Effects Of Community Size Research Articles

Reputation-surveillance model of mate guarding: community size and religious veiling

Abstract The mate guarding theory of conservative clothing posits that veiling reduces women's physical allure and sexual attractiveness, thereby diminishing men's attraction towards them and deterring potential rivals for a woman's partner. This theory argues that the importance of veiling is influenced by ecological factors in a way that it is of higher importance to control women's sexuality in harsher environments to secure paternal investment. A prediction of this theory is that the importance of veiling should be influenced by community size, where individuals’ reputations, specifically men's, might have different weightings, and their perceived sense of controlling a partner's activity may differ. Using pre-existing data from seven countries encompassing over 9000 individuals, the current study explored the association of town size and importance of veiling for women. Results showed a U-shaped relationship where in small towns and large cities, individuals, specifically men, give more importance to the veiling of women. This finding not only has multiple implications in terms of the effect of community size on male policing behaviours of women and sexual restrictions, but it also might point to a wider relationship regarding the association of community size and moral values.

What makes a language easy to learn? A preregistered study on how systematic structure and community size affect language learnability

Cross-linguistic differences in morphological complexity could have important consequences for language learning. Specifically, it is often assumed that languages with more regular, compositional, and transparent grammars are easier to learn by both children and adults. Moreover, it has been shown that such grammars are more likely to evolve in bigger communities. Together, this suggests that some languages are acquired faster than others, and that this advantage can be traced back to community size and to the degree of systematicity in the language. However, the causal relationship between systematic linguistic structure and language learnability has not been formally tested, despite its potential importance for theories on language evolution, second language learning, and the origin of linguistic diversity. In this pre-registered study, we experimentally tested the effects of community size and systematic structure on adult language learning. We compared the acquisition of different yet comparable artificial languages that were created by big or small groups in a previous communication experiment, which varied in their degree of systematic linguistic structure. We asked (a) whether more structured languages were easier to learn; and (b) whether languages created by the bigger groups were easier to learn. We found that highly systematic languages were learned faster and more accurately by adults, but that the relationship between language learnability and linguistic structure was typically non-linear: high systematicity was advantageous for learning, but learners did not benefit from partly or semi-structured languages. Community size did not affect learnability: languages that evolved in big and small groups were equally learnable, and there was no additional advantage for languages created by bigger groups beyond their degree of systematic structure. Furthermore, our results suggested that predictability is an important advantage of systematic structure: participants who learned more structured languages were better at generalizing these languages to new, unfamiliar meanings, and different participants who learned the same more structured languages were more likely to produce similar labels. That is, systematic structure may allow speakers to converge effortlessly, such that strangers can immediately understand each other.

Female Youth Soccer Participation and Continued Engagement: Associations With Community Size, Community Density, and Relative Age.

Environmental context can impact youth engagement in sport and athlete development. Previous work has examined the population size of the birthplace of elite athletes; commonly known as the birthplace or community size effect. Community density has also been recognized as an important variable. Exact estimates for the ideal community characteristics and a thorough understanding of the underlying mechanisms has been somewhat elusive. Existing studies are cross-sectional in nature and there is evidence to suggest that significant variation exists within imposed categories. An athlete's birthdate position in a similar-age cohort can also impact development and has been associated with (dis)advantages resulting from subtle age differences (i.e., the relative age effect); it remains unknown if this variable is associated with population density. The objective of this study was to establish longitudinal participation trends among female youth soccer players in Ontario Canada, with consideration of community size, community density, and relative age. Within-category variation and associations between the variables were assessed. Registration entries at age 10 years (n = 9,826) and 16 years (n = 2,305) were isolated for analysis. Odds ratio analyses were conducted within each community size and density category for all 10 year old registrants; 95% confidence intervals were obtained. This procedure was repeated for all registrants at 16 years of age using the expected distribution at age 10 years to examine continued engagement. Findings suggest medium-sized communities (i.e., 10,000–249,999 inhabitants) provide the best odds of participation and continued engagement. Less densely populated communities (i.e., 50–<400 population/km2) appeared to be ideal for facilitating participation at age 10 years, but not for engagement at age 16 years. However, within-category variation was evident when each community was inspected individually. Consistent with previous attempts to find an association between community size and the relative age effect, there did not appear to be an association between community density and birth quartile distribution. Observations from this study show that community size and community density are truly unique and separate variables. Future studies should consider the underlying contributions to both low and high participation and continued engagement, while being mindful of within-category variation.

The Effect of Community Size on Electoral Preferences: Evidence from Post-Wwii Southern Germany

Populous communities often prefer more government involvement than less populous communities, but does community size per se affect citizens' preferences for government? Endogeneity commonly prevents testing for causal effects because (i) people can select into communities while (ii) government structures can affect community size (e.g., by en- or discouraging migration and fertility decisions). This paper studies a plausibly exogenous setting from post-WWII Baden-Wurttemberg (located in Southern Germany), in which the French occupation zone prevented the entry of German expellees after 1945, whereas the U.S. occupied zone did not. Consequently, municipalities on the U.S. side, just across the border from the French zone, experienced large and relatively homogenous population shocks. Studying voting patterns in the 1949 national- and 1952 state-level elections for 828 municipalities, we find more populous municipalities systematically preferred the SPD (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands), the party advocating for greater government involvement in virtually all areas of policymaking, over the CDU (Christlich Demokratische Union), the major conservative party that emphasized free markets. Our results hold when accounting for a host of potential confounding factors, county-fixed effects, pre-WWII vote shares, employing fractional response models and alternative instrumental variable specifications. Our benchmark estimates imply that a one standard deviation increase in population size (equivalent to ≈4,000 citizens) raised the SPD vote share by more than 11 percentage points.

Community size, perception of health, depression and diabetes mellitus in Mexican adults

Introduction: Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus is a public health problem. Theoretical approaches that include factors of the individual, environmental factors and the synergy of these variables in the development of T2D are necessary, to achieve a better understanding of the phenomenon. The research question was: What individual and environmental factors explain the presence of diabetes in a representative sample of the adult population of Mexico? Method: Data from the Mexican Health and Aging Study were used. 13,186 observations were included corresponding to individuals over 50 years old living in Mexico. A linear hierarchical model with two levels (1. Individual, 2. Community) was performed.Results: Individuals who have a better perception of their health condition and do more exercise are less likely to have diabetes. Meanwhile, depression, sleep problems, having hypertension, and parents with diabetes are positively related to the likelihood of having diabetes. Individuals who live on large-sized localities are more likely to have diabetes than people who live in small communities. The effect of community size is greater as individuals have a better perception of their health condition and the effect of depression levels on the likelihood of having diabetes increases as individuals live in large communities. The probabilities of risk and association of an exposure with an event such as diabetes are evaluated.Discussion or Conclusion: Diabetes can be explained from individual factors and the size of the community where people reside, which interact with specific individual factors, which improves the understanding of the development of diabetes.

The Effects of Community Size, Control Over Agenda, and Contextual Variables on Zika Virus Preparation of Public Information Officers at Local Public Health Departments

As Zika emerged as a major global health threat, public information officers (PIOs) at local public health departments across the United States prepared for outbreaks of the virus amid great uncertainty. Using the crisis and risk emergency communication (CERC) model to inform this study, PIOs (n = 226) at public health departments were surveyed to assess how community size, perceived control over health agenda, and other considerations such as resources and federal influences affected their satisfaction with Zika preparedness in their departments. These contextual, indirect factors may moderate planning efforts for Zika and other health emergencies and thus should be considered in crisis management and planning models such as CERC.

Mental toughness development through adolescence: Effects of age group and community size

Scholars have reported that mental toughness (MT) moderates stress, helps with regaining balance after failure, and promotes mobilizing action. Accordingly, we used the Mental Toughness Questionnaire-48 to explore stage-related MT differences in a sample of 342 teenagers representing 3 stages of adolescence: 11-year-olds (early adolescence; n = 104), 14-year-olds (middle adolescence; n = 125), and 17-year-olds (late adolescence; n = 113), who came from either a large city or a small town. Analysis revealed that although MT increased across the stages of adolescence, the degree of change varied between subscales of the Mental Toughness Questionnaire-48: challenge and confidence increased, whereas control and commitment remained unchanged. Moreover, age effects also varied as a function of community size. The findings illustrate the advantage of using a multi-dimensional model of toughness for better understanding its development processes. Moreover, they could inform the design of training programs aimed at targeting problem behaviors, for example, encouraging attendance at and enhancing academic performance programs.

Heterogeneity in Community Size Effects: Exploring Variations in the Production of National Hockey League Draftees Between Canadian Cities.

Previous research has explored ‘community size effects’ in a multitude of sporting and regional contexts and has shown that athletes are more likely to originate from small-medium population size categories, and less likely to originate from very small or large ones. However, it is not clear whether the production of athletes is homogenous within population size categories. Place of birth data were collected for all Canadian born hockey players drafted into the National Hockey League (NHL) from 2000–2014 from British Columbia (N = 192), Alberta (N = 218), Saskatchewan and Manitoba (N = 216), Ontario (N = 561), Quebec (N = 241), and the Atlantic Provinces (N = 74). To explore variations in the production of draftees within population size categories, proportions of productive cities, population mean (μ), population standard deviation (σ), as well as minimum/maximum values of the number of draftees were calculated for the different categories (<2,500; 2,500–4,999; 5,000–9,999; 10,000–29,999; 30,000–99,999; 100,000–249,999; 250,000–499,999; 500,000–999,999; >1,000,000). In addition, the number of draftees produced per 1,000 residents (i.e., yield) was calculated for each city within all categories. Results showed substantial intra-categorical variability in NHL talent development; moreover, heterogeneity in draftee production existed in various degrees across provincial regions of Canada. Intra-categorical variability suggests that a single homogenous community size effect may not exist for Canadian NHL draftees, and that future research may benefit from exploring other environmental constraints on athlete development such as income, population density, and proximity to local sport clubs.

Population density and proximity to junior developmental teams affect the development of National Hockey League draftees.

Inconsistencies in community size effects found between and within countries (Baker etal Eur J Sport Sci. 2009;9:329-339; Bruner etal J Sports Sci. 2011;29:1337-1344; Wattie et al J Sports Sci. 2018;36:436-444) suggest population size may not be an accurate predictor of athlete development and that other proxies of early environmental characteristics are needed. Researchers have begun to explore the influence of population density and proximity to local sport clubs on athlete development in European countries; however, similar analysis remains to be conducted in Canadian ice hockey. The current study focused on National Hockey League (NHL) draftees and explored whether population density and proximity to Canadian Hockey League teams were associated with the number of draftees produced. Linear regression analyses showed a significant positive relationship between population density and the development of draftees in all provincial regions; however, a significant negative relationship between proximity to CHL teams and NHL draftee development was observed in four out of six provincial regions (British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, and the Atlantic Provinces). Moreover, population density appeared to be a better predictor of NHL talent development than proximity to CHL teams. Future research may benefit from exploring the effects of these two variables within population size categories, as well as between different regions within provinces.

The Effect of Community Size on Women’s Attitudes Toward Gender Equality

Evidence points out that women’s adoption of egalitarian attitudes depends on micro and macro conditions. Households’ and women’s characteristics, such as education level, number of children, and age, define their attitudes toward gender equality. Macro-social factors such as media, social programs, place of residence, religion, and institutions, also significantly influence women’s attitudes toward gender equality. In addition, macro-social factors have been found to moderate the effects of a number of determinants of women’s attitude toward gender equality. Communities provide the contexts that shape women’s attitudes and define the meaning of their experiences and characteristics. Using hierarchical linear modeling this paper explores the nature of residential community size on women’s development of egalitarian attitudes. Results indicate that community size moderates the impact of women’s education, empowerment, and employment on their attitudes toward gender equality.

Seeing the forest but not the trees: Heterogeneity in community size effects in Canadian ice hockey players

ABSTRACTThe community size effect (or birthplace effect) suggests that high-performance athletes are less likely to emerge from regions with population sizes that are very small or very large. However, previous research on elite Canadian ice hockey players has not considered the influence of intra-national regional variation of population distributions with respect to community size effects. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to test the heterogeneity of the community size effect between Canadian National Hockey League draftees (2000–2014: n = 1505), from 7 provincial regions within Canada (i.e., British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic Provinces). The proportion of athletes in the 9 census population categories were compared to the national and regional general population distributions in the census categories. Results suggest variability of community size effects between the 7 provincial regions within Canada, with only the province of Ontario demonstrating a community size effect congruent with effects reported in previous research. Using regional general population distributions as the comparator to athlete populations changed the direction, meaningfulness and magnitude of community size effects. In conclusion, elite ice hockey player community size effects may not be generalisable to all regions within Canada.

Community Size Effects on Epidemic Spreading in Multiplex Social Networks.

The dynamical process of epidemic spreading has drawn much attention of the complex network community. In the network paradigm, diseases spread from one person to another through the social ties amongst the population. There are a variety of factors that govern the processes of disease spreading on the networks. A common but not negligible factor is people’s reaction to the outbreak of epidemics. Such reaction can be related information dissemination or self-protection. In this work, we explore the interactions between disease spreading and population response in terms of information diffusion and individuals’ alertness. We model the system by mapping multiplex networks into two-layer networks and incorporating individuals’ risk awareness, on the assumption that their response to the disease spreading depends on the size of the community they belong to. By comparing the final incidence of diseases in multiplex networks, we find that there is considerable mitigation of diseases spreading for full phase of spreading speed when individuals’ protection responses are introduced. Interestingly, the degree of community overlap between the two layers is found to be critical factor that affects the final incidence. We also analyze the consequences of the epidemic incidence in communities with different sizes and the impacts of community overlap between two layers. Specifically, as the diseases information makes individuals alert and take measures to prevent the diseases, the effective protection is more striking in small community. These phenomena can be explained by the multiplexity of the networked system and the competition between two spreading processes.

Volunteering in sport is more prevalent in small (but not tiny) communities: Insights from 19 countries

Although emerging research suggests members of smaller communities are more likely to play sport, including professional sport, there is little understanding of what sociocultural factors may be associated with sporting contexts in smaller communities. The purpose of this study was to assess if members of smaller communities are also more likely to volunteer in sport. Data were acquired from wave four of the World Value Survey. The analysis involved 22,461 participants from 19 countries. Hierarchal non-linear Bernoulli modelling was used to examine the association between community size and active volunteering with a sport organisation. After controlling for country-level clustering and demographic variables – including sport participation – participants from communities with between 2001 and 20,000 residents were more likely to report volunteering in sport, relative to participants from larger communities (> 500,000). In particular, participants from communities with between 2001 and 5000 residents were the most overrepresented, being 2.17 (95% OR: 1.94–2.43) times more likely to report volunteering than large communities (> 500,000). Moreover, the effect of community size occurred for all other measured forms of volunteering, thus contradicting the idea that limited volunteering opportunities in smaller communities is driving this effect. These findings provide novel evidence that participants from smaller communities are more likely to volunteer, even when controlling for sport participation. Future research should aim to reveal the specific determinants and consequences of sport volunteering in smaller communities.

Does size of one’s community affect likelihood of being drafted into the NHL? Analysis of 25 years of data

The consistency of community size effects in North American contexts but not elsewhere, reinforces the notion that the effect is driven by socio-cultural factors specific to the country under examination. In order to identify and understand the various forces driving the community size effect, it is important to determine whether the effect has changed over time. Stability or instability over time would assist researchers in identifying the specific socio-cultural mechanisms driving these effects. This study compared the influence of community size on the likelihood of being drafted into the National Hockey League (NHL) among Canadian ice hockey players drafted to play in the NHL between 1985 and 2009. Although there was some variability over the timespan examined, most notably in communities with between 250,000 and 499,999 inhabitants and over 1,000,000 inhabitants, trends were generally stable over time, suggesting that the socio-cultural mechanisms may have also been relatively stable, although further work is necessary to confirm this assumption.

Effect of Community Size on Eligibility for Early Intervention for Infants With a Neonatal Intensive Care Experience

To determine if population density (rural vs urban) in a child's home community influenced the decision of eligibility for early intervention (EI) services. The sample included 356 infants with a gestational age of <31 weeks referred from a statewide child find program for an evaluation for EI services. A binary logistic regression analysis was completed to determine which variables predicted acceptance into EI services. Infants less than 31 weeks gestation residing in rural areas were more likely to be eligible for EI services than premature infants (ie, <31 weeks gestation) with similar birth characteristics from urban areas. A binary logistic regression analysis revealed an odds ratio for eligibility for EI services among children living in rural areas compared to those living in urban areas was 3.007 (95% CI, 1.497 to 6.040). Additionally, the odds ratio for eligibility for males as compared to females was 1.908 (95% CI, 1.017 to 3.578). Participants who lived in a rural area and were male were more likely to be eligible for EI services than those who lived in urban locations and were female. Factors such as community support, experience with high-risk populations, and differences in interpreting eligibility criteria may influence the differences found between the rural and urban populations. Analysis of intervention cost versus effectiveness will be needed to determine whether the system as adopted in the rural versus urban environment is more appropriate for the provision of EI services.

Modes of Collective Action in Village Economies: Evidence from Natural and Artefactual Field Experiments in a Developing Country

In a canonical model of collective action, individual contribution to collective action is negatively correlated with group size. Yet, empirical evidence on the group size effect has been mixed, partly due to heterogeneities in group activities. In this paper, we first construct a simple model of collective action with the free rider problem, altruism, public goods, and positive externalities of social networks. We then empirically test the theoretical implications of the group size effect on individual contribution to four different types of collective action, i.e., monetary or nonmonetary contribution to directly or indirectly productive activities. To achieve this, we collect and employ artefactual field experimental data such as public goods and dictator games conducted in southern Sri Lanka under a natural experimental situation where the majority of farmers were relocated to randomly selected communities based on the government lottery. This unique situation enables us to identify the causal effects of community size on collective action. We find that the levels of collective action can be explained by the social preferences of farmers. We also show evidence of free riding by self-interested households with no landholdings. The pattern of collective action, however, differs significantly by mode of activity — collective action that is directly rather than indirectly related to production is less likely to suffer from the free rider problem. Also, monetary contribution is less likely to cause free riding than nonmonetary labor contribution. Unlike labor contributions, monetary contributions involve collection of fees which can be easily tracked and verified, possibly leading to better enforcement of collective action.

Modes of Collective Action in Village Economies: Evidence from Natural and Artefactual Field Experiments in a Developing Country

In a canonical model of collective action, individual contribution to collective action is negatively correlated with group size. Yet, empirical evidence on the group size effect has been mixed, partly due to heterogeneities in group activities. In this paper, we first construct a simple model of collective action with the free rider problem, altruism, public goods, and positive externalities of social networks. We then empirically test the theoretical implications of the group size effect on individual contribution to four different types of collective action, i.e., monetary or nonmonetary contribution to directly or indirectly productive activities. To achieve this, we collect and employ artefactual field experimental data such as public goods and dictator games conducted in southern Sri Lanka under a natural experimental situation where the majority of farmers were relocated to randomly selected communities based on the government lottery. This unique situation enables us to identify the causal effects of community size on collective action. We find that the levels of collective action can be explained by the social preferences of farmers. We also show evidence of free riding by self-interested households with no landholdings. The pattern of collective action, however, differs significantly by mode of activity—collective action that is directly rather than indirectly related to production is less likely to suffer from the free rider problem. Also, monetary contribution is less likely to cause free riding than nonmonetary labor contribution. Unlike labor contributions, monetary contributions involve collection of fees which can be easily tracked and verified, possibly leading to better enforcement of collective action.

The impact of online community position on online game continuance intention: Do game knowledge and community size matter?

This study attempts to investigate how a player's position in an online gaming community leads to his or her continuance intention toward a Massive Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) from the perspective of social capital theory. Using subjective and objective data collected from 340 players in a representative MMOG, our results reveal that community position significantly affects community trust and perceived social value, which in turn positively influence MMOG continuance intention. Furthermore, this study provides support for the moderating effects of game knowledge and community size on the proposed model. This study concludes with research limitations and theoretical and managerial implications.

Community Effect on Drug Sensitivity of Cardiomyocytes Controlled Spatial Patterns by using On-Chip MEA System

In cardiomyocyte network, network size and spatial arrangement of different cellular-type are important factors for stabilization of beating rhythms. To study the community effect of the geometric factor and community size, we tried to develop cultivation chambers in a various size and geometric patterns using the agarose micro-processing technique combined with the multi-electrode array (MEA) measurement system (we call it On-Chip MEA system), and each of extra-cellular signal of mouse embryonic cardiomyocytes to tachyrhythmia inducing drug response was recorded simultaneously.Firstly, to evaluate the effect of community size on the sensitivity to drug, we tried to build the square sheet type chambers having small, medium and large area (about 104, 105, and 106 um2, respectively). Next, we tried to construct circuit type chambers with loop structure (circuit length of 2um, 8.2um) compared with sheet type geometry.As a result, we observed different response to drug among community size and geometric pattern. These results imply that sensitivity to the drug depends on spatial patterns. In this meeting, difference of drug sensitive event (e.g. tachyrhthmia, cardiac arrest etc), we report in detail about quantitative parameters: Beating Rate (BR), Field Potential Duration (FPD), Short Term Variability (STV) of them etc, which will be help for understanding community effect.

Community characteristics that attract physicians in Japan: a cross-sectional analysis of community demographic and economic factors

BackgroundIn many countries, there is a surplus of physicians in some communities and a shortage in others. Population size is known to be correlated with the number of physicians in a community, and is conventionally considered to represent the power of communities to attract physicians. However, associations between other demographic/economic variables and the number of physicians in a community have not been fully evaluated. This study seeks other parameters that correlate with the physician population and show which characteristics of a community determine its "attractiveness" to physicians.MethodsAssociations between the number of physicians and selected demographic/economic/life-related variables of all of Japan's 3132 municipalities were examined. In order to exclude the confounding effect of community size, correlations between the physician-to-population ratio and other variable-to-population ratios or variable-to-area ratios were evaluated with simple correlation and multiple regression analyses. The equity of physician distribution against each variable was evaluated by the orenz curve and Gini index.ResultsAmong the 21 variables selected, the service industry workers-to-population ratio (0.543), commercial land price (0.527), sales of goods per person (0.472), and daytime population density (0.451) were better correlated with the physician-to-population ratio than was population density (0.409). Multiple regression analysis showed that the service industry worker-to-population ratio, the daytime population density, and the elderly rate were each independently correlated with the physician-to-population ratio (standardized regression coefficient 0.393, 0.355, 0.089 respectively; each p < 0.001). Equity of physician distribution was higher against service industry population (Gini index = 0.26) and daytime population (0.28) than against population (0.33).ConclusionDaytime population and service industry population in a municipality are better parameters of community attractiveness to physicians than population. Because attractiveness is supposed to consist of medical demand and the amenities of urban life, the two parameters may represent the amount of medical demand and/or the extent of urban amenities of the community more precisely than population does. The conventional demand-supply analysis based solely on population as the demand parameter may overestimate the inequity of the physician distribution among communities.