispersions in different types of "trust regimes" in Europe. Regional clusters of generalized trust are confirmed by spatial diagnostics. The "regionality" of trust could be of importance for future targeted policy making.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document