Psychological Electoral Neighbourhood Effects

Using combined data from the British Election Study, British Social Attitudes Survey, Census, and the Cambridge Personality and Social Dynamics Research Group, a preregistered large-n regression design demonstrates the continued presence of neighbourhood effects in British elections. In addition to conventional demographic approaches, neighbourhood effects of personality dimensions and ideological orientations are demonstrated. For example, living in an area high on Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) is positively associated with one's likelihood of voting Conservative, regardless of one's own RWA. These findings are consistent with models in which aggregate psychological phenomena influence individual decision making, either in elections, or in domestic migration preferences. The research furthers the integration of social psychological theory with electoral analysis, but further work is required to understand the causal mechanism behind neighbourhood effects.

Orthographic neighbourhood effects during lateralised lexical decision are abolished with bilateral presentation

Words presented to the right visual field (RVF) are processed more rapidly than those in the left visual field (LVF), presumably because of more direct links to the language dominant left cerebral hemisphere. This effect is moderated by a word’s orthographic neighbourhood size (N), with LVF facilitation and RVF inhibition for words with large N. Across two experiments, we sought to further examine lateralised N effects. Experiment 1 examined how hemispheric dominance for language influenced lateralised N effects, in 140 left-handers using a visual half-field task with bilateral presentation. Neither typically nor atypically lateralized participants showed the expected N effect, making the results ambiguous: it could be that left-handers fail to show N effects, or the effect could be abolished by some procedural aspect. Experiment 2 looked to test these options by testing 56 right-handers who responded to the same stimulus set under the original bilateral presentation condition and under unilateral presentation. N effects were found under unilateral but not bilateral presentation. We had adopted bilateral presentation because it had been recommended as better than unilateral presentation for controlling fixation and visual stimulation; our results indicate that this is not a minor methodological modification: it can dramatically affect lateralized effects.

Modelling Neighbourhood Effects in Three Dutch Cities Controlling for Selection

The non-random selection of people into neighbourhoods complicates the estimation of causal neighbourhood effects on individual outcomes. Measured neighbourhood effects could be the result of characteristics of the neighbourhood context, but they could also result from people selecting into neighbourhoods based on their preferences, income, and the availability of alternative housing. This paper examines how the neighbourhood effect on individual income is altered when geographic selection correction terms are added as controls, and how these results vary across three Dutch urban regions. We use a two-step approach in which we first model neighbourhood selection, and then include neighbourhood choice correction components in a model estimating neighbourhood effects on individual income. Using longitudinal register datasets for three major Dutch cities: Amsterdam, Utrecht and Rotterdam, and multilevel models, we analysed the effects for individuals who moved during a 5-year period. We show that in all cities, the effect of average neighbourhood income on individual income becomes much smaller after controlling for explicitly modelled neighbourhood selection. This suggests that studies that do not control for neighbourhood selection most likely overestimate the size of neighbourhood effects. For all models, the effects of neighbourhood income are strongest in Rotterdam, followed by Amsterdam and Utrecht.

The Anatomy of Neighbour Relations

Relations between neighbours represent informal social relations that constitute a part of everyday life for virtually all individuals in contemporary urban societies. While aspects of neighbour relations have been studied in connection with research on local communities, gentrification, and neighbourhood effects, little research focusing specifically on interactions between neighbours has been conducted and theoretical reflection on the central concepts remains lacking. This article attempts to fill this research gap by developing a theoretical framework for the sociological understanding and investigation of neighbour relations. The research material used consists of previous studies on neighbour relations. The method for the task was analysis of concepts coupled with theoretical reasoning based on a review and a synthesis of relevant previous research. Familiar concepts like ‘neighbour’, ‘neighbouring’, and ‘neighbourliness’ are scrutinised, deconstructed, and redefined, noting that there are often two perspectives on each: the experiences of residents and those of outside observers. Various sociological aspects of neighbour relations are discussed, including neighbour relations as an acquaintance relation, neighbour relations as the basis of a community, and the cultural content of the neighbour role. A model of levels of neighbourly interaction is presented.