Abhandlungen
Showcasing the Variety of Biosocial and Evolutionary Approaches in Sociology: Introduction to the Special Issue
Sebastian Schnettler & Johannes Huinink
KZfSS 76, 2024: 237-289
This introduction to the special issue explores the increasing integration of biosocial and evolutionary approaches within sociology, highlighting the diverse ways in which these perspectives are incorporated into sociological research. In the past, sociology had reservations against or even rejected biological and evolutionary explanations of human behavior and often viewed them with skepticism. However, recent developments have seen a resurgence of interest in these approaches, leading to the emergence of interdisciplinary subfields such as biosociology, evolutionary sociology, neurosociology, and sociogenomics. This introduction provides a historical overview of biological and evolutionary thinking with regard to human behavior and sociality, tracing its roots from Darwinian theory to its contemporary applications within sociology. We discuss the conceptual and methodological differences between these approaches and offer an overview of key contributions that illustrate their relevance to core sociological topics. The articles in this special issue—which we summarize in this introduction—exemplify the variety of work being done at the intersection of sociology and the bio- and evolutionary sciences, from theoretical explorations to empirical studies. By presenting this range of interdisciplinary research, we aim to invite a broader sociological audience to engage with these perspectives, contributing to the development of a more comprehensive understanding of human behavior that sheds the dualism between nature and nurture—long overcome outside of sociology—for a consolidated effort to examine how nature and nurture are intertwined in multiple and complex ways.
Thoughts on Integrating Evolutionary Analysis into Sociological Action Theory
Andreas Tutic´
KZfSS 76, 2024: 291-316
It is explored if and to what extent two approaches in behavioral sciences, which are promising with respect to an evolutionary grounded, integrative action theory, are actually compatible. These two approaches are, on the one hand, evolutionary psychology, which conceptualizes human nature as a collection of evolved psychological mechanisms, each being functionally specialized with respect to a specific problem of adaptation. And on the other hand, the dual-process perspective, which holds that human behavior is driven by the interplay of two qualitatively distinct types of cognitive processes: Autonomous, fast, and associative Type 1 processes, which operate outside of the consciousness of the actor, on the one hand, and controlled, slow, and rule-based Type 2 processes of which the actor is aware. Notably, both of these approaches have descendants in modern sociological action theory, i.e., goal-framing theory (Lindenberg 2008, 2009) and the model of frame-selection (Esser 2001; Kroneberg 2011). It is argued that evolutionary psychology and the dual-process perspective are largely compatible, thereby giving rise to an evolutionary grounded, integrative action theory. Accordingly, Type 1 processes can be traced back to evolutionary old cognitive modules, which humans share with other species and which are highly efficient at solving specific problems of adaptation in a stable environment. In contrast, Type 2 processes of higher cognition are distinctly developed in humans and highly effective at dealing with a rapidly changing life space.
Active Inference and Social Actors: Towards a Neuro-Bio-Social Theory of Brains and Bodies in Their Worlds
Jacob E. Cheadle, K.J. Davidson-Turner & Bridget J. Goosby
KZfSS 76, 2024: 317-350
Although research including biological concepts and variables has gained more prominence in sociology, progress assimilating the organ of experience, the brain, has been theoretically and technically challenging. Formal uptake and assimilation have thus been slow. Within psychology and neuroscience, the traditional brain, which has made brief appearances in sociological research, is a “bottom–up” processor in which sensory signals are passed up the neural hierarchy where they are eventually cognitively and emotionally processed, after which actions and responses are generated. In this paper, we introduce the Active Inference Framework (AIF), which casts the brain as a Bayesian “inference engine” that tests its “top–down” predictive models against “bottom–up” sensory error streams in its attempts to resolve uncertainty and make the world more predictable. After assembling and presenting key concepts in the AIF, we describe an integrated neuro-bio-social model that prioritizes the microsociological assertion that the scene of action is the situation, wherein brains enculturate. Through such social dynamics, enculturated brains share models of the world with one another, enabling collective realities that disclose the actions afforded in those times and places. We conclude by discussing this neuro-bio-social model within the context of exemplar sociological research areas, including the sociology of stress and health, the sociology of emotions, and cognitive cultural sociology, all areas where the brain has received some degree of recognition and incorporation. In each case, sociological insights that do not fit naturally with the traditional brain model emerge intuitively from the predictive AIF model, further underscoring the interconnections and interdependencies between these areas, while also providing a foundation for a probabilistic sociology.
An Approach to Evolutionary Sociology and its Implications for Theorizing on Socio-Cultural Evolution
Alexandra Maryanski & Jonathan H. Turner
KZfSS 76, 2024: 351-389
A theoretical research program is outlined that seeks to use the Modern Synthesis in explaining human evolution, but also recognizes its limitations in explaining the evolution of socio-cultural systems. The universe, from a human perspective, is composed of physical, biological, and socio-cultural dimensions, each revealing unique properties and dynamics. In the case of the socio-cultural universe, modern evolutionary theory is relevant for some explanations, but not to the degree assumed by socio-biology, evolutionary psychology, and even co-evolutionary models. The program proposed is built around social network theory, cladistic analysis, and comparative neuro-anatomy, and outlines where biological analysis is appropriate and useful. An understanding of the biological basis of human behavior will allow sociologists to develop theoretical approaches to explaining the emergent properties of the socio-cultural universe. The strategy outlined will allow us to see what a mature evolutionary sociology can do: develop abstract theoretical laws about the dynamics of selection on socio-cultural formations in human societies.
What is it Like to Evolve? Cultural Evolution as a Lived Experience
Bernd Baldus
KZfSS 76, 2024: 391-413
The evolution of human culture continues to divide social and biological science. Key issues for both sides are the complexity and variability of culture, the frequency of cultural traits that have no adaptive or functional value, and the apparent exceptionality of human creativity and rationality. This article argues that an examination of how evolution affects the lifetime experience of evolution can reconcile these features of human culture with Darwin’s contention that natural and cultural selection follow the same process of evolution. The article offers a new paradigm that focuses on the relationship between uncertainty and choice in human cultural evolution.
The Evolution of Human Sociality. Categorizations, Emotions and Friendship
Michael Windzio
KZfSS 76, 2024: 415-441
This overview describes the ambivalent result of humans’ evolution towards a social and cooperative species. The evolution of friendship, based on commitment rituals and norms, solved the problem of defection in reciprocal altruism. The social brain implies the cognitive capacity of “mentalizing” and of keeping track of the reputation of group members, but, equally as importantly, generates strong emotions depending on the degree of social integration or social exclusion. Strong emotions linked to categories of social relationships, in particular to friends who we regard as almost irreplaceable, generate commitment and reduce social transactions costs and thereby facilitate cooperation. A multilevel perspective on social categorizations reveals, however, that a similar mechanism applies between cultural groups, owing to cultural group-level selection. Humans apply categorical distinctions within and between groups. They distinguish in-group and out-group members by cultural markers, and, in addition, between friends and others. In this perspective, cultural markers generate categorizations and emotions that facilitate unconditional support if required, but can also result in out-group rejection, and, in combination with neurochemicals, in dehumanization as well.
Partnership Histories Shape the Grandparenting Happiness Bonus
Anna Rotkirch, Anna Hägglund, Antti O. Tanskanen & Mirkka Danielsbacka
KZfSS 76, 2024: 443-466
Evolutionary theory predicts that returns on investments in family relations will vary by sex and life stage and that there can be a trade-off between mating and (grand)parenting. Family sociology has shown that whereas couple relations are central to happiness in older age, the effects of grandparenting are more mixed and context dependent. Here, we merge these two perspectives and study how partnership histories over the life course relate to happiness among Europeans aged 50+ and whether grandparental investment moderates these associations. Of particular interest is whether there are signs of trade-offs, cumulative benefits, or compensatory benefits between the type of couple relations and grandparenting in postreproductive age. We employed the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe with data from 26 European countries and Israel for the years 2004–2020. The analyses distinguish between respondents who are in their first, second, or third union through marriage or cohabitation; are divorced; are widowed; are living apart from a partner; or are single. We investigated how quality of life and life satisfaction are associated with these seven types of partnership histories and whether the associations are moderated by grandparental status and provision of grandchild care. Europeans with a partner, and especially those in their first union, were happier than those in other partnership groups, and grandparents were happier than individuals without grandchildren. Grandparental investment was associated with being happier in most partnership groups. The “grandparenting bonus” was greatest among unpartnered respondents, suggesting a compensatory effect. We found no signs of a cumulative effect, nor of costs to happiness from grandchild care.Our results illustrate how reproductive strategies over the life course shape happiness returns to grandparenting. Being a grandparent and, especially, providing care for grandchildren may compensate for the lower happiness associated with the loss or lack of a partner.
Parental Investment, Status, and Child Gender: Some Evidence for the Trivers- Willard Hypothesis from a Survey Experiment
Sebastian Schnettler
KZfSS 76, 2024: 467-489
This study critically evaluates and empirically tests the Trivers–Willard (TW) hypothesis, which proposes a relationship between parental socioeconomic status and sex: Parents with higher status are expected to be more likely to have male offspring and to preferentially invest in male offspring, whereas parents with lower status are expected to be more likely to have female offspring and to preferentially invest in daughters. Although the TW hypothesis has been explored in terms of offspring sex ratio and parental investment, findings in modern developed societies generally show null results, with notable exceptions in the domain of parental investment in their children’s education. Previous studies have often not explicitly addressed the potential underlying mechanisms of the TW effect. This includes the authors of the original hypothesis (Trivers and Willard 1973), who discussed some potential mechanisms but ultimately left the question of mechanisms unanswered. Building on Matthews’s (2011) proposition to explore psychological underpinnings, this paper posits that the TW effect, if present, may be rooted in general parental preferences. To investigate this, a factorial survey experiment was designed to measure respondents’ preferences in parental investment while minimizing social desirability bias. The study specifically examines the extent to which respondents’ assessments of favorability and fairness in various parental investment scenarios depend on child characteristics believed to influence differential parental behavior. The findings reveal patterns that are somewhat in line with the TW hypothesis but are minor and lack statistical significance. The article concludes by proposing three future research directions aimed at further unraveling the intricacies of the TW effect.
How Can Genetically Informative Research Contribute to Life Course Research
Martin Diewald
KZfSS 76, 2024: 491-524
Genetically informative studies have established a new research field that crosscuts disciplinary boundaries within the social sciences, as well as between social science and biology, with proprietary aims and research questions. This happens, however, at the cost of appropriate integration into the current theoretical and conceptual streams in the social sciences, e.g., sociology. That such a fruitful integration is possible is demonstrated for the case of life course research. The focus in dominantly, though not exclusively, on sociological concepts of the life course. This article first introduces central concepts of genetically informative research and life course research and then discusses possible ways to integrate genetic information into the life course research agenda, giving a brief overview of the main methodological tools available.
Social Background Effects on Educational Outcomes- New Insights from Modern Genetic Science
Tina Baier & Torkild Hovde Lyngstad
KZfSS 76, 2024: 525-545
Sociological theory and empirical research have found that parents’ socioeconomic status and related resources affect their children’s educational outcomes. Findings from behavior genetics reveal genetic underpinnings of the intergenerational transmission of education, thus altering previous conclusions about purely environmental transmission mechanisms. In recent years, studies in molecular genetics have led to new insights. Genomic data, polygenic scores, and other facets of sociogenomics are increasingly used to advance research in social stratification. Notably, the 2018 discovery of “genetic nurture” suggested that parents’ genes influence children above and beyond the genes they directly transmitted to their children. Such indirect genetic effects can be interpreted as consequences of parental behavior, which is itself influenced by the parents’ genetics and is essential for their children’s environment. Indirect genetic effects fit hand in glove with the sociological literature because they represent environmental transmission mechanisms. For instance, parenting behaviors, which are partly influenced by parents’ genes, shape children’s home environments and possibly their later educational outcomes. However, current findings based on more sophisticated research designs demonstrate that “genetic nurture” effects are actually much smaller than initially assumed and hence call for a reevaluation of common narratives found in the social stratification literature. In this paper, we review recent developments and ongoing research integrating molecular genetics to study educational outcomes, and we discuss their implications for sociological stratification research.
Does the Quality of Early Childhood Education and Care Centers Mitigate the Risk of Externalizing Problems? A Genetic- Sensitive Study of Preschoolers in Germany
Bastian Mönkediek, Pia Schober, Martin Diewald, Harald Eichhorn & C. Katharina Spiess
KZfSS 76, 2024: 547-572
This paper examines the extent to which quality characteristics of early childhood education and care (ECEC) experienced at ages 4–6 influence externalizing problems at ages 6–8. Based on a random sample of 713 same-sex twins (55% female, 41% with a migration background) in 364 ECEC centers in Germany, the paper not only distinguishes between detailed ECEC quality characteristics but additionally investigates whether these characteristics affect the relevance of genetic and environmental influences on externalizing problem behavior. Results demonstrate that with educators’ further training and the child–staff ratio only a few specific ECEC quality indicators moderate the relevance of genetic and environmental influences. In particular, further training of educators reduces genetic contributions to externalizing problems in children. Although there was also evidence for gene–environment correlation owing to selection into ECEC centers with an unfavorable child–staff ratio, the findings suggest that improving educators’ training is the most promising way of counteracting externalizing problems.
Beyond a Shared History: A Biosocial Perspective on Sociogenomics and Racism in Germany
Muna AnNisa Aikins, Yayouk Eva Willems, Deniz Fraemke & Laurel Raffington
KZfSS 76, 2024: 573-602
Recent advances in sociogenomics offer new opportunities to integrate genetic and epigenetic measures into social science research on human lifespan development. Now, German social science cohorts have followed suit with this global trend. We anticipate that the integration of genetic measures into German social science cohorts is likely to be met with hesitation and dismay. Historically, racialized pseudo-science disguised as genetic research was used to justify the political exploitation, oppression, and genocide conducted by colonial and Nazi Germany regimes. In response, German institutions and social sciences actively avoided race-related research. However, avoiding the intersection of socially constructed race and genetics may stall the deconstruction of enduring racial discrimination and the identification of racialized social inequalities. Recent survey studies show that half of the German population still believe in the existence of biologically distinct human “races” and that racism is rampant. This article is aimed at providing a biosocial perspective on sociogenomics and racism in Germany. First, we discuss the biologistic construction of race that became prevalent in colonial and Nazi Germany. We argue that racist legacies are sources of social inequality in contemporary German society. We further review recent human genomic science that clearly demonstrates that there is no biological basis to socially constructed race. Second, we propose a biosocial perspective that integrates how genes “get out of the skin” and racism “gets under the skin”. Transactional genetic effects, which involve human behavior and interactions between people in society, are expected to depend on environmental inequalities tied to systemic racism. We summarize recent sociogenomics studies using polygenic indices and epigenetic profile scores showing that a) genes contribute to complex human traits and b) the expression of genetic variation is affected by socioeconomic and racialized inequality. Finally, we offer a roadmap toward race-critical biosocial research that breaks with the historically informed avoidance of race to reconstruct race-critical concepts, datasets, and scientific systems.
Conflict Detection in Language Processing: Using Affect Control Theory to Predict Neural Correlates of Affective Incongruency in Social Interactions
Gesche Schauenburg, Arash Aryani, Chun-Ting Hsu, Tobias Schröder, Markus Conrad, Christian von Scheve & Arthur M. Jacobs
KZfSS 76, 2024: 603-625
Affect control theory (ACT) is a sociological theory of meaning processing in social interactions. Meaning, according to ACT, derives from cultural institutions and situational affordances, having denotative (declarative) as well as connotative (affective) properties. Mathematical formalizations of ACT allow predictions of affective incongruency (in the terminology of ACT, deflection), which arises from conflicting institutional and situational meanings in a given interaction context. Although ACT is theoretically consistent, its propositions regarding cognitive and affective processing have rarely been tested. The present study fills this gap by investigating the neural processing of affective incongruency in linguistic descriptions of social interactions. Following a neurosociological paradigm, the study draws on neurocognitive evidence on the effects of words’ affective content on word processing as well as on a previous electroencephalography study that investigated processing of affective incongruency using event-related brain potentials. We hypothesized that affective incongruency is associated with activation in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a brain area known for conflict processing. To test this hypothesis, we replicated the electroencephalography study using functional magnetic resonance imaging: We visually presented sentences describing social interactions to 23 participants in a silent reading task while measuring differences in the hemodynamic response in two conditions of affective congruency. Results show expected increases in neural activity for affectively incongruent sentences in the left ACC, supporting the assumption that affective language content influences meaning-making at very early semantic processing stages. The results also add to the emerging neuroscientific evidence for ACT’s mathematical model of impression formation.
Behavioural Endocrinology in the Social Sciences
Laura Josephine Botzet, Tobias L. Kordsmeyer, Sabine Ostermann, Johannes Ruß & Lars Penke
KZfSS 76, 2024: 649-680
Hormones are the endocrine system’s messengers and an important coordinating mechanism of the body’s growth, development, and functioning, with often simultaneous effects throughout the body and brain. Echoing calls for more interdisciplinary research bridging the gap between endocrinology and social sciences, we review evidence for hormones influencing human psychology (behaviour, cognition, and sociality), with a focus on health, sexuality, and further outcomes. We focus on four steroid hormones: testosterone (T), cortisol (C), estrogen (E), and progesterone (P). Embedded into life history theory as a prominent evolutionary framework, effects of T are conceptualised as modulating trade-offs between mating and parenting effort, especially when exposed to potential mates, interacting with offspring, and during competition. The challenge hypothesis suggests acute increases in T when facing challenges, with high T being linked to more competitive behaviour. The dual-hormone hypothesis postulates that C, as a measure of stress, inhibits the effects of T on status-seeking behaviour. The allostatic load framework suggests that chronic stress as indicated by high C levels could have detrimental health consequences. Various measurements of C are negatively related to socioeconomic status. The female steroid hormones E and P coordinate female reproduction by regulating the development and function of the uterus. They affect women’s sexual desire as well as self-perceived attractiveness and are influenced by endogenous (e.g. pregnancy) as well as exogenous (e.g. hormonal contraceptives) factors. We address misinterpretations of biological determinism, highlight potential challenges in measuring hormones, and discuss ways in which social scientists can continue to incorporate hormones into their research.
Prenatal Exposure to Androgens and Gender Socialisation Effects on Children´s Academic Interests
Laia Sanchez Guerrero, Pia S. Schober & Birgit Derntl
KZfSS 76, 2024: 681-712
Previous studies have documented gender differences in fields of study as well as interest in school subjects. Boys are on average more interested in mathematics, and girls show greater interest in languages. The extent to which these disparities are the result of biological or environment influences is still an open debate. On the one hand, brain organisation theory suggests that physiological and behavioural differences may be linked to prenatal hormone levels. On the other hand, sociological and psychological perspectives highlight the importance of gender socialisation. This paper combines biological, psychological, and sociological perspectives to examine the emergence of gendered academic interests in children.The study draws on data from 9‑year-old children from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). Our results suggest that for both boys and girls, medium to high compared with low prenatal exposure to circulating maternal testosterone might increase children’s interests in mathematics relative to English, although results vary depending on how prenatal testosterone exposure is measured. As the distributions of prenatal androgen exposure and the relationships with maths versus English interests are very similar for boys and girls, prenatal androgen exposure does not contribute to explaining gender differences in academic interests. However, we find some evidence that the relationship with parental gender socialisation varies by prenatal androgen exposure. A more gender-equal parental division of domestic work is more strongly associated with less gendered academic interests for girls with low prenatal androgen exposure and for boys with medium to high androgen exposure.
The Immune System Is a Complex System: Inflammatory Morbidity and Systemic Racism
Bridget J. Goosby & Jacob E. Cheadle
KZfSS 76, 2024: 713-744
This article examines the relationship between social inequity and the immune system, emphasizing some of the many ways that systemic racism and other forms of marginalization can undermine health. Of much sociological concern, chronic stressors increase inflammation and consequent susceptibility to health morbidities and, ultimately, mortality by burdening marginalized group members in ways that adversely affect immune regulation and functioning. As with social systems more generally, the immune system is a cross-scale complex system of many regulating, coordinating, and interacting parts, within both itself and the other bodily systems it protects. Along these lines, we thus propose that to properly conceptualize how social conditions undermine immune functioning and health, it is important to consider the immune system beyond its component mechanisms and parts. This view is akin to the way critical race theory proposes that “systemic racism” in the United States is a collaborative arrangement of social structures whose explanatory richness and historical durability can only be fully understood as a gestalt. We therefore seek, where possible, to emphasize the systems nature of the immune system similarly to the sociological insight that society comprises complex systems whose interrelated structures interact in dynamic and sometimes unpredictable ways. We scaffold this discussion within the literature on systemic racism in the United States, emphasizing inflammation as a key marker of immune demand and dysregulation and highlighting some implications for health inequities among marginalized populations more generally.
How the Social Gets Under the Skin: From the Social as Signal to Society as a Metabolic Milieu
Hannah Landecker
KZfSS 76, 2024: 745-767
Inflammation has risen to the forefront of biomedical research into many chronic diseases prevalent in industrialized countries, including mental, metabolic, and postviral conditions. For sociologists, the rise of inflammation in explanatory models of chronic disease is an opportunity to grasp a historical shift in thinking about how society gets under the skin as new modes of conceptualization of the relationship between societies and bodies emerge in this domain. Highlighting two historical conjunctures between epidemiology and molecular biology concerning hormones and fat, this paper thereby contrasts an older cybernetic model of the social as a signal transduced via the brain and hormonal signaling system to become a biological accretion of stress or adversity with an explanatory trajectory centered on chronic inflammation. Rather than transducing the social environment, the inflammatory body emerging from the studies of adiposity and diabetes is produced by metabolizing material and psychosocial conditions. Inequalities in the social world are thereby reflected as inflammatory states that exist upstream of, not downstream to, the kinds of social signals previously deemed important to health and health disparities. Signals still matter, but they are not their own key determinant in terms of action or impact—that is a contextual matter within the chronicity of the processual metabolic life of a cellular and bodily milieu.
Culture, Social Class and The Dynamics of the Self
Ulrich Kühnen & Shinobu Kitayama
KZfSS 76, 2024: 789-806
In an ongoing cycle of mutual constitution, culture, the self, and associated psychological tendencies dynamically interact. Prior studies show that people from Western individualist cultures construe the self in independent terms (stressing their uniqueness and separation from others), promoting analytic, context-independent ways of thinking. In contrast, people from Eastern collectivist cultures emphasize their interdependence and connectedness with others, promoting more holistic, context-sensitive ways of thinking. Recently, this literature has been extended to study within-culture variations by socio-economic status (SES). This work has suggested that higher SES contexts foster the view of the self as an independent agent and analytic cognitive tendencies. By contrast, individuals from lower SES tend to emphasize interdependence with others while displaying more holistic cognitive tendencies. Of importance, these SES differences are embedded in larger socio-cultural contexts differing in individualism and collectivism. Hence, the relationship among SES, self-construal, and cognitive tendencies can sometimes vary dramatically between cultures.
The Development of Sharing Experiences: From Dyadic Engagement to Taking Other´s Perspectives
Henrike Moll & Quianhui Ni
KZfSS 76, 2024: 807-827
We argue that the main difference between humans and other animals lies in humans’ unique form of sociality: their shared intentionality. Instead of conceiving of shared intentionality as a special skill humans have in addition to the skills they share with nonhuman animals (the additive account), we propose to think of shared intentionality as transforming human cognition in its entirety (the transformative account, as in the thesis of Kern and Moll). We discuss the relevance of the evolution of the human face for shared intentionality, and we argue that the development of shared intentionality proceeds in the following three steps: 1) newborns’ tendency to engage in preverbal, face-to-face dialogue, 2) 1-year-olds’ drive to jointly attend to the world with others as plural subjects, and 3) preschoolers’ appreciation of individuals’ different perspectives. The shared intentionality thesis defended here can be viewed as an extension of Lev Vygotsky’s sociocultural account of human development.