Blinded by the Spite? Path Model of Political Attitudes,Selectivity, and Social Media

Despite fears that selective exposure and selective avoidance could deepen polarization and negatively affect the democratic process, few studies have directly studied this phenomenon. This study explores whether selective exposure and avoidance to blogs, social network sites, and Twitter directly influence confidence in Congress and the president or more indirectly through polarization. This study suggests that fears of selective exposure, selective avoidance, and polarization infecting the democratic process appear overstated. First, polarization was positively related to confidence in Congress and the president. Second, selective exposure to social media sites strengthens confidence in the president and in Congress. Twitter boosts confidence in Congress. Third, selective avoidance had a negative influence on other measures, which suggests people seek both information that challenges their views as well as ones that supports them. Finally, selective exposure and avoidance proved weak indicators of polarization. Instead, strength of partisanship is the stronger predictor of confidence in Congress and the president.     

A comparison of estimators of the degree of insect control

The current estimator of the degree of insect control by an insecticide in a field experiment laid out in randomized blocks is equal to one minus the cross-product ratio of a two way table of total insect counts over blocks. Since much work has been done on estimation of the common odds ratio of a number of strata in medical studies, a series of Monte Carlo studies was performed to investigate the possible use of these estimators and their standard errors in estimating the common degree of inject control of a number of blocks. Maximum likelihood, Mantel-Haenszel, and empirical logit estimators were evaluated and compared with back-transformed means over blocks, of cross-product ratios on the arithmetic, logarithmic, and arcsine scales. Maximum likelihood and Mantel-Haenszel estimators had the smallest mean squared errors, but their standard error estimates were only appropriate when sampling distributions were approximately Poisson and there was little heterogeneity among plots within blocks in the natural rates of population change.     

Nonmetropolitan Sex-Role Ideologies: A Longitudinal Study1

Abstract Using the two waves (1987–1988 and 1992–1994) from the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH), I focused on the 3,792 Main Respondents (MRs) living in sexual unions at Wave 1 who, along with the spouse or domestic partner, were successfully recontacted at Wave 2. MRs from both formal marriages and nonmarital cohabitations were included. An identically worded set of questions about proper roles for men and women was posed to each member of the pair at Wave 1 and again at Wave 2. An Exploratory Factor Analysis uncovered two factors. A conservative orientation on the Sexuality/Reproduction Factor (#1) defined legal marriage as the only acceptable domain for sexual intercourse, pregnancy, and childbirth. An orthodox perspective on the Childcare Factor (#2) assigned mothers the primary responsibility for the care of young children and men responsibility for earning the main living. In this study, we tested the hypotheses that nonmetro residents would be more conservative on both sex-role dimensions than metro residents at Wave 1, would be slower than metro residents to adopt more egalitarian attitudes, and thus would remain more traditional on both sex-role dimensions at Wave 2. The influence of nonmetro-to-metro and metro-to-nonmetro migration, as well as the sway over attitudes of the spouse/partner, was taken into account.     

Credit Card Practices of Vietnamese and Laotian Newcomers to Canada: A 10-year Longitudinal Perspective

This is the first study to follow a group of refugees (N = 647) for 10 years to identify how they acquired and used credit cards, a novel product to them. Acculturation to Canadian credit card use occurred; there was a dramatic increase in having cards (from 4% to 77%). The main reason initially for not having a card was knowledge barriers; later on, attitudinal, such as preferring to pay cash. Variables accounting for credit card use after 4 and 10 years were: being employed with higher income, having a checking account, being married, younger, and more fluent in English. Changing from not having to having a credit card was fostered by remaining (or becoming) married, employed, and good in English.     

STIGMATIZED INDIVIDUALS AND THE PROCESS OF IDENTITY

We conducted intensive interviews with ten gays and ten lesbians drawing on research and theorizing on gay and lesbian identity, symbolic interactionism, and stigma. Key concepts from symbolic interactionism, reflected appraisals and situational identity negotiation, provide a more coherent theoretical way to examine identity development and the situated complexity of identity negotiation and disclosure among gays and lesbians. Romantic relationships are significant because they aid in identity development but also complicate social interactions by confronting many heterosexuals' "phantom acceptance" of gays and lesbians. These findings inform the literature on gay and lesbian identity by critiquing the stage models of identity and connecting this literature back to the symbolic interactionist literature on self and identity.     

Do antidepressants work? Statistical significance versus clinical benefits

Ours has been called the Prozac generation but, earlier this year, newspaper front page headlines screamed "Antidepressants don't work". Our authors' reanalysis of drug trials was widely reported as implying that antidepressant drugs such as Prozac are overprescribed and useless. The truth, as Blair T. Johnson and Irving Kirsch explain, is more complex, and more interesting.