Micro-level Mechanisms Research Articles

The Sociology of Police Behavior

Black Americans are 3.5 times and Black teenagers are 21 times more likely to be killed by police than their White counterparts. Generally, protective factors such as social class do little to reduce this disparity, as high-income Black Americans are just as likely to be killed by police as low-income Black Americans. Given these outcomes, it is unsurprising that the bulk of sociological research on policing examines disparities in policing outcomes between Black and Brown communities and individuals and their White counterparts. We begin by outlining this important research. In addition to focusing on the consequences of (over)policing, sociologists can make unique contributions to our understanding of the empirical limitations of contemporary policing data and the macro-, meso-, and micro-level mechanisms that contribute to policing inequalities. While we draw upon some research in other disciplines, sociologists can and should do more in these areas. Accordingly, the end of this review focuses on future directions and theoretical possibilities by centering emerging research that pivots sociology to a more direct focus on overcoming the methodological limits of police research and contributing to meaningful behavioral, organizational, and policy changes.

Review of the Interfacial Structure and Properties of Surfactants in Petroleum Production and Geological Storage Systems from a Molecular Scale Perspective.

Surfactants play a crucial role in tertiary oil recovery by reducing the interfacial tension between immiscible phases, altering surface wettability, and improving foam film stability. Oil reservoirs have high temperatures and high pressures, making it difficult and hazardous to conduct lab experiments. In this context, molecular dynamics (MD) simulation is a valuable tool for complementing experiments. It can effectively study the microscopic behaviors (such as diffusion, adsorption, and aggregation) of the surfactant molecules in the pore fluids and predict the thermodynamics and kinetics of these systems with a high degree of accuracy. MD simulation also overcomes the limitations of traditional experiments, which often lack the necessary temporal-spatial resolution. Comparing simulated results with experimental data can provide a comprehensive explanation from a microscopic standpoint. This article reviews the state-of-the-art MD simulations of surfactant adsorption and resulting interfacial properties at gas/oil-water interfaces. Initially, the article discusses interfacial properties and methods for evaluating surfactant-formed monolayers, considering variations in interfacial concentration, molecular structure of the surfactants, and synergistic effect of surfactant mixtures. Then, it covers methods for characterizing microstructure at various interfaces and the evolution process of the monolayers' packing state as a function of interfacial concentration and the surfactants' molecular structure. Next, it examines the interactions between surfactants and the aqueous phase, focusing on headgroup solvation and counterion condensation. Finally, it analyzes the influence of hydrophobic phase molecular composition on interactions between surfactants and the hydrophobic phase. This review deepened our understanding of the micro-level mechanisms of oil displacement by surfactants and is beneficial for screening and designing surfactants for oil field applications.

Environmental pollution and officials' promotion: How China's green attention matters

With the growing emphasis on sustainable development, green policies have become a crucial factor influencing both environmental pollution and the career progression of officials in China and other countries. However, the mechanisms behind this relationship remain unclear. This paper aims to enhance the understanding of how environmental pollution impacts official promotion by analyzing the performance of provincial leaders in China and their incentives to address pollution. Using provincial panel data from 1998 to 2020 and a probit model, our study uncovers significant findings. We demonstrate that the intensified green attention by China's central government has notably reduced the promotion prospects for provincial officials with poor environmental protection records, particularly since 2013. Furthermore, our research extends the analysis of micro-level mechanisms, illustrating how the central government's political incentives effectively influence local environmental governance. This study underscores the central government's capability to leverage its personnel system to achieve desired outcomes in sustainable development.

Attraction by pairwise coherence explains the emergence of ideological sorting.

Political polarization has become a growing concern in democratic societies, as it drives tribal alignments and erodes civic deliberation among citizens. Given its prevalence across different countries, previous research has sought to understand under which conditions people tend to endorse extreme opinions. However, in polarized contexts, citizens not only adopt more extreme views but also become correlated across issues that are, a priori, seemingly unrelated. This phenomenon, known as "ideological sorting", has been receiving greater attention in recent years but the micro-level mechanisms underlying its emergence remain poorly understood. Here, we study the conditions under which a social dynamic system is expected to become ideologically sorted as a function of the mechanisms of interaction between its individuals. To this end, we developed and analyzed a multidimensional agent-based model that incorporates two mechanisms: homophily (where people tend to interact with those holding similar opinions) and pairwise-coherence favoritism (where people tend to interact with ingroups holding politically coherent opinions). We numerically integrated the model's master equations that perfectly describe the system's dynamics and found that ideological sorting only emerges in models that include pairwise-coherence favoritism. We then compared the model's outcomes with empirical data from 24,035 opinions across 67 topics and found that pairwise-coherence favoritism is significantly present in datasets that measure political attitudes but absent across topics not considered related to politics. Overall, this work combines theoretical approaches from system dynamics with model-based analyses of empirical data to uncover a potential mechanism underlying the pervasiveness of ideological sorting.

Public hospital reform, family health consumption and health inequality: evidence from China Family Panel Studies.

In 2017, China launched a comprehensive reform of public hospitals and eliminated drug markups, aiming to solve the problem of expensive medical treatment and allow poor and low-income people to enjoy basic health opportunities. This study attempts to evaluate the policy impact of public hospital reform on the health inequality of Chinese residents and analyze its micro-level mechanism from the perspective of household consumption structure. Studying the inherent causal connection between public hospital reform and health inequality is of paramount significance for strengthening China's healthcare policies, system design, raising the average health level of Chinese residents, and achieving the goal of ensuring a healthy life for individuals of all age groups. Based on the five waves of data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) conducted in 2012-2020, We incorporates macro-level statistical indicators such as the time of public hospital reforms, health insurance surplus, and aging, generating 121,447 unbalanced panel data covering 27 provinces in China for five periods. This data was used to explore the impact of public hospital reform on health inequality. Logical and empirical tests were conducted to determine whether the reform, by altering family medical care and healthy leisure consumption expenditures, affects the micro-pathways of health inequality improvement. We constructed a two-way fixed model based on the re-centralized influence function (RIF_CI_OLS) and a chained mediation effects model to verify the hypotheses mentioned above. Public hospital reform can effectively improve the health inequality situation among Chinese residents. The reform significantly reduces household medical expenses, increases healthy leisure consumption, promotes the upgrading of family health consumption structure, and lowers the health inequality index. In terms of indirect effects, the contribution of the increase in healthy leisure consumption is relatively greater. Public hospital reform significantly alleviates health inequality in China, with household health consumption serving as an effective intermediary pathway in the aforementioned impact. In the dual context of global digitization and exacerbated population aging, enhancing higher education levels and vigorously developing the health industry may be two key factors contributing to this effect.

Pore structure expansion and evolution in sandstone with prefabricated crack under freeze-thaw cycles based on CT scanning

Pore structure expansion and evolution in sandstone with prefabricated crack under freeze-thaw cycles based on CT scanning

The Enforcement of Political Norms

Abstract Democracies generate norms prescribing what behaviours and preferences are deemed acceptable. But what keeps these political norms in place? We expect that they are enforced by observers who disapprove of norm-breaching behaviour and are willing to apply sanctions that make it socially costly. We test this expectation with a survey in Spain, where respondents were shown pictures of individuals with different political views. We focus on norms against radical-right preferences, one of the most established political norms. In line with our expectations, individuals disapprove of radical-right preferences more than other political preferences. This makes them more likely to socially sanction those preferences, which they do mainly in indirect ways that do not force interaction with the person breaching the norm. We provide evidence on the individual-level predictors of norm enforcement. Our findings highlight the micro-level mechanisms by which social influence affects the behaviour of democratic citizens.

Status (in)consistency in education and violent parenting practices towards children

Violent childrearing practices represent an invisible threat for global health and human development. Leveraging underused information on child discipline methods, this study explores the relationship between parental educational similarity and violent childrearing practices, testing a new potential pathway through which parental educational similarity may relate to child health and wellbeing over the life course. The study uses data from Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) and Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) covering 27 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. Results suggest that couples where partners share the same level of education (homogamy) are less likely to adopt violent childrearing practices relative to couples where partners face status inconsistency in education (heterogamy), with differences by age of the child, yet less so by sex and birth order. Homogamous couples where both partners share high levels of education are also less (more) likely to adopt physically violent (non-violent) practices relative to homogamous couples with low levels of education. Relationships are stronger in countries characterized by higher GDP per capita, Human Development Index, and female education, yet also in countries with higher income and gender inequalities. Besides stressing the importance of female education, these findings underscore the key role of status concordance vs discordance in SSA partnerships. Tested micro-level mechanisms and country-level moderators only weakly explain result heterogeneity, calling for more research on the topic.

Fe doping strategy induces peroxymonosulfate activation by ZIF-67 through a non-radical reaction pathway with dominant 1O2 generation

Zeolitic Imidazole Framework-67 (ZIF-67), which can be large-scale synthesized under mild conditions, has been widely reported as a promising and efficient catalyst in peroxymonosulfate (PMS)-based advanced oxidation process. However, ZIF-67 typically activates PMS through a monotonous free radical reaction pathway, which limits its reusability, resistance to environmental interference, and degradation selectivity. In this study, controlled doping of Fe atoms into the lattice structure of ZIF-67 (FexCo1-x-ZIF) was employed, resulting in the nearly complete conversion of PMS to 1O2 through a unique non-radical pathway. Series of experiments, characterizations, and theoretical calculations were employed to elucidate the micro-level mechanism of PMS activation. The results indicate that the tetrahedral coordinated Co-N4 sites in ZIF-67 are transformed into unsaturated Co-N2 sites due to the competitive coordination effect upon the introduction of Fe. PMS adsorption is enhanced as both oxygen atoms bind simultaneously to the Co-N2 site, inducing the removal of a hydrogen atom from PMS and electron transfer from PMS to the Co-N2 site, thus facilitating the generation of 1O2. The 1O2-dominated non-radical degradation reaction enhances the excellent degradation performance, reusability, and environmental tolerance of the FexCo1-x-ZIF/PMS system under diverse natural water conditions, presenting significant prospects for practical applications.

Study on the suppression characteristics and mechanism of ABC powder on pulverized coal explosion based on the analysis of thermal decomposition characteristics and reaction kinetics

This study investigates the inhibitory characteristics and mechanisms of ABC powder on coal powder explosion using a combination of experimental, theoretical, and numerical methods. In a 20 L spherical explosion experimental system, coal powder was mixed with ABC powder at various mass concentrations. The microstructure and major functional groups of the explosion products were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The proportions of the major functional groups were determined through peak fitting analysis. The research findings demonstrate that the introduction of 60 wt% ABC powder into the coal sample led to a significant decrease in the maximum explosion pressure, from 0.683 MPa to 0.454 MPa, indicating a remarkable reduction of 33.38%. Moreover, the inclusion of 70 wt% ABC powder exhibited complete suppression of coal dust explosions. Thermal decomposition characteristics of the mixed system were investigated using a thermogravimetric analyzer, and the Coats-Redfern integral method was employed to analyze the pyrolysis experimental data. The results suggest that the optimal reaction kinetics models for the combustion stage of coal powder and the mixed system are F1 and F2, respectively. Adding ABC powder increases the activation energy by 27.35% and slows down the pyrolysis rate by 37.97%. Furthermore, numerical simulations using CHEMKIN software were conducted to study the inhibitory effect of ABC powder on coal powder explosion. The results demonstrate that the addition of ABC powder significantly reduces the content of O·, H·, and OH·radicals, which are responsible for sustaining explosive chain reactions within the explosion system. By incorporating the findings of this investigation, the present study offers a comprehensive explication of the intricate micro-level mechanisms that underlie the inhibitory properties exerted by ABC powder on coal dust explosions. These results contribute novel scientific and theoretical foundations, yielding profound insights into the prevention and mitigation of calamitous coal dust explosion incidents within coal mining environments.

Abusive Supervision and Organizational Resilience: The Role of Employees’ Psychological Capital

Crises present important opportunities to study leadership. While previous research has established that abusive supervision occurs more frequently during a crisis, its effect on organizational resilience has not been studied. Micro-level mechanisms through which abusive supervision affects organizational resilience are also largely missing from prior studies. The aim of the present research was to investigate how abusive supervision relates to organizational resilience via employees’ psychological capital through the lens of the job-demands resources theory. Multi-level structural equation modelling using Stata version 18 was used to test a mediation model using a sample of 301 small and medium sized enterprises from Kenya. Results revealed that abusive supervision erodes organizational resilience however employees' psychological capital offsets the negative effects of abusive supervision. Ultimately, this paper showed that psychological capital can aid in lessening the deleterious effects of abusive supervision in crisis.

Religious Diversity, Islam, and Integration in Western Europe—Dissecting Symbolic, Social, and Institutional Boundary Dynamics

Religious diversity and, in particular, the presence of Islam is often perceived as a threat to national solidarity and social cohesion across Western Europe. Reviewing and synthesizing compartmentalized research literature on religion and immigrant integration, this article scrutinizes symbolic, social, and institutional boundary processes and their underlying micro-level mechanisms. First, it showcases the relative brightness of religiously coded symbolic boundaries that is sustained by anti-Muslim prejudices among the majority as well as by the intergenerational transmission of Muslim religiosity. Second, it discusses whether and how religious differences translate into social boundaries, through both discrimination and religiously based (self-)segregation on the labor market, in education, and in social networks. Third, it traces how interactive sequences of Muslims’ claims for recognition and public policy responses have led to institutional boundary shifts under the influence of constitutional law and European human rights and anti-discrimination directives. The article concludes by discussing scenarios of how macro-level processes of symbolic, social, and institutional boundary transformation interrelate, thus raising broader questions on religious diversity and integration in Western European nation-states.

The coupling effect between the environment and strategies drives the emergence of group cooperation

The emergence of cooperation is a central issue in understanding collective behavior and evolution. The eco-evolutionary game model introduces a human–environment coupling mechanism, revealing that the feedback between strategies and the relevant environment is a key element in sustaining long-term cooperation. Previous theoretical studies have observed periodic oscillations between cooperative and defective actions under certain conditions. However, such investigations assume cooperators hold a benefit advantage over defectors, which does not fundamentally illuminate how cooperation emerges. Our paper emphasizes that understanding this issue requires considering inherent human memory characteristics. We refine the eco-evolutionary game model using reinforcement learning, constructing a multi-agent system that couples environment and memory-based decision-making. Comprehensive analyses encompass collective and individual perspectives. Our findings show that with the memory mechanism, oscillations between collective cooperation and defection can still occur, even if defection remains a strict Nash equilibrium. Cooperation emerges from the group’s random exploratory actions in depleted environments, altering the environment’s trends. A positive feedback loop forms among the environment, individual rewards, and actions, stabilizing cooperation as a favorable individual strategy at that point. However, established group cooperation leads individuals seeking optimal behavior to transition from cooperators to defectors through exploration, resulting in cooperation collapse. Subsequently, the memory mechanism reengages, diluting defectors’ expected payoffs and initiating a new round of exploratory behavior within the group. Our results unveil the micro-level mechanisms driving cyclic oscillations, enhancing our understanding of the environment-strategy interplay.

As the crow flies: tracking policy diffusion through stakeholder networks

AbstractPolicy diffusion is an important element of the policy formation process. However, understanding of the micro-level interactions governing policy spread remains limited. Much of the literature focuses on macro-level proxies for intergovernmental connectivity. These proxies outline broad diffusion patterns without specifying the micro-level mechanisms that govern how individuals facilitate that diffusion. The role of stakeholders in diffusion in the policy subsystem is also poorly understood. We construct a panel dataset covering the spread of the US ecotourism programs from 1993 to 2016 to investigate how micro-level movement within stakeholder networks explains state-level policy diffusion over time. Using fixed-effects regression, we find that stakeholder movement significantly drives diffusion, acting as a mechanism of knowledge transfer. Our findings provide a more precise theoretical understanding of how policy knowledge diffuses at the micro level, empirically explain the role of policy stakeholders in diffusion, and highlight the value of citizen-science data for policy research.

Status, cognitive overload, and incomplete information in advice-seeking networks: An agent-based model

Advice-seeking typically occurs across organizational boundaries through informal connections. By using Stochastic Actor-Oriented Models (SAOM), previous research has tried to identify the micro-level mechanisms behind these informal connections. Unfortunately, these models assume perfect network information, require agents to perform too cognitively demanding decisions, and do not account for threshold-based critical events, such as simultaneous tie changes. In the context of knowledge-intensive organizations, the shortage of high-skilled professionals could determine complex network effects given that many less-skilled professionals would seek advice from a few easily overloaded, selective high-skilled, who are also sensitive to status demotion. To capture these context-specific organizational features, we have elaborated on SAOM with an agent-based model that assumes local information, status-based tie selection, and simultaneous re-direction of multiple ties. By fitting our simulated networks to Lazega’s advice network used in previous research, we reproduced the same set of macro-level network metrics with a parsimonious model based on more empirically plausible assumptions than previous research. Our findings show the advantage of exploring multiple generative paths of network formation with different models.

Virtual strain loading method for low temperature cohesive failure of asphalt binder

Cohesive failure is one of the primary reasons for low-temperature cracking in asphalt pavements. Understanding the micro-level mechanism is crucial for comprehending cohesive failure behavior. However, previous literature has not fully reported on this aspect. Moreover, there has been insufficient attention given to the correlation between macroscopic and microscopic failures. To address these issues, this study employed molecular dynamics simulation to investigate the low-temperature tensile behavior of asphalt binder. By applying virtual strain, the separation work during asphalt binder tensile failure was calculated. Additionally, a correlation between macroscopic and microscopic tensile behaviors was established. Specifically, a quadrilateral asphalt binder model was generated based on SARA fractions. By applying various combinations of virtual strain loading, the separation work at tensile failure was determined. Furthermore, the impact of strain loading combinations on separation work was analyzed. Normalization was employed to establish the correlation between macroscopic and microscopic tensile behaviors. The results indicated that thermodynamic and classical mechanical indicators validated the reliability of the tetragonal asphalt binder model. The strain loading combination consists of strain rate and loading number. All strain loading combinations exhibited the similar tensile failure characteristic. The critical separation strain was hardly influenced by strain loading combination. However, increasing strain rate significantly enhanced both the maximum traction stress and separation work of the asphalt binder. An increment in the loading number led to a decrease in separation work. The virtual strain combination of 0.5%-80 provided a more accurate representation of the actual asphalt's tensile behavior trend.

GAINS AND LOSSES IN THE URBAN POLITICAL FIELD: MULTILAYERED OUTCOMES OF MOBILIZATION IN MOSCOW’S HOUSING CONTROVERSY*

Social movements attain a variety of incremental gains as they strive to achieve their primary goals. The gains include new worldviews (“frames” and “cognitive toolkits”) and relationships (social networks, alliances, and adversities). Even if a movement does not achieve its primary goals, the accumulated gains can pull people further into new arenas of collective action, transforming the configuration of the political field., This article builds on the literature on intermovement interaction and the strategic interaction perspective to apply a microsociological approach to the transfer of gains aamong arenas. The empirical material for the analysis comes from the mobilization in response to an urban renewal project in Moscow and its subsequent “spillover” into electoral arenas of Moscow’s politics. I collected data from 2017–2019, including interviews, observations, and digital ethnographies of online communities created to organize supporters and opponents of the proposal. I identify the microlevel mechanisms facilitating and blocking the transfer. I also demonstrate that individual players simultaneously assess potential gains and losses at multiple levels: in their private lives, civic communities, and national politics.

Micro-Level Mechanisms to Support Value Co-Creation for Design of Digital Services

This study identifies micro-level value co-creation mechanisms that support the design of digital services. As services are now becoming digital—or at least digitally enabled—how to design digital services that enable value co-creation between a service provider and customers has become an increasingly important question. Our qualitative research study provides one answer to this question. Based on 113 in-depth laddering interviews analyzed using interpretive structural modeling, our study shows that value co-creation mechanisms differ between business-to-business and customer-to-customer digital service types. We identify five mechanisms to support value co-creation in the design of digital services: (1) Social use, (2) Customer orientation and decision making, (3) Service experience, (4) Service use context, and (5) Customer values and goals. We claim that firms can readily utilize these mechanisms to improve their customers’ service experiences.

Predictors of Adolescents’ Antisocial Behavior in Southeastern Nigeria: Exposure to Armed Conflict and Physical Punishment at Home

Abstract Despite extensive studies on the relationship between armed conflict and behavioral problems among adolescents, the micro-level mechanisms through which the former influences the latter are not well understood. The current study examines the relationship between exposure to the Fulani herdsmen attacks among Igbo adolescents in Southeastern Nigeria and antisocial behavior. Using a mediation analysis, it was examined whether physical punishment mediated the relationship. A sample of 385 secondary school students (227 girls, 157 boys; Mage = 16.3; SD = 1.35) completed a questionnaire during class. It was found that exposure to the Fulani herdsmen attacks predicted antisocial behavior among the adolescents, and the effect was weakly mediated by the experiences of physical punishment at home. The findings suggest that living in an environment of armed conflict may lead to increased levels of antisocial behavior in adolescents.

Multidimensional Gender Ideologies Across Europe: Evidence From 36 Countries

In this paper, we use the “gender as a social structure” framework to assess macro-, interactional-, and micro-level mechanisms explaining the stalled revolution in gender ideologies. Using the European Values Study 2008 data and latent class analysis, we look at the spread of gender ideologies and examine their association with national levels of gendered ascription of work and care roles, work–family compatibility, social inequality and societal affluence, individual characteristics, and cross-level interactions with gender and education in 36 (post-)industrialized countries. By including a large number of Central, Eastern, and South-Eastern European countries, we provide a new and comprehensive picture of the gender ideology landscapes of Europe, reflected in two unidimensional classes—egalitarian and traditional—and four multidimensional classes, covering more than 60 percent of respondents—family oriented, choice egalitarian, intensive motherhood, and neotraditional. By modeling key features of macro-level variation, we show how the spread of gender ideologies is associated with distinct contextual conditions. We consolidate previous findings on multidimensional gender ideologies, which were based on fewer countries.