Scott V. Savage

The Chalkboard Versus the Avatar Comparing the Effectiveness of Online and In-class Courses

Increasingly, colleges and universities are relying on fully online classes to teach students. This article investigates how students evaluate online courses in comparison to more traditional face-to-face courses. Data come from undergraduate student evaluations of 118 sociology courses, and results of a series of hierarchical linear models indicate that students feel they have learned less in online courses, believe they are treated with more respect in in-class courses, and rate online courses less highly than in-class courses. Findings also suggest that the negative effects of teaching online are not universal for instructors, as the switch to online classes actually results in better evaluations for teachers who typically perform poorly in the classroom. These findings caution against the broad use of online sociology classes as a strategy for coping with increasing enrollments and shrinking budgets and suggest educators should select the course format that best complements their teaching strengths and skills.

Status, faction sizes, and social influence: : Testing the theoretical mechanism

With two experiments the authors test and find support for the argument that in small, collectively oriented task groups, status affects social influence the most when the distribution of opinions reduces the least uncertainty. Moreover, they demonstrate that people use the distribution of both status and opinions to reduce uncertainty about the task on which they are working and that this, in turn, promotes social influence. Experiment 1 illustrates that, regardless of the group’s sex composition, basis for status differentiation, or size of the group, uncertainty reduction mediates a significant share of the effect of status and opinions on social influence. Experiment 2 confirms that the effect of the distribution of both status and opinions on social influence is weaker as the task becomes more certain. These findings inform discussion about how status affects certainty in task groups and what this potentially means for organizational settings and sociological theory more generally.

Virtual Health: The Impact of Health-Related Websites on Patient-Doctor Interactions ☆ ☆Portions of this chapter were presented at the 2009 annual meeting of the American Sociological Association.

Abstract Purpose This study illustrates that differences across health-related websites, as well as different Internet usage patterns, have significant implications for how individuals view and interact with their health care providers. Methodology/approach We rely on a qualitative study of three health-related websites and an ordinary least squares regression analysis of survey data to explore how websites with different organizational motives frame health-related issues and how variations in Internet usage patterns affect patients’ perceptions of the patient-doctor interaction. Findings Results reveal differences across three health-related websites and show that both the number and the type of websites patients visit affect their perceptions of physicians’ responses. Specifically, visiting multiple websites decreased perceptions of how well doctors listened to or answered patients’ questions, whereas using nonprofit or government health-related websites increased evaluations of how well doctors listened to and answered questions. Research limitations/implications This study suggests that practitioners and scholars should look more closely at how patients use the Internet to understand how it affects doctor-patient interactions. Future research could expand the analysis of website framing or use methods such as in-depth interviewing to more fully understand on-the-ground processes and mechanisms. Originality/value of chapter This study highlights the importance of fleshing out nuances about what it means to be an Internet-informed patient given that varying patterns of Internet use may affect how patients perceive their physicians.

Masculinity, Competence, and Health The Influence of Weight and Race on Social Perceptions of Men

Like other visible characteristics such as skin color, gender, or age, body size is a diffuse status characteristic that impacts perceptions, interactions, and social outcomes. Studies demonstrate that individuals hold preconceived notions about what it means to be fat and document a long list of negative stereotypes associated with fat individuals, including laziness, unintelligence, and incompetence. Such perceptions have consequences for employment, including decisions about hiring, promotion, compensation, and dismissal. In this article, we examine how body size and race interact to affect individuals’ perceptions of success, competence, health, laziness, and masculinity. Based on undergraduate students’ ratings of photographs of men, our findings demonstrate significant differences between evaluations of black and white men based on body size. Thin white men are perceived to be more intelligent, more successful, and more competent than their thin black counterparts. However, these results reverse when the men are overweight: overweight black men are seen as more intelligent and more competent than overweight white men. They are also seen as more successful and hardworking and more masculine. These results suggest that the stigma of body size differently impacts black and white men; individuals judge overweight white men more negatively than overweight black men. We discuss two possible explanations for these findings: black threat neutralization and race-based attribution theory.

Identity and Power Use in Exchange Networks

We introduce a theoretical argument about how the fairness identity influences exchange behaviors in negotiated exchange networks. To test this argument, we use data from a laboratory experiment. Results demonstrate that by providing manipulated feedback that is inconsistent with the fairness identity standard (actual appraisals), inequality changes in the direction that counteracts the feedback. In addition, when high power actors think their high power exchange partners view them as either more or less fair than how they see themselves (reflected appraisals), inequality again changes in the direction that counteracts the nonverifying feedback. We discuss how considering both identity and exchange processes yields new insights into exploitative behavior in exchange.

The Road to the Top: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Mobility in the Elite Labor Market of College Basketball Coaching

We examine how career paths, job performance, affiliation ties, and race combine to affect who secures top jobs in an elite labor market. Using Qualitative Comparative Analysis, we show that examining these traits in conjunction, rather than in isolation, reveals novel insights into how one reaches the top of an occupation. Specifically, we document how factors coalesce in various ways to propel a coach to or from the top of NCAA Division I basketball. Results are particularly informative regarding race and social ties, as the importance of these conditions depend on signs of success. These findings illustrate the importance of context and perception in occupational advancement and suggest the analytic benefit of viewing job applicants as attribute clusters when examining advancement at the highest levels of an occupation.

Predicting social influence with faction sizes and relative status.

Building on a recent theoretical development in the field of sociological social psychology, we develop a formal mathematical model of social influence processes. The extant theoretical literature implies that factions and status should have non-linear effects on social influence, and yet these theories have been evaluated using standard linear statistical models. Our formal model of influence includes these non-linearities, as specified by the theories. We evaluate the fit of the formal model using experimental data. Our results indicate that a one-parameter mathematical model fits the experimental data. We conclude with the implications of our research and a discussion of how it may be used as an impetus for further work on social influence processes.

Race, Supervisorial Change, and Job Outcomes: Employability Resilience in NCAA Division I College Basketball Coaching

We examine how race affects the employment status of subordinates following a job change by their immediate supervisors. We test whether racial homophily between a subordinate and a supervisor affects the odds of being let go. We also consider whether a racial match between an incoming head coach and assistant affects whether assistants retain their assistant coaching position. Data for these analyses come from a unique data set that explores what happens to 704 NCAA Division I college basketball assistant coaches after the head coach leaves the school. Logistic regression analyses confirm the benefit of working for a white head coach as this decreases the likelihood of being let go, compared to more positive outcomes such as following the coach to a new school, being internally promoted or retained after the head coachs departure. Furthermore, racial homophily with incoming head coaches insulates subordinates from having to search for new employment by increasing the likelihood of assistants being retained.

The Role of Uncertainty in Social Influence ☆ ☆Portions of this paper were presented at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the Southern Sociological Society.

Abstract Purpose This study examines how the distribution of opinions and social status combine in a collectively oriented task group to affect perceptions about the correctness of a final decision. Design/methodology/approach We relied on data from a controlled laboratory experiment to test a series of theoretically derived hypotheses. Findings The study shows that both the distribution of opinions and status affect perceptions of correctness. It also establishes that the effects of status on uncertainty are strongest when the group is initially evenly split about the correctness of an opinion, and that like the distribution of opinions, the effects of status on uncertainty are curvilinear. Research limitations/implications Previous research shows that by integrating research on faction sizes with status characteristics theory (SCT), more accurate predictions of social influence are possible. Assumed therein is that people use information about the distribution of opinions and status to reduce uncertainty about correctness of a choice. The current study establishes this point empirically by examining the effects of the distribution of opinions and status in a four-person, collectively oriented task group. Future research should consider groups of different sizes and other moderating factors. Originality/value This study advances and elaborates upon previous research on social influence that integrates research on faction sizes with SCT.

Exchange, Identity Verification, and Social Bonds

Although evidence reveals that the social exchange process and identity verification process each can produce social bonds, researchers have yet to examine their conjoined effects. In this paper, we consider how exchange processes and identity processes separately and jointly shape the social bonds that emerge between actors. We do this with data from an experiment that introduces the fairness person identity (how people define themselves in terms of fairness) in a negotiated exchange context. The findings reveal how both exchange and identity processes operate in an independent as well as contingent manner to influence the development of social cohesion at the micro level. The contingent nature of the results suggests both exchange and identity theories need to be modified to account for these contingencies.