Political distancing

Analysis of anonymized smartphone tracking data reveals that fewer residents of Republican-leaning, compared to Democrat-leaning, counties appeared to be staying home after their state issued a stay-at-home order a difference that did not appear to be explained by other county, date, or policy factors. Residents of Democrat-leaning counties in states with Republican governors were an exception showing similar patterns of defiance.

Painter, M. & Qiu, T., Political Beliefs Affect Compliance with COVID-19 Social Distancing Orders, Saint Louis University (April 2020).

Play time

Sociologists compared nationally representative surveys of young childrens social skills from the 1990s through the 2000s as computer and Internet access became widespread. Neither parents nor teachers assessments of kids skills changed much. If anything, they offered slightly more favorable reviews over time. Controlling for changes in parenting and socio-economic characteristics did not change these findings. In the later generation, there was a modest negative association for extensive gaming and social networking, but it was positive for moderate use.

Downey, D. & Gibbs, B., Kids These Days: Are Face-to-Face Social Skills among American Children Declining? American Journal of Sociology (January 2020).

The more you know

In an experiment, people were asked their opinions on climate change, nuclear power, genetically modified food, and water fluoridation. Before giving their opinions, some participants read about a politician railing against corruption; some of those participants were also told where most experts stood on the aforementioned issues; and all participants were asked how much they trusted experts. While those who trusted experts unsurprisingly became more aligned with the expert positions after being told about them, the opposite happened for those who didnt trust experts, particularly among those who had been exposed to the populist political rhetoric.

Merkley, E., Anti-Intellectualism, Populism, and Motivated Resistance to Expert Consensus, Public Opinion Quarterly (forthcoming).

Fail forward

Its not surprising that people dont like to talk about their own failures. But new research suggests that this isnt just about ego. People generally assume that failures are less informative, regardless of whether thats the case. In various experiments, people were less willing to share negative outcome information, even though sharing that information was objectively more helpful to a recipient. Likewise, in a real-world example with teachers who were asked to write about both a professional failure and a professional success, most chose to share the success story with other teachers, despite having anonymity.

Eskreis-Winkler, L. & Fishbach, A., Hidden Failures, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes (March 2020).

Feed the children

Economists used anonymized data from the United States Census and the Social Security Administration going back decades to determine the long-term outcomes of children who were born in counties that offered food stamps compared to those born in counties that did not. Living in an area with access in utero through age five but not at older ages was associated with better education, work, housing, and longevity outcomes, and less incarceration, into adulthood. The economists estimate that the lifetime value to recipients was approximately 56 times the cost to the government.

Bailey, M. et al., Is the Social Safety Net a Long-Term Investment? Large-Scale Evidence from the Food Stamps Program, National Bureau of Economic Research (April 2020).

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Social Studies: Social distancing by political party, social skills in the Internet age, and the power of food stamps - The Boston Globe