Status Characteristics and Opinion Formation: A Theoretical Integration

主要研究人员：William Kalkoff标题：地位特征和意见形成：理论整合社会、政治和经济决策越来越多地由个人在不同规模的通信网络中以群体互动的方式做出。在这类网络中，参与者之间最明显和最重要的差异之一是他们在群体中的地位、级别或相对声望。本研究项目的目的是了解群体决策是如何在这类环境中做出的。研究人员建议通过整合社会学中关于社会影响的两个非常成功的形式数学理论来做到这一点：地位特征理论(SCT)和社会影响网络理论(SINT)。每一种理论本身都不能解决我们的研究问题。一方面，SCT提供了一种精确的方法来量化任务组成员的地位排名，但它缺乏一个社会过程的模型，通过这个过程来展开(解除)协议和形成意见。另一方面，虽然SINT确实提供了群体意见形成过程的数学模型，但它目前的形式并没有考虑到任务组成员的地位排名。然而，每个理论的形式-数学结构促进了它们的整合，为我们提出的研究问题提供了解决方案。研究人员计划在30个二人组、30个三人组和30个四人组中进行一项实验室实验，考察身份差异对意见形成的影响。目标是从两个“已知”开始对群体成员的最终意见做出精确的点预测：群体成员的初始意见和群体中地位的分布。就我们工作的更广泛影响而言，调查人员专注于一个长期存在的普遍问题，即如何在复杂分化的群体和社会制度中实现“社会秩序”。在现代世界，涉及日常生活各个方面的有序维护的决定主要是通过涉及社会影响的非强制性机制实现的。例如，学校董事会成员必须决定如何分配有限的税款。组织必须决定如何将立法的要求转化为他们的日常运作。医院管理团队必须制定并实施质量标准和“最佳实践”，以提高患者的安全。这项工作将揭示做出这些重要决定的社会过程。

Primary Investigators: William KalkoffTitle: Status Characteristics and Opinion Formation: A Theoretical Integration0719310AbstractSocial, political, and economic decisions are increasingly being made by individuals interacting in groups within communication networks of varying size. One of the most noticeable and important differences among participants in such networks is their status rank or relative prestige within the group. The goal of this research project is to understand how group decisions are made in these kinds of settings. The investigators propose to do so by integrating two highly successful, formal-mathematical theories of social influence in sociology: status characteristics theory (SCT) and social influence network theory (SINT). Each theory alone does not address our research question. One the one hand, SCT provides a precise way of quantifying the status rankings of task group members, but it lacks a model of the social process by which (dis)agreements unfold and opinions form. On the other hand, while SINT does offer a mathematical model of the process by which opinions form in groups, it does not in its current form account for the status rankings of task group members. However, the formal-mathematical structure of each theory facilitates their integration in a way that provides a solution to the research problem we raise. The researchers plan to conduct a laboratory experiment examining the impact of status differentiation on opinion formation in 30 two-person groups, 30 three-person groups, and 30 four-person groups. The goal is to make precise point predictions about group members' final opinions starting with only two "knowns": group members' initial opinions and the distribution of status within the group. In terms of the broader impacts of our work, the investigators concentrate on the longstanding general question of how "social order" is achieved in complexly differentiated groups and social systems. In the modern world, decisions bearing on the orderly maintenance of various aspects of daily life are predominantly achieved through non-coercive mechanisms involving social influence. School board members, for example, must decide how to ration limited tax dollars. Organizations must decide how to translate the requirements of legislation into their daily operations. And teams of hospital administrators must come up with and implement quality standards and "best practices" to improve patient safety. This work will shed light on the social process by which such important decisions are made.