Axel Franzen

Environmental Attitudes in International Comparison: An Analysis of the ISSP Surveys 1993 and 2000

The goal of this article is to compare the concern for the natural environment between the citizens of 26 countries that participated in the 2000 International Social Survey Program (ISSP) and to explain the differences. Prior studies (e.g., Dunlap, Gallup, and Gallup, 1993; Brechin, 1999) suggest that the increase of environmental concern is a global phenomenon. However, Inglehart (1995), as well as Diekmann and Franzen (1999), argue that the level of environmental concern and knowledge is highly correlated with GNP per capita. Copyright (c) 2003 by the Southwestern Social Science Association.

The Wealth of Nations and Environmental Concern

ANDREAS DIEKMANN is a professor of methods of empirical research and social statistics and director of the Institute of Sociology at the University of Berne, Switzer land. His research interests are in statistics and game theory, with applications to so cial demography and environmental behavior. His publications in English include “Cooperation in an Asymmetric Volunteer’s Dilemma Game: Theory and Experi mental Evidence” ( International Journal of Game Theory , 1993, Vol. 22), Paradoxical Effects of Social Behavior: Essays in Honor of Anatol Rapoport (1986),Stochastic Modelling of Social Processes (1984) (both books edited with P. Mitter), “The Log Logistic Rate Model. Two Generalizations With an Application to Demographic Data” (Sociological Methods and Research , 1995, Vol. 24 [with Josef Brüderl]), and “Environmental Behavior. Discrepancies Between Aspirations and Reality” ( Rationality and Society , 1998, Vol. 10 [with Peter Preisendörfer]).

Group Size and One-Shot Collective Action:

Situations of collective actions have been modeled as iterated N-person Prisoners Dilemma games or N-person Chicken games. Although there exists some experimental evidence with regard to the effects of group size in iterated dilemmas, very little attention has been given to one-shot social dilemmas. This article argues that some social dilemmas can be modeled as one-shot games. Furthermore, it discusses and provides experimental evidence on the effects of group size on cooperation in four different one-shot games. The results confirm the hypotheses that there are no group-size effects in the one-shot Prisoners Dilemma and in the one-shot Chicken game. However, group size does have a negative effect on the cooperation rate in both the Volunteers Dilemma and in the Assurance game.

Bildungsexpansion und die geschlechtsspezifische Segregation an Schweizer Hochschulen

Enrollment of women in Swiss universities has doubled during the last 25 years from 25% to 50% of all students. At the same time sex segregation as measured by various indexes of dissimilarity remained almost constant. This contribution investigates the reasons of this - at first sight - paradoxical development. First, we describe the sex segregation in Swiss universities. Second, the pro and cons of different indexes of measuring sex segregation are discussed. Finally, we discuss possible reasons for sex segregation in different subjects.

Einsicht in ökologische Zusammenhänge und Umweltverhalten

Wie in unserer Gesellschaft mit den naturlichen Ressourcen umgegangen wird, ist das Resultat einer Vielzahl von Handlungen in Politik, Wirtschaft und im personlichen Alltagsleben. Dabei konnen uns die Naturwissenschaften zwar wichtige Einsichten in okologische Zusammenhange vermitteln, beispielsweise zu den Folgen des Verbrauchs fossiler Energien fur das globale Klima. In welcher Weise aber diese Zusammenhange und okologischen Gefahrdungen der naturlichen Lebensgrundlagen wahrgenommen werden und das Handeln der Menschen als Entscheidungstrager oder im personlichen Alltag pragen, ist eine Frage, die an die Adresse der Sozialwissenschaften gerichtet ist. Konkret stellt sich das Problem, von welchen Bedingungen es denn abhangt, dass Personen in mehr oder minder starkem Ausmass okologieorientiert handeln oder auf der anderen Seite relativ sorglos mit der knappen Ressource “Natur“ umgehen.

Antwortskalen in standardisierten Befragungen

Jeder, der eine standardisierte Befragung plant, muss sich fruher oder spater uberlegen, welche Fragen gestellt werden sollen, wie die Fragen formuliert sein sollen und wie die Antwortkategorien zu gestalten sind. Die Antworten auf diese drei Fragen sind nicht unabhangig, sondern hangen eng miteinander zusammen. In der Regel ist es sinnvoll in der genannten Reihenfolge vorzugehen, also sich erst mit den Inhalten und der Formulierung von Fragen zu beschaftigen und danach die Konstruktion der Antwortskalen vorzunehmen. Ein Forscher ist aber gut beraten, schon bei der Formulierung der Fragen an die spatere Datenauswertung zu denken, und spatestens bei der Festlegung der Antwortkategorien stehen Uberlegungen zum Skalenniveau und den statistischen Analysemoglichkeiten im Vordergrund.

Vereine in Deutschland und ihr Beitrag zum Wohlstand der Regionen

Dieser Beitrag untersucht den Zusammenhang zwischen der Anzahl an Vereinen in den 413 Landkreisen und kreisfreien Stadten in Deutschland und ihrem wirtschaftlichen und sozialen Wohlstand. Die Analysen basieren auf einer eigenen Vollerhebung des Vereinsbestands bei den fur die Vereinsregister zustandigen Amtsgerichten Deutschlands. Zusatzlich verwenden wir die verfugbaren Informationen der statistischen Landes- und Bundesamter zu den Landkreisen und kreisfreien Stadten. Als Indikatoren des wirtschaftlichen und sozialen Wohlstands werden Angaben zum Bruttoinlandsprodukt pro Einwohner, der Arbeitslosenquote, der Wahlbeteiligung an der Bundestagswahl 2009 und der Kriminalitatsrate der Regionen genutzt.Fur die Zusammenhangsschatzungen werden Spatial-Lag-Regressionen berechnet, mit denen regionale Abhangigkeiten berucksichtigt werden konnen. Den Ergebnissen zufolge gab es 2008 insgesamt 554.394 eingetragene Vereine in Deutschland, die sich sehr heterogen auf die Regionen verteilen. Die Zusammenhangsanalysen zeigen ferner, dass Kreise mit einer hohen Vereinsdichte auch uber ein hohes Bruttoinlandsprodukt pro Einwohner verfugen. Dagegen lassen sich keine statistisch signifikanten Zusammenhange der Vereinsbestande mit der Arbeitslosenquote, der Wahlbeteiligung oder der Kriminalitatsrate finden.

Calling Social Capital: An Analysis of the Determinants of Success on the TV Quiz Show 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'

This paper analyzes the determinants of successful participation of candidates on the well known television quiz show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?”. Our study includes a survey of 660 contestants who participated in the German version of the show between 1999 and 2007. We are particularly interested in two hypotheses. The first hypothesis refers to the assumed advantage of social capital. Contestants on the show have the option of calling a friend (the phone-a-friend lifeline) whom they select from their personal networks. The person chosen to be the phone-a-friend lifeline should be especially helpful if the contestant has a large network of able contacts from which to choose. Second, according to human capital theory the participants’ education should increase the chances of success and should lead on average to higher payoffs. Since contestants on the show can answer questions correctly mainly on the basis of their knowledge and since other characteristics of the candidates are irrelevant, estimates of the human capital effect are not affected by other possible causes suggested by signaling theory. Thus, our analysis is an assessment of the effects of social capital and human capital on the show.

Pitfalls of International Comparative Research: Taking Acquiescence into Account

Acquiescence can be the source of a serious response bias in international comparative research. We demonstrate this by referring to an example taken from environmental sociology. The effect of wealth on individuals’ willingness to pay for environmental protection is controversially discussed in the literature. Studies analyzing the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) report that individuals in wealthier nations are more concerned about the environment, while studies using the World Values Survey (WVS) or the European Values Study (EVS) come up with the opposite finding. The puzzle is resolved when the different levels of acquiescence are taken into consideration. As it turns out, respondents in poorer nations in Asia and Eastern Europe have higher levels of acquiescence than respondents in richer Western nations. Thus, acquiescence conceals the wealth effect of studies analyzing the WVS or EVS and the issue is resolved when acquiescence is properly controlled for in multivariate statistical models.

Experiments with Social Traps III: Breakup of Coalitions

A coalition is usually assumed to involve an agreement, explicit or implicit, among several actors (individuals or organizations) to cooperate in pursuit of a common interest. Typically members of a coalition regard such cooperation in their own individual interest only if others continue to cooperate. Thus violation of the agreement holding the coalition together by some members often instigates others to defect, and the process becomes self-reinforcing. The effect is demonstrated in an experiment with a Tragedy of the Commons type game, in which one of the players, a confederate of the experimenter, (the “stooge”) grossly violates apparent expectations of the others. Measures of the amount of cooperation (or noncooperation) before and after the stooges intervention are related to the presence or absence of preliminary discussion and to the number of players.