Anti-Americanism in Europe: Theoretical Mechanisms and Empirical Evidence

One of the most popular explanations for post-9/11 anti-Americanism argues that resentment against America and Americans is mainly a function of the US government's unpopular actions. The present article challenges this interpretation: first, it argues that neither the vitality of the resentment in times when the United States had no influence in the respective parts of the world nor its recent radical manifestations are accounted for in a political reductionist framework. In fact, specific traditions of anti-Americanism have an influence on the negative attitudes observed today, as a comparison between Britain, France, Germany, and Poland reveals. Second, this article suggests an alternative theoretical approach. Anti-Americanism can be explained by two basic mechanisms: it functions as a strategy to project denied and disliked self-concepts onto an external object, and it offers an interpretation frame for complex social processes that allows to reduce cognitive dissonance. Multivariate analyses based on empirical data collected in the Pew surveys of 2002 and 2007 show the fruitfulness of our theoretical approac

Are the affluent prepared to pay for the planet? Explaining willingness to pay for public and quasi-private environmental goods in Switzerland

A large number of ‘environmental justice' studies show that wealthier people are less affected by environmental burdens and also consume more resources than poorer people. Given this double inequity, we ask, to what extent are affluent people prepared to pay to protect the environment? The analyses are couched within the compensation/affluence hypothesis, which states that wealthier persons are able to spend more for environmental protection than their poorer counterparts. Further, we take into account various competing economic, psychological and sociological determinants of individuals' willingness to pay (WTP) for both public environmental goods (e.g., general environmental protection) and quasi-private environmental goods (e.g., CO2-neutral cars). Such a comprehensive approach contrasts with most other studies in this field that focus on a limited number of determinants and goods. Multivariate analyses are based on a general population survey in Switzerland (N=3,369). Although income has a positive and significant effect on WTP supporting the compensation hypothesis, determinants such as generalized interpersonal trust that is assumed to be positively associated with civic engagement and environmental concern prove to be equally important. Moreover, we demonstrate for the first time that time preferences can considerably influence survey-based WTP for environmental goods; since investments in the environment typically pay off in the distant future, persons with a high subjective discount rate are less likely to commi

Monetarisierung der Natur: Ansatzpunkte und Möglichkeiten eines soziologischen Beitrags

"Marktgesellschaften müssen sich zunehmend auf globaler, nationaler und lokaler Ebene der Herausforderung im Umgang mit und des Erhalts von Umweltressourcen stellen. In der Regel sind Umweltressourcen - ökonomisch gesprochen - öffentliche Güter. Bei der Bereitstellung solcher Güter liegt oft ein Marktversagen vor. Das liegt nicht zuletzt an fehlenden Preisen für Umweltressourcen, also an einem nicht vorhandenen Wertmaßstab, der für eine Beurteilung der Wirtschaftlichkeit verschiedener Maßnahmen im Umgang mit Umweltressourcen herangezogen werden kann. Der Beitrag stellt vor diesem Hintergrund die theoretischen Grundlagen sowie die Methodik der Kontingenten Bewertung zur Messung des ökonomischen Gesamtwertes eines Umweltgutes vor und diskutiert soziologische Anknüpfungspunkte an einem empirischen Fallbeispiel zur Bewertung der biologischen Vielfalt im Wald. Der ökonomische Gesamtwert eines Umweltgutes beinhaltet u.a. nutzungsunabhängige Werte, die nicht am Marktverhalten von Akteuren beobachtbar sind und direkt erfragt/ermittelt werden müssen (stated preferences). Deshalb wird im Rahmen Kontingenter Bewertungen in Umfragen ein hypothetischer Markt konstruiert. Dabei wird das Umweltgut möglichst genau beschrieben, es wird kenntlich gemacht, wer für die Bereitstellung des Gutes verantwortlich ist, und es wird vorgegeben, in welcher Form und wie lange Personen für die Bereitstellung etwas bezahlen müssten. Ziel einer solchen Bewertung ist die Ermittlung des Geldbetrages, der Personen auf demselben Nutzenniveau vor und nach der Umweltveränderung belässt (maximale Zahlungsbereitschaft). Bislang gibt es weltweit über 2.000 monetäre Bewertungsstudien, die zum Teil als Unterstützung für politische Entscheidungen dienen. Diese Studien werden mit einer Vielzahl an Kritikpunkten konfrontiert. In dem Vortrag soll gezeigt werden, dass soziologische Theorien und Methoden einen Beitrag zur Erklärung von in Umfragen geäußerten Zahlungsbereitschaften leisten können. Hier erschließt sich für SoziologInnen ein theoretisch wie praktisch bedeutsames Forschungs- und Anwendungsfeld im Spannungsverhältnis zwischen Umwelt und Wirtschaft." (Autorenreferat

To Pay or Not to Pay: Competing Theories to Explain Individuals’ Willingness to Pay for Public Environmental Goods

Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.Several theories have been proposed in an attempt to explain individuals’ willingness to pay (WTP) for public environmental goods. While most studies only take into account a single theory, this article discusses competing theories. These include, in addition to a basic economic model, the theory of public goods, Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior, and Schwartz’s norm-activation model. Empirical results are based on a contingent valuation study of biodiversity in German forests. Multivariate analyses demonstrate that studies using single theories omit crucial explanatory variables and, hence, might be misleading. Economic models of WTP have proven to be incomplete, that is, they have restricted explanatory power and need to be supplemented by psychological and sociological models. Furthermore, a general finding is that factors influencing WTP are different for “in-principle WTP” on the one hand and “amount of WTP (given in-principle WTP)” on the other. Income, for example, does not affect whether individuals are willing to pay at all, but significantly influences how much they are willing to pay

Individuals of high socioeconomic status are altruistic in sharing money but egoistic in sharing time

The questions of whether and how socioeconomic status (SES) predicts prosocial behavior have sparked an interest from different disciplines, yet experimental evidence is inconclusive. We embedded two types of dictator games in a web survey with 7772 participants from Germany, Poland, Sweden, and the US. Each participant was asked to split a sum of money and a fixed amount of time between themself and a recipient. While higher-SES individuals are more generous than lower-SES individuals in the money game, they are more egoistic in the time game. In addition, the SES of the recipient matters more in the money game than in the time game. These results point towards the relevancy of a situationally contingent social norm of redistribution in studying the relationship between SES and prosocial behavior.publishedVersio

Formal versus Informal Problem Resolution in Economic Transactions: Explanations between "Legal Centralism" and "Legal Peripheralism"

Der Artikel untersucht die Problemlösung in wirtschaftlichen Transaktionen im Spannungsfeld zweier theoretischer Pole. Zwischen der Perspektive, dass die Problembewältigung überwiegend an Rechtsnormen gebunden ist (legal centralism), und der Sichtweise bevorzugt dezentralisierter Lösungsprozesse (legal peripheralism) werden Determinanten zur Erklärung der Art der Problemlösung herausgearbeitet. Die Frage, unter welchen Bedingungen eine Anbindung an Rechtsnormen in Form schriftlicher Kommunikation entsteht, steht im Mittelpunkt der Betrachtung. Neben ökonomischen Faktoren sowie Aspekten der sozialen Einbettung werden hierbei insbesondere Tatbestände der Problemwahrnehmung diskutiert. Datengrundlage sind 321 problembehaftete Transaktionen beim Einkauf von EDV-Leistungen klein- und mittelständischer Unternehmen im Raum Halle/Leipzig und München. Während sich die Problemlösung insgesamt überwiegend informell bzw. mündlich vollzieht, wirken sowohl die Schadenshöhe als auch die juristische Nachweisbarkeit der Problemursache in Richtung einer formellen Handhabung. Die soziale Einbettung hingegen hat wider Erwarten keinen nennenswerten Einfluss auf die Problemregulierung.This article examines problem resolution in economic transactions in the light of two theoretical perspectives. Determinants of problem solving are developed between the position, on the one hand, that legal norms are the dominant factor (legal centralism) and the position that decentralized processes play the major role (legal peripheralism), on the other. The central question is under what circumstances problem solving is connected to legal norms in terms of written communication. Next to economic factors and aspects of the social embeddedness of business relations, the perception of the problem is discussed. The data base used consists of 321 problematic transactions involving the purchase of information technology products by small and medium sized enterprises in the areas Halle/Leipzig and Munich. Even though problem resolution is usually managed in an informal way, the amount of the damages and the necessity of legal verifiability tend to stimulate formal problem solving. Surprisingly, social embedding does not have a significant influence on problem solving

Uncovering the nexus between attitudes, preferences, and behavior in sociological applications of stated choice experiments

Multifactorial survey experiments such as stated choice experiments are used more and more frequently in social science research. In this article, based on an experimental study on ethical and political consumption, we explore the potential of hybrid choice models to explicitly model latent psychological factors such as attitudes, overcoming a possible endogeneity bias and misrepresentation of causality. To this end, we employ a hybrid latent class choice model (HLCCM) in which the latent class structure allocates individuals to classes according to underlying latent attitudes that also influence the answers to attitudinal questions. This allows, in line with sociological action theories, a theory-guided testing of preference segmentation and modification caused by attitudes. We compare the complex HLCCM with less complex models that do not take the latent variable nature of attitudes into account and discuss in which cases less complex models might be more appropriate. However, the HLCCM always has the advantage of providing structure for theory testing and is therefore a useful tool to uncover preference heterogeneity, preference modification, and decision-making processes in sociological and other social science research

Uncovering the nexus between attitudes, preferences, and behavior in sociological applications of stated choice experiments

Multifactorial survey experiments such as stated choice experiments are used more and more frequently in social science research. In this article, based on an experimental study on ethical and political consumption, we explore the potential of hybrid choice models to explicitly model latent psychological factors such as attitudes, overcoming a possible endogeneity bias and misrepresentation of causality. To this end, we employ a hybrid latent class choice model (HLCCM) in which the latent class structure allocates individuals to classes according to underlying latent attitudes that also influence the answers to attitudinal questions. This allows, in line with sociological action theories, a theory-guided testing of preference segmentation and modification caused by attitudes. We compare the complex HLCCM with less complex models that do not take the latent variable nature of attitudes into account and discuss in which cases less complex models might be more appropriate. However, the HLCCM always has the advantage of providing structure for theory testing and is therefore a useful tool to uncover preference heterogeneity, preference modification, and decision-making processes in sociological and other social science research

Explaining ethnic violence : on the relevance of geographic, social, economic, and political factors in hate crimes on refugees

Many Western societies experience recurring patterns of violence against ethnic minorities, immigrants, refugees, and other asylum seekers, making it important to better understand which conditions increase (or decrease) the likelihood of hate crimes. In this article, we test the relevance of different geographic, social, economic, and political conditions for attacks on refugees. To this end, we conduct an event-history analysis for Germany between 2014 and 2017, when Germany experienced a sharp rise and subsequent decline in assaults on refugees with up to 142 personal and miscellaneous (such as assaults and insults) and 11 arson attacks on refugee homes and refugees per week. We analyse these incidents at the district level and derive hypotheses from theoretical considerations on geographic proximity, social similarity, political opportunity structures, competition for resources, opportunities of contact with foreigners, and differences between East and West Germany. Irrespective of the type of attack, the results of Cox regression models support our theoretical reasoning on diffusion processes, geographical proximity, and the contact hypothesis. There is no support for the model-adopter similarity and competition-for-resources hypothesis. The type of violence matters with regard to the importance of political opportunity structures and differences between East and West Germany. Our findings show the importance of differentiating between different types of violence and accounting for the context-dependency of ethnic violence for future research

Examining discrimination in everyday life : a stated choice experiment on racism in the sharing economy

Prejudice and discrimination in everyday life are persistent problems for most societies but difficult to uncover and explain by empirical social research. Complementing existing approaches to study discrimination, we demonstrate the usefulness of survey-based stated choice experiments to explore everyday discrimination and its heterogeneity within a multifactorial framework. In our study German respondents (n = 766) were asked to choose between various carpooling offers varying not only in regard to price, car type, and rating but also to the perceived ethnic background of the driver. Random parameter logit models show preference heterogeneity in the sample and that differences in choice behaviour related to perceived ethnic background of the driver can be explained by xenophobic attitudes and lack of regular contact with perceived ‘foreigners’. We find no indication that familiarity with the situation reduces discriminatory preferences. Our survey-based approach adds to existing research by experimentally singling out main and interactions effects of discriminatory attributes and by being able to determine the correlation between personal characteristics of the decision makers and their discriminatory preferences