Stylized Facts Flashcards
popularity of cultural products
the popularity of cultural products in contemporary industrialized societies is highly skewed, i.e., a very small minority of books, songs, movies and art products gain incredible success, whereas the overwhelming majority gain very little
conformity in judgements
there is a tendency of people to conform to the publicly revealed judgement of the majority group in small-scale settings, even when this majority judgement is false
Werther effect
suicides reported in mass media increase the likelihood of actual suicides
conformity
there is a general human tendency to conform to the opinions and behavior of actors in their social environment
friendship paradox
people have fewer friends on average than their friends do on average
personal network size in the US
for the majority of citizens of the US, the sizes of each subsequent ego network layer - decreasing in tie strength - consist of roughly 5 alters (core) - 15 alters (sympathy) - 50 alters (affinity) - 150 alters (active) - 500 alters (total)
hubs in personal networks
the distribution of personal network size follows a power law (highly skewed, long tail), a small number of individuals (hubs) have very many social ties
transitivity tendency
your connections likely know each other as well
forbidden triad tendency
transitivity increases with tie strength. It is highly common in core networks. The more you go up to the larger layers in personal networks, the less often transitivity occurs
small-world phenomenon
in large-scale contemporary societies, two randomly chosen individuals are personally connected in only a few steps (around 5-6 steps), via their friends, acquaintances and family
group segregation
people tend to have more frequent group-bonding ties than group-bridging ties
homophily phenomenon
people prefer to interact with members from their own group as opposed to members of other groups
in-group favoritism
there is a general tendency that individuals have more positive in-group relationships than out-group relationships, as observed in research on intra- and intergroup (1) social ties, (2) attitudes and (3) trust, cooperation and solidarity
Treiman constant
occupational prestige rankings are highly similar over time, across countries and have strong agreement between raters
the one percent
the within-country stratification in income and wealth in contemporary societies is highly skewed and much of the wealth is in the hands of the top 1 percent
Great Gatsby Curve
in contemporary societies, higher within-country income stratification is associated with lower intergenerational mobility in that country
informal job finding
in highly developed nations, a considerable share of the jobs (30-50%) are found informally, via friends, family, acquaintances and other social ties
jobs via weak ties
people more often find a job via one of their weaker ties than via one of their stronger ties
gender inequality
in contemporary societies, women participate less often in the labor market than men and, when they do, they have occupations with lower prestige and lower wages
gender hypersegregation
men and women work in very different occupations in contemporary societies
integration process
with increasing length of stay of an ethnic minority group in a certain country, this ethnic minority group becomes more integrated
ethnic inequality
ethnic majority members have better labor market positions than non-western ethnic minority groups in contemporary western societies
ethnic and racial discrimination
there is substantial, cumulative discrimination against ethnic and racial minorities in contemporary western labor markets
black hypersegregation in the US
in the period between 1970 and 2000, blacks in the US lived in extremely segregated neighborhoods (D > 0.6)
the wealth and health progress
the history of homo sapiens has witnessed changes in wealth and health, i.e., a decline of poverty, rising standards of living and increasing life expectancy
peace and safety progress
from the 15th century onwards, human societies have become more peaceful and more safe
technological progress
there is a rise in technological knowledge in human cultures from 150,000 BC to the present and the speed of growth in technological knowledge is increasing
scientization
over time, human cultures have become more science-oriented. There is a growth of scientific knowledge; more formal education; increasing literacy, knowledge and skills
individualization
in the period between 1800 and 2015 there was an increase in individualistic values at the expense of collectivistic values in societies
western individualism
individualistic values are more widespread in western societies than in non-western societies
demographic transition in western Europe
the demographic transition started first in western Europe around the year 1800 and then other countries followed
second demographic transition in western Europe
in the period between 1960 and 2015, fertility levels in western European countries strongly decreased
religious stickiness
religiosity tends to be rather stable over time and geographical areas
secularization in western Europe
western European populations have become more secular between 1950 and 2015. This is seen with respect to religious belonging and religious believing
modernization and secularization
the more modernized a society, the more secular the people in that society
