Original Survey Research Articles

Rural reality contradicts the ethnographic literature—a nationwide survey on folk beliefs and people's affection for the stork in Poland

BackgroundDue to early synanthropization and ecological and behavioural features, the White Stork Ciconia ciconia became the most cherished of European birds. Rooted in human culture, the species has been well studied; nevertheless, knowledge of people’s attitudes and stork-related folk beliefs remain descriptive. Here, we attempt to quantify these issues in the world's largest stronghold of the species, Poland, in the 1950s.MethodsThe study is based on recently discovered, original nationwide survey data from the 1958 International White Stork Census. These materials were gathered to assess the population size, but they also included issues belonging to the humanities. We have worked them up in a quantitative manner, which has resulted in an original approach rarely found in ethnological studies. We aim to propose an original typology of stork-related beliefs, their spread and regional diversity in Poland and the relationship with stork abundance.ResultsA sample of 2343 questionnaires revealed that affection towards storks was widespread (91.4% positive responses), more so in eastern Poland. The most frequent beliefs relate to respect for the stork (65%) and prophesies (24%), thereafter parental beliefs (7%) and stork biology (3%). Positive attitudes and the dissemination of beliefs increased with stork densities but were unrelated to the respondents’ sex. Utilitarian beliefs outweighed those prioritized in ethnographic studies (e.g. the stork’s human origins) or popular today (baby-bringing), and expressed the real concerns of country folk.ConclusionsThe discovery of long-lost data bordering on ethnology and nature conservation and their novel work-up highlights a realistic dimension of the human–nature relationship and provides a benchmark for further interdisciplinary research.

In Defense of Liberal Democracy: Exploring Motivations for Protesting against Democratic Backsliding

When incumbent east central European ethnopopulist politicians attack liberal democratic institutions, how does the experience of living through Communism motivate people to protest in defense of liberal democracy? I argue that a critical subset of people in the generation who lived through Communism is extremely active in protests in defense of liberal democratic institutions. A memory of living with authoritarianism and struggling to establish democracy seems to motivate the older generation to actively safeguard these institutions by generating fear of a return to the past. I expect the older generation to be particularly active at protests in defense of democracy when incumbent ethnopopulists engage in democratic backsliding. I explicitly test these hypotheses by analyzing 82 interviews I conducted with people who protested in defense of liberal democratic institutions in nine different Polish towns and cities in 2019, 2021, and 2022. I couple these interviews with data from an original online protester survey and from the European Social Survey.

For the good of the party, for the good of the nation: ingroup projection can motivate support for political violence

Support for political violence in the United States appears to be growing. We outline a model that positions ingroup projection—seeing ingroup values as the shared values of a larger inclusive societal group—as a key psychological process through which identification with political ingroups (Democrats/Republicans) and with national superordinate categories (Americans) influence support for political violence. We tested this model in two studies. Study 1 (N = 297) included original survey data collected during the 2016 US Presidential election, and analyses revealed that identification with Democrats or Republicans and identification with Americans both had positive indirect effects on support for political violence that were mediated by ingroup projection. Study 2 (N = 642) provided a preregistered replication of these results using original data collected during the 2022 US Midterm Senate elections. These results provide insight into the psychological processes that underlie support for political violence in the United States and elucidate a generalizable model for understanding destructive intergroup behaviors in a variety of real-world intergroup contexts.

Impact of COVID-19 on the primary level teaching-learning process in rural India

PurposeCOVID-19 outbreak impacts people globally. It is not simply a global health matter; it has a terrible influence on the social life of humans, counting the worldwide education structure and other phases of present social configurations. Therefore, the present study's objective is to identify the impact of COVID-19 on the online education approach in teachers' perceptions.MethodologyThe study performs a mixed research approach for evaluating the teachers' perspectives in the online education system. The quantitative data are collected with the support of a questionnaire from 175 respondents (Public School teachers), and in-depth telephonic interviews are conducted among 25 schoolteachers using a semi-structured questionnaire for qualitative data. The quantitative analysis is performed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), and the qualitative analysis is coded and analyzed thematically.FindingsThe quantitative results show that the COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted the online teaching method; teachers' adaptation here seems low. In contrast, communication with school leaders is provided a clear view of online teaching methods. The key findings from the qualitative analysis show that the adaptation online education system is complex owing to various struggles. Some institutions facilitate training sessions to teach in a range of adopting the online education system. Finally, the teachers need help making students actively participate in online classes.DiscussionThe study conducts original survey through both interview and questionnaire. The results are determined through thematic and data analysis.

Border Externalization and the Geography of Negative Views Toward Transit Migrants in Honduras

Transit migration through Honduras has grown at a time of increasing US border externalization, which raises barriers to mobility through Central America. This research note presents a descriptive analysis of how Hondurans view transit migrants traveling across the country. Honduras is a major migrant-sending country, one that has become an important transit country for migrants of different backgrounds. This article will present results from an original survey of Hondurans asking respondents of their opinions of transit migrants from Haiti, Nicaragua, Cuba, and other regions. We find that negative attitudes toward transit migrants tend to be concentrated in the exit regions near the border with Guatemala. We argue that border externalization generates bottlenecks to mobility that can prolong exposure to transit migrants. We propose recommendations for future research to better understand how border externalization may lead countries to become new transit zones and how attitudes toward transit migrants vary regionally.

A francophone political culture? Similarities and differences among French speakers in Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, and France

AbstractThis paper explores whether language shapes political culture by examining the case of French and a possible transnational francophone political culture. Using original survey data from Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, and France collected in autumn 2020, we find only small within-country differences between francophones and non-francophones and limited transnational alignment. National patterns dominate even in multilingual federations with divided media landscapes and centrifugal politics. Only regarding feminism and drug policy do we find evidence of a common francophone orientation. In both domains, French mother tongue is correlated with the same distinct attitude regarding the role of the state compared to non-French speakers. These findings suggest that language is indeed related to political culture, albeit in a circumscribed manner. We thus contribute to scholarship on political behaviour and multicultural federalism by exploring how language shapes attitudes for individuals and groups alike.

Environmental antecedents, innovation experience, and officials’ innovation willingness: evidence from China

ABSTRACT Prompting officials’ innovation willingness is a prerequisite for processes of public sector innovation. This article constructs a framework explaining officials’ innovation willingness by linking environmental antecedents and path dependence. The empirical analysis, based on an original survey of 403 officials and interviews with 102 officials in China, shows that their innovation willingness is mostly driven by factors within the bureaucratic system, i.e. top-down and horizontal drivers but less so by bottom-up drivers. Moreover, officials with previous innovation experience tend to have more innovation willingness but are less driven by top-down factors. This study advances the theory of innovation willingness generation.

Who's to blame for the crisis of the healthcare system?

AbstractUsing an original survey, we probe Canadians' evaluation of the performance of their healthcare system and their attribution of the blame for the system's problems. We show that more vulnerable and left‐wing respondents are more likely to believe that the system is in crisis. In turn, respondents having negative performance evaluations are more likely to blame poor provincial organization rather than insufficient federal funding. Perceiving that the system is in crisis and that poor organization is the main problem are associated with support for the imposition of national standards by the federal government as a condition for additional healthcare transfers.

Inventing traditional authority: Lhomwe chiefs in Malawi

ABSTRACT Chiefs in Malawi exercise significant authority based on legitimacy derived from the position's purportedly deep historical origins. But, does such legitimacy confer when a new chieftaincy is created from scratch? I address this question within the context of an ongoing cultural revival of the Lhomwe ethnic group in Malawi, which has included the appointment of many new Lhomwe chiefs and the creation of a Lhomwe paramount chieftaincy. Using a combination of in-depth interviews and original survey data, I explore the political drivers, mechanisms and implications of the this newly created Lhomwe chieftaincy. I find that its creation was driven by top-down, elite-led action rather than citizen demands, and that the newly appointed chiefs enjoy the most support among urban-based backers of the political party responsible for their appointments. This research contributes to historical work on the colonial-era creation of chieftaincies, but does so using a contemporary case of cultural engineering.

Objective numeracy exacerbates framing effects from decision-making under political risk

While Prospect Theory helps to explain decision-making under risk, studies often base frames on hypothetical events and fail to acknowledge that many individuals lack the ability and motivation to engage in complex thinking. We use an original survey of US adults (N = 2813) to test Prospect Theory in the context of the May 2023 debt ceiling negotiations in the US Congress and assess whether objective numeracy moderates framing effects. We hypothesize and find evidence to suggest that most respondents are risk-averse to potential gains and risk-accepting to potential losses; however, high numerates are more risk-averse and risk-accepting to gains and losses, respectively, than low numerates. We also find that need for cognition interacts with numeracy to moderate framing effects for prospective losses, such that higher need for cognition attenuates risk-acceptance among low numerates and exacerbates risk-acceptance among high numerates. Our results are robust to a range of other covariates and in models accounting for the interaction between political knowledge and need for cognition, indicating joint moderating effects from two knowledge domains similarly conditioned by the desire to engage in effortful thinking. Our findings demonstrate that those who can understand and use objective information may remain subjectively persuaded by certain policy frames.

Relations between local councillors and executive boards: conceptualisations, explanations and empirical evidence from the Netherlands

ABSTRACT This paper nuances the dualism between local councils and local executives and distinguishes distinct patterns of interactions between councillors and executive members based on Anthony King's modes of executive–legislative relations. Several hypotheses explaining council–executive relations were tested using original survey data on Dutch local councillors. The interparty mode (coalition vs opposition) was found to be the most dominant relative to the non-party mode (council vs executive board) and the crossparty mode (policy specialists vs policy specialists). Councillors operate less frequently in the interparty mode when the governing coalition is oversized, and female councillors operate less often in the interparty mode than male councillors. Furthermore, an analysis of councillors shifting between modes suggests that councillors operate in the interparty mode when politically salient issues are at stake, in the non-party mode when the position of the council is at stake, and in the crossparty mode when dealing with technocratic issues.

Who is more likely to upgrade to e-cars? Comparing the intentions of electric and conventional motorcycle riders in Vietnam

The shift from motorcycles to cars is rapidly accelerating in Vietnam – traditionally, a motorcycle-oriented country. Given high levels of pollution, a switch to e-cars as opposed to conventional cars is seen as a lesser evil. This study examines the intention to switch to e-cars among riders of conventional and electric motorcycles. The empirical data consist of nearly 1,000 original surveys collected in Hanoi in 2023, which are analysed through Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). Theoretically, the study adapts the Push-Pull-Mooring (PPM) model. We find that younger motorcycle riders from higher-income households are more interested in e-cars. The pull effects of e-cars are the strongest drivers of the intention to switch from motorcycles, whereas the push effects of motorcycles (whether conventional or electric) are much weaker. The mooring effects are similarly small but have moderating effects on pull factors. Electric motorcyclists have a stronger intention to upgrade to e-cars, partly due to their pro-environment values. The experience (and perhaps habit) of using an e-vehicle type appears to have a positive influence on the intention to adopt other green modes. In the status-conscious context of Vietnam, the concept of “saving face” through vehicle purchases is important too.

State attachment and gubernatorial approval

AbstractObjectiveThe purpose of this article is to examine what drives individual attitudes toward their governor with a focus on the role of place attachment as a means of diffuse support.MethodsUsing original surveys from March and May 2020, we test the role of place attachment in explaining gubernatorial approval.ResultsWe find state or place attachment is a strong predictor of gubernatorial approval especially among individuals who live in a state with a governor from the other party.ConclusionState attachment can be an important and unique influence on political attitudes toward state politics.

The gendered costs of stigma: How experiences of conflict‐related sexual violence affect civic engagement for women and men

AbstractA common understanding emphasizes the destructive effects of conflict‐related sexual violence (CRSV) on social cohesion and community life. Stressing the agency of survivors, we present an alternative argument. Our theory predicts that survivors seek to counteract the stigma attached to CRSV by contributing to the community in the form of civic engagement. Drawing on three original surveys from Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Liberia, and Sri Lanka and relying on list experiments to reduce underreporting bias, we find that survivors of CRSV indeed show increased levels of civic engagement. This civic effect is consistent across the three contexts and very likely causal. We also rule out an alternative mechanism based on posttraumatic growth and dispel concerns that increased civic engagement comes at the expense of decreased intergroup relations. However, looking at sex differences, our results are more sobering. While in line with our prediction, they do not support the optimistic notion that survivors' mobilization results in female empowerment and the closing of existing gender gaps in civic behavior. Our findings have important implications for our understanding of CRSV, the legacy of violent conflict, and the gendered nature of politics.

Who Authors Social Science? Demographics and the Production of Knowledge

Author demographics are of key epistemic importance in science—shaping the approaches to and contents of research—especially in social scientific knowledge production, yet we know very little about who produces social scientific publications. We fielded an original demographic survey of nearly 20,000 sociology, economics, and communication authors in the Web of Science from 2016–2020. Our results include not only details about gender and race/ethnicity but also the first descriptive statistics on social science authors’ sexuality, disability, parental education, and employment characteristics. We find authorship in the social sciences looks very different from other measures of disciplinary membership like who holds PhDs or faculty positions. For example, half of the authors in each discipline’s journals say that they are not a member of the discipline in which they published. Moreover, social science authors are considerably less diverse than other measures of disciplinary membership. In sociology, women constitute a majority of PhDs, faculty, and American Sociological Association members; by contrast, men make up a majority of sociology’s authors. Additionally, we include a wide array of descriptive statistics across a range of demographic characteristics, which will be of interest to inequality scholars, science scholars, and social scientists engaged in diversifying their disciplines.

Regulating campus speech: Student ideology and support for free speech in a conservative university system

ABSTRACT What are undergraduate students’ preferences and knowledge regarding free speech on college campuses? Using an original survey of college students in a conservative Upper-Midwestern state, we gather responses across six key areas of speech controversy. Student ideology predictably and significantly divides student support for speech regulation. Compared to liberals, conservative students are more supportive of free expression in the context of potential bias incidents, such as hate speech. Meanwhile, liberal students are more supportive where traditional values are potentially challenged, such as unpatriotic speech. We further find that what students believe about the legal ability to punish or prevent speech on campus mostly aligns with their preferences. However, regardless of ideology, our respondents also show broad support for hate speech regulation, and most believe incorrectly that public institutions are legally empowered to punish or prevent it. The results of this analysis are informative for the growing debate about campus life involving students, faculty, administrators, and spectators alike.

How informal water supply points using private wells worked in an emergency: A quantitative evaluation

ABSTRACT The effectiveness of an emergency water supply using private wells has been asserted theoretically but not evaluated in detail. This paper aims to consider the effectiveness and shortcomings of emergency water supply based on local wells and to support policy formulation regarding groundwater usage in the event of a disaster. In Kamisu City, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, not only public-operated formal water supply points using water trucks but also informal water supply points using private wells were open to address water outages following the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011. This study clarified the pattern of appearance and spatial distribution of those points by combining information from local newspapers, Internet archives, and an original questionnaire survey. In addition, the function of informal water supply points was quantitatively evaluated using GIS by comparing cases with and without informal water supply points. Analysis revealed that informal water supply points expanded the size of the serviced population within a 500-m radius of the water supply points by 47%, compared with cases when only formal water supply points were available. However, well water was not necessarily suitable for drinking owing to quality issues. As a policy lesson, the importance of sharing well information is indicated.

Housing quality and homelessness among people who beg

The poverty literature often overlooks the relationship between housing insecurity and income-generating activities. The often informal sources of income among the homeless strongly connect to other aspects of their lives. Nonetheless, these groups of severely deprived people are often missing from large-scale studies and official statistics. Using an original and comprehensive survey, we document the complex interaction between living conditions and begging, a most visible form of extreme poverty and a central concern for urban planning and social assistance. We interviewed 358 people who were begging between 2021 and 2022 in Brussels. We estimate that approximately 80% of them are Romanian Roma. Our findings suggest that around half of the people who beg sleep rough, while some occupy relatively insecure and low-quality dwellings. Further differences relate to gender and ethnicity, with women and those with children more often seen in emergency accommodations and non-conventional dwellings and Romanian Roma occupying, on average, more problematic housing.

The possibilities and limits of international status: Evidence from foreign aid and public opinion

AbstractStates use symbolic gestures to increase their international status, or relative po- sition, within the international community. But how do the status-seeking actions of one state affect the status of others? The common assumption is that improvements in one state’s status lead to the relative deterioration of other states’ status by compari- son. In this paper, we focus on status’ social qualities to delineate multiple theoretical pathways through which one state’s status can change – or not – relative to another. Status is not conferred in a vacuum and the consequences of status-altering activities may spill over to third parties. We field an original survey and reanalyze several exist- ing studies to understand how relative status operates in the case of foreign aid; these surveys reveal novel empirical patterns about the circumstances under which a state’s status will update relative to other states. We extend the analysis to examine who updates perceptions, what actions change status, and for whom status changes. Our findings suggest that status-enhancing actions may be successful at augmenting status amongst peers, but ultimately unsuccessful at changing global hierarchies.

There, across the border – political scientists and their boundary-crossing work

AbstractScholars may be diversely engaged in boundary-crossing work, either staying more confined in academic settings, or reaching out to the policy world. Despite growing theoretical attention, there is little empirical knowledge on the extent to which scholars indeed engage in boundary-crossing activities, and the conditions that foster or jeopardize this. We use original survey data from European political scientists to investigate how frequently they ‘travel’ to the policy world, what patterns of engagement are visible, and how these are determined. The article introduces a typology capturing different boundary-crossing profiles and shows that political scientists are rather frequent travelers across the border between academia and the policy world. Yet, individual characteristics matter. Having (had) a position outside of academia has an especially strong effect on the likelihood of boundary-crossing. Our results also reveal that not every scholar has the same chance to be involved, depending on gender or seniority.