scholarly journals Pandemics Initially Spread Among People of High (not Low) Social Status: Evidence from COVID-19 and the Spanish Flu

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jana Berkessel ◽  
Tobias Ebert ◽  
Jochen Gebauer ◽  
Thorsteinn Jonsson ◽  
Shigehiro Oishi
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Virus Spread ◽  
The Social ◽  
German Regions ◽  
Spanish Flu

According to a staple in the social sciences, pandemics particularly spread among people of lower social status. Challenging this staple, we hypothesize that it holds true in later phases of pandemics only. In the initial phases, by contrast, people of higher social status should be at the center of the spread. To test this hypothesis, we conducted two studies. In Study 1, we analyzed region-level COVID-19 infection data from 3,132 U.S. regions, 299 English regions, and 400 German regions. In Study 2, we analyzed historical data from 1,159,920 U.S. residents who witnessed the 1918/1919 Spanish Flu pandemic. Both studies supported our hypothesis in full. During the initial phases of both pandemics, the virus spread more rapidly among people of higher social status. In later phases, that effect consistently reversed, rendering people of lower social status the primarily exposed. Our results provide novel insights into the center of the spread during the critical initial phases of pandemics.

scholarly journals Pandemics Initially Spread Among People of Higher (Not Lower) Social Status: Evidence From COVID-19 and the Spanish Flu

2021 ◽  
pp. 194855062110399
Author(s):  
Jana B. Berkessel ◽  
Tobias Ebert ◽  
Jochen E. Gebauer ◽  
Thorsteinn Jonsson ◽  
Shigehiro Oishi
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
The Social ◽  
German Regions ◽  
Spanish Flu ◽  
Phase Sensitive

According to a staple in the social sciences, pandemics particularly spread among people of lower social status. Challenging this staple, we hypothesize that it holds true in later phases of pandemics only. In the initial phases, by contrast, people of higher social status should be at the center of the spread. We tested our phase-sensitive hypothesis in two studies. In Study 1, we analyzed region-level COVID-19 infection data from 3,132 U.S. regions, 299 English regions, and 400 German regions. In Study 2, we analyzed historical data from 1,159,920 U.S. residents who witnessed the 1918/1919 Spanish Flu pandemic. For both pandemics, we found that the virus initially spread more rapidly among people of higher social status. In later phases, that effect reversed; people of lower social status were most exposed. Our results provide novel insights into the center of the spread during the critical initial phases of pandemics.

Contributions to Psychohistory: IV. Individual Experience in Historiography and Psychoanalysis: Significance of Erik Erikson and Robert Coles

1980 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 591-612
Author(s):  
R. L. Schnell
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Natural Science ◽  
Clinical Setting ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Individual Experience ◽  
Erik Erikson ◽  
The Social ◽  
Cultural Science ◽  
Psychoanalytic Method

History is the cultural science most open to penetration by the social sciences whose system-builders are attracted by the totality of human experience offered. Although it does not fit the natural science paradigm popular among the social sciences, history does have an affinity for psychoanalysis which in a clinical setting attempts to understand a particular human life in its uniqueness and complexity. An examination of two socially oriented psychoanalysts, Erik Erikson and Robert Giles, illustrated the similarity of the spirit of inquiry behind history and psychoanalysis and suggests that the psychoanalytic method of the clinic can be applied to historical data.

scholarly journals New dynamics of social status and distinction

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giana M. Eckhardt ◽  
Fleura Bardhi
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Conspicuous Consumption ◽  
Conceptual Space ◽  
Status Signaling ◽  
The Social ◽  
Urban Consumption

We explore emerging dynamics of social status and distinction in liquid consumption. The new logic of distinction is having the flexibility to embrace and adopt new identity positions, projects, and possibilities and the ability to attract attention. The importance of flexibility and attention as resources emerged from the social sciences literature in the domains of digital, access based, and urban consumption as being the most important for achieving distinction in the contemporary marketplace. We then conceptually reexamine conspicuous consumption and taste and show that status signaling now relies upon inconspicuousness, non-ownership including experiences, and authenticity based on knowledge and craftsmanship, all of which are difficult to emulate. Our contribution lies in integrating disparate literature on social status and consumption within one conceptual space. We also build upon the concept of liquid consumption by outlining exactly how liquidity affects status and distinction, an area which has not been explored to date.

Methodological Individualism and Holism

2021 ◽  
pp. 166-169
Author(s):  
Suzan Gibril
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Methodological Individualism ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Intentional States ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Economic Inequalities

This chapter discusses methodological individualism and holism, which are often the focus of ontological debate. Methodological individualism (MI) is a paradigm in the social sciences that emerged from sociology and philosophy. The main purpose of MI is not to favour the individual over the collective, but to explain the occurrence of social phenomena by an action-driven rhetoric, which is motivated by intentional states. MI is primarily based on three postulates: the individualistic postulate; the comprehension postulate; and the rationality postulate. Holism, in contrast, is based on the idea that society cannot be reduced solely to its constituent parts — i.e. individuals. Individuals are the product of societies, histories, economic inequalities, social status, and so on. Therefore, they should be treated as objects that can only be perceived and understood from within.

Reinterpreting Social Status

2013 ◽  
Vol 68 (04) ◽  
pp. 607-613
Author(s):  
Étienne Anheim ◽  
Jean-Yves Grenier ◽  
Antoine Lilti
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Central Position ◽  
Ancien Regime ◽  
Social Prestige ◽  
The Social ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Ancien Régime

Social statuses existed before the social sciences. When scholars began to develop this concept in the nineteenth century, they were drawing on the juridical writings of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and, more broadly, the vocabulary used by social groups to define themselves across time and space. From this moment forward, social statuses occupied a central position in the work of historians, sociologists, and anthropologists. These scholars were aiming to describe and explain the dynamics of human societies, but they also participated in framing the debates at the heart of the social sciences—as attested by the recurrent disputes between a Marxian notion of class and a Weberian conception of status groups, particularly among readers with tacit political motivations. Max Weber played a fundamental part in the success of the concept, taking the juridical aspect and the idea of society as a body, inherited from the ancien régime, and adding a specifically sociological content relating to the hierarchy of social prestige, which is neither directly inherited (as with castes) nor purely economic (as with classes). In truth, this definition was rarely applied stricto sensu by historians, sociologists, and anthropologists, but it did allow for the elaboration of a concept that could delimit groups of individuals sharing legal and symbolic characteristics within a given society, and that could incorporate the categories used by social actors themselves into historical analysis. Thus, during the 1960s, it was around the notion of status that interpretations of the ancien régime as a society of orders or a society of classes took shape, while anthropologists began to consider notions of emic and etic. From the 1980s, however, the concept of social status receded into the background as the idea of a global interpretation of society by the social sciences was called into question.

scholarly journals Human History buried in Tamil grammer Purathinai

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 216-222
Author(s):  
Senthilkumar M
Keyword(s):  
Social Status ◽  
Social History ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Human History ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of

This article seeks to uncover the historical data embedded in the context in which it is customary to view Purathinai grammars as mere rules for literature. Human history involves a series of changes from the social status of the hunter to the social civilization of possession. The grammars from Vetsi to Vanchittinai trace such a historical continuum. Extrinsic grammars set out the reasons for the beginning of the wars, the activities of the Wetsi, Karanti departments, the history of the labor and Noci departments. This article reveals that the stories told in grammatical texts such as Tolkappiyam to Exodus Venpa Malai take up the social history of possession and the reasons for the wars.

scholarly journals ARTICULATING STATUS IN ANCIENT GREECE: STATUS (IN)CONSISTENCY AS A NEW APPROACH

2017 ◽  
Vol 63 ◽  
pp. 29-52
Author(s):  
P. A. Davies
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
New Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
Greek World

Current descriptions of social status in the Greek world are strongly influenced by the works of Moses I. Finley and G. E. M. de Ste. Croix, whose models were grounded in the sociologies of Weber and Marx. This article outlines a new paradigm for social status based on a model from the social sciences, commonly described as status (in)consistency. The article demonstrates the descriptive and interpretive usefulness of this approach using two case studies: social status and social mobility in classical Lakedaimonian society; and the lives and status of Pasion of Acharnai and his son Apollodoros.

Academy Awards Speeches Reflect Social Status, Cinematic Roles, and Winning Expectations

2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 376-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Markowitz
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Status ◽  
High Status ◽  
Academy Awards ◽  
Post Hoc Analysis ◽  
Psychological Phenomena ◽  
The Social ◽  
Post Hoc

An analysis of Academy Awards acceptance speeches revealed that social status is indicated through pronouns. Speeches from high status movie directors contained fewer self-references than relatively low status actors. Directors also communicated analytically compared with actors, who told stories and communicated narratively. A post hoc analysis revealed that unexpected award winners communicated more positively than those who were expected to win. The analyses emphasize the importance of replications in the social sciences and extending social and psychological phenomena to new settings.

What Can We Learn From Factorial Surveys About Human Behavior?

Methodology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Knut Petzold ◽  
Tobias Wolbring
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Behavioral Intentions ◽  
Actual Behavior ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Factorial Survey ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Intended Behavior ◽  
The Social ◽  
Survey Experiments ◽  
High Level

Abstract. Factorial survey experiments are increasingly used in the social sciences to investigate behavioral intentions. The measurement of self-reported behavioral intentions with factorial survey experiments frequently assumes that the determinants of intended behavior affect actual behavior in a similar way. We critically investigate this fundamental assumption using the misdirected email technique. Student participants of a survey were randomly assigned to a field experiment or a survey experiment. The email informs the recipient about the reception of a scholarship with varying stakes (full-time vs. book) and recipient’s names (German vs. Arabic). In the survey experiment, respondents saw an image of the same email. This validation design ensured a high level of correspondence between units, settings, and treatments across both studies. Results reveal that while the frequencies of self-reported intentions and actual behavior deviate, treatments show similar relative effects. Hence, although further research on this topic is needed, this study suggests that determinants of behavior might be inferred from behavioral intentions measured with survey experiments.

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