How Society Works

"Seven Principles for Effective Activism

2007-08-06T21:25:00.000-04:00

Sure, there are a few other things you need to know if you want to be an effective activist! These seven principles are also goo dthings to keep in mind when you plan a campaign or think about what changes need to be made.

1. Targeted innovation – focus on social and technological innovations that attack the root of a problem, not just one or more symptoms.

2. Empirical approach – Use data, systematic observations, and formal analytical tools to understand the current situation and the impacts of your own efforts. Don’t let terms like “empirical” and “formal” disturb you; the concepts aren’t hard to apply.

3. Leverage – Look for ways to attack a social problem that will give the best results for your resources.

4. Formalism – Use a system to structure and explore challenges, create evaluation criteria for ideas, generate ideas, evaluate ideas, decide what to do, and monitor results. Again, this is not as complicated as it might seem.

5. Marketing Mindset – Think of yourself as being in sales or advertising, with your services or ideas being “sold” to benefit people.

6. Design Thinking – Consider how your idea fits with the culture, economic situation, physical infrastructure, available technology, and the political climate.

7. Values Thinking – Your idea must fit with prevailing values, lifestyles, beliefs, and attitudes; the closer the fit, the greater the odds of success.

Role Playing Games

2007-01-07T10:41:00.000-05:00

Dungeons and Dragons, Vampire: The Masquerade, and other games that have players act out the adventures of fictional characters are all sinister tools of the devil that produce maladusted, sociopathic, Godless young adults. Right? Maybe not. Still, some people fear that fantasy role playing games (FRPGs) are bad for young people and thus FRPGs are a bad thing for society. We can respond to this fact in one of three ways:

We can point out that we, or people we know, were big FRPG fans and they turned out just fine. (Conversely, we can repeat an anecdote about a Dungeons and Dragons fan who commited suicide.)

We can investigate the social and psychological consequences using real research methods.

We can invesittgate the character of FRPG fans to see if they really differ from the population at large in some particular way, such as a quantitative measure of social adjustment.

(Graduate students who are looking for an area to research can feel free to use that second idea!)

We can take a couple of sociological lessons from the existence of FRPGs. Anything that is strange in any sense is likely to attract negative attention from people. When a game becomes associated with things like black magic, drug abuse, suicide, (God help them!) heavy metal music, or (Gasp!) athiesm that game naturally becomes a special cause for concern among parents, preachers, and ... who knows. Maybe manufacturers of conventional like Monopoly secretly fan the flames of suspicion to protect their games' market share. Hmm, is that a conspiacy theory?

Never mind the conspiracy theory for now. I'm supposed to be blogging about the sociological lessons we can learn from thinking about FRPGs. When thinking sociologically about something we want to think about the social impacts. I already noted some of the real or imagined negative impacts of FRPGs. But what about the positive impacts? Are there any positive, sociological impacts? A few possibilities do suggest themselves:

1. Cushy Jobs Grow - More people are working in management, marketing, and creative jobs thanks to the opportunities created by FRPGs.

2. Social Skills - People need to interact effectively with others to get ahead in this world. Not a profound thought, but one you probably never associated with sitting around and pretending to be a wizards, warriors, and such. Could FRPGs provide, for some young people, a way to hone their social skills? What if thousands of young people aren't going to get this sort of practice without their weekly FRPG sessions?

3. Mental Development - The rules of FRPGs are complicated. Coordinating our efforts with other people takes mental effort. Imagining all sorts of far-out things takes mental effort. Might FRPGs contribute to players' intellectual development. Might these people, collectively, be able to contribute a little more to society than would be the case had they taken up other hobbies?

So, next time you think about Dungeons and Dragons fans try not to think bad things!

(Disclaimer: The author is still a big fan of FRPGs and science fiction RPGs too.)

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Saddam Hussein: Good Bye and Good Riddance

2006-12-29T19:33:00.000-05:00

By the time you read this short post Hussein will probably be dead. What is the broader social meaning of the execution? That's the question of the moment.

You may think that his execution is of no importance to you at all. Maybe the execution is only significant as a topic of weekend gossip. Naturally, conservatives (some at least) and radical leftists (some at least) are happy to see him hanged. Those conservatives and radicals have different reasons for being happy, don't they? Well, even if the details may differ the reason is really ideology. Radical leftists and conservatives have different ideas about how the world works and how it ought to work. Yet, both groups can find reasons for doing away with a (formerly) powerful bad guy. Conservatives and radical leftists hate dictators, but probably for different reasons.

The death of Hussein can create or reinforce social bonds in Iraq. Saddam haters can join together in thanking Allah that Hussein is finally dead. Supporters of Hussein will probably get a morale boost from his death, and then they'll make more trouble for regular Iraqis.

Then there is the question of justice. Is justice really served by this execution? I don't know. I do know that this execution can build faith in the emerging social order in Iraq. After all, the justice system worked, the executive branch of government went along, the peoples' sense of justice is reinforced. In a fractured nation like Iraq seeing the justice system working properly can be a big morale boost.

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Christmas and Culture

2006-12-16T11:19:00.000-05:00

Why is Christmas such a big deal? Santa Claus? Holiday shopping? What are the cultural and economic functions of Christams? Does Christmas have a political function as well? (Sidenote: Politics is not government; politics is about a process for acquiring and exercising power over decisions that affect a society.)

Why is Christmas such a big deal? Because people make it a big deal? Because Jesus was born on or about December 25? Was the pursuit of power by Christians involved, maybe? Well, there is no doubt that early Christmas celebrations were...well, nonexistent. The earliest Christians didn't have anything like Christmas. Christians created a holiday that could overshadow/replace the older pagan celebrations of the winter solstice. Later, the Christmas tree was introduced, and this was also a Pagan invention that Christians coopted to make their religion more appealing.

OK, so historians or expert users of Google may take issue with my account, but the basic fact remains: Christmas evolved out of Christian attempts to replace Paganism with Christianity. Jesus never told people to celebrate his birthday by giving gifts. The Christmas tree has nothing to do with the origins of Christianity either. I mean Christianity was born in an area that, I presume, had evergreen trees. But that's not the same as saying a Christmas tree has some real connection to the birth of Christianity.

And where did Santa Claus come from anyway? This is just a modern interpretation of a story about one or more early Christian's. I'll leave it to you to dig into the historical details. Suffice it to say that the modern interpretation of St. Nick is only distantly related to reality. But Santa gets kids and their parents in the shopping malls. Heck, you can even have your pet's picture taken with Santa at some shopping malls.

How did Black Friday, the big after-Thanksgiving shopping day, when many retailers start to turn a profit, become such a big deal? Was it simple marketing by retailers and their trade associations? Probably? When did Black Friday first bexcome such a big deal for retailers and shoppers? I'm guessing that, as I just suggested, the process was begun by xcomemrcial interests and did not just happen.

Consisder that a lesson in how the use of power shapes a society: People and organizations can use money, access to the media, propaganda, and some psychology to create or "manage" traditions like after Thanksgiving shopping, and gift giving on Christmas.

And, how can I mention the politics of Christmas without mentioning the evil "War on Christmas" that conservatives love to talk about! What's the war on Christmas? Well, conservatives can point to many stories that seem to reflect liberal hostility to Christmas. The problem is that you can prove almost anything about anything by stringing together stories about people doing things (or not doing things). The conservatives don't care though. They want to maintain the power to define for us what is good or desirable. They are using isolated stories about liberal, athiest hostility to Christmas to scare people.

Liberals do the same sort of thing over issues of women's rights, racial discrimination, and poverty.

How many guys are getting their women diamond jewelry for Christmas? Why? The main reason has got to be advertising, which creates expectations in the minds of women and standards for men. A diamond necklace is not inherently more romantic than a silver necklace that costs 5% as much. A $2000 gift does not show more caring than a $100 gift, does it? Well, that really depends on what people think. And what people think is partly a reflection of the social environment.

Well, I ended up not postng anything last week, for some reason. Next week I'll explain why fantasy role playing games are so interesting to many people.

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Webcam Girls: Will They Destroy Western Civilization?

2006-12-03T10:39:00.000-05:00

Most people about webcam girls, so you'll get either a blank look or a denunciation of moral decline in American society should you ask someone about them. I think you'd mostly just get blank looks from people. People certainly know about Internet pornography, of which webcam girls are a part.

In case you don't know much about webcam girls, I can give you the basics in a couple of sentences. Webcam girls (yes, there are also webcam guys) use cameras connected to their computers to transmit images of themselves to whomever wants to see them. Often people will connect their own cameras and have a two-way ideo connection with the webcam girl. Much of what happens is of a sexual nature. Let's just leave it at that, shall we?

You can see where the controversy arises. Is it really OK for people to do sexually explicit things in front of a webcam while strangers watch. Cultural conservatives and feminists would object for different reasons. Obviously what webcam girls do is a violation of traditional norms regarding sexuality. Feminists probably object for the same reason that feminists reject pornography - webcam sex shows objectify women. So, let's just note that these religious/moral objections exist and get on with asking some sociological questions.

I like counting things. Maybe it comes from being mildly autistic. Maybe I want the modicum of respect that comes from doing things in a mathematically rigorous fashion. If you are the same sort of person you are probably wondering how many of the webcam girls, and guys exist. You may also be wondering if most of them are in the United States and Canada. I'm also curious about the breakdown of age and education. Are most of the webcam girls college students who are earning some extra money using their webcam.

Why do webcam girls do what they do, besides the obvious potential to make money. Why do people pay money to communicate with these girls? Couldn't they use their time and money more productively? Are the customers all college guys or fat, middle-aged losers? I'm guessing that the truth is a bit more complicated but the details will have to be worked out...somehow. Nobody is going to be eager to talk about their sexual Internet adventures in person or possibly even in a questionnaire. The customers could be surveyed using a clever and discrete technique similar to the following:

Include in your questionnaire two questions with one place to check "Yes" and one place for "No" so that there is no way of determining which question the person answered. One question pertains to something both innocuous and easily checked. The other question could be something like; "Have you ever engaged in sexuial activities while chatting online with a woman who was using a webcam?".

The other question could ask if the person has a college education or rents their home or something that could be checked out using public records.Find out what percentage of the population rents and compare that percentage with the percentage of yes answers to the webcam visit question. If 48% of the population rents and 56% answered "Yes" then you can estimate that 8% have engaged in sexually explicit conduct with a webcam girl. OK, maybe they actually visited a webcam guy. The question might need to be written so it is gender neutral: "Have you ever engaged in sexual behavior while chatting with someone who was using a webcam to trasmit images to you?"

I know that webcam girls and visits to them are looked upon negatively by most everyone in the United States. I wonder if Europeans feel the same? Australians and New Zealanders? Canadians? Japanese?

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Fast Food is Making Me Fat!

2006-11-26T11:09:00.000-05:00

Do you love McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's? If so, why? If not, why not? Is fast food bad for you or not? Is the heavy consumption of fast food a social problem? A public health problem? No problem at all?

Who is more responsible for obesity in America - the obese people or the fast food companies? What can social science research teach us about this question? Hmm...

Talking heads in the media tell us that the fast food companies are peddling cheap, unhelathy crap because they can, and they can make us buy their junk food. Or, media types (John Stossel comes to mind) tell us that people get fat because they eat too much and don't get enough exercise. The assumption here is that people are deciding to spend their time eating and doing things other than exercising. Are these assumptions reasonable or not? Here is another question that some social scientific thinking can help us answer.

Science suggests that the assumptions made by "conservatives" regarding fast food consumption are simply not reasonable. Here's something to think about: Our brains are wired to want food when food is available. This biological urge to eat and store up fat researves varies in intensity from one person to another, but we all have that urge. Eating to store fat goes back to prehistory when the food supply was uncertain and packing on some fat when the opportunity presented itself was a good strategy for surviving lean times.

Even worse, our decisions about what to eat are not generally part of some rational, long-term plan. Most of our decisions are really driven by peer pressure, time constraints, fatigue ("I'm tired and just want some dinner."), information that we receive and process without much conscious reflection, and prejudices and biases that vary in nature from one person to another. YOur childhood is also a powerful influence on bahvaior. If dinner often came from Burger King or Arby's when you were growing up, chances are you still like fast food.

Social pressures do, undeniably, shape our behavior. Relentless marketing efforts do influence buying decisions. Our feeling, probably not based on reality, that we are frantically busy and haven't got time for "real" food today also drives our buying decisions. And hundreds of food buying decisions per year add up to a fast food diet or some other sort of diet.

Lesson: If you avoid fast food, maybe you shouldn't feel too proud of yourself! Likewise, if you have turned into a fast food junkie, you shouldn't be too hard on yourself.

And on a slightly different subject...

For culture critics fast food represents yet another form of cultural imperialism. We are infiltrating and umdermining local culture with our bland, generic, unhealthy fast food. Never mind that fast food chains really do adapt themselves to local culture in ways large and small. The McDonalds in Odessa, Ukraine (actually there are at least 2 locations) charges extra for condiments. In India, McDonalds does not serve beef. In China, McDonald's restaurants are cool hangouts and date destinations, at least for the younger crowd. I think some fast food places in Europe serve beer and wine. So, here is some (adminittedly weak) evidence that fast food restaurants are shaped by the culture of other countries.

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Do Sociology by Patronizing Escort Services?

2006-11-18T10:12:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure if you could do a valid study this way. Ditto for working underover as an escort. Please correct me if I'm wrong about either of those things. Today's topic is the escort service.

You've all seen the ads for companies offering female companionship with a discreet and sexy young woman. (I have to wonder if the women are really as attractive as the photos in the ads suggest.) Escort services sell "companionship" rather than offering to trade sex for money. This makes the services barely legal, at least in the United States. I suppose escort services would be legal in Australia and the Netherlands, where prostitution is legal.

Questions about the business:

How many are there in the United States?

How many men in the USA have used an escort service?

How many men in the USA have used one and would never admit it, even on an anonymous survey?

Questions about the escorts:

Who are the escorts?

Why do they do it?

How long has the average escort worked in the field?

How do they think about the services they provide?

Do they like men or not?

A sociological question:

Are there any measurable impacts, good or bad, of escort services? I know feminists probably think that escort services just encourage men to view women as sex objects. Conservatives think that escort services are bad because they enable sexual immorality and break up relationships.

And a brief footnote about the illusions and fantasies that pervade society:

Men are generally expected/expecting to pay for sex. Some forms of exhange are socially acceptable (wedding ring), others are not accepted (giving $20 to a hooker) and others are barely tolerated (hiring a $350/hour escort for "companionship"). So, the illusion here is that women can be ezpected to freely share sexual experiences as a sign of love and commitment. If you won't "share" until you get a wedding ring or a few free meals then you are really exchanging sex for some of the man's resources. Think about that before hitting the dance clubs tonight.

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Election Day!!!!

2006-11-06T21:29:00.000-05:00

Thank God the campaign ads are going away soon. I'm sure that I am not the only one who is relieved about this. My original ideas was to write about escort services, but election day intervened in my blogging schedule. Now I feel compelled to make some observations about elections and voting and Congress.

Let us start with some questions then:

1. Why do politicians and parties run negative ads? Is it because there is real evidence that they sway voters' opinions? Maybe the ads persist because political advisors and consultants have this idea to "sell" to politicians who are looking for any possible advantage over their competition.

2. Why do politicians insist on mking emotional appeals? Maybe they understand that decision making is erally emotional and not rational as we are often pleased to believe.

3. What sorts of people are more likely to vote? Less likely to vote?

4. What sorts of people are not likely to vote for each of the most common reasons for not voting: not enough time, not interested in politics, belief that voting will not make a difference.

5. What social factors (race, age, education level, peer pressure, et cetera) influence voter participation and why?

Here are a couple of observations too:

Some places (towns, counties, states?) forbid the sale of alcoholic beverages on election day. I noticed this a few years ago when I lived in Alliance, Ohio.

Sending a few new faces to Congress will not allow for a change in Congress. Why? The newbies are entering an established social world with rules (formal and informal), relationships, and traditions that are not going to change because some people would like for things to work differently.

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Thoughts About Grocery Shopping

2006-11-04T10:14:00.000-05:00

Ever been to a grocery store or supermarket? I thought so. Maybe you never paused to think about why grocery stores have the features that they have. And why do we have grocery stores at all? Why don't we just have farmer's markets and bakeries and such? Those things used to be the norm in the United States and in much of the world people still like to shop at specialty stores and farmer's markets even when there are supermarkets to visit.

This is also true in Odessa, Ukraine where there is at least one chain of supermarkets. Those stores are small by American standards but have most of the features we associate with North American supermarkets. Some of the locations feature currency exchange kiosks. The supermarkets also sell whiskey and vodka.

One likely reason for the American love of supermarkets does suggest itself: Americans love convenience! And what could be better than stopping at one store to get a lot of prepared and packaged foods. Yes, you can buy produce and meat and such at supermarkets. Just look at peoples' shopping carts and you'll see how much of the food is convenience food like microwave dinners and cans of soup. A can of soup is a convenience food? Yes.

If you've been alive for a more than a few years I'll bet you've noticed a few commonalities in the North American supermarkets. Here are a few: frequent shopper cards, magazines, tabloids, office supplies, departments (at least a bakery and deli), extra services like money orders, greeting cards.

You may have noticed that other innovations in the supermarket business have spread around the country. Some supermarkets sell organic foods and "health" foods only. Wild Oats and Whole Foods are probably the most famous of those supermarket chains. Some supermarket chains offer online shopping and home delivery.

Why are supermarkets the way they are? Well, three sociological processes are at work. The people who design grocery stores and the people who manage supermarkets are all in social networks (clubs, trade associations, whatever) that foster idea sharing. This could explain why the same sorts, like Fourth of July cookout displays, appear everywhere. Sometimes government regulations determine that stores need to have something, such as a public restrooms. Thirdly, people pay attention to social trends and to the competition. When something seems like a good idea - say frequent shopper cards - the idea tends to be picked up by other companies.

Next time: Escort services!

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Why Are People Afraid of Ghosts?

2006-10-30T21:42:00.000-05:00

That's not really a sociological question but it does raise some sociological questions.

According to an article I read in last week's Time magazine, 37% of Americans believe that houses can really be haunted. (Did the research organization really get a good cross-section of the American public when they asked that question? Who knows.) I wonder how we compare with the populations of other rich, industrialized nations.

I wonder how religion and education level affect belief in haunted houses. I'll go way out on a limb and say the less religious you are the more likely you subscribe to a materialistic worldview that doesn't allow for the existence of ghosts and magic. I'll also guess that as education increases, belief in education decreases. So, maybe 5% of people with graduate degrees believe in haunted houses while 60% of high school dropouts think that houses can be haunted. Why do I think so> Well, maybe getting more education is related to having a more "rational" worldview, one that tends to make people dismiss things like ghosts and magic.

Halloween is based on a pagan holiday, if I remember my history correctly. The pagan holiday was then co-opted by the Catholic church and turned into something called All-Souls Day, which I think was actually observed on November 1st. (Sorry to say that I am just too busy and tired to do any research tonight.). Of course that Pagan and Christian stuff was tossed out the window as society started to turn away from religion.

Yes, I guess Americans are still quite religious compared with Europeans. Or are we? I sometimes wonder how much of this "religiosity" is just an act. How often are our "Christian" sentiments just kneejerk reactions programmed into us when our parents could still make us go to church? How often are our "Christian" attitudes toward social issues like ga marriage really just the product of manipulation by political and religious elites? But I digress...

Anyway, now that the various religious associations with this extra-spooky time of the year have fallen away we are left with costume parties, treak-or-treating, and 5647 types of Halloween candy. And about 1/3 of that candy will be on sale beginning November 1. Yum.

When did we start playing tricks on people and asking for treats? Yes, I played some tricks as a kid. But being either a baby or a sugar addict, I tended to focus on the candy. Yum. Ever noticed that trick-or-treat time has changed? well, probably not unless you are over 30. Seems like it was normal for kids to go around the neighborhood asking for candy. Now, I think, most kids only go to organized Halloween events like events at malls. Yawn.

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Want to Change the World? Keep These Thoughts in Mind

2006-10-29T10:32:00.000-05:00

Solving the world's problems will require some new ideas and some effective selling of many ideas. Taking advantage of opportunities to improve things that are okay now will also take new ideas. That's easy enough to see.

But what counts as a good idea? If you don't know then you can't really say whether your idea is any good. Many factors are really involved here, though we may want to oversimplify the evaluation process and simply assert that we have a good idea ("My idea will be good for women." "My idea will force people to save energy.").

I've written about the characteristics of social pollution before. We obviously want our world-changing ideas to be the opposite of social pollution. We want our "good" ideas to be scientically sound (wherever there is some relevant science), logical, and consistent with widely held human values like freedom, family, and health.

One more element we need to consider is the set of abstract principles that also need to be considered. I'd like to offer a preliminary list of principles to keep in mind as you create an idea and try to sell it to the world:

1. Decision making is emotional not rational.

2. Canging perceptions will be more effective than appealing to emotions or to cold facts.

3. People will work harder to avoid a loss than to achieve a gain.

4. People who benefit from an idea should also bear the costs.

5. Look for ways to gain leverage over an issue, to get the maximum effect per unit of money or time.

6. All changes in society will have unintended consequences, good and bad.

7. People always want to know what's in it for them.

8. Opportunities, rather than perceived problems, are a legitimate focus.

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All About Shopping Malls

2006-10-28T09:12:00.000-04:00

Macy's, Hechts, Sears, "cool" specialty stores, Christmas sales, model railroad shows, baseball card shows, and so much more! This is why people love going to the shopping mall. Or maybe the convenience of having so many different places to shop at one location is the real reason. Maybe, shopping malls are popular because Fortune 500 executives and government officials have colluded to turn us into mindless, yet efficient, consumers of the dazzling array of mostly useless stuff that can be found at the local mall.

So, in about 400 words I'm going to cover everything the budding social theorist (social critic, culture critic) will want to know about the sociology of shopping malls.

1. Why do teenagers like to hang out at malls? I assume that teenagers still like to do this. The sociological explanation may be simply that there are other teenagers and they are all (generally) at the mall without their parents. Freedom, movies, junk food, friends, and romantic opportunities can all be found at the mall on a Friday night!

2. Why are multi-level malls have stairs and escalators spread around the mall that way? If you often visit medium to large shopping malls you probably notcied that pattern that down escalators are often located some distance apart. You have to walk through part of a level to get to the escalator to the level you want to reach. Probably, mall designers want to force you to walk around and look at more stuff. The more stuff you have to look at, the more likely you are to buy something on impulse.

3. How many malls are there in the United States? Mmm, at the moment I'm not able to think of anywhere you could look for that number? Perhaps Googling "shopping malls in the United States" and "number" would work.

4. How are malls changing? Are there more now than at some particular time in the past? Are there fewer malls today? I suppose there is some year before which nobody was trying to keep count of the number of malls in the United States. You can bet that somebody, somewhere has been keeping track.

5. Why do malls have so many features in common? All shopping malls have some of these features: food court, movie theaters, customer service/information desk, security, stroller rental, "anchor stores" (big department stores like Sears), kiosks, vending machines, ATMs, and Christmas decorations. Malls generally host community events like the aforementioned model railroad shows and baseball card shows. At least 50% of shopping malls that have Christmas decorations put them up in the same week (second week of November?).

You can bet that most of the architects and managers grew up in North America and went to American universities, where they learned the same things about design and about the "proper" design of a shopping mall. These same people probably belong to the same social networks and so are exposed to the same sorts of ideas. When they do surveys of what mall tenants and visitors want, they will get answers from people with relatively similar sets of ideas about what a proper shopping mall should offer.

6. Are shopping malls good or evil? Well, shopping malls are mindless objects and cannot, at least in theory, be good or evil. As a "social technology" designed to efficiently sell goods and services malls might be considered good. The shopping mall appears to be a very popular social innovation. Maybe things like shopping malls can be justifiably labeled "good" or "evil" because of the intentions of their creators, or because of their social consequences. Whether an object can truly be good or evil, in any sense of those words, is a deep (and rather boring) philosphical issue.

I'll stick with the sociological questions about shopping malls. As one would expect, some people are critical of the shopping mall. Why? Well, aside from the environmental impact implied by all that paved-over land and all that traffic, the collection of chain stores at malls tends to wreck the homegrown downtown shopping experience that so many old people and you small-town people are familiar with.

Other observers of contemporary society point out that shopping malls perform many of the same social functions as those quaint downtowns: places to shop, places to socialize, and places to have community events. Maybe the fact that these things tend to be done differently at a mall is really a problem. Maybe the quality and quantity of social interactions at a mall don't measure up to what people had in the old downtown shopping district. Or maybe not. Maybe the criticism of shopping malls is just some conservative (or liberal.progressive?) reaction against social change.

OK, next time I'm going to post the inevitable Halloween blog. The specific subject would be a secret if I knew the specific subject, which I don't.

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Fitness Center Sociology

2006-10-24T21:45:00.000-04:00

Exercise, YMCAs, gyms, health clubs, rock climbing gyms (like the Sportrock chain here in the DC area) raise bunces of questions about culture, organizations, economics, relationships, and psychology. I think that I'll concentrate on raising some of the questions and suggesting ways that the questions could be researched.

How many gyms per 100,000 people are there in the United States? How does this fugure compare with the figures for Canada, Australia, Japan, and the European Union. I'm going to suggest that Europeans are less interested in the sorts of activities that a gym typically offers - aerobics classes, weight training, exercise bikes. You can't smoke and sip a coffee on an exercise bike (Just a joke people!). Anyway, Europeans tend to spend more time walking and bike riding because gas is very expensive and their cities tend to be less car-friendly. Owning a car also tends to be much, much more expensive!

What percent of adults in the United States belong to a gym or health club? How does that figure compare with other rich industrialized nations? Is the trend up or down, or has the percentage stayed pretty stable? Why have things worked out that way? What social, cultural, and psychological factors are involved?

If you want to look at trends, what years offer good starting points and ending points?. As an endpoint 2005 makes sense because figures for the whole year are almost certainly available. But where do you begin? Maybe there is a year before which nobody was trying to collect membership data. You could always get estimates from some trade association. Just be sure to check the method that they used to make their estimates! Trade associations might inflate the figures to make the industry look more important than it really is.

Another critical question suggests itself: To what extent are these centers really contributing to health and fitness as opposed to pandering to our media-driven desire for a certain "sexy" body type?

So, much for the "big" questions about fitness centers. Now, the process of using the facilities at your local gym is also sociological in many ways. Some of those ways are kinda boring, at least for me, so I'll skip right to the interesting part. How do the rules at a fitness center become rules anyway? Some rules are simple efforts to protect the equipment or to comply with local regulations. Some rules may be designed to protect the facility from lawsuits.

Some rules serve an obvious purpose, but it might be interesting to discover where they came from and how they became common. Two examples of these sorts of rules will make my point and maybe help you to think of other, similar rules. First, gym users are requested to wipe off the equipment after using it. Second, users of strength training machines are expected to take turns if someone is waiting.

Next time: The sociology of shopping malls! Bring your credit card and wear sensible shoes!

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Pedestrian Traffic Jams

2006-10-19T21:21:00.000-04:00

I could have titled this post "The Sociology of Walking" but that isn't terribly interesting. So, now you know the actual subject of my post - the sociology of walking. (If this were a thesis or dissertation I might title it "The Sociology of Walking with Special Emphasis on the Phenomenon of Stoppages in Pedestrian Traffic Flows." If anyone needs a thesis title or subject you are welcome to use that one!)

How many of you generally follow these sorts of rules:

1. Walk on the right

2. On an escalator, walk on the left and stand on the right (Yes that really is a rule!)

3. Exit from the back of the bus if people are waiting to board the bus

What other rules can you think of? Think about rules for opening doors to public buildings, to using crosswalks, and for paying attention to what you are doing.

"Sunday" walkers really aren't paying attention. They just saunter along blissfully unaware that other people may be focused on getting somewhere. I honestly think their behavior is just a temporary lapse in walker etiquette. And other people are just too fat or lazy to move any faster. The old and infirm are a different matter because they can't help but be a tad slow. Many Sunday walkers are just being rude though.

Some of the Sunday walkers also like to stop at the top or bottom of an escalator for no apparent reason. Happily for we heavy users of Metro, these people rarely act up during rush hour.

The phenomenon of the Sunday walker leads me, clumsily, to a discussion of pedestrian traffic jams. I'm going to theorize that pedestrian traffic jams happen when three conditions are satisfied: (1) One or more people insist on moving more slowly than the crowd, (2) there is any sort of bottleneck, like a kiosk or a bench, the obstructs the flow of traffic, and (3) the area has reached a certain critical density level that makes it hard for individuals to manuever. I could say more about the dynamics, and the parallels with motor vehicle traffic, but I think that is enough information for one blog post.

Strange but true: Some sociologist or anthropologist has almost certainly studied pedestrian traffic jams. Maybe somebody feels energetic enough to locate the research. Maybe somebody who needs a thesis topic will feel moved to investigate my ideas about pedestrian traffic jams.

That's about all I've got to say about walking. Next time I'll tackle the sociology of the gym! Be sure to dress appropriately for that class!

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United States Population tops 300,000,000!

2006-10-17T20:52:00.000-04:00

So, what does this mean sociological, economically, and ecologically? Economically, it means there are more potential buyers of my books :-) For the environment, well the meaning of this momentus event is up for debate. Sociologically, hitting the 300 million mark is of no real consequence unless we make it so. The country is not significantly more diverse today than yesterday. Cultural and economic opportunities have not expanded greatly in the past 24 hours. The change, if there was any, probably would have been the same even if the population slipped by 0.034% in the past 24 hours?

Hmmm, so what is the percentage difference in the country's population compared with yesterday at this time (8:22)?

The mass media: Well, they have to talk about something don't they? This symbolic but not important event gave the networks a little something to fill the airwaves for awhile.

The environmental impact of a large, growing, and rich population is something worth talking about. And I did read about the subject in Washington Post Express yesterday. The environmental significance of this population milestone is negligible. But if our population keeps growing, and buying SUVs and houses in the 'burbs, things could get pretty bad.

Maybe they could get pretty bad. I'm not entirely convinced. Scientists seem to think that global climate change is real, and is really fueled by human activity. If so, our high level of fossil fuel use can't continue. With the population growing and the standard of living steady or increasing for many people increased fossil fuel use seems inevitable.

Anyway, our impact on the environment will depend more on lifestyle choices and policies than on sheer numbers. Maybe we can eat fewer imported foods, consume less meat, walk more, live in condos or apartment buildings, and that sort of "green" stuff. I should hope so! I'd love to buy a condo in a super green building. I'm not interested in giving up meat though.

Population growth also means the country is getting more crowded. They just aren't making land anymore, and gobbling up one's weak neighbors to get more land is socially unacceptable these days. We'll just have to accept the increasingly crowded malls, highways, and supermarkets. But the United States isn't densely populated compared with most of Western Europe, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, Israel, Gaza, and China.

So much for the idea of a population crisis in the United States!

Next Time: How Can People Create a Pedestrian Traffic Jam?

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Why Do People Do What They Do?

2006-10-05T22:00:00.000-04:00

How does one answer that question in a short blog post, or even several short posts? Such a feat is not really possible. I can offer a few random thoughts on why some carelessly selected and unrelated phenomena occur. The answers, as I like to think of them, are not what you were probably expecting. Some of my answers may confuse or offend. That's okay because reality can be confusing or offensive.

So, two random questions and answers:

1. Why do men love football? It gives them something in common with other guys. This sense of commonality engenders the trust that's needed in social relationships and in business. (It is comparatively hard to trust some slightly bitter loner who sits at home at night and writes eggheaded stuff.)

2. Why do women watch soap operas? See above.

And, some random observations:

Our individual decisions to do stuff, or not do stuff, can influence society in many ways. Sometimes the influences are obvious in particular cases and sometimes things take a bit of effort to understand..

That nutjob in Pennsylvania who killed the Amish children has made a mark on society.

People who watch infomercials are building a society that keeps producing informercials for products and services ranging from the useless (colloidal silver) to the ridiculous (no down payment real estate investing).

Teenage guys car surf because they are rewarded by other young people - you know who you are!

Why do guys insist on acting like pigs? Because they tend to be rewarded with sex, probably by the same women who complain..

Why do guys buy flashy sports cars and hot motorcycles? Three reasons: sex; social status; a cultural rule that says this is an appropriate way for a man to express his personality and show of his wealth.

So, the individual decisions we make to do things or not do things, or to reward or punish add up in ways we don't always think about.

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Helping People Make Better Decisions(r)

2006-10-03T22:22:00.000-04:00

Voters, politicians, consumers, activists, managers and the rest of us all make choices regularly. We make choices about legislation (Shall I vote for it or against it?), where to live, what car to buy, what politicians to vote for, whether to bother voting at all, and a bunch of other stuff. You get the picture.

My topic for the past two posts has been the common human question "What should I do?" and the ways in which our answers depend on much more than free will. Now I want to offer a few (potentially) practical thoughts and put this subject to bed.

My ideas relate to creating a social environment where people are encouraged to make better decisions. One of the big influences on decisions is what sociologists call the "generalized other" - a fancy term for the cultural expectations and judgements that we're exposed to throughout life. Our childhood is another important factor in our decision making.

So, here are six suggestions for creating a social environment that encourages better decision making.

1. Create and promote new ideas -specifically, we need people who can create and sell new decision rules, like the rule about avoiding synthetic chemicals or the rule about never taking "hot" stock tips.

2. Boycott men's and women's lifestyle magazines - I never read the women's magazines, but the men's magazines tend to promote fantasy images of what a man's body, sex life, income, and wardrobe should be like. I suspect that the equivalent women's magazines are just as harmful.

3. Advertising regulations - Libertarians please don't read this! We should ban AL:L advertising for alcohol, tobacco, and gambling.The net effects on society of those three things are so negative that we should not allow companies to market them through the usual channels. That brings me to ...

4. Banning product placements - Companies should not be allowed to place their alcohol and tobacco products in movies.

5. Critical thinking skills - teach 'em in school

6. Moral education - GASP! CHOKE! Yes, I think kids should be taught to understand widely held human values (like freedom and family), why those values are so common, and how they can be undermined by our personal decisions, by corporations, by governments, by religions, and by secular interest groups.

So, your homework assignment is to take one of my six ideas and make something happen! I'll expect to see a progress report monthly beginning on 11/04.

(r) Obviously, the (r) is a joke here! I can't register some generic-sounding blog title. Or can I?

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Creative Social Change Projects

2006-09-30T12:12:00.000-04:00

I was rereading Edward De Bono's book Serious Creativity and got some ideas. De Bono describes many techniques for generating new ideas, and some techniques for introducing creativity into organizations. These are really formal mechanisms for eliciting new ideas.

Activist organizations and social service nonprofits need to keep up a list of specific areas where creative ideas are needed. This is what De Bono called a Creative Hit List.

People interested in changing the world in some way, big or small, could benefit from creating new concepts to use or to promote. This much is probably not news, but maybe you have never thought of an organization implementing a formal process to create new concepts. This is called concept R&D. Maybe some of the big activist organizations, like Greenpeace, need Concept R&D offices. Maybe some of the big social service organizations like the United Way need the same sort of office.

Activists often concentrate on solving problems, which is a reasonable thing to do if you genuinely believe that ___________ is a big problem. Creative Hit Lists and Concept R&D can be useful here. As De Bono points out in Serious Creativity, there is a need to go beyond problem solving and make a conscious effort to look for opportunities. An Opportunity Search could be done in broad subject areas like fund raising, public policy, marketing, and public education. Searches could also be focused on issue areas like animal welfare or renewable energy. What opportunities exist to advance our agenda? To change more behaviors in the direction we desire?

We can't help but act on assumptions about the world, about people, about social institutions, and about what tactics or strategies will work best. Sometimes we need to tease out then challenge assumptions about the world and even our assumptions about what needs to be changed.

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How to Make Better Decisions(What Should I Do? - Part 2)

2006-09-30T11:13:00.000-04:00

Last time I went on and on about how the mass media, peer groups, and childhood experiences lead us to making bad decisions. These bad decisions are bad for individuals and they add up to real problems for society.

If I sometimes drive my car like I am in Formula 1, this is really a personal problem and not a social problem. If everyone who owns a hot car starts to drive like a race car driver then we have a social problem! Preventing that sort of building up from personal decision to social problem is what I'm going to offer a few ideas about this time.

So, lets take these influences on our decisions one-by-one:

1. Mass Media - Maybe some old advice is really best here: Read fewer men's/women's magazines, watch less television (or at least stick with news, and serious documentaries - the life of Ann Nicole Smith does not count as a serious documentary subject by the way!). Boycott companies that sponsor trash television shows.

What is trash television anyway? Well, almost all television is trash television to some people. I feel the need to be a little more precise than that. Trash television to me is television that promotes unhealthy body images (for men and women), unrealistic ideas about success, unrealistic expectations for relationships, and unrealistic standards regarding what people should own. Hmm, maybe most television is trash.

2. Peer Pressure - Once again, the old advice is best: Pick your friends carefully! Pick your kid's friends even more carefully. Some people say that you cannot pick your friends, but this is obviously not true! We have some control over who we develop or end relationships with and when. This is what it means to pick your friends.

3. Generalized Other - our ideas about how others will react to our behavior comes from friends, family, coworkers, religious leaders (even if you are not religious) and the mass media. Aside from being careful about what you read or watch and picking your friends carefully, there is probably nothing you can do.

4. Childhood Experiences - Well, if you are old enough to reflect on your childhood experiences then it is too late for you! However, you can still try to protect your kids from trash television and bad kids in the neighborhood.

However, the more people follow the advice to avoid "trash" television (and books and magazines and radio shows) the more likely culture will change to produce a "generalized other" that is more supportive of making healthy, for the individual, decisions.

Maybe I need to say more about this next time.

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What Should I Do?

2006-09-26T21:41:00.000-04:00

This isn't really a question for my readers. This post is about decisions we make in our personal lives, decisions about finances, jobs, education, relationships, and many other things. Decision making involves social forces, free will, and psychological forces we are only dimly aware of.

You see, the idea that we do what we choose to do is partly true and partly illusion.

How does this work?

1. Peer pressure - friends get us to binge drink or drive too fast; coworkers get us to work harder than we planned to work

2. Childhood experiences - This is really from Pscyhology 101. Childhood experiences influence our ability to trust people and that ability (or lack of it) can affect our relationship decisions.

3. Mass Media - This is almost everyone's favorite whipping boy when it comes to dicussing the causes of social problems. Television, magazines, radio, books, newspapers, and the Internet do affect us by giving us ideas about how we should live or what we should be afraid of.

4. The Generalized Other - a fancy term for the collective opinions and views that we think other people have: "What will people think of me if they see me doing ___________?"

5. Learning - Not just formal schooling, but all forms of learning can expose us to rules for making "good" decisions. We probably apply these rules without even thinking about them. You might buy a slightly used Honda Civic because this represents a "sensible" transportation choice. Your rules for picking a vehicle may have come from friends, family, and the media. Another person my consider a 2006 Miata to be a perfectly sound transportation choice because she is using different decision rules.

OK, so that was kinda interesting. What good is it? Maybe I can explain in my next post.

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The Birds and the Bees

2006-09-21T22:22:00.000-04:00

Yes, this post is about sex. And biology. And genetics. Think for a few minutes and I bet you can identify some of the wasy that sex, biology, and genetics each influence society and culture.

1. Our attitudes toward sex are really cultural and not biological or genetic. Consider how many people make money with sex toys, pronographic films, dirty magazines, books of sex advice, and so on. People who market these things, intentionally or not, create cultural expectations of what sex should be like. We spread those expaectations when we interact with friends and lovers, or potential lovers. (Ideas that we spread around are called memes.The term was created by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins.)

2. Some businesses, academics, and writers are trumpeting the impending victory of science and technology over biology. We can soon prevent or cure any genetic disorder. We can prevent most of the problems of aging and even reverse some of the effects. (Sorry, but there is no hope of curing married men of the urge to visit topless bars.) Never mind if those expectations are rooted in facts or wishful thinking or marketing hype. The cultural impacts are real so the reality of the predictions is, sociologically speaking, irrelevant.

3. How long will it be before someone writes an essay or makes a speech and suggests that Arabic men are genetically inferior to Northern European white males?

4. Biology imposes limits on how a society could be organized. We need food, water, and protection from the elements. So, the need to secure food, water, and protection from the elements imposes limits on how many people can live in a given area, what they must do to get food, and how much time and effort is required to cope with the climate. So, biology acting in concert with climate and the local ecology will influence social organization and culture.

Sociology lecture over.

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Politics Explained

2006-09-19T21:20:00.000-04:00

What explains party politics, campaign promises, broken campaign promises, smear campaigns, political scandals, imaginary political scandals, voting behavior, and public policy? Sociology explains that stuff. Really. Consider these sociological observations:

1. People form groups for all sorts of reasons and to pursue all sorts of goals. Advancing our vision of how society should work is generally going to be a group effort. So, people band together with people who have roughly similar views and form political parties. (Note that this can happen even in places where some or all political parties are outlawed.)

2. The concept of democratic rule predates the United States by at least 2000 years.

3. Politicians make campaign promises that they may or may not be able to keep because other politicians make campaing promises. And we seem to expect these promises to be made, if not kept. The expectation sets up a competitive political environment where nobody dares say "I'll try real hard to do good things." or "Realistically, a freshman Representative can't expect to accomplish a whole bunch, but I'll do what I can."

4. Who's to blame for low voter turnout? The lazy people who can't be bothered? Yes, that really is the answer.

5. Political ideas don't just emerge out of somebody's head or from smoke-filled back room. Both of those things are involved but a lot more also goes on here. People evaluate ideas in light of what their audience will like, they get pressure/encouragement/inspiration from interest groups. powerful lobbyists, and books. God help us but politicians also test ideas on focus groups.

Sidebar: You did know that politics involved selling didn't you? Politicians sell their influence and their ideas.

That's enough sociological rambling for today folks!

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Bad Driving Explained

2006-09-14T21:50:00.000-04:00

I was inspired to address this subject by a question someone asked me last night: Why are there so many rude drivers? You probably thought that some people were just selfish and/or stupid.

You were partly right. Since this is a sociology blog so I feel compelled to come up with a few sociological observations.

Several social forces are at work, or not, in the case of rude drivers. Consider the low standard that so many drivers set for us. Its easy to say that I'm not as bad as that chick who cut me off while talking on a cel phone and drinking coffee. Bad drivers seldom experience any negative consequences for their behavior. Sure, they get tickets sometimes. Sometimes bad drivers and the just plain rude drivers get in accidents. Do they take responsibility for themselves? Not always. Nope. It is easy to blame to the "stupid cops" for punishing aggressive drivers to whom natural selection has bequethed control of the roads. Easier still is blaming dumb luck or bad road conditions for your accident.

An unwillingness to own up to one's responsibilities is party psychological and perhaps partly cultural. Conservatives love to complain about how American culture encourages people to blame everyone else for everything. Maybe the conservatives have a point there. Or maybe not.

Getting back to the consequences of bad driving behavior brings up an idea. People seldom get in trouble for being rude or aggressive. Maybe that can change? A honking horn or an obscene gesture aren't going to make an impact. Playing Mad Max with a really rude drive is definitely not a good idea. We need new and informal ways to sanction bad drivers and make them behave. We need something that doesn't require the police to be involved, is not dangerous, is legal, and will make a real impression. Horns and ramming are defnitely out! Cursing and making obscene gestures can get you in trouble, or have no effect whatever.

Any ideas?

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What causes terrorism?

2006-09-12T21:54:00.000-04:00

The political answer is that terrrorism is caused by evil people who want to kill Americans or at least destroy our democratic, capitalist way of life. That's the sort of garbage that makes me hate politics. But, you and I have both heard similarly witless explanations of terrorism. Here are a few other explanations for terrorism:

1. Terrorists want to martyr themselves and go to heaven. (Where else can a guy get 72 virgins?)

2. The terrorists are people who will do absolutely anything to spread fundamentalist Islam.

3. The terrorists are genetically defective individuals.

4. The terrorists are products of a degenerate, primitive culture.

5. The terrorists are mentally defective individuals.

6. The terrorists are driven to insane behavior by demonic forces.

7. The terrorists are products of a culture that glorifies the struggle against infidels and offers little hope of economic success or stable family life for huge numbers of young people who are poorly educated and under the influence of authoritarian religious leaders who role in society is grounded in centuries of tradition.

8. Who cares! Terrorists are the enemy in a great clash of civilizations!

Guess which explanation is closest to the truth?

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How Does Society Work?

2006-09-09T11:08:00.000-04:00

Money, office politics, biology, sex, genetics, greed, and powerful organizations are the reasons that things happen in society. Hmmm...

How does society really work? I'm hoping you've wondered about this as much as I have. The answers are all around us, on TV, in conversations with friends, on talk radio, in the newspapers. Stick with me for a few minutes and I'll show you how all of those "explanations" come up short.

We can easily be sold an overly simplified explanation of how things work. People are busy. People are focused on day-to-day concerns and are ready to accept any seemingly reasonable explanation. Money and special interest groups drive politics. Greed and selfishness explain why environmental problems persist.

Those short answers contain elements of truth. Money, interest groups (not just political interest groups), and psychology all contribute to our society being one way and not another. Oh, and so does the natural environment. Geography is also be involved.

What else? Well, blind chance plays a part in things. The culture - beliefs, values, technologies, symbolism, laws, unwritten rules - also influences the way a society works. Relationships between people and groups also shape a society. History is also involved; nothing just happens in a historical vacuum. Biology, not just genetics, is also involved in making a society work the way it does. There are interaction effects between biology, geography, natural environment, psychology, culture, relationships, and chance.

Yeah, that's pretty abstract. In future posts, I'll bring things down to earth using real-world events. This being election season I may feel compelled to comment on the politicians' ideas - do they pass my social pollution test? Finally, I'll try to explain what you can really do with all of this knowledge.

Question: Does anyone really do anything for money? (My answer is "no" but I'll save the explanation for a future post.)

A closing question: Why are people in the United States not like people in Pakistan? If you can answer that question in a rigorous way you deserve a Ph.D. in Sociology. Or, at least you can be a guest columnist.