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Articles 811 - 840 of 1128

Full-Text Articles in Sociology

Does Service Employees' Appearance Affect The Healthiness Of Food Choice?, Tabea: Benoit Huneke, Sabine Benoit, Anders Gustafsson Jan 2015

Does Service Employees' Appearance Affect The Healthiness Of Food Choice?, Tabea: Benoit Huneke, Sabine Benoit, Anders Gustafsson

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Derived from previous research on social influence on food consumption and social comparison theory, this article examines the effect of service employees’ appearance on consumers’ food choice using an experimental study, involving a video manipulation and eye-tracking technique. The video shows a menu being proffered by a waitress whose degree of apparent healthiness varies (healthy, overweight, unhealthy lifestyle). The menu contains both healthy and unhealthy meal alternatives. The analysis of participants’ eye movements demonstrated that exposure to the overweight employee did not stimulate greater (i.e., earlier or longer) attention to unhealthy meal alternatives, whereas exposure to the employee who displayed …


The A-Bomb Victims' Plea For Cosmopolitan Commemoration: Toward Reconciliation And World Peace, Hiro Saito Jan 2015

The A-Bomb Victims' Plea For Cosmopolitan Commemoration: Toward Reconciliation And World Peace, Hiro Saito

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper critically revisits the A-bomb victims' plea for cosmopolitan commemoration that takes humanity, rather than nationality, as a primary frame of reference. To this end, I first elaborate the nature of cosmopolitan commemoration espoused by A-bomb victims in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in comparison with another form of cosmopolitan commemoration pertaining to the Holocaust victims. I then analyze limitations in these cosmopolitan commemorations and explore how they can be transcended. In light of my critical analysis, I argue that genuinely cosmopolitan commemoration, a prerequisite for reconciliation and world peace, will appear on the horizon if the commemorations of the two …


Americans Overestimate Social Class Mobility, Michael W. Kraus, Jacinth J. X. Tan Jan 2015

Americans Overestimate Social Class Mobility, Michael W. Kraus, Jacinth J. X. Tan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In this research we examine estimates of American social class mobility—the ability to move up or down in education and income status. Across studies, overestimates of class mobility were large and particularly likely among younger participants and those higher in subjective social class—both measured (Studies 1–3) and manipulated (Study 4). Class mobility overestimates were independent of general estimation errors (Study 3) and persisted after accounting for knowledge of class mobility assessed in terms of educational attainment and self-ratings. Experiments revealed that mobility overestimates were shaped by exposure to information about the genetic determinants of social class—a faux science article suggesting …


Why Does Everybody Hate Me? Balance, Status, And Homophily: The Triumvirate Of Signed Tie Formation, Janice Yap, Nicholas Harrigan Jan 2015

Why Does Everybody Hate Me? Balance, Status, And Homophily: The Triumvirate Of Signed Tie Formation, Janice Yap, Nicholas Harrigan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Despite being one of the foundational theories of signed (positive/negative) tie formation, the evidence for balance theory is far from conclusive. A recent promising alternative is status theory, but a theoretical and explanatory gap still remains, with a dearth of theories and evidence. We put forward and test eight separate theories of signed tie formation on two face-to-face networks of friendship and esteem of 282 students. We use dimension reduction (factor analysis) on the results tables comparing the predictions of these eight theories for 50 ERGM parameters with our estimated models. We find three main paradigms explain the majority of …


Disciplines, Area Studies, And Publics: Rethinking Sociology In A Global World, Hiro Saito Jan 2015

Disciplines, Area Studies, And Publics: Rethinking Sociology In A Global World, Hiro Saito

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Why did Contemporary Sociology, an official journal of the American Sociological Association, ask me to review these two books on Japan edited and written by anthropologists? This question sounds trivial and even irrelevant at first. However, when the question’s three overlapping registers— why Japan, why anthropology, and why me (a Japanese sociologist trained in the United States)—are recognized, they should prompt readers of Contemporary Sociology to reexamine the relationship between disciplines and area studies, on the one hand, and the relationship between sociologists and publics, on the other. In fact, I suggest that this reexamination be an urgent task in …


Wellbeing Of Singapore’S Youths, Kong Weng Ho Jan 2015

Wellbeing Of Singapore’S Youths, Kong Weng Ho

Research Collection School Of Economics

Given Singapore’s focus on human capital investment in its residents, the nation’s youths have experienced increases in their financial, educational, and physical wellbeing. However, how have our youths fared in their emotional and mental wellbeing? Figures from the World Values Survey show reported a gradual decline in life satisfaction for both general population and youths. Data from four waves of the National Youth Survey confirms this trend. This chapter explores and examines the non-economic channels that may have countered the positive influence of economic success on the wellbeing of youths, namely, changing family structure, heightened stressors, shifting life goals, time …


Young People's Attitudes Towards Inter-Ethnic And Inter-Religious Socializing, Courtship And Marriage In Indonesia, Lyn Parker, Chang Yau Hoon, Raihani Raihani Dec 2014

Young People's Attitudes Towards Inter-Ethnic And Inter-Religious Socializing, Courtship And Marriage In Indonesia, Lyn Parker, Chang Yau Hoon, Raihani Raihani

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper presents the attitudes of high school students in Indonesia towards inter-ethnic and inter-religious socializing, courtship and marriage. It also explores how different personal characteristics and social conditions such as gender, ethnicity, type of school and community affect these attitudes. The basic findings come from a survey of more than 3,000 students in senior high schools in five provinces of Indonesia: Jakarta, Yogyakarta, West Sumatra, Central Kalimantan and Bali. Survey data were supplemented with data from interviews and focus group discussions with students and from participant observation in and around the same schools. The authors found that most students …


Values, Outrage And The Good Society, David Chan Dec 2014

Values, Outrage And The Good Society, David Chan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In an invited commentary, SMU Behavioural Sciences Institute Director Professor David Chan discussed the positives in public outrage and controversies. He explained how the reactions to some local headline events in 2014 reflected specific shared values and guiding principles in Singapore.


Transnational Mobilities And The Making Of Creative Cities, Lily Kong Dec 2014

Transnational Mobilities And The Making Of Creative Cities, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This review essay on the literature on creative cities pays particular attention to the ways in which transnational mobilities contribute significantly to the making of such cities. The paper reviews critically both the literature and phenomena of creative cities and their transnational flows by framing the discussion around the mobility of ideas (creative economy/creative city discourse), the mobility of people (the migration of the creative class), the mobility of technology (the travel of the creative cluster and architectural iconism phenomena), the mobility of finances (capital and investment flows), and the mobility of images (transnational artistic collaborations and products).


God And Discipline: Religious Education And Character Building In A Christian School In Jakarta, Chang Yau Hoon Dec 2014

God And Discipline: Religious Education And Character Building In A Christian School In Jakarta, Chang Yau Hoon

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

A school is an institution in which student subjectivity is constituted and reinscribed through various 'disciplinary technologies'. The interplay between discipline and discipleship in the practice of Christian education is mutually constitutive. Through the study of a Protestant Christian school in Jakarta, this article explains the disciplinary technologies deployed by the school in its inculcation of discipline and character building. By examining the school's religious education practices the study provides insight into the perceptions of the school management, teachers and students with regard to various ethical, moral and religious issues. The author considers how Christian schools can develop critical reflective …


Book Review: Hevina S. Dashwood’S The Rise Of Global Corporate Social Responsibility: Mining And The Spread Of Global Norms, Alwyn Lim Nov 2014

Book Review: Hevina S. Dashwood’S The Rise Of Global Corporate Social Responsibility: Mining And The Spread Of Global Norms, Alwyn Lim

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Given the dramatic rise in the globalization of production of goods and services since the 1990s, it is somewhat surprising that scholarly attention to the consequences of those globalization processes has been slow to recognize the cross-national dimensions of corporate social responsibility, much less coalesce around definitive research pro grams. Hevina Dashwood's examination of the impact of global norms on the mining industry is a study that brings several theo retical and empirical threads together in a coherent manner that can inform the work of globalization, organizations, and manage ment scholars interested in issues in corpo rate social responsibility. Corporate …


Cultural Resonance And The Diffusion Of Suicide Bombings: The Role Of Collectivism, Robert Braun, Michael Genkin Oct 2014

Cultural Resonance And The Diffusion Of Suicide Bombings: The Role Of Collectivism, Robert Braun, Michael Genkin

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Why do some terrorist organizations, but not others, adopt suicide bombing as a tactic? Dominant accounts focusing on organizational capacity, ideology, and efficacy leave certain elements of the phenomenon unexplained. The authors argue that a key factor that influences whether a terrorist organization does or does not adopt suicide terrorism is cultural resonance. This is the idea that deep and specific cultural logics, which transcend religion and nationalism, enable and constrain the sorts of instrumental behaviors that can be utilized in the pursuit of group goals. The article investigates the role of a well-established cultural orientation of collectivism, which enables …


From Cultural Industries To Creative Industries And Back? Towards Clarifying Theory And Rethinking Policy, Lily Kong Oct 2014

From Cultural Industries To Creative Industries And Back? Towards Clarifying Theory And Rethinking Policy, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In this paper, I draw attention to the complexities and confusions in the shift in discourse and praxis from "culture industry" to "cultural industries" and then "creative industries." I examine how this "creative turn" is fraught with challenges, highlighting seven issues in particular: (i) the difficulties in defining and scoping the creative industries; (ii) the challenges in measuring the economic benefits creative industries bring; (iii) the risk that creative industries neglect genuine creativity/culture; (iv) the utopianization of "creative labour"; (v) the risk of valorizing and promoting external expertise over local small- and medium-scale enterprises in the building of "creative industries"; …


Results From The Perception And Attitudes Towards Ageing And Seniors Survey (2013/2014), Mathew Mathews, Paulin Tay Straughan Oct 2014

Results From The Perception And Attitudes Towards Ageing And Seniors Survey (2013/2014), Mathew Mathews, Paulin Tay Straughan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

While discussions on ageing previously centred on dependency ratios and healthcare infrastructure, there has been a growing attention to the other aspects of growing old, such as its social and emotional dimensions. There has also been a move in recent years to rethink the construct of ageing an frame it in a more positive way.In this paper we document some of the results derived from the Perception and Attitudes towards Ageing and Seniors (PATAS) survey completed in early 2014. These results delve into respondents’ beliefs about achieving successful ageing — what it constitutes how it can be achieved and respondents’ …


Occupational Niches And The Dark Triad Traits, Peter K. Jonason, Serena Wee, Norman P. Li, Christopher Jackson Oct 2014

Occupational Niches And The Dark Triad Traits, Peter K. Jonason, Serena Wee, Norman P. Li, Christopher Jackson

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Our research focused on the vocational interests correlated with the Dark Triad traits (i.e., narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism). By understanding how these traits facilitate the structuring of one’s environment, we hypothesized that psychopaths will be more interested in realistic and practical careers, narcissists will be more interested in artistic, enterprising, and social careers, and Machiavellians will be more interested in avoiding careers that involve caring for others. In two cross-sectional studies (N = 424; N = 274), we provide general support for these hypotheses. Overall, our study showed those high on the Dark Triad traits may structure their social environment …


Keeping It In The Family, Singapore Management University Sep 2014

Keeping It In The Family, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Passion for the family business is crucial for second-generation leaders


Investing In “Sin” Companies, Singapore Management University Sep 2014

Investing In “Sin” Companies, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Investors will overlook social norms on "sin" companies when financial incentives are substantial


Cosmopolitanism As Cultural Capital: Exploring The Intersection Of Globalization, Education, And Stratification, Hiroki Igarashi, Hiro Saito Sep 2014

Cosmopolitanism As Cultural Capital: Exploring The Intersection Of Globalization, Education, And Stratification, Hiroki Igarashi, Hiro Saito

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In recent years, sociological research on cosmopolitanism has begun to draw on Pierre Bourdieu to critically examine how cosmopolitanism is implicated in stratification on an increasingly global scale. In this paper, we examine the analytical potential of the Bourdieusian approach by exploring how education systems help to institutionalize cosmopolitanism as cultural capital whose access is rendered structurally unequal. To this end, we first probe how education systems legitimate cosmopolitanism as a desirable disposition at the global level, while simultaneously distributing it unequally among different groups of actors according to their geographical locations and volumes of economic, cultural, and social capital …


Marriage And Child Bearing, Kong Weng Ho Jul 2014

Marriage And Child Bearing, Kong Weng Ho

Research Collection School Of Economics

This chapter considers the impact of existing incentives and policies to encourage marriage and child-birth, and other direct and indirect ways to raise the total fertility rate (TFR).


Climate Change And Management: From The Editors, Jennifer Howard-Grenville, Simon J. Buckle, Brian J. Hoskins, Gerard George Jun 2014

Climate Change And Management: From The Editors, Jennifer Howard-Grenville, Simon J. Buckle, Brian J. Hoskins, Gerard George

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges we confront in the 21st century. On current trends, by the end of the century, the warming effect of our greenhouse gas emissions will have taken us far away from pre-industrial climatic conditions. In fact, our climate will be as different from pre-industrial conditions as it was when the Earth emerged from the last ice age some 20,000 years ago. In other words, just over 200 years of human and industrial activity will have wrought fundamental change to our climate system. The rise of organizations and industrialized production has set us on …


Democracy Of Deeds And Voices, David Chan Jun 2014

Democracy Of Deeds And Voices, David Chan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In an invited commentary, SMU Behavioural Sciences Institute Director Professor David Chan discussed the nature of a negativity mindset and how to foster positivity in Singapore. He suggested that Singapore should be a “democracy of deeds and voices” and build psychological capital as a core resource.


Competing Logics Of Commemoration: Cosmopolitanism And Nationalism In East Asia's History Problem, Hiro Saito, Yoko Wang Jun 2014

Competing Logics Of Commemoration: Cosmopolitanism And Nationalism In East Asia's History Problem, Hiro Saito, Yoko Wang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Recent studies in collective memory point to the emergence of cosmopolitan commemoration that takes humanity, rather than nationality, as a primary frame of reference. But these studies have yet to specify how cosmopolitan commemoration emerges and articulates with existing nationalist commemoration. To solve this problem, we examine the “history problem” between Japan and South Korea by focusing on how relevant political and civic actors negotiated cosmopolitanism and nationalism in commemorating Japan’s past colonial rule and wartime atrocities. In light of our historical analysis, we argue that a synthesis of theories of institutional logics and social movements is useful in illuminating …


We Are Not All Bruce Lee, Part 1, Justin Kh Tse May 2014

We Are Not All Bruce Lee, Part 1, Justin Kh Tse

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

What do we really mean when we say that Asian Americans have contributed to American religious life? Often, people seem to mean that Asian Americans are making what Diana Eck calls a “new religious America.” Asian Americans, we are told, are changing the face of American religion from its historic white Anglo-Saxon Protestant dominance to a multicultural, pluralistic landscape of mosques, gurdwaras, and temples.


We Are Not All Bruce Lee, Part 2, Justin Kh Tse May 2014

We Are Not All Bruce Lee, Part 2, Justin Kh Tse

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In 1973, the year that Lee died, there was a marked shift among both Asian Americans and Hong Kong cinema – the two sites where Bruce Lee worked – in the portrayal of Asian manhood and its relationship to religion. It was a much more realistic portrayal of what Asian American and Asia-Pacific men were actually up to in terms of religious practice.


Committed To Us: Predicting Relationship Closeness Following Nonmarital Romantic Relationship Breakup, Kenneth Tan, Christopher R. Agnew, Laura E. Vanderdrift, S. Marie Harvey May 2014

Committed To Us: Predicting Relationship Closeness Following Nonmarital Romantic Relationship Breakup, Kenneth Tan, Christopher R. Agnew, Laura E. Vanderdrift, S. Marie Harvey

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

There is little research on the nature of relationships between individuals following the termination of a nonmarital romantic relationship. It is largely unknown to what extent former romantic partners remain close following breakup. The present research used the Investment Model of Commitment Processes, assessed prior to romantic breakup, to examine the closeness of post-breakup relationships. Results obtained from two waves of data collected from 143 young adults involved in romantic relationships at Time 1 and experiencing a romantic breakup by Time 2 indicated that pre-breakup romantic commitment mediated the effects of pre-breakup romantic satisfaction, investments, and alternatives on post-breakup closeness, …


Cross Cultural Variation In Men's Preference For Sexual Dimorphism In Women's Faces, U. M. Marcinkowska, M. V. Kozlov, H. Cai, J. Contreras-Garduño, B. J. Dixson, O. A. Gavita, G. Kaminski, Norman P. Li, M. T. Lyons, I. E. Onyishi, K. Prasai, F. Pazhoohi, P. Prokop, S. Cardozo, N. Sydney, Jose C. Yong Apr 2014

Cross Cultural Variation In Men's Preference For Sexual Dimorphism In Women's Faces, U. M. Marcinkowska, M. V. Kozlov, H. Cai, J. Contreras-Garduño, B. J. Dixson, O. A. Gavita, G. Kaminski, Norman P. Li, M. T. Lyons, I. E. Onyishi, K. Prasai, F. Pazhoohi, P. Prokop, S. Cardozo, N. Sydney, Jose C. Yong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Both attractiveness judgements and mate preferences vary considerably cross-culturally. We investigated whether men's preference for femininity in women's faces varies between 28 countries with diverse health conditions by analysing responses of 1972 heterosexual participants. Although men in all countries preferred feminized over masculinized female faces, we found substantial differences between countries in the magnitude of men's preferences. Using an average femininity preference for each country, we found men's facial femininity preferences correlated positively with the health of the nation, which explained 50.4% of the variation among countries. The weakest preferences for femininity were found in Nepal and strongest in Japan. …


Nurturing A Culture Of Conviction: Developing The Arts Is A Critical Means Of Building S’Pore’S Resilience, Su Fern Hoe Apr 2014

Nurturing A Culture Of Conviction: Developing The Arts Is A Critical Means Of Building S’Pore’S Resilience, Su Fern Hoe

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Singapore celebrates its 50th year of independence next year, but what it means to beSingaporean continues to be a topic of discussion and debate.Of late, there have been passionate reactions to criticism of Singapore from those in ourmidst, Singaporeans and foreigners alike. To counter British writer Charlotte Ashton’slabelling of Singapore as suffering from a “massive compassion deficit”, bloggers andletter writers to the media cited examples of people giving up their seats to those in needon the MRT or going the extra mile to help strangers.


Predicting Romantic Interest And Decisions In The Very Early Stages Of Mate Selection: Standards, Accuracy, And Sex Differences, Garth J. O. Fletcher, Patrick S. G. Kerr, Norman P. Li, Katherine A. Valentine Apr 2014

Predicting Romantic Interest And Decisions In The Very Early Stages Of Mate Selection: Standards, Accuracy, And Sex Differences, Garth J. O. Fletcher, Patrick S. G. Kerr, Norman P. Li, Katherine A. Valentine

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In the current study, opposite-sex strangers had 10-min conversations with a possible further date in mind. Based on judgments from partners and observers, three main findings were produced. First, judgments of attractiveness/vitality perceptions (compared with warmth/trustworthiness and status/resources) were the most accurate and were predominant in influencing romantic interest and decisions about further contact. Second, women were more cautious and choosy than men—women underestimated their partner’s romantic interest, whereas men exaggerated it, and women were less likely to want further contact. Third, a mediational model found that women (compared with men) were less likely to want further contact because they …


Judging A Man By The Width Of His Face: The Role Of Facial Ratios And Dominance In Mate Choice At Speed-Dating Events, Katherine A. Valentine, Norman P. Li, Lars Penke, David I. Perrett Mar 2014

Judging A Man By The Width Of His Face: The Role Of Facial Ratios And Dominance In Mate Choice At Speed-Dating Events, Katherine A. Valentine, Norman P. Li, Lars Penke, David I. Perrett

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Previous research shows that men with higher facial width-to-height ratios (fWHRs) have higher testosterone, are more aggressive, more powerful, and more financially successful, but are they more attractive to women in an ecologically valid mating context, speed-dating? Male fWHR was positively associated with perceptions of dominance, being chosen for a second date, and attractiveness to women for short-term, but not long-term relationships. Perceived dominance mediated (by itself and through physical attractiveness) the relationship between fWHR and women’s interest in short-term relationships. Furthermore, men’s perceptions of own dominance reflected patterns in mating desirability similar to those of fWHR. These results support …


Primitive Accumulation, New Enclosures, And Global Land Grabs: A Theoretical Intervention, Onur Ulas Ince Mar 2014

Primitive Accumulation, New Enclosures, And Global Land Grabs: A Theoretical Intervention, Onur Ulas Ince

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Recent critical analyses of global land grabs have variously invoked global capitalism and neocolonialism to account for this trend. One line of inquiry approaches land grabs as instances of "primitive accumulation of capital" whereby lands in the Global South are "enclosed" and brought within the ambit of global capitalism. Another perspective invokes the history of Anglo-American colonialism for critiquing the developmentalist discourse that depicts Africa as the "last frontier" to be tamed by the techno-industrial civilization of the North. This essay integrates these two perspectives by elaborating capitalism as an irreducibly colonial formation with global inceptions. I begin with a …