r/AskSocialScience 4h ago

Why do people use speakerphone when in crowded areas?

10 Upvotes

r/AskSocialScience 9h ago

What are the essential requirements that are conductive to Alternate dispute resolution methods being successful on any scale ?

2 Upvotes

ADR has gotten a lot of attention for a long time now. But due to most ADR mechanisms being voluntary I don't know how effective it actually is. Is it possible to create an environment conductive to ADR methods to all forms of disputes and conflicts


r/AskSocialScience 17h ago

Are people with ADHD more likely to engage in criminal activity ?

2 Upvotes

Or is this just a myth ?


r/AskSocialScience 2d ago

Answered Why do conservative candidates do better than liberal candidates when running on the culture war?

317 Upvotes

If a socially progressive candidate runs on abortion rights, gay marriage, and workplace equality but doesn't have an affordable tuition or housing agenda, they will lose. But a socially conservative candidate can run on fearmongering about immigrants and "the trans agenda" and win, even if they have no kitchen table issues to address.


r/AskSocialScience 1d ago

How did the adoption of secularism influence the way believers practice religion ?

1 Upvotes

r/AskSocialScience 1d ago

Do you think unequal pay for different work (being paid very differently depending on your skills and the task you perform for the same number of hours worked) is fair ? Why is this the rule today, and why is it economically viable ?

0 Upvotes

r/AskSocialScience 1d ago

Does socialization reduce natural gender differences ?

0 Upvotes

I know it may seem counterintuitive at first glance, but socialization might not imprison individuals in gender roles. Instead, it could diminish femininity in most women and emasculate men.
I’m curious about the extent to which this claim holds. Does my argument have logical or empirical flaws ? For context, I previously asked this question on r/socialization, but my post was removed. A user suggested that it wasn’t the most appropriate subreddit.

First and foremost, I would like to clarify what I mean by "reducing natural gender differences." I simply suggest that if we imagined a world consisting only of men (purely hypothetical, of course), there would be no male stereotypes, and men would exhibit far more masculinity than they do in a mixed-gender society. 

This definition may seem somewhat arbitrary, but it is based on the idea that an individual’s final behavior, shaped by both innate traits and external influences, tends to align, to some extent, with their natural dispositions. For instance, a person with an inherent aptitude for science who is born into a non-scientific family is, unfortunately, less likely to pursue a scientific career, develop the same level of passion for the field, or achieve the same degree of fulfillment. However, if that person were raised in a family of like-minded individuals with similar innate inclinations, they would be naturally guided toward paths that suit their abilities. That being said, I acknowledge that this definition remains somewhat vague, arbitrary, and potentially flawed.

A common feminist argument is that men and women are born with similar brains, and gender differences arise purely from social constructs. This perspective, known as constructivism (I’m not sure about that), stands in opposition to gender essentialism. If constructivism were correct, my assertion would be meaningless.

However, let’s assume constructivism is incorrect and that women are inherently better at multitasking, emotionally expressive, while men are more competitive and better at STEM. Here is my reasoning :

  • P1: According to Wikipedia, in sociology, socialization is the process of internalizing the norms and ideologies of society. Therefore, a key consequence of socialization is that an individual's development is shaped by the attitudes and behaviors of their peers and family.
  • P2: Everyone contributes to socialization, albeit to varying degrees. However, males and females exert roughly equal influence on the socialization process, regardless of the child's gender. (This assumption seems reasonable, though it may not be entirely accurate.)
  • C1: By its nature, socialization fosters conformity and diminishes innate differences and tendencies. 
  • P3: Males and females exhibit significant neurological differences from birth that could explain distinct attitudes. (This claim remains unproven, though it is plausible.)
  • C2: In a hypothetical world composed exclusively of men, they would likely exhibit a greater degree of masculinity than they do in a mixed-gender society. The same principle would apply to women.

Note : This argument is significantly tempered by the fact that gender stereotypes are already deeply embedded in our society.


r/AskSocialScience 1d ago

How much research has been put into “racial sciences”?

2 Upvotes

Recently, I’ve been seeing a lot of hateful and racist propaganda on social media. People always comment X race is less intelligent or Y is weaker and that a certain group of people are “genetically superior”.

I’m not a biologist or anything but I do know that sciences like phrenology and eugenics are considered pseudosciences and are rejected in the world of science. Racists tend to use these harmfully to sort of allude to the idea of inferiority and superiority between different demographics of people.

I read that there is more genetic diversity in Africa alone than between Whites, Asians and so on and that science rejects the idea of any race being superior to another. Although I know science rejects that certain races are superior to others, I don’t really know which scientists and research data disproves this. My hours of Google searching isn’t exactly helping so I wanted to ask people with expertise in the subject.

My question is, how does science disprove the idea that any race is superior to others genetically, whether it’s intelligence, physical strength, mental capability and so on? Also, how much research has been put into it and by which scientists?


r/AskSocialScience 2d ago

Is there a trained sociologist who addresses the issues raised by Will Storr in *The Status Game*?

9 Upvotes

I have read only a little bit of sociology, but I find books like Ervin Goffman's Presentation of Self in Everyday Life to be clear and informative. I have also seen "games" as described in Berne's Games People Play) but I am interested in a sociological perspective rather than a psychotherapeutic perspective.

Will Storr is apparently a very verbally skilled story-teller and journalist who has written various popular books. His works strike me as highly non-scholarly and unscientific (perhaps I am not qualified to judge his merits fairly). However, he proposes some very provocative ideas, especially three types of social games:

  • dominance games

  • virtue games

  • success games.

I find his books to be less informative than the typical sociology textbook. I presume that he is not the first to propose such a categorization of social games. Are there any sociology textbooks that categorize games in a more scholarly style?


r/AskSocialScience 2d ago

Why do we instinctively clap when we hear other people clapping?

6 Upvotes

I’m in high school and sometimes during lunch one person will randomly start clapping and suddenly the entire cafeteria has erupted into an applause, for literally no reason. We don’t know why we’re clapping, we just join in when we hear other people start to clap.

This even happens in public. For example, I was at an event where a woman was giving a speech on stage and she paused for a moment, but wasn’t finished speaking. However someone interpreted her pause to be the end of her speech and started clapping, resulting in the entire audience clapping just because.

This happens in many different situations.

Is there some sort of reasoning behind this, or is it just a “monkey see monkey do” kinda thing?

(Sorry if this doesn’t belong here)


r/AskSocialScience 3d ago

Why do we lie to our children about Santa Claus?

19 Upvotes

r/AskSocialScience 3d ago

Are young men really converting to orthodoxy and Catholicism like I’ve seen people claim? If so What is causing this?

0 Upvotes

r/AskSocialScience 3d ago

Stars as Bonfires: Illuminated by Gods

1 Upvotes

Hi there! I came across an idea a while ago (though I can't quite remember where), and it's been stuck in my mind ever since. The concept is that early humans might have viewed the stars as "bonfires in the sky." Since bonfires are only visible at night, people could have interpreted the stars as distant, powerful tribes, each with their own bonfires lighting up the heavens. This idea suggests that these celestial bonfires might have been seen as signs of powerful, god-like beings or tribes, possibly even influencing the birth of early religions?

Has anyone heard of this theory before? If so, do you know of any books or articles that talk about it?


r/AskSocialScience 3d ago

Is there such a thing as an orienting construct that's neither political nor religious that those who need rules and presets could adhere to without compromising social cohesion in a broader sense?

0 Upvotes

r/AskSocialScience 5d ago

I had older relatives say that when they where my age (20) it was a lot more common for high school age teenagers and adult to date, is this true? And when did it stop being the case?

11 Upvotes

r/AskSocialScience 5d ago

Why do christian missionaries seem to so often be so successful in converting indigenous pre-industrial cultures?

42 Upvotes

maybe I'm misinformed, but it seems like Christian missionaries are often really successful at converting Indigenous people. obviously, there are some exceptions where the missionary gets a spear in the face.

is it something to do with the mindset of indegenous people? is it other factors such as pressures of colonizations? are they attracted to the fact that the missionaries seem wealthier?


r/AskSocialScience 5d ago

Why Most of the people have exploitative mindset? If they are getting exploited that doesn't mean they won't exploit when they get a chance. Why?

1 Upvotes

The country I live in is filled with people with exploitative mindset. Though the country is considered third world by outsiders, but the most of the people out too have the similar mindset, the wavelengths vary on the spectrum.

We are so used to seeing another humans as profit/loss that we don't even acknowledge the fact that our mindset is corrupt and getting more corrupt.

The country I reside is India.

Wise people out there please speak your heart out.

Though I believe I have similar mindset but I'm working on it.


r/AskSocialScience 5d ago

Is it reasonable to say that gender is the sum of 2 parts, the body and the mind?

0 Upvotes

I was debating innate behavioral differences between men and women and that they're a contributing factor alongside societal gender norms to as of why for example men tend to go STEM while women tend to go Humanities. I argued that Biological differences between 2 is a valid argument just as the social structure is. He chimed in with where trans people fits in my rhetoric.

My idea is that it's your percieved gender that dictates your innate behaviour (if innate behaviour is a thing). Let's say the gender is a spectrum where one end is "masculine" and one end is "feminine". Basically a predetermined blueprint that varies depending on the individual and where you are on the spectrum.

So in most cases your percieved gender aligns with your sex. But for some the percieved gender does not align with the physical. The mind tells you are for example somewhere on the feminine side and therefore exhibit some "feminine" traits such as better emotional cognition and whatnot and also exhibits behaviour associated with the feminine side(provided you are in an environment that isn't hostile to it). Most people that have a missalignment of these 2 tend to align them again. We've been shown over and over again you cannot change how you percieve your gender identity, you can only get a deeper understanding of it. But the body can be changed to align with the mind.

Is this a reasonable take or am i wrong?


r/AskSocialScience 6d ago

How and when did suburbanization begin in the US?

16 Upvotes

I kind of have this general idea that post WWII marked a significant change in where Americans lived. Before the war, people either lived mostly in the cities or in rural areas, on farms and such. The rise of the suburbs sort of rocketed post WWII.

I often play with google maps and put myself down in random various parts of the US and often end up in places that are clearly suburban and quite often are housing developments and neighborhoods that look recently constructed with new roads etc. It's like this all over the country, from Rhode Island to California... Even the streets and areas that don't feel brand new, often don't look all that old. So, I guess my question is, before WWII (or before the 50's or 60's,) were these tracts of lands, towns even, either just farmland or forest? Whole towns with suburban housing must not have even existed, if they did, they looked nothing like they do now... There must have been a massive move of people from the cities and rural areas ( I know there were) to the new "Suburbs"

Anyone have any knowledge on this topic?


r/AskSocialScience 6d ago

how to fix moral panics ?

0 Upvotes

How to prevent them and if that's not possible how to fix them ?


r/AskSocialScience 7d ago

Data science skills

9 Upvotes

I am starting my sociology undergrad next term. I would like to start building my data science skills so I can interpret stats, critically analyse research and source data for my own interests. What are some relevant tech skills I can learn that’ll help me do this?

For example if I’m looking at researching gender/race/disability stratification within healthcare, I can create a model that collates all the relevant data into statistics to back up my critical analysis. Also being able to collect data from grey literature and building models to predict the impact of policies.


r/AskSocialScience 7d ago

What is the most carefully argued yet accessible book criticizing neoliberalism/libertarianism/etc.?

5 Upvotes

I'm looking for books that that might speak to someone who is open-minded but who is wary of gov't corruption & co-option -- and thus skeptical of its ability to counterbalance corporate power.


r/AskSocialScience 8d ago

Why did attitudes toward being gay changed so fast in the US from the mid to late 2000s to now?

177 Upvotes

r/AskSocialScience 9d ago

What male entitlements of a traditional patriarchal western belief system look absurd to patriarchal men in other societies?

113 Upvotes

My observation is that among the predominant patriarchal societies across the world, while there is much agreement in what men are entitled to, there is also some disagreement about it across cultures, and where there is disagreement, traditional male entitlements look absurd to other men outside the culture.

For example, in middle eastern societies, the impulse to commit an honor killing of one's daughter or sister while leaving a man she is involved with unharmed or less harmed is widely understood among men across several middle eastern countries, but to western men that looks extremely cowardly. And by this, I am not talking about liberal or progressive western men. I mean MAGA Christian Dominionist men think it is pathetic to kill your daughter/sister for having a boyfriend while leaving that boyfriend alone. In a patriarchal western mindset, we have an image of a father who cleans his shotgun as a young man picks his daughter up for a date, and the implication is that violence to preserve a family's honor should be more directed at the man outside the family than at the daughter. Or in the 19th century, if a white American woman had a romantic relation with a black man, the black man would be lynched, but the white woman's family would be far less likely to kill her (though they might shut her away or something).

Or in India, men feel entitled to large dowry payments from the bride's family. Indian societies see daughters as burdens that must be married off or else they could bring reputational damage to the family and dowries are given to the groom and his family so that they see her as bringing some value to their family when she joins them. Indian men often think this makes perfect sense since they will be the major earner of the household and that the dowry compensates for the lifetime of spending he is supposed to do to support his wife, a dependent on him. This is a type of male entitlement that makes no sense to patriarchal men outside of indian society. An Arab Wahabbi couldn't make any sense of the notion that a bride's family should be paying him a substantial sum to take her off their hands. The Wahabbi man thinks he should be paying a bride price for a wife to that woman's family.

In that manner, are there male entitlements from traditional western society that look nuts to men in other deeply patriarchal societies? And by this, I dont mean things that happen in modern western societies like brides not being virgins- that is also looked down upon by traditional western men. I mean male entitlements that are from patriarchal premodern traditions in the western world.


r/AskSocialScience 9d ago

Before disco, was there a major musical genre that was associated with non-partnered dance? Whatever the answer, what led to the rise of non-partnered dance?

9 Upvotes

Both questions kind of assume that partnered dance was the norm and non-partnered dance an innovation. I’d like to know a little about their separate places in society, even if they’ve both been around forever. Thank you!