Relative Group Size Research Articles

Christian Nationalism, Civic Republicanism, and Radical Secularism in Contemporary American Politics over Time

Over the past decade, a burgeoning strand of scholarly and journalistic literature has emerged that emphasizes the role of Christian nationalism within contemporary American politics. Unfortunately, this scholarly literature has mushroomed so quickly that relatively little attention has been given to its conceptual underpinnings and how Christian nationalism may be related to, or different from, other conceptualizations of the role of religion in public life. This article outlines different conceptualizations of Christian nationalism that have been advanced, analyzes how different coding schemes of its present measurement yields different assessments of its presence within American politics, and differentiates between and among different types of approaches to the role of religion in American public life. Using data drawn from Baylor national surveys on religion conducted in 2007, 2017, and 2021, this article examines three distinct groups within American politics—namely, Christian nationalists, civic republicans, and radical secularists—and how the relative size and characteristics of such groups have changed within American society over time.

Morphometric characteristics as an indicator of the breeding process in carp

The study of the variability of exterior indicators in two-year-olds of three different strains of carp: the natural population of the Volga carp, the breed group of the Zagorsky carp and the butterfly carp breed. The research was carried out on the basis of the pond base of the experimental breeding farm of the VNIIPRH. It is shown that the introduction of the index of the relative size of the head to the total body surface into the analysis of a new breeding trait determines the significant discrepancy between the groups of the Volga carp and carp in the complex of morphotype features. It was found that the Volga carp is the most distant from the butterfly carp (the distance of the Mahalanobis is 13.18), as well as from the breed group of the Zagorsky carp (8,66). The breed groups of carp are located closer to each other (4.18). The greatest contribution to the separation of the studied groups of cyprinid fish is made by 7 morphotype features — body length, indices of pectoventral and antedorsal distance, length of snout, tail and dorsal fin, the ratio of head area to body area of fish. The relative head sizes of the carp breed groups are significantly higher than those of the Volga carp, which has not been selected in fish aquaculture. Thus, the head size of the Volga carp occupies 15.06%, and that of the carp after 7 generations of breeding — 15.93–16.82%. The Volga carp is characterized by higher values of body length and low values of relative head size, high back, fatness coefficient and body girth. It is shown that the relative size of the head can serve as an indicator of the difference in the breed groups of carp. An increase in the ratio of the head area to the surface of the entire fish is observed in the series: Volga carp — Zagorsky carp — butterfly. It is proposed to use this indicator as an additional characteristic of the breeding process and domestication of cyprinid fish.

Signals of belonging: emergence of signalling norms as facilitators of trust and parochial cooperation.

Mechanisms of social control reinforce norms that appear harmful or wasteful, such as mutilation practises or extensive body tattoos. We suggest such norms arise to serve as signals that distinguish between ingroup 'friends' and outgroup 'foes', facilitating parochial cooperation. Combining insights from research on signalling and parochial cooperation, we incorporate a trust game with signalling in an agent-based model to study the dynamics of signalling norm emergence in groups with conflicting interests. Our results show that costly signalling norms emerge from random acts of signalling in minority groups that benefit most from parochial cooperation. Majority groups are less likely to develop costly signalling norms. Yet, norms that prescribe sending costless group identity signals can easily emerge in groups of all sizes-albeit, at times, at the expense of minority group members. Further, the dynamics of signalling norm emergence differ across signal costs, relative group sizes, and levels of ingroup assortment. Our findings provide theoretical insights into norm evolution in contexts where groups develop identity markers in response to environmental challenges that put their interests at odds with the interests of other groups. Such contexts arise in zones of ethnic conflict or during contestations of existing power relations. This article is part of the theme issue 'Social norm change: drivers and consequences'.

The Composition of Descriptive Representation

How well do governments represent the societies they serve? A key aspect of this question concerns the extent to which leaders reflect the demographic features of the population they represent. To address this important issue in a systematic manner, we propose a unified approach for measuring descriptive representation. We apply this approach to newly collected data describing the ethnic, linguistic, religious, and gender identities of over fifty thousand leaders serving in 1,552 political bodies across 156 countries. Strikingly, no country represents social groups in rough proportion to their share of the population. To explain this shortfall, we focus on compositional factors—the size of political bodies as well as the number and relative size of social groups. We investigate these factors using a simple model based on random sampling and the original data described above. Our analyses demonstrate that roughly half of the variability in descriptive representation is attributable to compositional factors.

Migration Policies and Immigrants’ Language Acquisition in EU‐15: Evidence from Twitter

AbstractIn response to the increasingly complex and heterogeneous immigrant communities settling in Europe, European countries have adopted various civic integration measures. Measures aiming to facilitate language acquisition are considered crucial for integration and cooperation between immigrants and natives. Simultaneously, the rapid expansion of social media usage is believed to change the factors affecting immigrants’ language acquisition. However, only a few previous studies have analyzed whether this is the case. This article uses a novel longitudinal data source derived from Twitter to (1) analyze differences in the pace of immigrants’ language acquisition depending on the migration policies of destination countries and (2) study how the relative sizes of the migrant groups in destination countries, and the linguistic and geographical distances between origin and destination countries, are associated with language acquisition. Results show that immigrants who live in countries with strict language acquisition requirements for immigrants and conservative citizenship policies have the highest median times until language acquisition. Based on Twitter data, we also find that language acquisition is associated with classic explanatory variables, such as the size of the immigrant group in the destination country and the linguistic and geographical distance between origin and destination country similar to the previous studies.

In Pursuit of Cultural Equity: DEI Grantmaking Practices of U.S. Local Arts Agencies in Community Context

As grantmaking intermediary organizations, local arts agencies (LAAs) play an important but under-researched role in realizing cultural equity—the incorporation of underrepresented groups and counternarratives into democratic discourse—in thousands of local communities throughout the United States. In deploying their diversity, equity, and inclusion grantmaking practices, LAAs vary in the degree to which they proactively encourage the artistic expression of underrepresented groups, such as immigrants and racial-ethnic minorities. Little research has been directed at the relationship between the relative population size of underrepresented groups in an LAA service area and an LAA’s likelihood of having a formal “race-ethnic targeting” policy, the proactive channeling of arts economic resources toward underrepresented community groups. Framing our analysis in sociological race relations theories, we examine patterns of association between an LAA’s likelihood of having a formal race-ethnic targeting policy and the percentage foreign-born of the residential population in an LAA service area based on 462 LAAs of the 2018 Local Arts Agency Profile collected by Americans for the Arts, a national dataset of LAAs that we augmented with U.S. Census demographic data on LAA service-area populations. We conclude by deriving from the curvilinear pattern of findings a “representation thesis” on the community social contexts in which proactive LAAs tend to target race-ethnic minorities for distributing arts economic resources.

The Challenger’s Winning Coalition: Mobilization of Religion in Ethnic Civil War

When is shared religion mobilized in ethnic civil war? Most civil wars are fought between distinct ethnic groups, but in the last half century mobilization of religion is increasingly common, mostly in conflicts between ethnic groups that share religion. While the literature explains the role of religion in conflict onset—especially between groups segmented by religion—the reason why religion becomes an organizing principle in an ongoing violent conflict between ethnic groups that share a religion is understudied. We argue that in response to competition for followers in civil war, ethnic minority leaders sharing religion with majorities are increasingly likely to mobilize the religious identity through an oversized challenger’s winning coalition as the demographic balance of the ethnic groups evens out. We test this conjecture using the new A-Religion data on the religion, religious overlap, and relative sizes of all ethnic groups in civil wars from 1975 to 2015.

Income polarisation, expenditure and the Australian urban middle class

Recent years have seen growing concern about the ‘hollowing out’ of the middle class, due to processes of polarisation. In this paper, we examine different conceptualisations of polarisation, and introduce the concept of expenditure-adjusted polarisation that considers not only income, but also various key categories of expenditure at a household level: housing, groceries and meals, transport and energy. Analysing longitudinal data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey, we show that the Australian society is significantly more polarised, with fewer middle-income households, when the relative size of income groups in a given year is based on expenditure-adjusted income rather than pre-expenditure income. Such polarisation is particularly prominent when housing expenditure is considered and has distinctive spatial patterns. In contrast, our analysis finds no evidence of a temporal pattern of polarisation in Australia between 2005 and 2019, with no substantial change in the size of income groups over time, regardless of which income measures are used. We argue that a more nuanced conceptualisation of polarisation, and its relation to processes of ‘hollowing out’ and rising inequality, is needed to inform urban scholarship and policy.

Cover Caption

It is often assumed that learning improves foraging, but its direct benefits are not often examined. We demonstrate the contribution of learning to the foraging success of desert ants when a trained colony successfully competes against a naïve one. The outcome also depends on the relative group size. Desert Cataglyphis ants search individually for food (mostly dead prey) without laying pheromone trails (see pages 241‐250). The cover photo shows a Cataglyphis niger worker searching for food in its typical sandy habitat. Photo provided Arik Dorfman.

Attitudes Toward Muslims Among Majority Youth in Norway: Does Ethno-Religious Student Composition in Schools Matter?

This article examines how attitudes toward Muslims among native majority adolescents in Norway are associated with the ethno-religious composition of their school environment. The inflow of immigrants has changed the sociodemographic landscape in Norway, introducing new dimensions of urban school segregation. The school context represents a key socializing context outside of the family and structures contact opportunities across ethnic and religious lines. Research on how exposure to peers from different backgrounds influences majority group students’ out-group attitudes have produced conflicting findings, and central theories propose different mechanisms influencing the relationship between relative group size and prejudice. Using a unique dataset with both individual- and school-level information from Norway’s capital region and controlling for observed characteristics of students and their parents, the results show that levels of negative attitudes toward Muslims decreased with relative out-group size. This finding indicates that multiethnic settings bolster tolerant attitudes toward Muslims in Norwegian schools.

When Groups of Different Sizes Collide: Effects of Targeted Verbal Aggression on Intragroup Functioning

When competing for scarce resources, groups can behave aggressively toward one another. Realistic conflict theory suggests that intergroup hostility internally ties groups together, thus improving intragroup functioning. In contrast, conflict spillover theory suggests that aggressive behaviors between groups can permeate to the intragroup level and thus worsen intragroup functioning. We reconcile these two opposite perspectives by introducing the relative group size as a moderator that determines when and how targeted verbal aggression from one group harms or improves intragroup functioning in the targeted group. We tested our hypotheses using a sample of in-situ observations of transcribed plenary discussions in the German national parliament and compared intergroup targeted verbal aggression by distinguishing targeted verbal aggression from two social groups (i.e., a new populist smaller party vs. a larger group of veteran parliament members). We measured targeted verbal aggression as a form of hostile intergroup behavior from each social group using computerized text analyses. We analyzed intragroup functioning using a measure of verbal mimicry. Our results show support for our hypotheses. We discuss theoretical and practical implications for the verbal aggression and intergroup relations literature.

Effects of Defensive and Proactive Measures on Competition Between Terrorist Groups

A two-stage game investigates how counterterrorism measures affect within-country competition between two rival terrorist groups. Although such competition is commonplace (e.g., al-Nusra Front and Free Syria Army; Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the National Liberation Army; and al-Fatah and Hamas), there is no theoretical treatment of how proactive and defensive measures influence this interaction. Previous studies on rival terrorist groups are solely empirical concerning group survival, outbidding, and terrorism level, while ignoring the role that government countermeasures exert on the rival groups’ terrorism. In a theoretical framework, alternative counterterrorism actions have diverse impacts on the level of terrorism depending on relative group sizes and government-targeting decisions. In the two-stage game, optimal counterterrorism policy rules are displayed in terms of how governments target symmetric and asymmetric terrorist groups. Comparative statics show how parameter changes affect Nash or subgame perfect equilibrium outcomes.

Interannual shifts in sea surface temperature and chlorophyl drive the relative abundance and group size of common bottlenose dolphins Tursiops truncatus on the Southeast Gulf of California

Despite being one of the most common odontocetes off Sinaloa (Mexican Pacific coast), basic studies on the ecology of common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) are scarce in the region. This study aimed to describe changes in the relative abundance, group size, and behavior of this species during 2007 – 2012. We used boat-based surveys and satellite images of sea surface temperature (SST) and chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) to model changes in dolphin relative abundance (RA) over time, using correlations in time series analyses. Overall, mean RA was 3.6 dolphins h-1 (SD = 8.0), and significantly higher RA (6.4 –16.7 dolphins h-1) occurred in 2008, 2011, 2012, which was concurrent with hydrographic effects of La Niña oceanographic conditions, as well as during the upwelling season (February – April) (SST: 17.3 – 25.0 °C; Chl-a: 3.7 – 21.4 mg m-3). Conversely, significantly lower RA values (0.5 – 3.8 dolphins h-1) occurred in 2007 and 2010 that were likely associated with El Niño effects on the biological productivity of the area (Chl-a: 0.3 – 7.6 mg m-3). We found significant correlations between monthly Chl-a and SST average values with mean bottlenose dolphins RA, and lags (22 – 29 days) in the trophic response to variations of the hydrographic parameters. Significantly larger dolphin groups were recorded during La Niña years possibly because of the higher availability of their prey. This hypothesis is supported by higher feeding frequencies (35 – 73%) observed during the upwelling seasons, especially during La Niña conditions, whereas the most frequent behavior throughout all other years was traveling (28 – 69%). Our results show that RA and group size of bottlenose dolphins inhabiting the waters off Sinaloa, Mexico, are likely influenced by the changes in hydrographic parameters, especially during extreme climatic events.

Modeling Local Variations in Intermarriage

We utilized all Spanish marriage records available at the municipality level from 2005–2007 to model spatial variations in intermarriage. We constructed a spatial regime zero-inflated Poisson model and grouped-data probit model, with spatially lagged regressors, to predict the absolute and relative presence of intermarriage between Spaniards and migrants based on structural characteristics of the local marriage markets and their neighboring areas (i.e., relative group size, homogeneity of national origins, and sex ratio indicators). Our models do not assume collapsibility of the marriage market. Instead, they incorporate the local dimension of the marriage market and examine the association between intermarriage and structural variables at the spatial local level. The model also investigates intermarriage variation by size of place. The local characteristics of the marriage markets are robust indicators of both the absolute and relative importance of intermarriage, but their impact varies by size of municipality. The relative size of the migrant community positively impacts intermarriage. The homogeneity of the origins of migrants is negatively related to it. The impact of sex ratios in the migrant and native communities on intermarriage is not uniform across all municipalities and is not always related to more intermarriage.

Behavioral evidence for differences in emotional resonance during processing first and second language

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: Currently available data show mixed results as to whether emotional resonance is stronger for words expressed in the mother tongue (L1) compared to a second language, acquired later in life (L2). One reason for these discrepancies could be differential effects of individuals’ L2 learning history. We introduce an experimental paradigm that is sufficiently robust for testing outside the laboratory to reach a more diverse population. We illustrate this paradigm using 24 well-characterized Russian (L1)–German (L2) bilingual migrants. Design/methodology/approach: The paradigm consists of displaying an array of random letters that may contain a word, which participants must identify. Stimuli are displayed until response and the proportion of correct identification is used as dependent measure. Performance for neutral words is contrasted to swear or taboo words. Data and analysis: The interplay between language and word type is assessed with a 2 × 2 within subjects ANOVA. Findings/conclusions: At the group level, a swear or taboo word superiority in L1 and its absence in L2 is observed. At the individual level, however, the data show a clear divide depending on the age of arrival at the L2 country. Participants who arrived after mid-adolescence show a clear language effect. By contrast, individuals who arrived earlier, present a swear or taboo word superiority in either L1, L2, or in both languages. The age of arrival should therefore be regarded as a critical variable and averaging over bilinguals with different ages of arrival can distort the results depending on the relative size of the respective groups. Originality: The representativeness of test subjects is constrained by the availability of participants at the testing site. Testing outside the laboratory, at home or online, allows reaching larger and/or target populations. Significance/implications: By removing constraints on the availability of bilingual participants, our paradigm enables refined insights into how emotion shapes language processing.

London Dispersion Helps Refine Steric A-Values: Dispersion Energy Donor Scales.

We suggest a scale of dispersion energy donors (DEDs) that allows for direct comparisons with steric effects. This scale is based on the classic A-values and allows groups to reorient to minimize strain, thereby providing an advantage over raw group polarizabilities. The A-value can no longer be considered purely a steric factor. Even for groups that do not participate in charge transfer or electrostatic interactions, the A-value includes Pauli repulsion (steric hindrance) and attractive London dispersion (LD) interactions. Although the common assumption is that, at the distances found in monosubstituted cyclohexanes, steric demands are the key factors influencing conformer preferences, we show in this computational study that there is a non-negligible LD part. We use this system to build a DED scale and a complementary steric scale. These scales are quantitatively comparable, as they are based on the same system, and allow for comparison of the two competing interactions in experimentally relevant settings. In addition, we show that LD interactions can be used to explain puzzling data regarding relative group sizes.

The United States 2020 Census data: implications for precision medicine and theresearch landscape.

The United States 2020 Census data: implications for precision medicine and theresearch landscape.

Empirical observation of negligible fairness–accuracy trade-offs in machine learning for public policy

Growing use of machine learning in policy and social impact settings have raised concerns for fairness implications, especially for racial minorities. These concerns have generated considerable interest among machine learning and artificial intelligence researchers, who have developed new methods and established theoretical bounds for improving fairness, focusing on the source data, regularization and model training, or post-hoc adjustments to model scores. However, little work has studied the practical trade-offs between fairness and accuracy in real-world settings to understand how these bounds and methods translate into policy choices and impact on society. Our empirical study fills this gap by investigating the impact of mitigating disparities on accuracy, focusing on the common context of using machine learning to inform benefit allocation in resource-constrained programs across education, mental health, criminal justice, and housing safety. Here we describe applied work in which we find fairness-accuracy trade-offs to be negligible in practice. In each setting studied, explicitly focusing on achieving equity and using our proposed post-hoc disparity mitigation methods, fairness was substantially improved without sacrificing accuracy. This observation was robust across policy contexts studied, scale of resources available for intervention, time, and relative size of the protected groups. These empirical results challenge a commonly held assumption that reducing disparities either requires accepting an appreciable drop in accuracy or the development of novel, complex methods, making reducing disparities in these applications more practical.

Cetaceans of the Northern Bismarck Sea, Papua New Guinea1

There is little known about cetaceans in the waters of Papua New Guinea (PNG). Here we present findings from the first two sets of cetacean sighting and acoustic surveys conducted within the Admiralty Island group in the northern Bismarck Sea. More than 1,000 cetaceans were sighted during our boat-based surveys–the most common being spinner dolphins (Stenella longirostris), followed by pantropical spotted dolphins (Stenella attenuata), short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus), and sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus). The relative group size of spinner dolphins was different between years with group sizes in 2010 being significantly lower (median = 15, range = 2–50) than those recorded in 2013 (median = 50, range = 5–100). The presence of large aggregations of spinner dolphins (including calves) as well as sightings of Vulnerable sperm whales suggest the northern Bismarck Sea as an area of conservation importance for cetaceans. Our surveys also provide useful baseline data for a variety of marine protected area planning processes and management initiatives that are ongoing in PNG.

The effect of metabolic phenotype on sociability and social group size preference in a coral reef fish

AbstractAlthough individuals within social groups experience reduced predation risk and find food patches more consistently, there can be competition for food among groupmates. Individuals with a higher standard metabolic rate (SMR) may be less social, to prioritize food acquisition over defense, while a greater maximum metabolic rate (MMR) may modulate sociability through increased competitive ability. Therefore, in theory, individuals with a higher SMR may prefer smaller groups and those with greater MMR may prefer larger groups. We examined links among metabolic phenotype, sociability, and choice of group size in the redbelly yellowtail fusilierCaesio cuning. Individuals were exposed to three association tests: (a) a choice between two fish or zero fish; (b) a choice between five fish or zero fish; and (c) a choice between two fish and five fish. The first two tests quantified sociability while the third measured relative group size choice. Although there was no link between SMR and sociability, fish with a higher MMR were more social than those individuals with a lower MMR. While no correlation was found between MMR and group size choice, there was weak evidence that, if anything, individuals with a higher SMR preferred larger groups, contrary to our hypothesis. AsC.cuningis an active fish that spends a large proportion of time operating above SMR, this result could suggest that the links between sociability and SMR may shift depending on a species’ routine behavior. Links between sociability and MMR may arise if competitive ability allows individuals to obtain resources within groups. Although metabolic traits had no significant influence on group size choice, variation in food availability or predation risk could alter the effects of metabolism on group size choice.