Showing papers in "Social Forces in 2001"

The Glass Ceiling Effect

Abstract: The popular notion of glass ceiling effects implies that gender (or other) disadvantages are stronger at the top of the hierarchy than at lower levels and that these disadvantages become worse later in a person's career. We define four specific criteria that must be met to conclude that a glass ceiling exists. Using random effects models and data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we examine gender and race inequalities at the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles of white male earnings. We find evidence of a glass ceiling for women, but racial inequalities among men do not follow a similar pattern. Thus, we should not describe all systems of differential work rewards as "glass ceilings." They appear to be a distinctively gender phenomenon.

Religious Involvement, Stress, and Mental Health: Findings from the 1995 Detroit Area Study

Abstract: Although interest in the links between religion and mental health has increased sharply in recent years, researchers remain far from a consensus regarding which aspects of religious involvement are germane to mental health, which mental health outcomes may be influenced by religious factors, and which mechanisms and/or models may account for these observed relationships. This article extends the literature in this area by elaborating a set of direct, mediating, and moderating links between multiple dimensions of religious involvement and psychological distress and well-being. Relevant hypotheses are then tested using data from the 1995 Detroit Area Study. Among our key findings: the frequency of church attendance bears a positive association with well-being and an inverse association with distress; the frequency of prayer has a slight inverse link with well-being and a weak positive association with distress; belief in eternal life is positively associated with well-being but unrelated to distress; in general, the net effects of these religious variables are not mediated by the risk of social stressors or by access to social or psychological resources; other religious variables, including measures of church-based social support, are unrelated to distress or well-being; and there is limited evidence of stress-buffering effects, but not stress-exacerbating effects, of religious involvement. The limitations of the study are discussed, and several implications and promising directions for further research on religion and health/well-being are identified.

Immigrant Generation, Assimilation, and Adolescent Psychological Well-Being

Abstract: Utilizing data on adolescents in secondary school from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), this article examines the link between immigrant generation and adolescent psychological well-being. I find that first-generation immigrants experience less depression and greater positive well-being than their native-born agemates of similar demographic and family backgrounds. Second-generation immigrants, however, do not differ significantly from native-born youth in terms of psychological well-being. A number of family influences serve as "protective" factors that enable first-generation immigrants to maintain their higher levels of well-being. These factors include parental supervision, lack of parent-child conflict, religious practices, and social support. Assimilation among first-generation immigrants, as measured by age at arrival in the U.S., does not significantly affect their positive well-being.

Social Capital and Homicide

Abstract: Despite recent theoretical attention to "social capital" and its impact on a range of public problems, including crime, few studies have evaluated the relationship between crime rates and levels of social capital across populations. That research gap is due, in part, to the absence of macro-level empirical indicators of social capital. In this article, we measure social capital as a latent construct with aggregated voting and organizational membership data, and survey data on social trust, and examine its relationship with homicide rates for a nationally representative sample of geographic areas. Structural equation models show that the construct of social capital has a significant direct effect on homicide rates, net of other structural covariates, and controlling for the reciprocal influence of homicide on social capital. Although social capital mediates little of the effect on homicide of levels of economic deprivation, it explains more than two-thirds of the effect of Southern regional location. The results indicate that depleted social capital contributes to high levels of homicide, and provide a promising basis for future research on the mechanisms linking social capital to crime at the macro level.

Marital Happiness, Marital Duration, and the U-Shaped Curve: Evidence from a Five-Wave Panel Study

Abstract: Previous research suggests a U-shaped pattern of marital happiness over the life course, with happiness declining in the early years of marriage and rising in the later years. Mostprior studies have been limited by the use of cross-sectional data or nonprobability samples. In contrast, the present study is based on data from a national, 1 7-year, 5wave panel sample. Using cross-sectional data from the first wave, we replicate the Ushaped relationship between marital happiness and marital duration. In an analysis based on a fixed-effects pooled time-series model with multiple-wave panel data, we find declines in marital happiness at all marital durations and no supportfor an upturn in marital happiness in the later years. The relationship between marital happiness and marital duration is slightly curvilinear, with the steepest declines in marital happiness occurring during the earliest and latest years of marriage. When other lifecourse variables are controlled, a significant negative effect of marital duration on marital happiness remains. For most marriage cohorts, marital happiness declined more in the 1980s than in the 1990s, suggesting a period effect. This study provides evidence that the U-shaped pattern of marital happiness over the life course is an artifact of cross-sectional research and is not typical of U.S. marriages.

Social Differentiation in Musical Taste Patterns

Abstract: In this article, we investigate patterns of musical taste using a large sample from the Dutch population. It is found that members from higher-status groups tend to be more omnivorous (that is, they like more different musical genres) than those from lower-status groups, which is in line with Peterson's (1992; Peterson & Simkus 1992) hypothesis. The actual difference is, however, rather small and occurs only with regard to the number of genres that respondents like at least "more or less," not with regard to their favorite genres. In order to discover the combinatorial logic by which musical genres are clustered into specific taste patterns, a factor model is estimated. The results indicate that musical genres can be structured on the basis of three basic "discourses" (highbrow, pop, folk). The so-called omnivores comprise a specific fraction of the higher-status groups known as the new middle class, whose tastes combine a set of genres related to all these discourses.

From Protest to Agenda Building: Description Bias in Media Coverage of Protest Events in Washington, D.C.

Abstract: Social movements often seek to draw attention to issues they deem important by organizing public demonstrations with the aim of attracting mass media coverage. But only a small proportion of all public demonstrations receives any media attention. This article asks whether even the minimal coverage that demonstrations receive reveal any influence of social movements in shaping how issues are framed by the mass media. Analyzing newspaper and television news stories on Washington, D.C. protests held during 1982 and 1991, we ask whether news reports on protests are framed in ways consistent with the aims of protesters. Do demonstrators receive media coverage that highlights the issues about which they are concerned, or does coverage focus on the protest event itself, to the exclusion of the social issues that movements target? Our results support much of the surmising among media scholars, that even when movements succeed at obtaining the attention of mass media outlets, media reports portray protests in ways that may undermine social movement agendas. Despite this obstacle to communicating protest messages through demonstrations, movements engage in other forms of communication that can affect public interpretations of mass media frames.

Assortative Meeting and Mating: Unintended Consequences of Organized Settings for Partner Choices

Abstract: An important hypothesis about why people generally interact with people who are socially or culturally similar to themselves is that the opportunities they have to meet similar others are greater than the opportunities they have to meet dissimilar others. We examine this supply-side perspective on social relationships by empirically linking marriage choices to the type of setting couples had in common before they married. We focus on five meeting settings (work, school, the neighborhood, common family networks, and voluntary associations) and five types of homogamy (with respect to age, education, class destinations, class origins, and religious background). Using data from face-to-face interviews among married and cohabiting couples in the Netherlands, we show that these five contexts account for a sizable portion of the places where partners have met. Using loglinear analyses, we subsequently examine whether couples who shared settings are more homogamous than couples who did not share a setting. Our results indicate that schools promote most forms of homogamy, while work places only promote homogamy with respect to class destinations. Neighborhoods and common family networks promote religious homogamy, but they are not related to homogamy with respect to class origins. While in some cases, settings have unexpected effects on marriage choice, our findings generally confirm the notion that mating requires meeting the pool of available interaction partners is shaped by various institutionally organized arrangements and these constrain the type of people with whom we form personal relationships.

The Politics of Punishment across Time and Space: A Pooled Time-Series Analysis of Imprisonment Rates

Abstract: Despite considerable theoretical interest, little is known about the political determinants ofpunishment. This study uses a pooled time-series design to fill this gap by examining political and other determinants of state imprisonment rates. The presence of Republican elected officials is used to assess the strength of the law-and-order political party. Ethnic threat theories suggest that imprisonments will be more likely in jurisdictions with the most blacks or Hispanics, while economic threat theories suggest that the imprisoned population will be greater where economic stratification is most pronounced. After controllingfor social disorganization, religious fundamentalism, political conservatism, and violent crimes, the results show that Republican strength and minority threat lead to higher imprisonment rates. Statistical interactions support predictions that these relationships became stronger after greater Republican stress on law and order. The latter findings confirm theoretical expectations that these relationships are historically contingent.

Capital at Home and at School: Effects on Student Achievement

Abstract: We investigate the effects of both family and school capital on student math and reading achievement. We use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) merged Child-Mother Data for 1992 and 1994, to which indicators of capital in the children's schools for 1993-94 and 1994-95 have recently been added. We study children who attended first through eighth grades in both 1992 and 1994, with samples of 2034 for math achievement and 2203 for reading recognition. Findings suggest that school capital effects are modest in size while family capital effects are stronger ; combinations of school and family capital boost or modify additive findings. We sketch directions for future research and discuss the usefulness of analyzing school and family capital as parallel concepts

No Couple Is an Island: A Social Network Perspective on Dyadic Stability

Abstract: Social networks have a relatively large and multifaceted effect on the stability of intimate relationships, based on proportional hazard analysis involving 290 individuals. Perceptions of approval from a respondent's friends and approval from a partner's family increase relationship stability. On the other hand, perceived approval from a respondent's family, overall encouragement to date, and closeness to a best friend decrease stability in the multivariate model. Perceptions of social approval are better at predicting stability than actual approval. The effects of social networks occur even after controlling for the significant effects of dyadic variables such as the perceived existence of alternatives, closeness to the partner, and arguing. Findings confirm the positive and negative roles of social ties and support the argument that friendships can compete with romantic relationships for companionship.

Getting A Laugh: Gender, Status, and Humor in Task Discussions

Abstract: Humor is a quintessentially social phenomenon, since every joke requires both a teller and an audience. Here we ask how humor operates in task-oriented group discussions. We use theories about the functions of humor to generate hypotheses about who jokes, when and in what situations. Then we use event history techniques to analyze humor attempts and successes in six-person groups. Our results combine to suggest an image of joking as a status-related activity, with men, high participators, frequent interrupters, and those who are frequently interrupted all showing status-related patterns of humor use. We find substantial time dependence in humor use, in which humor may serve to form a status hierarchy early in a group's development and to dissipate task-related tension later in the discussion. We use these results, in conjunction with core insights on status and emotion from the group processes literature, to develop a new theory of humor use in task-oriented groups. The new theory generates predictions about the content of humor episodes, which we examine with additional data from our group discussions. Consistent with the theory, we find that a higher proportion of men's humor is differentiating, while a higher proportion of women's humor is cohesion-building. We find the same general pattern with our other status variable, participation.

When Crime Pays: Capital, Competence, and Criminal Success

Abstract: Several theoretical traditions offer insights into individual success in conventional activities. We extend this work, suggesting that explanations of success also apply to crime: although prosperity in licit or illicit activities has several unique antecedents, success in either endeavor is influenced by common faactors. Most research on conventional success focuses on the effects of human and social capital, and criminal forms of these are important for illegal success. We argue that various aspects of conventional personal capital -- a heightened desire for wealth, a propensity for risk-taking, a willingness to cooperate and competence -- also play important roles in both legal and illegal prosperity. We demonstrate the importance of various types of capital, particularly the salience of personal capital, with data on drug-selling income.

Social Change and The Persistence of Sex Typing: 1974–1997

Abstract: The most accepted explanation for gender differences is the sociocultural model that holds them to be results of socialization and/or occupancy of sex differentiated roles. There has been extensive social change in the past three decades, reducing sex typed role assignments and attitudes. However, examination of some 30 researches shows that the social change has not been followed by change in sex typing. This present study of trends in stereotypic and self responses between 1974 and 1997 confirms the stability in sex typing, over seven surveys and 4,000 respondents. In addition, there is evidence of increase in the perceived femininity of females. These results are contrary to the predictions from the sociocultural model. They are, however, consistent with the alternate evolutionary model postulating constant gendered differences based on genetic patterns evolved from adaptations to differing reproductive challenges of early males and females.

Tracking the Restructuring of American Religion: Religious Affiliation and Patterns of Religious Mobility, 1973–1998

Abstract: Trends and patterns of religious mobility have played a central role in theoretical controversies in the sociology of religion. Early examinations focused on how social status might motivate religious switching, and recently scholars have claimed that diminishing status differences between denominations have opened denominational boundaries and led to higher rates of religious mobility. Scholars working from rational actor perspectives have generated several hypotheses. First, human capital and adaptive preference theories suggest that switching will remain infrequent, and will tend to occur between similar denominations. Second, "strict church" perspectives argue that demanding sectarian denominations will have higher retention, and be more attractive destinations. Third, market niche perspectives argue that niche overlap will foster high rates of religious mobility. Finally, theories emphasizing normative constraints on religious choices suggest that quasi-ethnic religious groups will have a greater hold on members. This article examines trends and patterns of religious mobility in the U.S. between 1973 and 1998 using data from the General Social Surveys. Retention rates, distributions of original and destination affiliations, and mobility tables are compared across three periods, and four broad cohorts using log-multiplicative association models. I find some support for hypotheses generated by status theories, and for several propositions from rational actor theories, however the decline of denominationalism perspective is unsupported.

Gender Differences in Mathematical Trajectories

Abstract: In this article we test the hypothesis that male students outperform female students in mathematics. Using large national data sets and curvilinear growth models, we examine gender differences in mathematical trajectories from elementaiy school through high school. We analyze subsamples of high-scoring students and also different areas of math, such as reasoning and geometry. Despite relatively equal starting points in elementary school, and relatively equal slopes, we find that boys have a faster rate of acceleration. By the 12th grade, this results in a slight gender difference, which is most pronounced in geometry. Realizing this slight and delayed emergence of gender differences, we qualify the strong conclusions of earlier research, such as Benbow and Stanley's (1980, 1983), which found that large gender differences emerge by junior high school.

Communist Party Membership and Regime Dynamics in China

Abstract: This article uses event history analyses to examine how the criteria of political screening and educational credentials evolve in the attainment of Chinese Communist Party membership during the period between 1949 and 1993 and how party membership, in turn, influences individual mobility into elite political and managerial positions. We argue that political screening is a persistent feature and a survival strategy of all Communist parties and that the mechanisms of ensuring political screening are affected by the regime's agendas in different historical periods. Using data from surveys conducted in Shanghai and Tianjin in 1993, we found that measures of political screening were persistently significant predictors of party membership attainment in all post-1949 periods and that party membership is positively associated with mobility into positions of political and managerial authority during the post-1978 reform era. Education emerged to be a significant predictor of Communist party membership in the post-1978 period. These findings indicate that China has made historical shifts to recruit among the educated to create a technocratic elite that is both occupationally competent and politically screened.

China's One-Child Policy and the Care of Children: An Analysis of Qualitative and Quantitative Data

Abstract: Gender bias in family formation in China is well documented. Much less is known about how children fare once they become part of a family. Drawing on fieldwork and survey data, we describe the care of young children, and investigate the relationship between the one-child policy and parental involvement in care. Results indicate that the one-child policy, insofar as it limits couples to one or two children, leads to greater involvement by parents in child care. Additional effects ofpolicy vary by children's gender. Boys receive similar care regardless of the one-child policy in their communities. Girls, living in communities where couples are permitted another child if theirfirst is a girl, are more likely to receive parental care than girls in other communities. These results suggest that gender bias in China is not solely due to outdated "feudal" ideas resulting in son preference.

The Beloved Myth: Protestantism and the Rise of Industrial Capitalism in Nineteenth-Century Europe

Abstract: We investigate the thesis widely credited to Max Weber that Protestantism contributed to the rise of industrial capitalism by estimating the associations between the percentage of Protestants and the development of industrial capitalism in European countries in the mid- to late nineteenth century. Development is measured using five sets of variables, including measures of wealth and savings, the founding date of the principal stock exchange, extension of the railroads network, distribution of the male labor force in agriculture and in industry, and infant mortality. On the basis of this evidence, there is little empirical support for what we call the "Common Interpretation" of Weber's The Protestant Ethic, namely the idea that the strength of Protestantism in a country was associated with the early development of industrial capitalism. The origin of the Common Interpretation and its popular success are probably derived largely from selected anecdotal evidence fortified, through retrospective imputation, by the perceived well-being of contemporary Protestant countries.

Scale of Agricultural Production, Civic Engagement, and Community Welfare

Abstract: Using data from the Census of Agriculture and other secondary sources, we examine the relationship between scale offarm operations in a county and the well-being of local residents. Following earlier work by C. Wright Mills and Walter Goldschmidt, we hypothesize that in agriculture dependent counties that are dominated by a small handful of very largefarms, the level of community welfare will be significantly lower than in counties in which agriculture is organized around smaller-scalefarm operations. Findings show that scale offarm operations is related to well-being. However, this relationship is mediated by the level of civic engagement and the strength of the economically independent middle class. A theory of civic community is proposed to accountfor thesefindings. At the end of World War II, two research reports commissioned by a U.S. Senate Special Committee to study problems of American small business, examined the relationship between the concentration of economic power at the community level and the social and economic well-being of local residents (Goldschmidt [ 1946] 1978; Mills & Ulmer [1946] 1970)'. The thesis advanced in both of these studies was that communities in which the economic base was composed of a plethora of relatively small, locally owned firms would manifest higher levels of social, economic, and political welfare and well-being than communities where the economic base was dominated by a few large absentee-owned firms.

God, Politics, and Protest: Religious Beliefs and the Legitimation of Contentious Tactics

Abstract: Most students of social protest now agree that protest participation and participation in institutionalized politics are both potentially effective means of addressing individual and collective grievances. A primary conceptual distinction between the two forms of political participation centers on the contentious nature of protest. We focus attention on the disruptive potential of religious beliefs and values and argue that approval of contentious tactics is a critical link between religious beliefs and protest participation. We analyze data from a representative sample of churchgoing Protestants in the United States. Results show that four factors increase the likelihood that Protestants approve of contentious tactics: volunteering for church organizations, a perception that religious values are being threatened, a belief that individuals should not have a right to deviate from Christian moral standards, and a belief that humans are inherently sinful. Approval of contentious tactics and frequent volunteering for church organizations are the only variables in our analysis that differentiate conservative Christian voters from those who combine conservative Christian voting with protest participation.

Race, Region, and Religious Involvement: A Comparative Study of Whites and African Americans

Abstract: This research examines (1) whether a comparative study of African Americans and whites in a nationwide sample bears out the widespread assumption of a distinctive African American religiosity (when region and other factors are controlled), and (2) whether any race differences provide support for the "semi-involuntary" interpretation of African American religious involvements. Using data from the 1974­94 General Social Surveys, we examine how a variety of indicators of religious involvement vary by race and region. We find two basic types of evidence qualifying the assertion of a generalized heightened religiosity among African Americans. First, in analyzing three major subregions of the U.S., we find that African Americans, compared with whites, are no more religiously involved in the rural South, exhibit consistently higher religious involvement in the urban South, and show lower levels of religious involvement in the urban North. Second, in analyzing various types of church attendance (i.e., "weekly," "intermittent," and "infrequent"), we find that African American church attendance is distinctive mainly at an intermittent (e.g., monthly) rather than weekly level. These findings suggest that the rural South produces distinctive patterns of church attendance across racial lines, perhaps reflecting the legacy of segregation and the central importance of the church in rural community life. The markedly different urban patterns by region point to some important areas for further research into the semi-involuntary thesis.

Replete and Desolate Markets: Poland, East Germany, and the New Religious Paradigm

Abstract: In nearly every state around the turn of the twentieth century, suffragists mobilized in grassroots suffrage organizations to secure the vote for women. While movement researchers have theorized that political opportunities are important in explaining why movements emerge, the results from an examination of the emergence of the state suffrage movements show that the mobilization of various resources along with the way in which pro-suffrage arguments were framed were instrumental in stirring up suffrage sentiment. Political opportunities did little to explain the emergence of the suffrage movements. The article concludes that movement researchers need to consider that historically contingent circumstances may determine which factors bring about movement mobilization.

Stirring Up Suffrage Sentiment: The Formation of the State Woman Suffrage Organizations, 1866–1914

Abstract: In nearly every state around the turn of the twentieth century, suffragists mobilized in grassroots suffrage organizations to secure the vote for women. While movement researchers have theorized that political opportunities are important in explaining why movements emerge, the results from an examination of the emergence of the state suffrage movements show that the mobilization of various resources along with the way in which pro-suffrage arguments were framed were instrumental in stirring up suffrage sentiment. Political opportunities did little to explain the emergence of the suffrage movements. The article concludes that movement researchers need to consider that historically contingent circumstances may determine which factors bring about movement mobilization.

Local Sequential Patterns: The Structure of Lynching in the Deep South, 1882–1930

Abstract: White-on-black violence was a fact of life in the Deep South during the decades straddling the turn of the century. Yet though the lynching of blacks is historically significant, it was, statistically speaking, a relatively rare event. While each lynching is associated with a complex and often gruesome narrative, particularities often overwhelm efforts to reveal anything other than broad structural determinants or proximate causes. Efforts to apply narrative methods have been limited to the analysis of a single lynching incident, and yield more insight into patterns of interaction than into the phenomena of lynching as a whole. This article offers a new analytic description of the temporal structure of local lynching histories in the Deep South between 1882 and 1930. Sequential analysis reveals robust variation in the temporal pattern of local lynching; interpretation of the finite set of patterns of lynching histories focuses on the sequential consequences of various microlevel mechanisms, and demonstrates the advantages of moving beyond the analysis of discrete incidents.

Racial Stratification in the Actuation of Mobility Expectations: Microlevel Impacts of Racially Restrictive Housing Markets

Abstract: This research uses data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to examine racial differences in the ability to translate mobility expectations into a residential move. The results indicate that, despite similar mobility expectations, black householders are significantly less likely than white householders to translate their expectations into a residential move. Supporting the stratification perspective, this racial difference persists when a variety of individual and contextual characteristics are controlled. Furthermore, higher income appears to enhance the ability of white but not black householders to convert their mobility expectations into a move. Supplemental analyses suggest that this racial stratification does not reflect poorer planning on the part of blacks and that this racial disparity helps to explain existing racial differences in the ability to escape poor neighborhoods.

Father Involvement in the Lives of Mainland Puerto Rican Children: Contributions of Nonresident, Cohabiting and Married Fathers.

Abstract: This study examines the nature and determinants of father involvement among mainland Puerto Ricans using interview data collected from mothers of a representative sample of Puerto Rican infants. Focusing on both financial contributions and participation in child care (e.g. diapering feeding and bathing the child) the behavior of non-resident fathers is compared to that of cohabiting fathers and married fathers. A key question addressed in the analysis is whether father involvement is influenced primarily by the fathers economic status or whether other factors identified in the literature are also important for Puerto Ricans. Overall the authors results underscore the critical role of employment in fathers contributions to Puerto Rican children. (authors)

Determinants of the Growth of the State: War and Taxation in Early Modern France and England

Abstract: Although the causal impact of war on state-making in the early modern era is now widely accepted, there is less consensus about the way in which war affects levels of taxation, and the factors that might strengthen or weaken the relationship. Two questions can be posed: Do individual wars produce immediate effects on taxes, or is the cumulative effect of long periods of warfare more important? How do variations in administrative capacity and the strength of representative institutions affect the extent to which war pushes the growth of the state? This article attempts to answer these questions with a quantitative analysis of the effects of war on taxation in early modern England and France. We find that the cumulative effect of war is strong in both cases, suggesting that war made states via a "ratchet effect," and that this effect is much stronger when the administrative capacity of states is improved by centralization and bureaucratization. Strong representative assemblies decrease the effect of war on state growth in France but increase it in England, due to the very different characteristics of these institutions in the two countries.

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Reconceptualizing Scholarship and Transforming the Academy

Abstract: This article makes contributions toward the conceptualization of the scholarship of teaching and learning (Scholarship of Teaching and Learning). The scholarship of teaching is a concept with multiple ramifications. It is at the core of the current transformation of higher education. The scholarship of teaching challenges the existing stratification system within the academy. The scholarship of teaching and learning is a much larger enterprise, a movement, that can transform the nature of American society toward our ideals of equality and justice. Sociologists have a vital role to play within the academy and society. If we take advantage of the opportunity that the scholarship of teaching and learning offers, we can reach our potential as an intellectually liberating force in society.

De Gustibus Est Disputandum

Abstract: While rational choice theorists have made great advances in their study of institutions and structures (and how they affect behavior), they have made less progress toward understanding the origins of values. I propose that the emerging field of evolutionary psychology complements rational choice theory by providing a theory of values, and that current explanations of values and preferences, such as learning, norms, and identities, are all compatible with evolutionary psychology, which provides more ultimate explanations for these proximate causes of behavior. The incorporation of evolutionary psychology into rational choice theory can also solve some of the persistent puzzles of rational choice theory: Why do so many players in Prisoner’s Dilemma games make the irrational choice to cooperate? Why do people participate in collective action? Why do people sometimes behave “irrationally” by acting on their emotions? Why does rational choice theory appear to be more applicable to men than to women?