Laboratory for Sociological Research

Up this week: the ESPSG has organized a mini conference for department members to present on various topics in Social Psychology. Stop by the Sloan conference room on July 24th from 12:30-4:30 to support our department members as they prepare for New York.

Congratulations to graduate student Hyomin Park (and adviser Dave Melamed), who has been awarded an NSF Dissertation Improvement Grant to fund his work "A Theory of Rewards Stability and Group Cooperation"!

Developing story about Americans' perception of wealth inequality in the US:

(1) Norton & Ariely comment to Eriksson & Simpson's article in "Judgment and Decision Making"
http://journal.sjdm.org/13/13227/jdm13227.html

(2) Eriksson & Simpson reply to Norton & Ariely in "Judgment and Decision Making"
http://journal.sjdm.org/13/13227r/jdm13227r.html

American's desire for less wealth inequality does not depend on how you ask them A large body of survey research offers evidence that citizens are not always fully aware of the economic and political realities in their respective countries. Norton and Ariely (2011) extended this research to the domain of wealth inequality, showing that Americans were surprisingly unaware of the…

The schedule for Group Processes is up--- be sure to check out the presentations from our department!

http://groupprocesses2013.blogspot.com/p/conference-program_24.html

Group Processes 25th Year Anniversary : Conference Program

We are excited to announce that our department's social psychology graduate speciality was again ranked #4 in the country by US News & World Report for 2014!

Best Social Psychology Sociology Programs | Top Humanities Schools | US News Graduate Schools Combining principles of sociology and social psychology, students in this discipline study issues including social inequality, social identity, group dynamics, and social structures. These are the top sociology schools for social psychology.

The first issue of this year's Social Psychology Quarterly is out! Vol.76(1):73-97-- starring Linda Molm (UA), co-starring Dave Melamed (USC) and Monica M. Witham (UA) ;) Direct access also via http://www.artsandsciences.sc.edu/socylab/news

Behavioral Consequences of Embeddedness Network structures have strong effects on the frequency and terms of negotiated exchanges, shaping who exchanges with whom and who fares better or worse. In this study we ask how exchange patterns of commitment and inequality are affected when negotiated exchanges are combined with reciprocal exchan...

Fresh from the press: (Caution! Hot!) Brent Simpson, Ashley Harrell and Robb Willer: "Hidden Paths from Morality to Cooperation" (Social Forces)

Hidden Paths from Morality to Cooperation: Moral Judgments Promote Trust and Trustworthiness Classic sociological solutions to cooperation problems were rooted in the moral judgments group members make about one another's behaviors, but more recent research on prosocial behaviors has largely ignored this foundational work. Here, we extend theoretical accounts of the social effect of moral j...

Are you a one time reader or a re-reader? Has it happened to you that, although you have read a book, let's say 3 times, each time you reread it you discovered aspects you didn't see before? (See e.g. Patricia Meyer-Spacks: "On Rereading" Harvard University Press, 2011). Re-reading is big fun, but it is also an imperative for doing good research and for staying alert and creative. Each week, we'd like to share an already published research article from lab members. We are sure that you fill find new answers, but, hopefully (and even better:) new QUESTIONS! We start off with a short piece by Brent Simpson and Kimmo Eriksson "What do Americans know about Inequality? It depends on how you ask them!" (Judgment and Decision Making, Nov 2012) What do Y O U think?

urn:nbn:se:su:diva-82910: What do Americans know about inequality? It depends on how you ask them A recent survey of inequality (Norton and Ariely, Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6, 9–12) asked respondentsto indicate what percent of the nation’s total wealth is—and should be—controlled ...

Join us in congratulating Lab member Ashley Harrell for winning the department's Student Publication Award, for her sole-authored paper: "Do Religious Cognitions Promote Prosociality?," published in Rationality & Society. Ashley was also just selected as one of this year's Distinguished Graduate Scholars, a University-wide distinction. Congrats Ashley!

Do religious cognitions promote prosociality? Researchers have long argued that religion increases prosocial behavior, but results are equivocal. Recent findings on priming religious concepts seem to show that religion drives other-regarding behaviors. However, here I suggest that some religious concepts may not only be priming religion, but al...

IN PRESS:
David Melamed and Scott V. Savage. "Status, Numbers and Influence." Social Forces.

Status, Numbers and Influence We thank Linda D. Molm and Henry A. Walker for helpful comments and suggestions. This research was supported by a National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement grant (SES-1029068) to the first author.

IN PRESS: Kyle Irwin and Brent Simpson. "Do Descriptive Norms Solve Social Dilemmas? Conformity and Contributions to Collective Action Groups." Social Forces

Do Descriptive Norms Solve Social Dilemmas? Conformity and Contributions in Collective Action Groups We thank three anonymous reviewers, Nancy Buchan, Barry Markovsky, David Willer and members of the Center for Community Research and Development at Baylor University for helpful comments on earlier drafts, and Ashley Harrell and Nick Berigan for research assistance.