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Linking Perceived Social Mobility to Health and Happiness in China:Insights from Inter- and Intra-Generational and Prospective Perspectives
No full textNumerous studies have primarily concentrated on the disparities in health and well-being based on objective measures of social mobility across various countries with conflicting views. Recent focus and debate have been directed toward the subjective dimension of social mobility. Beyond the conventional focus on intergenerational and intragenerational mobility, I incorporate a third form of prospective mobility while differentiating between their upward and downward trajectories as well as varying degrees of change in social status. This study analyzes subjective perceptions of social mobility by different forms, directions, and distances in contemporary China and investigates their relationships with health outcomes and happiness. Using pooled data from eight waves of the Chinese General Social Survey, this study employs multiple scales to assess perceived social mobility, distinguishing it from previous research that typically depends on a singular survey question. Results support the theories of “Falling from Grace” and “Rising from Rags” on the role of intergenerational mobility on health and happiness, as well as the influence of prospective mobility on health alone. However, the detrimental impacts of intragenerational upward and downward mobility on health are consistent with the dissociative thesis. The findings on varying degrees of mobility among the three forms of perceived social mobility further shed light on the significance of distance in connection to mobility. The findings also advance the state of knowledge in intergenerational mobility by comparing its effect with that of intragenerational and prospective mobility on health and happiness
Creating new participatory linkages? Political parties and democratisation in Germany, Austria, and the UK
No full textA modernisation- and individualisation-induced loss of trust, membership, and voters has been addressed in party research for a while. However, social theory authors such as Beck, Bauman, Sennett, and Taylor have pointed to further organisational dilemmas that have not been addressed in depth: That demands for flexibility, individualisation and non-bindingness and demands for centralized political leadership might go hand in hand; and that notwithstanding increasing individualisation citizens might demand new forms of social collectives and belonging. In this article, I compare how different established party families perceive these contradictions and seek to create new party-society linkages. Based on a series of qualitative in-depth interviews with social democratic and conservative party functionaries, I emphasise that different party families and their reform attempts reflect individualisation, flexible and liquid identities differently and thus refashion the way citizens are linked with political parties and representative democracy
Authoritarians Do It Better?:Belief in Misinformation in Turkey
No full textMisinformation poses a significant threat to the integrity of political systems, particularly in competitive authoritarian regimes (CARs), where it can distort public perception and undermine democratic processes. This study focuses on the 2023 Turkish general elections—a context characterized by widespread misinformation. While extensive research has been conducted on misinformation in democratic systems, where press freedom and digitalization foster a mix of reliable and misleading information, this investigation targets the unique challenges and media consumption patterns in CARs. Utilizing a nationally representative survey after the 2023 elections, we examine the association between media consumption (traditional and online) and susceptibility to misinformation among government and opposition voters. Our findings reveal that partisan news consumption significantly influences belief in misinformation, with individuals tending to believe claims aligning with their political affiliations while rejecting opposing claims. Moreover, television remains a dominant source of information in Turkey, unlike social media, which shows a limited impact on misinformation beliefs but possesses a conditional corrective potential for certain electorate segments. This study underscores the enduring influence of traditional media in CARs and suggests that while the theory of selective exposure and partisanship is applicable, the constrained information environment significantly shapes public perceptions and misinformation dynamics
Young Children's Understanding of Helping as Increasing Another Agent's Utility
No full textInstrumental helping is one of the paradigmatic "prosocial" behaviors featured in developmental research on sociomoral reasoning, but not much is known about how children recognize instances of helping behaviors or understand the term 'help'. Here, we examined whether young children represent helping as a second-order goal and take it to mean increasing the utility of another agent. In Study 1, we tested whether 12-month-old infants would expect an agent who previously helped to perform an action that reduced the Helpee's action cost. We found that while infants expected agents to act individually efficiently (Experiment 1C), they did not expect the agent to choose the action that maximally reduced the Helpee's cost compared to an action that reduced the cost less (Experiment 1A) or not at all (Experiment 1B). In Study 2, we examined whether three-year-old preschoolers (1) maximize a Helpee's cost reduction when prompted to help in a first-person task, and (2) identify in a third-party context which of two agents, performing superficially similar behaviors with varying effects on the Helpee's action options, actually helped. Contrary to our predictions, preschoolers did not help in a way that maximally reduced the Helpee's cost in (1). In (2), however, they indicated that the agent who reduced the Helpee's action cost was the one who helped. Taken together, these results support the proposal that, at least by preschool age, children possess a second-order utility-based concept of helping, but that they may not exhibit efficiency when choosing their own helping actions
Children Strategically Decide What to Practice
No full textAdjusting practice to different goals and characteristics is key to learning, but its development remains unclear. Across 2 preregistered experiments, 190 4-to-8-year-olds (106 female; mostly White; data collection: December 2021–September 2022) and 31 adults played an easy and a difficult game, then chose one to practice before a test on either the easy, difficult, or a randomly chosen game. All children adjusted their active practice choices to condition. When the test game was known, they practiced that game. However, when the test game was randomly chosen, only children 6+ and adults practiced the difficult game, while younger children only showed a trending effect. This suggests that the ability to prepare for uncertainty may develop between ages 4 and 6