Social Currents

Research on Americans’ self-reported experiences of discrimination or unfair treatment (hereafter collectively referred to as differential treatment) has proliferated since the 1960s. Despite the growth of this research, some health scholars express concern about how to effectively measure self-reported experiences of differential treatment. Specifically, it has been suggested that the term discrimination is emotionally charged and that more neutral terms, such as unfair treatment, should be used instead. This study documents trends in question wording used to capture self-reported differential treatment in publicly accessible U.S. health and social science surveys. Our systematic review of 221 publicly available surveys reveals that there was a slight decline in social scientists’ use of the once dominant term discrimination. Yet, there has been no consensus in question wording in health surveys, as health scholars increasingly use discrimination, unfair treatment, or other (e.g., because you are) or multiple terms (discrimination or unfair treatment) at nearly equal frequencies. We conclude by discussing the potential implications of these shifts and disciplinary variations in question wording on discrimination research and highlighting several important directions for future research.

This study considers how online dating preferences reflect gendered racial inequality among same-sex daters. Research shows that heterosexuals reproduce gendered racial hierarchies through partner preferences, yet little work examines the preferences of sexual minorities, especially lesbians. Moreover, few studies examine racial heterophily (a preference for racial groups other than one’s own), which may influence interracial pairings. Using data from 4,266 Match.com dating profiles, we find that Asian, Latino, and Black lesbians and gays exhibit higher rates of racial heterophily than do Whites. Lesbians of color are less likely to self-exclude or to prefer Whites, and are more likely to not state a race preference than are minority gays. Self-exclusionary minority daters often discuss ideal masculinities and femininities in their profiles, suggesting that such exclusions are motivated by both racialized and gendered ideals for partners. Drawing on theories of homonormativity, we conclude that gays conform more to racialized, gendered ideals than do lesbians.

Scholars have long recognized how coalitions are critical for many social movements. This is especially evident in the labor movement, which has begun to seek external allies in the face of corporate attacks. Building on qualitative work linking coalition building to success, we seek to identify the mechanisms by which coalitions are able to exert leverage on targets. Specifically, we consider how coalitions allow unions to exert greater financial pressure by reducing the targeted company’s stock price. Our analysis of labor strikes suggests that intramovement partnerships, rather than those that go beyond the boundaries of the labor movement, are the most effective. Moreover, characteristics of the targeted firm, specifically its reputation and (in) ability to relocate, allow coalitions to exert greater pressure.

The global environmental concern literature has focused on economic development as a contextual predictor of environmental attitudes with conflicting empirical results. Some studies, informed by postmaterialist theory or the affluence hypothesis, find that national affluence increases environmental concern, whereas others find the opposite. In this article, we qualify the economy and environmental attitude relationship by arguing that it has several dimensions: long-term macroeconomic history, short-term economic growth, individuals’ recent economic experiences, individuals’ subjective understandings of the national economy, and their personal economic circumstances. This holistic framework is operationalized with multilevel models and data from the Life in Transition II project, using outcomes for climate change attitudes. We find that recent economic hardships at the individual level (e.g., a job loss) have a positive to null effect. More subjectively, respondents who believe that the recent global recession had a negative effect on their household are more concerned with climate change. At the country level, long-run economic development does little to explain cross-national differences in climate change attitudes whereas short-run, relative economic growth increases both climate change concern and willingness to pay for climate policy. More broadly, future research should de-emphasize long-run, macroeconomic conditions as determinants of environmental attitudes.

This article introduces the concepts of contested knowledge and spillover to aid in understanding the relation between the controversy over evolution and related ideas and uncontested science knowledge. Contested knowledge exists wherever truth claims from multiple spheres of knowledge authority overlap, large or small. Spillover is a process of (1) a rejection of the authority of knowledge elites from an opposed knowledge sphere, and (2) devaluation of the set of heuristics for evidence tied to specific knowledges (contested and uncontested), a process that has wide-reaching implications. Using four waves of data from the General Social Survey (GSS; 2006–2012), I find evidence that conservative Protestant affiliation is associated with reduced knowledge of the physical and life sciences. This bivariate association is fully mediated, primarily through the rejection of mainstream scientific accounts of evolution. Findings also suggest that conservative Protestant affiliation increases the likelihood of that rejection. I argue that positions within this contested knowledge area spill over to other, uncontested forms of scientific knowledge. Results are validated using the 2014 wave of the GSS.

This article examines how intersecting identities influence beliefs about the legality of same-sex marriage focusing on how religious, political, and sexual identities intersect with ethnicity and gender. Support for same-sex marriage has shifted considerably in the last decade. However, changes in attitudes toward same-sex marriage have not been uniform. Religious and political identities have provided a foundation for support or opposition to marriage rights, and sectarian Protestants and fundamentalist Christians and people who identify as political conservatives or with the Republican Party have opposed marriage equality. Ethnic identities intersect with religious and political identities as well as with sexual and gender identities and family factors to structure support for marriage. Using data from the 2006–2014 General Social Surveys, I examine how commitments to conservative Christianity and the Republican Party have influenced attitudes toward same-sex marriage, and how ethnicity intersects with religious, political, and other identifications to structure support for same-sex marriage.