Monthly Archives: July 2010

How race effects chosing a house

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The Houston Chronicle contains an interview with sociologist Michael Emerson about a forthcoming study (to be published in Social Forces) regarding housing choice and race.

First, a bit about the methodology of the study:

Researchers for the Institute for Urban Research at Rice University asked that question to 1,000 whites, 1,000 African-Americans and 1,000 Hispanics in Harris County to determine whether race makes a difference when they select homes and neighborhoods, independent of crime, housing prices and schools…

The housing questions were part of 30-minute interviews conducted for the annual Houston Area Survey. Respondents were asked to imagine they were looking for a house and found one they liked in their price range. They then were presented with computer-generated, random scenarios of school quality, property values, crime rate and racial makeup, and asked the likelihood that they would buy the house.

By using hypothetical situations, researchers were able to isolate the effect of certain factors, such as the racial composition of a neighborhood or the crime rate.

Here is a quick summary of the findings, according to Emerson:

For whites, the percentage of African-American or Hispanic matters significantly. They’re more and more averse to buying a house in a neighborhood as the percentage of African-Americans or Hispanics increases, even when crime is low, property values are increasing, and the local schools are of high quality.

The other result we found was for African-Americans in the Houston area, they’re sensitive to the percent Asian. So as the percent Asian increases, the less likely they are to say they want to buy the house.

And for Hispanics, the racial composition did not impact their preference for buying the home.

One other way to understand how strong the impact is, for whites: The likelihood they wouldn’t want to buy the house when there was racial diversity was equal to the likelihood they wouldn’t want to buy when the crime rate was high.

These findings are similar to those of other studies: Whites prefer not to choose a neighborhood with a certain number of African-Americans and Hispanics, even if the neighborhood has other positive features. The findings about other races are interesting as well – a lot of the housing literature focuses on the preferences of whites which makes sense as they are still the largest group and historically and today tend to have more wealth. But it is important to know the preferences of African-Americans and Hispanics, particularly as the Hispanic population grows.

Interestingly, the racial composition of the neighborhood does not appear to matter to Hispanics. I am curious to see what Emerson and his co-authors suggest is behind this.

The first Target arrives in Manhattan

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Ariel Kaminer writes in the New York Times about shopping at the first Target in Manhattan which is located in East Harlem:

It is a sharp contrast to hopping from store to store for kitchen tools here, socks there, electronics in yet another place… That dominant New York shopping model has its charms, but really, remind me what they are. I like local merchants as much as the next New York nostalgist, but on a torpid summer day there is much to be said for the suburban efficiency of one-stop shopping…

It all seems so convenient (and cheap) that you start to think you should just buy everything then and there, to have on hand when you need it.

But what did I need? … Four Riedel wine glasses ($39.99)? (When the same brand is available at Target and Tiffany, it’s time to re-evaluate the distinction between mass and class.)…

After several hours, I found myself wandering through the aisles with my shopping cart, glassy-eyed from the sheer glut of choices, idly reaching for things that I felt no special connection to. It was time to go.

Kaminer appears to be thinking through the implications of  of big box shopping stores that offers consumers many cheap options (and even some high-end fare). Granted, this one-stop shopping has not just been the domain of suburbanites: it has been available in department stores for a long time. But the experience of going to a downtown Macy’s or Marshall Field’s still seems quite different than going to Target. Those department stores were and still are more of an experience and you pay for that experience as opposed to a Target or Wal-Mart or Home Depot where the goal is primarily efficiency and low prices.

Additionally, the construction of urban malls and shopping centers (but usually lacking the abundant parking lots) really lowers the walls between the urban and suburban shopping experience. This Target is located in “the first retail power center in Manhattan” that also features Best Buy, Old Navy, and Costco. Though it is mainly accessible by subway, the dominant world of American shopping – malls and big box stores – is now available to Manhattanites.

Long form of Canadian census now voluntary

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Canadian officials have recently decided to make the long-form of their census voluntary. While the move is being made to protect the privacy of citizens, some people are not happy. The Wall Street Journal describes some of the protests:

Statisticians have protested, arguing that fewer people will respond to a voluntary survey, which will make the results less representative and reduce the government’s knowledge about its populace.

The article goes on to talk about how participation and response rates are dropping for many private surveys. If this is the case, might not the information from voluntary long-form be biased? A study done by the US Census Bureau in the early 2000s showed that changing a government survey from mandatory to voluntary dropped response rates by 20%.

Generally, social scientists operate under the assumption that research participation is voluntary. However, governments have the ability to require participation, say in areas like taxes or the census. Additionally, the statistics collected by the census have broad implications for funding, research, and knowledge about a country.

While some may not like such information being in the hands of government, do they not think their bank or credit card company already knows a lot about them?

American drinking rate pretty steady

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Gallup reports on the drinking rate in the United States which is up to a 15-year high of 71 percent. The drinking rate appears to be defined by asking whether someone uses alcoholic beverages or is a total abstainer.

While this 15-year high may seem remarkable, looking at the data from today back to 1939, the drinking rate has been “remarkably stable” (in Gallup’s words). Even in complex societies, some behaviors are quite steady over time.

As to what characteristics influence drinking, Gallup notes a few:

One of the most significant predictors of alcohol consumption is church attendance. Those who seldom or never attend church are substantially more likely than more frequent church attenders to say they drink; and those who have no religious identity, Catholics, and non-Christians are more likely to drink than Protestants…

59% of older Americans drink alcohol, substantially lower than the percentages among those who are younger. Additionally, those with the lowest education levels and lowest incomes are less likely to drink than others.

Interesting look at some common behavior. I wish there was a follow-up question (which I am sure is asked in other surveys): why do you or don’t you drink?

Twitter as Goffmanian performance

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Peggy Orenstein writes in the New York Times about her use of Twitter. Here is part of her commentary which references famous sociologist Erving Goffman:

Back in the 1950s, the sociologist Erving Goffman famously argued that all of life is performance: we act out a role in every interaction, adapting it based on the nature of the relationship or context at hand. Twitter has extended that metaphor to include aspects of our experience that used to be considered off-set: eating pizza in bed, reading a book in the tub, thinking a thought anywhere, flossing. Effectively, it makes the greasepaint permanent, blurring the lines not only between public and private but also between the authentic and contrived self. If all the world was once a stage, it has now become a reality TV show: we mere players are not just aware of the camera; we mug for it.

According to Goffman, every social interaction is actually like a theater drama as the individual actors look to play a role that ultimately saves them face. The advantage of Twitter, and other social software, is that it always a user to craft their performance at their own convenience. A user can reveal what they wish, when they wish.

Goffman was also interested in the divide between this performance and when an individual could be their true self. Individuals travel between these front-stage and back-stage worlds. Some users might feel they are revealing their true self in software like Twitter but I think this is unlikely. The act of tweeting or operating in front of a camera includes the knowledge that someone else is going to see what is revealed and this inevitably changes the action. Perhaps we can only truly be back-stage when we are in situations where they will be no human interaction. Goffman was also interested in these situations, such as when we are alone.

Emerging businesses looking for social scientists who can data mine and use statistics

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The Economic Times of India contains an interview with Prabhakar Raghavan, chief scientist for Yahoo! and head of their labs. Raghavan talks about their studies of social networking and social influence. Then Raghavan was asked about the people undertaking these studies:

What is the percentage of social scientists in Yahoo! Labs who anchor such work ?

They constitute around 10% of our people. We are interested in social scientists who can work on data mining. But in most colleges, the sociology department doesn’t teach data mining and the statistics department does not offer sociology. That’s why emerging businesses face a serious dearth of such social scientists.

A reminder that all sorts of businesses are looking for sociology students who are well-versed in statistics (and data mining). Since many students don’t think sociology and statistics naturally go together, it is up to colleges (and sociology statistics instructors) to help them put it together. Sociology may often be billed as a discipline that will help students understand, analyze, and change the world but one often needs to be able to work with and analyze data in these efforts.

This interview is also a reminder that social scientist degree holders are not just relegated to a career in academia.

Quick Review: The Stepford Wives (1975)

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I recently watched the original version of this film from 1975 as opposed to the 2004 version with Nicole Kidman and others. The movie starts with a family of four moving from New York City to the suburbs where the mother, Joanna, starts uncovering some of the secrets of Stepford. The film attempts to make some pointed commentary in two main areas: gender relations and suburbia. Some quick thoughts:

1. On gender relations. Released in the mid 1970s (and based on a book published in 1972), the movie clearly draws upon a growing feminist movement. The heroine is married to a lawyer and has two children but also has dreams of becoming a recognized artistic photographer. Her husband seems sympathetic but then is drawn into a secretive men’s club in Stepford. Many of the women in town are supposedly what men want in wives: women who clean, cook, care for the children, and generally aim to please their husbands in all they do. Of course, Joanna eventually finds why the women are this way and is horrified.

2. Closely tied to these ideas about gender is the setting. In the city, Joanna seems to find life but feels trapped in the suburbs and comments on the lack of noise. In Stepford, the men do the important work while the women are expected to do traditional female tasks. New York City represents freedom and choices; Stepford is about repression and servitude. The film is clear: suburbia may be good for men (particularly those who high-status jobs) and children but it certainly bodes ill for women.

3. The ending is not very hopeful. I imagine the filmmaker (and book author) thought the suburbs were dragging down life across America. Of course, this film is not alone in these thoughts; there are plenty of books(fiction and non-fiction), TV shows, movies, and more that present a similar perspective. It is not too far of a leap from this film to the world of Desperate Housewives.

4. I was reminded by this film how far movies have come since the mid 1970s. The pace of the film was rather slow with some longer scenes and many took place without any music in the background. (It is hard to find movies these days that are conservative with their use of music – today, it generally seems to be amped up in order to enhance the emotional pull.) The camera shots and angles seem primitive and some of the zoom-ins were clunky. The story still comes through but the presentation these days is much smoother and manipulative.

Though the film is clunky at points, it is interesting for its attempt at commentary in the mid 1970s.

Opinions on interfaith marriages

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The Washington Post hosts a panel about religious intermarrying as Chelsea Clinton, brought up in the Methodist denomination, and Marc Mezvinsky, who is Jewish, are set to be married. The panel includes Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Deepak Chopra, and others of various faith backgrounds.

Some of the statistics posted on the front page:

Statistics show that 37 percent of Americans have a spouse of a different faith.

Statistics also show that couples in interfaith marriages are “three times more likely to be divorced or separated than those who were in same-religion marriages.”

Another relevant statistic regarding the younger generation: “Less than a quarter of the 18- to 23-year-old respondents in the National Study of Youth and Religion think it’s important to marry someone of the same faith.”

It seems to me that it could be very difficult to be married if both spouses take their separate faiths seriously.

Differences in fashion tastes across American cities

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The Wall Street Journal reports on fashion differences across large American cities. The findings are based on the analysis of luxury spending by several different retailers. Some of the findings:

Southerners bought more white, green, and pink than other regions’ residents, for instance, according to data from private-sale site Hautelook.com, which caters to young, urban professional women…

Though Dallas has a flashy, big-spending image, the average woman there spends less on fashion than one in notoriously frumpy Washington, D.C., according to fashion website ShopItToMe.com…

And despite the fashion press’s obsession with J. Crew, the company is among the top five brands only in New York City and Boston…

So while there are national media outlets and national retail stores that promote their own tastes and lines, there are also regional tastes that shoppers follow. Who sets these regional tastes? Who or what, for example, helps shoppers make decisions in places like Detroit and St. Louis so that their fashion tastes differ from New York or Chicago? Local culture plays some role but how does it translate into fashion choices?

From pop culture to your baby’s name

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An article from the Chicago Tribune examines the impact of pop culture on baby names. According to the story, the names of some of the characters in Twilight have become more popular:

Bella, the name of the love-struck heroine of Stephenie Meyer’s vampire novels, hadn’t quite cracked the Social Security Administration’s list of the top 200 girls’ names in America when the first “Twilight” book was published in 2005. Today, it’s at No. 58, higher than Miley, Kingston or Maddox. Cullen, the last name of Bella’s vampire beau, Edward, is in the top 500 boys’ names for the first time in more than a century.

Other pop culture characters have supposedly influenced naming including Piper from Charmed and Samantha from Bewitched.

To look at the changes in baby names over the years, visit this page from the Social Security Administration. It is very interesting to look at how some names move in and out of popularity.