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on Social Norms and Social Capital |
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Issue of 2025–10–06
ten papers chosen by Fabio Sabatini, Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Nicole Stoelinga; Tuuli Tähtinen |
| Abstract: | We investigate how exposure to conflict events shapes individuals’ democratic preferences, focusing on support for democracy in general and perceptions of governance within one's own country. We examine how ethnic affiliation–whether an individual belongs to an ethnic group with access to state power–influences democratic attitudes, reflecting differences in social standing and expectations about democratization. Using a rich data set covering more than 30 African countries over two decades, we exploit variation in the timing of conflict events relative to survey interviews to identify causal effects. Our findings show that conflict exposure, on average, increases support for democracy, but the effects vary by ethnicity and regime type. In autocracies, conflict triggers rally-around-the-flag effects: support for democracy rises, but so do perceptions of the state. Violence also increases trust in ruling institutions in autocratic regimes, an effect that is absent in more democratic settings. |
| Keywords: | democracy, political preferences, conflict, protest, trust |
| JEL: | D74 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12178 |
| By: | Daniele, Gianmarco; Martinangeli, Andrea; Passarelli, Francesco; Sas, Willem; Windsteiger, Lisa |
| JEL: | D70 D72 H3 O52 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc25:325382 |
| By: | Krauß, Marina; Hermes, Henning; Lergetporer, Philipp; Peter, Frauke; Wiederhold, Simon |
| JEL: | J16 J18 J22 C93 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc25:325378 |
| By: | Meng ZHAO; Ting YIN |
| Abstract: | Beyond the natural cognitive decline that accompanies aging, a growing body of research suggests that social capital can influence this process, particularly after retirement. This study investigates the interplay among social capital, retirement, and cognitive function. Using longitudinal Japanese data from 2007, 2009 and 2011, we assess three cognitive domains - orientation to time and place, short-term memory, and calculation ability - and examine how they can be affected by working status and social capital, proxied by participation in social activities and the size of one’s friendship network. The major findings of this study are: (1) the cognitive effects of retirement appear to be complex and dynamic; and (2) social capital and employment interact with each other, with regular participation in social activities playing a protective role in cognitive aging. |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:25094 |
| By: | Sisak, Dana; Swank, Otto |
| JEL: | D72 D73 D78 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc25:325374 |
| By: | Rainer Kotschy; Uwe Sunde |
| Abstract: | Men and women differ systematically in measures of patience, risk-taking, trust, and prosociality. While literature documents such gender gaps in numerous countries throughout the world, recent work suggests an association between these gender gaps and economic development, based on evidence of larger gender gaps in Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic societies. However, little is known about how these gender gaps evolve and whether they indeed widen as countries develop. To examine this question, we analyze how within-country gender gaps in patience, risk-taking, trust, and prosociality have evolved across birth cohorts worldwide. We compare these gender gaps across country-period-cohort cells using two survey data sets that cover 460, 000 people in more than 100 countries. Our results document that gender gaps in patience, risk-taking, trust, and prosociality have declined across birth cohorts. This evidence rejects the notion that these gender gaps widen as countries develop and instead points to a decline in socioeconomic differences between men and women. |
| Keywords: | preferences, personality traits, gender gaps, cohort trends |
| JEL: | D01 J10 J11 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12173 |
| By: | Cao, Gewei (RS: GSBE other - not theme-related research, Microeconomics & Public Economics); Rusch, Hannes (RS: GSBE UM-BIC, Microeconomics & Public Economics, RS: GSBE other - not theme-related research) |
| Abstract: | Human trafficking is a modern form of slave trading. While we know that it inflicts substantial damage on its victims, its broader societal impact is not well understood. Inspired by Nunn & Wantchekon (2011, AER), we study whether human trafficking shapes interpersonal trust in two severely affected countries for which suitable criminal statistics and survey data are available: Romania and India. We find that victimization rates at the sub-national level are robustly linked to lower interpersonal trust. Our results corroborate those of Nunn & Wantchekon, conceptually replicate them in the economics of crime, and highlight their persistent contemporary relevance. |
| JEL: | J47 D91 J83 K42 O17 |
| Date: | 2025–09–22 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:umagsb:2025008 |
| By: | Marie Boltz; Monserrat Bustelo; Ana María Díaz; Agustina Suaya |
| Abstract: | We study whether pluralistic ignorance about societal and spousal support for maternal employment sustains gender gaps in labor outcomes. We first elicit secondorder beliefs from 1, 732 cohabiting couples with young children in Bogotá. Personal support for working mothers is almost universal, yet both men and women substantially underestimate others’ support, particularly that of men. We then implement a randomized controlled trial delivering personalized information on prevailing attitudes toward maternal employment. The intervention narrowed belief gaps —raising women’s estimates of peer support and men’s perceptions of their partners’ views— while leaving first-order attitudes unchanged. Treated men were 7–8 percentage points (16 percent) more likely than men in the control group to nominate their wives for a career-building course rather than take the course for themselves; women, whose baseline demand was already high, showed no further change. Treated women intensified job-search efforts, and treated men expressed stronger preferences for work-family balance. These results reflect short-run adjustments in beliefs and reported behaviors, measured within weeks of the intervention. |
| Keywords: | Gender norms, Female Employment, Pluralistic ignorance, RCT. |
| JEL: | R41 R42 D62 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2025-37 |
| By: | Seymour, Greg; Cole, Steven M.; Costenbader, Elizabeth; Mwakanyamale, Devis; Adeyeye, Olajumoke; Feleke, Shiferaw; Ferguson, Nathaniel; Heckert, Jessica |
| Abstract: | Increasingly, gender transformative approaches (GTAs), which seek to transform the underlying causes of gender inequalities, including discriminatory gender norms, are being used in agrifood systems (AFS) interventions. A growing body of evidence finds that GTAs contribute to positive impacts on a wide range of important development outcomes and have potential for improving gender equality. One limitation to better understanding changes in AFS-based gender norms as a result of GTAs is a lack of appropriate quantitative tools for measuring these norms. This work is an important step in filling that gap. Herein we detail the collaborative process that we undertook in Nigeria and Tanzania to develop a quantitative approach to measuring gender norms in the cassava, poultry, and fisheries value chains in each country. We then provide guidance for how implementing and research partners using GTAs in AFS can apply our learnings to their own work. |
| Keywords: | agrifood systems; gender norms; gender inequality; value chains; gender; Nigeria; Tanzania; Africa; Eastern Africa; Western Africa |
| Date: | 2024–09–27 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:152444 |
| By: | Megan N Cesarini-Williams (Karolinska Institutet [Stockholm]); Julie Lasselin (Stockholm University, Karolinska Institutet [Stockholm]); Mats Lekander (Stockholm University, Karolinska Institutet [Stockholm]); John Axelsson (Stockholm University, Karolinska Institutet [Stockholm]); Mats J Olsson (Karolinska Institutet [Stockholm]); Arnaud Tognetti (CEE-M - Centre d'Economie de l'Environnement - Montpellier - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Institut Agro Montpellier - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement - UM - Université de Montpellier) |
| Abstract: | A behavioral defense against disease involves detecting sickness cues in others and responding adaptively, such as by avoiding social interactions. While studies have shown that humans can discriminate sickness cues above chance in faces after sickness induction, whether this discrimination affects approach-avoidance behaviors remains uncertain. Here, we investigated how facial sickness cues influence judgments of trustworthiness, serving as a proxy measure for social avoidance. In a prior study, facial photographs were taken of 21 individuals when sick (two hours after an endotoxin injection causing a transient systemic inflammation) and healthy (following placebo injection). In the current study, participants in two separate experiments viewed these paired facial photographs and were asked, in a two-alternative forced-choice paradigm, to identify which face appeared sick (n = 94) or more trustworthy (n = 82). Participants discriminated sick faces significantly above chance (73.1 %), with females (76.0 %) performing significantly better than males (69.3 %). Additionally, sick faces were perceived as significantly less trustworthy, being selected in only 34.9 % of trials. Notably, the higher the sickness discrimination accuracy for a particular face, the less likely that face was to be judged as trustworthy. Moreover, females (30.5 %) were significantly less likely than males (39.5 %) to judge sick faces as the more trustworthy looking. Individual differences in participants' disease vulnerability, disgust sensitivity, and frequency of sickness, as well as facial stimulus participants' inflammatory response intensity measured via interleukin-6 blood concentrations, body temperature, and sickness symptoms, did not predict sickness discrimination accuracy or trustworthiness judgments. Together, these findings suggest that visual sickness cues negatively affect trustworthiness judgments, potentially reflecting social avoidant behaviors towards individuals who appear sick. While judgments of facial trustworthiness may be considered a social inference about whether an individual is safe to approach, future research should also include manifest measures of approach-avoidance in response to sickness cues. |
| Keywords: | Sex differences, Acute inflammation, Pro-inflammatory markers, Lipopolysaccharide, Approach-avoidance behaviors, Behavioral immune system, Sickness detection, Disease avoidance, Trustworthiness, Sickness cues |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05271984 |