Sociology Commons^™

Information Trust And Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Amongst Middle-Aged And Older Adults In Singapore: A Latent Class Analysis Approach, Micah Tan, Paulin Tay Straughan, Grace Cheong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Rationale: COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy presents significant challenges for public health. Objective: Vaccine hesitancy among middle-aged and older adults has been a significant barrier in Singapore’s battle against COVID-19. We hypothesize that the trust middle-aged and older adults place in various sources of information influences vaccine hesitancy, and that distinct typologies of trust can be identified to better inform targeted health communication efforts. Method: Data from a nationally representative panel survey of Singaporeans aged 56–75 (N = 6094) was utilized. Modules fielded in August and November 2020, and June 2021 were analyzed, assessing social networks, trust in sources of information, and …

Tugging At Their Heartstrings: Partner’S Knowledge Of Affective Meta-Bases Predicts Use Of Emotional Advocacies In Close Relationships, Kenneth Tan, Ya Hui Michelle See

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Traditional studies of attitude change have focused on attempts between strangers, but what about in close relationships? The present article examines whether accuracy regarding a partner's meta-attitudinal bases can influence persuasion attempts. Because meta-bases reflect informationprocessing goals, we hypothesized that given partners with more affective meta-bases, greater accuracy regarding partners' meta-bases would predict use of emotional advocacies and their perceived persuasiveness. Self and partner ratings of meta-bases were assessed, and emotional advocacies as well as cognitive ones were provided to participants to present to their partners. Results revealed that the correspondence between perceptions of partner's affective meta-bases and use of …

From Roadman To Royalties: Inter-Representational Value And The Hypercapitalist Impulses Of Grime, Orlando Woods

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper explores how digital media can cause the representational value of rap artists to be transformed. Ubiquitous access to digital recording, production and distribution technologies grants rappers an unprecedented degree of representational autonomy, meaning they are able to integrate the street aesthetic into their lyrics and music videos, and thus create content that offers a more authentic representation of their (past) lives. Sidestepping the mainstream music industry, the digital enables these integrations and bolsters the hypercapitalist impulses of content creators. I illustrate these ideas through a case study of grime artist, Bugzy Malone, who uses his music to narrate …

The Economy Of Time, The Rationalisation Of Resources: Discipline, Desire And Deferred Value In The Playing Of Gacha Games, Orlando Woods

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper offers a counterpoint to existing research that explores the associations between gacha games and gambling. Whilst existing research tends to advance a view that playing these games is equivalent to gambling, I contend that such assertions rest on analyses that focus almost exclusively on investing money in the game. Moreover, they tend to view the game as separate from the structuring forces of everyday life. Arguing that players are embedded within a double structural frame that moderates the extent of seemingly ‘irrational’ playing behaviours, I reinterpret grinding as a form of temporal investment that is motivated by more …

In Search Of The Social Impact Of Cultural Districts - Emerging Principles For Social Impact Evaluation, Su Fern Hoe

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Across the globe, the transformative powers of cultural districts have been widely noted, particularly with respect to how they add value to the lives of individuals and to society as a whole. Yet the ways in which cultural districts deliver and evaluate their social impact have yet to be fully explored. Importantly, there is a stark absence of rigorous methodologies and assessment frameworks to assist cultural districts in articulating, planning, delivering, and evaluating their social value proposition. Based on findings from a follow-up study to our 2019 report on Social Impact, untimely terminated due to Covid-19, this publication highlights there …

Applying The Dual Filial Piety Model In The United States: A Comparison Of Filial Piety Between Asian Americans And Caucasian Americans, Amy Jia-Ying Lim, Clement Yong Hao Lau, Chi-Ying Cheng

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The definition and measurement of filial piety in existing research primarily focuses on the narrow conceptualizations of Asian filial piety, which would inflate cultural differences and undermine cultural universals in how people approach caring for their elderly parents. Employing the Dual Filial Piety Model (DFPM), this study aimed to examine the relationship between filial piety and attitude toward caring for elderly parents beyond the Asian context. In our study (N = 276), we found that reciprocal filial piety (RFP) does not differ across cultures while authoritarian filial piety (AFP) does. We also found that collectivism, rather than ethnicity, predicted RFP …

Effects Of Economic Uncertainty And Socioeconomic Status On Reproductive Timing: A Life History Approach, Kenneth Tan, Norman P. Li, Andrea. M. Meltzer, Joel L. J. Chin, Kai Lin Lynn Tan, Amy J. Lim, Steven. L Neuberg, Mark Van Vugt

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Why do some people have children earlier compared to others who delay reproduction? Drawing from an evolutionary, life history theory perspective, we posited that reproductive timing could be influenced by economic uncertainty and childhood socioeconomic status (SES). For individuals lower in childhood SES, economic uncertainty influenced the desire to reproduce earlier compared to individuals higher in childhood SES. Furthermore, the decision regarding reproductive timing was influenced by tradeoffs between earlier reproduction or furthering one's education or career. Overall, economic uncertainty appears to shift individuals into different life history strategies as a function of childhood SES, suggesting how ecological factors and …

Building Productivism In Rural China: The Case Of Residential Restructuring In Chengdu, Qian Forrest Zhang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper theorizes the rural restructuring in China today as a transition towards productivism – characterized by both a productivist agricultural regime and productivist rural spaces. The rise of the productivist agricultural regime has spearheaded this transition for two decades; now the residential restructuring programs implemented under various policy schemes are also producing spaces of productivism in the new concentrated settlements. This paper, employing Halfacree’s three-fold conceptual model of rural space and using the empirical case of residential restructuring in Chengdu, offers the first full analysis of the rise of productivism in all three facets of rural space. It demonstrates …

Older Adults' Perceptions Of Government Handling Of Covid-19: Predictors Of Protective Behaviors From Lockdown To Post-Lockdown, Savannah Kiah Hui Siew, Jonathan Louis Chia, Rathi Mahendran, Junhong Yu

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Background: Distrust, and more broadly, public perception of government's handling of a crisis, has been a widely studied topic within health crisis research and suggests that these perceptions are significantly associated with the behavior of its citizens. Purpose: To understand which aspects of the public's perception of government handling of the COVID-19 pandemic predicted engagement of protective behaviors among older adults, who are the most vulnerable to COVID-19.Methods: Participants were recruited from an ongoing biopsychosocial study on aging amongst community-dwelling older adults. There were two rounds of data collection, during the national lockdown and post-lockdown. The average length of follow-up …

When Diaspora Politics Meet Global Ambitions: Diaspora Institutions Amid China's Geopolitical Transformations, Jiaqi M. Liu

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Through a case study of China, one of the largest emigration states and a rising global power, this article probes how a homeland state envisions diaspora politics amid geopolitical transformations. Drawing on historical, policy, and interview data, I argue that China's changing positioning toward Chinese emigrants, triggered by the state's geopolitical vicissitudes, has reshaped and repurposed diaspora institutions. I find that since the 2010s, China's diaspora policies have shifted away from soliciting diasporic support for domestic economic growth and national unification and toward liaising externally with migrants to expand Chinese soft power abroad. In consequence, diaspora institutions with more extensive …

Shifting Strategies: The Politics Of Radical Change In Provincial Development Policy In China, John A. Donaldson, Xiaotao Yang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Why do provincial governments change policy, even when those policies have proven successful? This paper explores a debate regarding the determinants of provincial policy choice and the degree of discretion provinces are permitted in this area. It does so by scrutinizing the shift in Guizhou's development policy from a poverty reduction orientation to a wholehearted pursuit of economic growth, urbanization and industrialization. In contrast to those who argue that central experience, prospects for promotion or local conditions are key factors explaining policy choice, the paper concludes that Guizhou's shift in policy had more to do with the backgrounds and experiences …

What Drives Companies To Do Good? A “Universal” Ordering Of Corporate Social Responsibility Motivation, Alwyn Lim, Shawn Pope

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The classic question of why companies do corporate social responsibility (CSR) is central to much theoretical, regression-based, and experimental research. Guiding research into this question is a tripartite schema of normative, instrumental, and political CSR motivations that has become increasingly established in the CSR literature. This paper challenges the schema’s status as a typology of equally plausible alternatives through an integration and analysis of a worldwide literature of 120 existing academic surveys on CSR motivation. Rather, the paper reformulates the schema into a surveyed ordering of CSR motivations that might be called “universal” in having remarkable stability across time periods, …

Subjective Social Class And Life Satisfaction: Role Of Class Consistency And Identity Uncertainty, Bek Wuay Tang, Jacinth Jia Xin Tan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Drawing on a recent perspective that inconsistent class identities can negatively impact psychological outcomes, the current research explored if the relative benefit of higher subjective social class for life satisfaction would differ depending on whether it is consistent with one’s objective social class. In Study 1, across two independent samples from Singapore (n = 1,045) and the United States (n = 492), higher subjective social class predicted higher life satisfaction more strongly among those high in objective social class, but less strongly among those low in objective social class. In Study 2, these patterns were replicated in another large U.S. …

Why Companies Practice Corporate Social Responsibility, Shawn Pope, Alwyn Lim

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The article discussed why companies practice corporate social responsibility (CSR) and their meta-analysis of 200 surveys over 20 years found that CSR is often embraced as a “halo” strategy.

Reply To Komatsu Et Al.: From Local Social Mindfulness To Global Sustainability Efforts?, N. J. Van Doesum, R. O. Murphy, M. Gallucci, E. Aharonov-Majar, U. Athenstaedt, W. T. Au, L. Bai, R. Böhm, I. Bovina, N. R. Buchan, X. P. Chen, K. B. Dumont, J. B. Engelmann, K. Eriksson, Li, Norman P., S. Fiedler, J. Friesen, S. Gächter, C. Garcia, R. González

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Komatsu et al. (1) argue that Van Doesum et al. (2) may have overlooked the role of GDP in reporting a positive association between social mindfulness (SoMi) and the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) at country level. Although the relationship between EPI and SoMi is relatively weaker for countries with higher GDP, that does not imply that the overall observed relationship is a statistical artifact. Rather, it implies that GDP may be a moderator of the relationship between EPI and SoMi. The observed correlation is a valid result on average across countries, and the actual effect size would, at least to …

Old Minds, New Marketplaces: How Evolved Psychological Mechanisms Trigger Mismatched Food Preferences, Michal Folwarczny, Tobias Otterbring, Valdimar Sigurdsson, Lynn K. L. Tan, Norman P. Li

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Principally due to unhealthy food choices, almost half of adults worldwide are overweight or obese. Current food retail practices bear some responsibility for such public health issues. We argue that numerous attempts to promote healthy eating have been unsuccessful due to the failure to account for our outdated evolved food selection mechanisms. Building on the evolutionary mismatch hypothesis and contrasting ancestral versus present-day foraging environments, we discuss how marketing activities exploit evolutionarily old food preferences and elicit unhealthy food choices for profit maximization at the expense of public health in terms of food consumption. We conclude by explaining how to …

The Associations Between Poor Antibiotic And Antimicrobial Resistance Knowledge And Inappropriate Antibiotic Use In The General Population Are Modified By Age, Huiling Guo, Zoe Jane-Lara Hildon, David Chien Boon Lye, Paulin Tay Straughan, Angela Chow

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Objectives: Understanding factors influencing inappropriate antibiotic use can guide the design of interventions to improve antibiotic practices and reduce antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Methods: A nationally representative cross-sectional survey (N = 2004) was conducted between November 2020 and January 2021. Knowledge of antibiotic use and AMR using the World Health Organization’s Multi-Country AMR Survey questionnaire, and antibiotic practices were examined. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to identify factors associated with inappropriate antibiotic use and examine effect measure modifications. Results: After adjusting for potential confounding, poor knowledge of antibiotic use was associated with a 3x increased odds of inappropriate antibiotic use in …

China Rising, 2000-2010, William A. Callahan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Emigrants’ Citizenship In China, Jiaqi M. Liu

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Scholars have examined closely how China’s citizenship regime, namely, the household registration (hukou) system, manages domestic population movements. However, how China’s citizenship regime regulates emigrants abroad remains largely unexplored. In this study, I throw into sharp relief the external dimension of hukou through a genealogical investigation of China’s citizenship policies towards emigrants abroad over the past seven decades. I argue that the otherwise domestically oriented hukou regime also governs emigrant citizenship by first deregistering emigrants who have obtained foreign residency and then selectively restoring those who seek to return to China. This combination of de- and reregistration processes leads to …

Focus On Sustainable Cities: Urban Solutions Toward Desired Outcomes, M. Georgescu, M. Arabi, Winston T. L. Chow, E. Mack, K. C. Seto

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Urbanization represents the single most impactful and long-lasting transformation of the Earth system since the dawn of civilization. Cities are simultaneously locations of innovation, social connectivity, and wealth, but they also create local-to-global environmental degradation and socioeconomic disparities. For example, food provision for cities has required significant land-use change and fertilizer input, has altered regional climate, biogeochemical cycles, and degraded marine and landscapes through biodiversity loss, algal blooms and fish kills. To maintain urban livelihoods and the provision of goods and services, cities require vast amounts of energy (e.g. to provide access to transport, cooling systems), which are massive producers …

Older Adult Employment Status And Well-Being: A Longitudinal Bidirectional Analysis, Jonathan L. Chia, Andree Hartanto

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Mixed findings in the literature on the effects of older adult employment on well-being and the reciprocal influence of well-being on employment suggest the need for more careful methodology in teasing out this relationship. Moreover, as previous research has shown that different domains of well-being relate to constructs differently, more nuanced definitions of well-being may be appropriate. The present study examined the longitudinal bidirectional associations of employment and different domains of well-being, controlling for stable within-person variables. The present study sampled older adults from the Midlife Development in the US study at three timepoints on employment status and well-being, specifically …

Cultural Diplomacy And Co-Operation In Asean: The Role Of Arts And Culture Festivals, David Ocon

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Beyond their traditional role as entertainment, form of expression and meeting spaces within local communities, arts and culture festivals can perform various functions. They can serve as showcases of artistic pride, signal openness towards cultural diversity, support the local economy, contribute to reducing political tension and provide grounds to consolidate international relationships. On occasion, such festivals function as tools to support the vision of a multilateral co-operation institution, as is the case of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Through a comprehensive review of the arts and culture festivals curated in ASEAN, this article investigates the festivals’ ulterior motivations. …

Loosening The Definition Of Culture: An Investigation Of Gender And Cultural Tightness, Alexandra S. Wormley, Matthew Scott, Kevin Grimm, Norman P. Li, Bryan K. C. Choy, Adam B. Cohen

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

To date, the study of cultural tightness has been largely limited to exploring the strictness of social norms and the severity of punishments at the level of nations or regions. However, cultural psychologists concur that humans gather cultural information from more than just their nationality. Gender is a cultural identity that confers its own social norms. Across three studies using multi-method designs, we find that American women feel the culture surrounding their gender is “tighter” than that for men, and that this relationship is mediated by perceived gender-related threats to the self. However, in a follow-up study in Singapore, we …

Shifting Employabilities: Skilling Migrants In The Nation Of Emigration, Yasmin Y. Ortiga

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper examines how Philippine state agencies sustain its labour-exporting strategies by encouraging aspiring migrants to invest in their own training and education, taking on the responsibility of turning themselves into desirable workers for employers overseas. Based on a document analysis of newspaper articles and Philippine government reports, this paper uses the case of Philippine nursing education to show how the Philippine state alters these discourses of skill when overseas opportunities decline, channelling aspiring migrants sideways to other sectors of the labour market. Discourses of employability justified these career detours to aspiring migrants by assuring them that such experiences will …

Factors That Promote Or Predict Infidelity, Bryan Kwok Cheng Choy, Norman P. Li

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Depending on the theoretical perspective taken (e.g., biological, evolutionary, relationships science, individual differences), different factors can promote or predict infidelity. While each factor may independently contribute to infidelity, it is likely that the occurrence of infidelity is contingent on a multitude of factors.

Framing Asian Atmospheres: Imperial Weather Science And The Problem Of The Local C.1880–1950, Fiona Williamson

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

It would be of the greatest importance to meteorology’, noted the editor of the Singapore Chronicle in 1829, ‘if a set of hourly meteorological observations could be instituted at Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Singapore, Malacca, and some station on the elevated plains of Hindostan’. 1 Of course, the author’s comments speak from a uniquely imperial perspective, whereby such observations would benefit the colonial service of – in this case – the British Empire, enabling enhanced knowledge of imperial atmospheres and the related economic and scientific benefits that this could bring. That meteorology was closely linked to empire and imperial control has …

Distracted: Why Students Cannot Focus By James M. Lang, Joax Wong, Andree Hartanto

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Humans are easily distracted creatures. Our attention seems to constantly waver, shifting every second to different objects, sounds or stimuli. As we transition into adolescence, we start to hear the all-too familiar phrase that technology – smartphones, laptops, televisions and gaming devices – is an obstacle preventing us from reaching full productivity and sapping our attention. In Distracted: Why Students Can’t Focus and What You Can Do About It, James Lang describes the oftentimes complicated and false conceptions about distraction and the part that technology plays in it. Currently, society places extremely high demands on students and expects them to …

Public Cleanliness Satisfaction Survey 2021, Paulin Straughan, Mathews Mathew

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The Singapore Management University undertook the fourth wave of the Public Cleanliness Satisfaction Survey (PCSS) with 2,007 Singapore resident respondents providing responses to the survey from February 2021 to May 2021, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2021 wave of the PCSS continued to reflect the overall satisfaction with public cleanliness in Singapore, similar to the last PCSS in 2019. Majority of survey respondents (92%) were satisfied with the cleanliness of public spaces that they had recently visited, a 1% decrease from the findings in 2019.

There was a substantial drop in satisfaction with the cleanliness of food outlets, with a …

A Critical Review On The Moderating Role Of Contextual Factors In The Associations Between Video Gaming And Well-Being, Andree Hartanto, Verity Yu Qing Lua, Frosch Yi Xuan Quek, Jose C. Yong, Matthew H. S. Ng

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The appeal of video gaming has undoubtedly withstood the test of time. In view of its increasing popularity, lay people and researchers alike have taken an interest in the psychological consequences of video gaming. However, there seems to be a paradox associated with the effect of video gaming on gamers' well-being—namely, while most video game players cite “fun” as their motivation to play video games, video games continue to hold a notorious reputation among some researchers for being detrimental to mental health and emotional well-being as measured by indicators such as happiness, perceived stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. We suggest …

When A Pandemic Disrupts The Export Of People, Yasmin Y. Ortiga, Karen Anne S. Liao

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Yasmin Ortiga and Karen Anne S. Liao conducted research supported by the SSRC on the dramatic disruptions that Filipino labor migrants experienced as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the support (or lack thereof) of their plight by the Filipino state. Arguing that labor as well as commodity supply chains have been thrown in upheaval, the authors describe the limits of the Philippines’ labor export strategy. In particular, they focus on two sets of labor migrants—nurses unable to take jobs abroad, and repatriated cruise ship workers—for whom dignified work at home was unavailable. Ortiga and Liao conclude that treating …