Elections Are (Not) Exciting: Need for Cognition and Electoral Behaviour

Need for cognition (NFC) is the personality trait that describes differences in the enjoyment of cognitive efforts. By relying on data collected over two elections in Sweden in 2014, I show the trait's multifaceted political relevance. Individuals who enjoy cognitive challenges are more likely to think that it matters what government that is formed after the election, engage with campaign information, favor complex news over simple news and select stronger reasons for vote choice over weaker, e.g., ideology over habit. Overall, the results suggest that election studies would benefit from measuring need for cognition.     

How Do They ‘End Up Together’? A Social Network Analysis of Self-Control,Homophily, and Adolescent Relationships

Self-control theory (Gottfredson and Hirschi 1990) argues that individuals with similar attributes tend to ‘end up together’ (i.e., homophily) because of the tendency to select friends based on self-control. Studies documenting homophily in peer groups interpret the correlation between self-control, peer delinquency, and self-reported delinquency as evidence that self-control is an influential factor in friendship formation. However, past studies are limited because they do not directly test the hypothesis that self-control influences friendship selection, nor do they account for other mechanisms that may influence decisions. As a result, it is unclear whether the correlation between individual and peer behavior is the result of selection based on self-control or alternative mechanisms. To address this gap in the literature this study employs exponential random graph modeling to test hypotheses derived from self-control theory using approximately 63,000 respondents from 59 schools from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health (Add Health). In contrast to the predictions made by Gottfredson and Hirschi (1990), and the conclusions drawn from prior research, there is little evidence that self-control influences friendship selection. The findings are embedded in past work on the relationship between self-control and peer relationships, and implications for future research are discussed.     

Networked Coproduction of Public Services in Virtual Communities: From a Government‐Centric to a Community Approach to Public Service Support

Research on and practical attention for the coproduction of public services is increasing. Coproduction is seen as a way to strengthen the quality and legitimacy of public service and reduce costs. Scholarship on coproduction of public services repeatedly ignores the role of the new media. This is surprising since many proponents highlight its potential for changing traditional, government‐centric approaches to delivering public services. This article shows that digital communities form an important addition to the government‐centric form of public service provision since they foster both an exchange of experiential information and social‐emotional support.     

Fighting Discrimination with Discrimination: Public Universities and the Rights of Dissenting Students

This article discusses recent legal conflicts between state universities and conservative religious students in the United States, focusing on Christian Legal Society v. Martinez. In recent years, several universities have denied recognition to religious student organizations that discriminate on the basis of religion or sexual orientation. I argue that scholars on both sides of the issue have failed to recognize the full scope of the privilege that the universities demand. If the courts accept the universities' demands, then the courts dangerously expand the government's authority to suppress dissenters. No proponent of civil liberties should welcome this change.     

Brain amino acid abnormalities in kidney disease and diabetes mellitus

The present postmortem study examines whether specific amino acid abnormalities associated with renal diseases or diabetes mellitus in animal experiments and on clinical examination may also be found in human brain samples obtained at clinical autopsies. The material includes 12 deceased with renal insufficiency, 23 deceased with diabetes mellitus and 26 control cases with lethal cardiovascular diseases (without a history of hepatic, renal or metabolic disturbances). The autopsy and clinical records were retrospectively analyzed for age, sex, postmortem delay, cause of death, substantial preexisting diseases and histological findings. The analysis of free amino acid concentrations in human brain specimens was performed applying a Beckman amino acid analyzer. The results were evaluated using the U-test according to Mann, Willcox and Whitney. A P-value less than 0.05 was considered to be significantly different. Differences of amino acid concentrations attributable to sex, age and postmortem delay were not significant. The comparison of postmortem amino acid concentrations in the brains of patients with diabetes mellitus and controls did not reveal relevant changes. However, the patients with renal diseases, as compared to controls, showed a significant cerebral increase of urea, phenylethanolamine and gamma-aminobutyric acid. Thus, the postmortem amino acid analysis may contribute to the understanding of pathophysiological mechanisms of uremic encephalopathy and may supplement the conventional postmortem morphological diagnosis in kidney diseases by indication of functional impairment.     

The economic model of voter participation: A further test

The central hypothesis of the economic model of voter participation was put to an empirical test. It was found that the coefficient of population size, which represents the subjective probability of affecting election results, is negative and significant in municipal local elections, but insignificant in national Knesset elections. Therefore, this variable is unable to represent subjective probability in the latter case.It was suggested that the economic model is more relevant to local elections than to Knesset elections. The empirical results revealed that the regression coefficients of municipal elections that took place separately from Knesset elections fit the expected outcome of the economic model whereas when municipal elections were held simultaneously with the Knesset election this did not hold true.