Influence Of Socio-cultural Variables Research Articles

The Effect of Sociocultural Variables on Sarcasm Communication Online

Online social networks (OSN) play an essential role for connecting people and allowing them to communicate online. OSN users share their thoughts, moments, and news with their network. The messages they share online can include sarcastic posts, where the intended meaning expressed by the written text is different from the literal one. This could result in miscommunication. Previous research in psycholinguistics has studied the sociocultural factors the might lead to sarcasm misunderstanding between speakers and listeners. However, there is a lack of such studies in the context of OSN. In this paper we fill this gap by performing a quantitative analysis on the influence of sociocultural variables, including gender, age, country, and English language nativeness, on the effectiveness of sarcastic communication online. We collect examples of sarcastic tweets directly from the authors who posted them. Further, we ask third-party annotators of different sociocultural backgrounds to label these tweets for sarcasm. Our analysis indicates that age, English language nativeness, and country are significantly influential and should be considered in the design of future social analysis tools that either study sarcasm directly, or look at related phenomena where sarcasm may have an influence. We also make observations about the social ecology surrounding sarcastic exchanges on OSNs. We conclude by suggesting ways in which our findings can be included in future work.

The Sociocultural Context of Sexually Diverse Women’s Sexual Desire

Women’s sexual desire is a complex, multifaceted phenomenon. According to the biopsychosocial model of female sexual function, a comprehensive understanding of women’s sexuality requires awareness of the presence of and interaction between biological, psychological, interpersonal, and sociocultural factors. Other sexuality scholars in the field have similarly stressed this perspective, emphasizing that sexual desire in particular is impacted by medical, relational, psychological, and sociocultural influences. Given the influence of sociocultural variables like sexism and heterosexism on women’s lives, we sought to understand the impact of the sociocultural context on sexual desire in 31 bisexual, lesbian, and heterosexual women. Women ranged in age from 20 to 69 and answered a number of questions related to their experience of sexual desire and the ways in which desire related to their sexual identity. The semi-structured interviews focused on women’s retrospective, subjective accounts of their experiences. Using a consensual qualitative research approach and thematic analysis, the interviews revealed four themes and seven subthemes: (1) minority stress (heterosexist discrimination, stigmatized identities, coming out, impact of visible/safe spaces); (2) gender expectations (gendered relationship expectations, gender binary impacts, body image); (3) religion; and (4) taboo and changing cultural times. Participant responses suggest that the sociocultural context can influence the sexual desire of diverse women, supporting both sexual desire exploration and suppression of desire expression by context. Practice and advocacy considerations include understanding of the impact of systems of privilege and oppression (e.g., sexism, heterosexism, racism) on women’s sexual desire experiences and opportunities for supporting diverse women’s sexual empowerment.

The Influence of Socio-cultural Variables on Consumers’ Perception of Halal Food Products: A Case of Masvingo Urban, Zimbabwe

The main purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of socio-cultural variables on consumers’ perception onhalal food products (food prepared according to Islamic dietary laws). We assume that a number of socio-culturalfactors affect consumers’ purchase of food products especially education, religion, occupation and socialstratification. As the Halal principles are taken from the Syariah law (Law of Islam), how do consumers inMasvingo, Zimbabwe view the food products that are prepared under Islamic dietary laws? This study wasrekindled by the contention that Zimbabwe is largely a Christian country and may prefer to be guided byChristian values founded on Biblical laws. We had four hypotheses which were tested using Spearman’s rankcorrelation coefficient. The results revealed that indeed socio-cultural factors have little or no influence on anindividual consumer’s perception on consumption of halal certified food products. However, it was found outthat the Islamic consumers and other religious groups other than protestant, catholic, baptist and apostolic arehighly sensitive to their socio-cultural orientations.

Are Asians comfortable with discussing death in health valuation studies? A study in multi-ethnic Singapore

BackgroundTo characterize ease in discussing death (EID) and its influence on health valuation in a multi-ethnic Asian population and to determine the acceptability of various descriptors of death and "pits"/"all-worst" in health valuation.MethodsIn-depth interviews (English or mother-tongue) among adult Chinese, Malay and Indian Singaporeans selected to represent both genders and a wide range of ages/educational levels. Subjects rated using 0–10 visual analogue scales (VAS): (1) EID, (2) acceptability of 8 descriptors for death, and (3) appropriateness of "pits" and "all-worst" as descriptors for the worst possible health state. Subjects also valued 3 health states using VAS followed by time trade-off (TTO). The influence of sociocultural variables on EID and these descriptors was studied using univariable analyses and multiple linear regression (MLR). The influence of EID on VAS/TTO utilities with adjustment for sociocultural variables was assessed using MLR.ResultsSubjects (n = 63, 35% Chinese, 32% Malay, median age 44 years) were generally comfortable with discussing death (median EID: 8.0). Only education significantly influenced EID (p = 0.045). EID correlated weakly with VAS/TTO scores (range: VAS: -0.23 to 0.07; TTO: -0.14 to 0.11). All subjects felt "passed away", "departed" and "deceased" were most acceptable (median acceptability: 8.0) while "sudden death" and "immediate death" were least acceptable (median acceptability: 5.0). Subjects clearly preferred "all-worst" to "pits" (63% vs. 19%, p < 0.001).ConclusionSingaporeans were generally comfortable with discussing death and had clear preferences for several descriptors of death and for "all-worst". EID is unlikely to influence health preference measurement in health valuation studies.

The Attitudes Underlying Preferences of Young Urban Educated Polish Consumers Towards Products Made in Western Countries

This research deals with the Influence of socio-cultural variables on preferences of Polish consumers towards specific products made in Poland versus the same products made in Western countries. A convenience sample of 265 Polish university students was used to assess the impact of ethnocentrism, susceptibility to interpersonal influence, conspicuous consumption and demographic variables on the preferred country of origin of clothing, cosmetics and electronic products. Results show that patriotism as a dimension of ethnocentrism is related to the preference towards Polish products, while social status demonstration, as a dimension of conspicuous consumption, is related to the preference towards Western products.

A causal concept of disease in an Iranian community.

SummaryIn 1975, as part of a socio-medical survey in a southern province of Iran, the influence of socio-cultural variables on behaviour in relation to illness and on beliefs about the causes of disease was examined. It was found that traditional beliefs such as ‘luck’ and religion were related to locality and age. For instance, the urban literate community puts less emphasis than the illiterate rural population on such beliefs. Older people and those living in rural areas still tend to believe in as ‘evil eye’ as a cause of disease, but a small percentage of old people in both localities do believe that flies can cause disease. The causal role of culture or specific elements of culture on health and disease requires further study.

The Influence of Socio-Cultural Characteristics on Educational Opportunities in Public School Instrumental Music

THROUGH THE education of youth, an at tempt is made, inmost cultures, to maintain stand ards and foster ideals considered to be of primary importance. Inasmuch as equality of opportunity has been a cultural ideal of the Unite d States, public education has been expected not only to expound this ideal, but to become the agency through which this ideal could be translated into reality. For the most part, both lay and profes sional opinion are in agreement with the concept that the abilities and interests of the child should be the only limitations placed upon his participa tion in any school-sponsored activity. Many studies, however, have indicated that differences in children's backgrounds due to socio economic status, color, religion, nationality background, or family size interfere with the at tainment of equitable educational opportunities in public schools. 1? 2 * Most of these studies, how ever, have failed to take into account individual differences in the abilities and interests of chil dren. The present study was designed with the specific purpose of considering two sets of vari ables in their influence on participation. Not only was the influence of socio-cultural variables , such as color, to be determined, but also the in fluence of abilities and interests, as well as the interaction between these two sets of variables. In an investigation concerned with many vari ables, the validity of the results is determined largely by the adequacy of the design. It is f o r this reason that the method of procedure is given in considerable detail.