Stylized Facts

Question 1

popularity of cultural products

Answer 1

the popularity of cultural products in contemporary industrialized societies is highly skewed, i.e., a very small minority of books, songs, movies and art products gain incredible success, whereas the overwhelming majority gain very little

Question 2

conformity in judgements

Answer 2

there is a tendency of people to conform to the publicly revealed judgement of the majority group in small-scale settings, even when this majority judgement is false

Question 3

Werther effect

Answer 3

suicides reported in mass media increase the likelihood of actual suicides

Question 4

conformity

Answer 4

there is a general human tendency to conform to the opinions and behavior of actors in their social environment

Question 5

friendship paradox

Answer 5

people have fewer friends on average than their friends do on average

Question 6

personal network size in the US

Answer 6

for the majority of citizens of the US, the sizes of each subsequent ego network layer - decreasing in tie strength - consist of roughly 5 alters (core) - 15 alters (sympathy) - 50 alters (affinity) - 150 alters (active) - 500 alters (total)

Question 7

hubs in personal networks

Answer 7

the distribution of personal network size follows a power law (highly skewed, long tail), a small number of individuals (hubs) have very many social ties

Question 8

transitivity tendency

Answer 8

your connections likely know each other as well

Question 9

forbidden triad tendency

Answer 9

transitivity increases with tie strength. It is highly common in core networks. The more you go up to the larger layers in personal networks, the less often transitivity occurs

Question 10

small-world phenomenon

Answer 10

in large-scale contemporary societies, two randomly chosen individuals are personally connected in only a few steps (around 5-6 steps), via their friends, acquaintances and family

Question 11

group segregation

Answer 11

people tend to have more frequent group-bonding ties than group-bridging ties

Question 12

homophily phenomenon

Answer 12

people prefer to interact with members from their own group as opposed to members of other groups

Question 13

in-group favoritism

Answer 13

there is a general tendency that individuals have more positive in-group relationships than out-group relationships, as observed in research on intra- and intergroup (1) social ties, (2) attitudes and (3) trust, cooperation and solidarity

Question 14

Treiman constant

Answer 14

occupational prestige rankings are highly similar over time, across countries and have strong agreement between raters

Question 15

the one percent

Answer 15

the within-country stratification in income and wealth in contemporary societies is highly skewed and much of the wealth is in the hands of the top 1 percent

Question 16

Great Gatsby Curve

Answer 16

in contemporary societies, higher within-country income stratification is associated with lower intergenerational mobility in that country

Question 17

informal job finding

Answer 17

in highly developed nations, a considerable share of the jobs (30-50%) are found informally, via friends, family, acquaintances and other social ties

Question 18

jobs via weak ties

Answer 18

people more often find a job via one of their weaker ties than via one of their stronger ties

Question 19

gender inequality

Answer 19

in contemporary societies, women participate less often in the labor market than men and, when they do, they have occupations with lower prestige and lower wages

Question 20

gender hypersegregation

Answer 20

men and women work in very different occupations in contemporary societies

Question 21

integration process

Answer 21

with increasing length of stay of an ethnic minority group in a certain country, this ethnic minority group becomes more integrated

Question 22

ethnic inequality

Answer 22

ethnic majority members have better labor market positions than non-western ethnic minority groups in contemporary western societies

Question 23

ethnic and racial discrimination

Answer 23

there is substantial, cumulative discrimination against ethnic and racial minorities in contemporary western labor markets

Question 24

black hypersegregation in the US

Answer 24

in the period between 1970 and 2000, blacks in the US lived in extremely segregated neighborhoods (D > 0.6)

Question 25

the wealth and health progress

Answer 25

the history of homo sapiens has witnessed changes in wealth and health, i.e., a decline of poverty, rising standards of living and increasing life expectancy

Question 26

peace and safety progress

Answer 26

from the 15th century onwards, human societies have become more peaceful and more safe

Question 27

technological progress

Answer 27

there is a rise in technological knowledge in human cultures from 150,000 BC to the present and the speed of growth in technological knowledge is increasing

Question 28

scientization

Answer 28

over time, human cultures have become more science-oriented. There is a growth of scientific knowledge; more formal education; increasing literacy, knowledge and skills

Question 29

individualization

Answer 29

in the period between 1800 and 2015 there was an increase in individualistic values at the expense of collectivistic values in societies

Question 30

western individualism

Answer 30

individualistic values are more widespread in western societies than in non-western societies

Question 31

demographic transition in western Europe

Answer 31

the demographic transition started first in western Europe around the year 1800 and then other countries followed

Question 32

second demographic transition in western Europe

Answer 32

in the period between 1960 and 2015, fertility levels in western European countries strongly decreased

Question 33

religious stickiness

Answer 33

religiosity tends to be rather stable over time and geographical areas

Question 34

secularization in western Europe

Answer 34

western European populations have become more secular between 1950 and 2015. This is seen with respect to religious belonging and religious believing

Question 35

modernization and secularization

Answer 35

the more modernized a society, the more secular the people in that society