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+---
+title: "Matthew effect"
+chunk: 1/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_effect"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:17.863984+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The Matthew effect, sometimes called the Matthew principle or cumulative advantage, is the tendency of individuals to accrue social or economic success in proportion to their initial level of popularity, friends, and wealth. It is sometimes summarized by the adage or platitude "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer". Also termed the "Matthew effect of accumulated advantage", taking its name from the Parable of the Talents in the biblical Gospel of Matthew, it was coined by sociologists Robert K. Merton and Harriet Zuckerman in 1968.
+Early studies of Matthew effects were primarily concerned with the inequality in the way scientists were recognized for their work. However, Norman W. Storer, of Columbia University, led a new wave of research. He believed he discovered that the inequality that existed in the social sciences also existed in other institutions.
+Later, in network science, a form of the Matthew effect was discovered in internet networks and called preferential attachment. The mathematics used for this network analysis of the internet was later reapplied to the Matthew effect in general, whereby wealth or credit is distributed among individuals according to how much they already have. This has the net effect of making it increasingly difficult for low ranked individuals to increase their totals because they have fewer resources to risk over time, and increasingly easy for high rank individuals to preserve a large total because they have a large amount to risk.
+
+== Etymology ==
+The concept is named according to two of the parables of Jesus in the synoptic Gospels (Table 2, of the Eusebian Canons). The concept concludes both synoptic versions of the parable of the talents:
+
+For to every one who has will more be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
+I tell you, that to every one who has will more be given; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
+The concept concludes two of the three synoptic versions of the parable of the lamp under a bushel (absent in the version of Matthew):
+
+For to him who has will more be given; and from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
+Take heed then how you hear; for to him who has will more be given, and from him who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away.
+The concept is presented again in Matthew outside of a parable during Christ's explanation to his disciples of the purpose of parables:
+
+And he answered them, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to him who has will more be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away."
+
+== Sociology of science ==
+
+=== Cumulative advantage ===
+In the sociology of science, the first description of the Matthew effect was given by Price in 1976.  (He referred to the process as a "cumulative advantage" process.)  His was also the first application of the process to the growth of a network, producing what would now be called a scale-free network.  It is in the context of network growth that the process is most frequently studied today.  Price also promoted preferential attachment as a possible explanation for power laws in many other phenomena, including Lotka's law of scientific productivity and Bradford's law of journal use.

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+title: "Matthew effect"
+chunk: 2/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_effect"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:17.863984+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Coining the "Matthew effect" ===
+"Matthew effect" was a term coined by Robert K. Merton and Harriet Anne Zuckerman to describe how, among other things, eminent scientists will often get more credit than a comparatively unknown researcher, even if their work is similar; it also means that credit will usually be given to researchers who are already famous.  For example, a prize will almost always be awarded to the most senior researcher involved in a project, even if all the work was done by a graduate student. This was later formulated by Stephen Stigler as Stigler's law of eponymy – "No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer" – with Stigler explicitly naming Merton as the true discoverer, making his "law" an example of itself. Merton and Zuckerman further argued that in the scientific community the Matthew effect reaches beyond simple reputation to influence the wider communication system, playing a part in social selection processes and resulting in a concentration of resources and talent.  They gave as an example the disproportionate visibility given to articles from acknowledged authors, at the expense of equally valid or superior articles written by unknown authors.  They also noted that the concentration of attention on eminent individuals can lead to an increase in their self-assurance, pushing them to perform research in important but risky problem areas.
+The Matthew Effect also relates to broader patterns of scientific productivity, which can be explained by additional sociological concepts in science, such as the sacred spark, cumulative advantage, and search costs minimization by journal editors. The sacred spark paradigm suggests that scientists differ in their initial abilities, talent, skills, persistence, work habits, etc. that provide particular individuals with an early advantage. These factors have a multiplicative effect which helps these scholars succeed later. The cumulative advantage model argues that an initial success helps a researcher gain access to resources (e.g., teaching release, best graduate students, funding, facilities, etc.), which in turn results in further success. Search costs minimization by journal editors takes place when editors try to save time and effort by consciously or subconsciously selecting articles from well-known scholars. Whereas the exact mechanism underlying these phenomena is yet unknown, it is documented that a minority of all academics produce the most research output and attract the most citations.
+In addition to its influence on recognition and productivity, the Matthew Effect can also be observed in the distribution of scientific resources, such as funding. A large Matthew effect was discovered in a study of science funding in the Netherlands, where winners just above the funding threshold were found to accumulate more than twice as much funding during the subsequent eight years as non-winners with near-identical review scores that fell just below the threshold.
+
+== Education ==
+In education, the term "Matthew effect" has been adopted by psychologist Keith Stanovich and popularised by education theorist Anthony Kelly to describe a phenomenon observed in research on how new readers acquire the skills to read. Effectively, early success in acquiring reading skills usually leads to later successes in reading as the learner grows, while failing to learn to read before the third or fourth year of schooling may be indicative of lifelong problems in learning new skills.
+This is because children who fall behind in reading would read less, increasing the gap between them and their peers. Later, when students need to "read to learn" (where before they were learning to read), their reading difficulty creates difficulty in most other subjects. In this way they fall further and further behind in school, dropping out at a much higher rate than their peers. This effect has been used in legal cases, such as Brody v. Dare County Board of Education. Such cases argue that early education intervention is essential for disabled children, and that failing to do so negatively impacts those children.
+A 2014 review of Matthew effect in education found mixed empirical evidence, where Matthew effect tends to describe the development of primary school skills, while a compensatory pattern was found for skills with ceiling effects. A 2016 study on reading comprehension assessments for 99 thousand students found a pattern of stable differences, with some narrowing of the gap for students with learning disabilities.
+
+== Network science ==
+In network science, the Matthew effect was noticed as preferential attachment of earlier nodes in a network, which explains that these nodes tend to attract more links early on.
+The application of preferential attachment to the growth of the World Wide Web was proposed by Barabási and Albert in 1999.  Barabási and Albert also coined the name "preferential attachment", and suggested that the process might apply to the growth of other networks as well. For growing networks, the precise functional form of preferential attachment can be estimated by maximum likelihood estimation.
+Due to preferential attachment, Matjaž Perc writes "a node that acquires more connections than another one will increase its connectivity at a higher rate, and thus an initial difference in the connectivity between two nodes will increase further as the network grows, while the degree of individual nodes will grow proportional with the square root of time." The Matthew Effect therefore explains the growth of some nodes in vast networks such as the Internet.
+
+== Cosmology ==
+The gravitational instability of vast amounts of hydrogen gas in the cosmos causes clumping around local areas of higher density, leading to star formation and the clustering of stars into galaxies. The concentration of mass into stars reduces the concentration in surrounding areas. The overall process is referred to as the "Matthew effect".

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+title: "Matthew effect"
+chunk: 3/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_effect"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:17.863984+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Career progression ==
+A model for career progress quantitatively incorporates the Matthew Effect in order to predict the distribution of individual career length in competitive professions. The model predictions are validated by analyzing the empirical distributions of career length for careers in science and professional sports (e.g. Major League Baseball). As a result, the disparity between the large number of short careers and the relatively small number of extremely long careers can be explained by the "rich-get-richer" mechanism, which in this framework, provides more experienced and more reputable individuals with a competitive advantage in obtaining new career opportunities.
+Bask (2024) reviewed theoretical research on academic career progression and found that Feichtinger et al. developed a model where a researcher's reputation grows through scientific effort but declines without continual activity Their model incorporates the Matthew effect, in that researchers with high initial reputations benefit more from their efforts, while those with low reputations may see theirs diminish even with similar effort. They showed that if a researcher starts with low reputation, their career is likely to decline and eventually end, whereas researchers starting with high reputation may either sustain a successful career or face early exit depending on their effort over time.
+
+== Markets with social influence ==
+Experiments manipulating download counts or bestseller lists for books and music have shown consumer activity follows the apparent popularity.
+Social influence often induces a rich-get-richer phenomenon where popular products tend to become even more popular.
+An example of the Matthew Effect's role on social influence is an experiment by Salganik, Dodds, and Watts in which they created an experimental virtual market named MUSICLAB. In MUSICLAB, people could listen to music and choose to download the songs they enjoyed the most. The song choices were unknown songs produced by unknown bands. There were two groups tested; one group was given zero additional information on the songs and one group was told the popularity of each song and the number of times it had previously been downloaded. As a result, the group that saw which songs were the most popular and were downloaded the most were then biased to choose those songs as well. The songs that were most popular and downloaded the most stayed at the top of the list and consistently received the most plays. To summarize the experiment's findings, the performance rankings had the largest effect boosting expected downloads the most. Download rankings had a decent effect; however, not as impactful as the performance rankings. Abeliuk et al. (2016) also proved that when utilizing "performance rankings", a monopoly will be created for the most popular songs.
+
+== Cumulative inequality theory ==
+
+The ideas of this theory were developed by Kenneth Ferraro and colleagues as an integrative or middle-range theory.  Originally specified in five axioms and nineteen propositions, cumulative inequality theory incorporates elements from the following theories and perspectives, several of which are related to the study of society:
+
+Robert Merton articulated the Matthew effect to explain accumulating advantage
+Glen Elder's life course perspective
+Stress process theory
+Age stratification theory
+Ferraro and Shippee (2009) further developed this framework, asserting that "social systems generate inequality, which is manifested over the life course via demographic and developmental processes."
+McDonough et al. (2015) studied cumulative disadvantage in the generations of health inequality among mothers in Britain and the United States.  The study examined if "adverse circumstances early in the life course cumulate as health harming biographical patterns across working and family caregiving years."  Also, it was examined if institutional context moderated cumulative effects of micro level processes. The results showed that existing health disparities of women in midlife, during work and family rearing time, were intensified by cumulative disadvantages caused by adversities in early life.
+McLean (2010) studied U.S. combat and non-combat veterans through the lens of cumulative disadvantage. He found that negative outcomes caused by disability and unemployment were more likely to influence the lives of combat veterans, who often suffered physical and emotional trauma that impeded their ability to obtain employment.
+Woolredge et al. (2015) studied prison sentencing across racial groups, specifically focusing on African American males with prior felony convictions. They examined how pre-trial processes affect trial outcomes, determining that cumulative disadvantage existed for African American males and young men. The effect was observed in bond amounts, pre-trial detention, and the likelihood of prison sentences; however, no significant effect was found regarding charge reductions or sentence length.
+Ferraro & Moore (2003) applied the theory to the long-term consequences of early obesity on midlife health and socioeconomic attainment. The study shows that obesity experienced in early life leads to lower-body disability, and increased health risk factors. The research also connects early-life obesity to social stigma and found that it negatively impacts labor market positioning and wages.
+Crystal et al. (2016) used the Gini coefficient to analyze how cumulative advantage influenced economic inequality within age cohorts between 1980 and 2010. The study found that inequality was highest among individuals aged 65 and older, with significant increases observed during economic recessions, times of war, and among the baby boomer generation. The researchers utilized these patterns to estimate how potential changes to Social Security might impact older adults in the United States.
+Cumulative inequality and cumulative disadvantage theories provide a framework for examining how various social and demographic factors intersect over time to influence public policy and individual roles within society.

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+title: "Matthew effect"
+chunk: 4/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_effect"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:17.863984+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Life course inequality ==
+The concept of cumulative advantage, based on Merton and Zuckerman's Matthew Effect, has been widely applied to the study of life course inequality. Dannefer (2003) argued that inequalities in resources, health, and social status systematically widen over time, shaped by social institutions, economic structures, and psychosocial factors like perceived agency and self-efficacy. Early advantages or disadvantages become amplified, producing growing disparities as individuals age. Pallas (2009) further highlighted how cumulative advantage involves shifts between different types of capital, such as human, economic, and symbolic, complicating efforts to measure inequality over time.
+Research has expanded cumulative advantage beyond aging to domains such as education, work, health, and wealth. In education, early academic differences lead to greater access to opportunities and resources, compounding over time. In the workforce, initial job placements and early career achievements create divergent paths in earnings and occupational mobility. Family background and neighborhood contexts also play a role, reinforcing early disparities across the life course.
+
+== Mitigation ==
+Open Science is "the movement to make scientific research (including publications, data, physical samples, and software) and its dissemination accessible to all levels of society, amateur or professional". One of its key motivations is increasing equity in scientific endeavors. However, Ross-Hellauer, T. et. al. (2022) argue that Open Science's ambition to reduce inequalities in academia may inadvertently perpetuate or exacerbate existing disparities caused by cumulative advantage. As Open Science progresses, it faces the challenge of balancing its goals of openness and accessibility with the risk that its practices could reinforce the privileges of the more advantaged, particularly in terms of access to knowledge, technology, and funding. The authors make this critique to urge professionals to reflect "upon the ways in which implementation may run counter to ideals".
+
+== See also ==
+
+== References ==
+
+== Further reading ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonaldization-0.md

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+title: "McDonaldization"
+chunk: 1/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonaldization"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:19.105936+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+McDonaldization is the process of a society adopting the characteristics of a fast-food restaurant. The McWord concept was first proposed by sociologist George Ritzer in his 1983 article in the Journal of American Culture and developed in his 1993 book The McDonaldization of Society. McDonaldization is a reconceptualization of rationalization and scientific management. Where Max Weber used the model of the bureaucracy to represent the direction of this changing society, Ritzer sees the fast-food restaurant as a more representative contemporary paradigm. Critiques of the McDonaldization thesis include Ahuvia and Izberk-Bilgi’s analysis of a countertrend they call eBayization, and Alexander’s argument that McDonaldization is a paralysing concept and ignores more person-centred models such as cooperatives or the Toyota Production System.
+
+== Aspects ==
+Ritzer highlighted four primary components of McDonaldization, those being efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control. Aside from these four aspects, Ritzer went on to state that the strategy is rational within a narrow scope but leads to outcomes that are harmful or irrational. As these processes spread to other parts of society, modern society's new social and cultural characteristics are created. For instance, as McDonald's enters a country and consumer patterns are unified, cultural hybridization occurs.
+
+=== Efficiency ===
+Efficiency is the optimal method for accomplishing a task. In this context, Ritzer has a very specific meaning of "efficiency".    In the example of McDonald's customers, it is the fastest way to get from being hungry to being full.  Efficiency in McDonaldization means that every aspect of the organization is geared toward the minimization of time.
+
+=== Calculability ===
+Calculability refers to the objective being quantifiable (e.g., sales) rather than being subjective (e.g. taste).  McDonaldization developed the notion that quantity equals quality, and that a large amount of product delivered to the customer in a short amount of time is the same as a high quality product.  This allows people to quantify how much they are getting versus how much they are paying. Organizations want consumers to believe that they are getting a large amount of product for not a lot of money.  Workers in these organizations are judged by how fast they are instead of the quality of work they do.
+
+=== Predictability ===
+Predictability refers to the prevalent standardization and uniform services. "Predictability" means that no matter where a person goes, they will receive the same service and receive the same product every time when interacting with the McDonaldized organization.  This also applies to the workers in those organizations.  Their tasks are highly repetitive, highly routine, and predictable.
+
+=== Control ===
+Control refers to standardized and uniform employees, and the replacement of human by non-human technologies.
+
+== Examples ==
+Junk food news, defined here as inoffensive and trivial news served up in palatable portions, is an example of McDonaldization. Another example could be McUniversities, which features modularized curricula, delivering degrees in a fast-track pick-and-mix fashion to satisfy all tastes. The diminished quality of these products can only be disguised by extensive advertising which constantly repackages them to look new.
+In penology, there has been a shift from punishments and treatment tailored to individual offenders, to attempting to control classes of offenders who are considered to be at high risk of recidivism through standardized penalties, such as those specified by three-strikes laws or sentencing guidelines. Offenders are classified by security level and sent to facilities deemed capable of adequately incapacitating prisoners in their risk category. Technology such as electronic surveillance, electronic monitoring, urinalysis, and computer-based offender tracking systems are often used in place of humans in the penal system.
+
+=== Education ===
+It has been argued by a westerner that an example of the phenomenon of McDonaldization can be seen in education, where there is seen to be increasing similarity between that of Western classrooms and the rest of the world. Slater argues that the class size, layout and pedagogy in Peru closely resemble that of America, with clear examples of Western culture focused on efficiency of transfer of knowledge in other parts of the world. Furthermore, Slater goes on to demonstrate that the McDonaldization of education could have many negative side effects; particularly that it does not promote inquiry or creativity. Therefore, schools will become less effective at educating children as they will fail to develop critical and creative thinkers.
+According to Wong, the influence of McDonaldization has also affected Higher Education classrooms.

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+title: "McDonaldization"
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+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonaldization"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:19.105936+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Efficiency – Computer graded exams limit the amount of time necessary for instructors to grade their students.
+Calculability – Letter Grades and Grade Point Averages are used and calculated to measure a student's success over the course of their academic career.
+Predictability – Course availability and requirements have become more standardized amongst universities, making it easier to find similar courses and content at different locations.
+Control – Courses are structured very specifically and must meet certain requirements and follow certain guidelines. Courses begin and end at the same time on the same predetermined days and last for a specific number of weeks.
+A study by Carroll (2013) describes how e-learning has become one of the biggest phenomena of educational literature in recent years. Although the potential promise of e-learning is often expected within the process of learning, much of the emphasis is in fact on the electronic issues to facilitate learning, with little regard for its consequences on the learning process. Consequently, this often erodes the human factor in learning – making the learning process a more isolated experience. This article suggests that academics should become more cautious with their acceptance of facilitating learning through e-learning platforms without fully understanding the impact on students learning experiences. It also explores the changing role of students in discovering, questioning, and seeking knowledge into that of ‘consumers of pre-packed education.
+The McDonaldization of Education is not only limited to physical classroom settings. It is predicted by George Ritzer that MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) will make future education even more McDonaldized. While it is possible to create a new original MOOC every semester, it is more likely a basic structure will be created and subsequently altered each time in order to make their creation more efficient. Over time as the interest and quality of MOOCs increases, the same pre recorded MOOCs may be used by many different universities, creating predictable content for MOOC students. Computer graded exams will be used more frequently than written essay exams to make it more efficient for the instructors. Yet since MOOCs limit the amount of contact between student and teacher, it will be difficult to engage the course on a deeper and more meaningful level.
+
+== De-McDonaldization ==
+Organizations have been making an effort to deny the rationalization of McDonaldization. Efforts are related to focusing on quality instead of quantity, enjoying the unpredictability of service and product and employing more skilled workers without any outside control.
+Protests have also been rising in nation-states in order to slow down the process of McDonaldization and to protect their localization and traditional value.
+Some local case studies show how adjusting the rational model of McDonald's to suit local cultural preferences results in a diminution of the original McDonald's product. The more the company adjusts to local conditions, the more appeal the scientific calculations of the specifically American product may be lost. This can be used to justify McDonald's uniform approach. The ubiquity of McDonald's and the uniformity of its practices is a contributing factor to globalization.
+
+== Response from McDonald's ==
+The response from McDonald's, expressed by its representatives in the United Kingdom, is that Ritzer, like other commentators, uses the company's size and brand recognition to promote ideas that do not necessarily relate to the company's business practices.
+
+== See also ==
+
+== References ==
+
+Ritzer, G. (2013) ‘MOOCs and the McDonaldisation of Education’ Introduction to Sociology.. http://georgeritzer.wordpress.com/2013/01/12/moocs-and-the-mcdonaldization-of-education/ (Date accessed 30 October 2013)
+Slater, R.O. (1999),(trans.)‘La MacDonalizacion de la Educacion’, Educacion, Vol. 8, No. 15. http://firgoa.usc.es/drupal/node/5029 (Date accessed 30 October 2013)
+Wong D. (2010), http://www.stanford.edu/group/ccr/ccrblog/2010/02/mcdonaldization_and_higher_edu.html. (Date accessed 30 October 2013)
+
+== Further reading ==
+The McDonaldization of Society by George Ritzer (ISBN 0-7619-8812-2)
+McDonaldization: The Reader by George Ritzer (ISBN 0-7619-8767-3)
+The McDonaldization Thesis: Explorations and Extensions by George Ritzer (ISBN 0-7619-5540-2)
+McCitizens by Bryan Turner (OCLC 7385339725)
+Resisting McDonaldization, ed. Barry Smart (OCLC 1243595390)
+Golden Arches East:  McDonald's in East Asia by James L. Watson (OCLC 237048310)
+Sociology of Consumption: Fast Food, Credit Cards and Casinos, ed. George Ritzer (OCLC 966077765)
+The McDonaldization of Higher Education, ed. Dennis Hayes & Robert Wynyard (doi:10.4324/9781315270654)
+Enchanting a Disenchanted World by George Ritzer (OCLC 632375942)
+The McDonaldization of the Church by John Drane (OCLC 315753136)
+'Unwrapping the McDonald's model by Titus Alexander, The Journal of American Culture, Vol 46, Issue 3 pp. 232-241, 24 Sept. 2023, https://doi.org/10.1111/jacc.13467

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_and_organic_solidarity-0.md

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+---
+title: "Mechanical and organic solidarity"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_and_organic_solidarity"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:20.370743+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+In sociology, mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity are the two types of social solidarity that were formulated by Émile Durkheim, introduced in his Division of Labour in Society (1893) as part of his theory on the development of societies. According to Durkheim, the type of solidarity will correlate with the type of society, either mechanical or organic society. The two types of solidarity can be distinguished by morphological and demographic features, type of norms in existence, and the intensity and content of the conscience collective.
+In a society that exhibits mechanical solidarity, its cohesion and integration comes from the homogeneity of individuals—people feel connected through similar work; educational and religious training; age; gender; and lifestyle. Mechanical solidarity normally operates in traditional and small-scale societies (e.g., tribes). In these simpler societies, solidarity is usually based on kinship ties of familial networks.
+Organic solidarity is a social cohesion based upon the interdependence that arises between people from the specialization of work and complementarianism as result of more advanced (i.e., modern and industrial) societies. Although individuals perform different tasks and often have different values and interests, the order and very solidarity of society depends on their reliance on each other to perform their specified tasks. Thus, social solidarity is maintained in more complex societies through the interdependence of its component parts. Farmers, for example, produce the food that feeds the factory workers who produce the tractors that allow the farmers to produce the food.
+
+
+== Features ==
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanism_(sociology)-0.md

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+---
+title: "Media ritual"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_ritual"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:22.820909+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Media ritual is a theoretical approach in the field of media and communication studies, which borrows thematically from the field of anthropology. The theory is based upon Carey's 'ritual view of communication' in which he asserts that "news reading, and writing, is a ritual act and moreover a dramatic one". This 'ritual' view of communication is in contrast to his 'transmission' view of communication. Media ritual theory has been elaborated in recent years, popularised in particular by Nick Couldry.
+
+
+== Overview ==
+Couldry elaborated on media ritual theory in his book Media Rituals: A Critical Approach. He presents his study as a method to study the more intricate ways in which the media, which he defines as the central media that "through which we imagine ourselves to be connected to the social world", affects and transforms society. His formal definition of media rituals are actions that can represent wider values.
+Under his definition, potential sites where media rituals may be conducted are studios or wherever something is filmed, and any place where interaction with celebrities takes place.
+
+
+== Research approach ==
+In Couldry's media ritual research, two research approaches were used, post-Durkheimian and anti-functionalist. example
+
+
+=== Post-Durkheimian ===
+In media analysis, the first understanding of "ritual" is dominated by "integrationist" and Couldry's approach is to challenge "the standard 'integrationist' reading of Durkheim". Post-Durkheimian dropped "assumptions that underlying and motivating ritual is always the achievement of social order" in Durkheimian, to rethink media's relation with Durkheimian is a radical fashion.
+
+
+=== Anti-Functionalist ===
+Anti-functionalist generalizes post-Durkheimian point, which opposes any form of essentialist thinking about society. Therefore, in order to "grasp the continuing power of Durkheim's idea, we must discard the functionalist framework which shaped his work and think the question of social order (and its construction) from a new perspective".
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== Bibliography ==
+Carey, James W. (1989). Communication as Culture: Essays on Media and Society. Psychology Press. ISBN 9780415907255.
+Couldry, Nick (2003). Media Rituals: A Critical Approach. Routledge. ISBN 9780415270144.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_transparency-0.md

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+---
+title: "Media transparency"
+chunk: 1/3
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_transparency"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:24.059279+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Media transparency, also referred to as transparent media or media opacity, is a concept that explores how and why information subsidies are being produced, distributed and handled by media professionals, including journalists, editors, public relations practitioners, government officials, public affairs specialists, and spokespeople. In short, media transparency reflects the relationship between civilization and journalists, news sources and government. According to a textual analysis of "Information Subsidies and Agenda Building: A Study of Local Radio News", an information subsidy is defined as "any item provided to the media in order to gain time or space".
+
+== Overview ==
+Media transparency deals with the openness and accountability of the media and can be defined as a transparent exchange of information subsidies based on the ideas of newsworthiness. Media transparency is one of the biggest challenges of contemporary everyday media practices around the world as media outlets and journalists constantly experience pressures from advertisers, information sources, publishers, and other influential groups.
+News sources may influence what information is published or not published. Sometimes, published information can also be paid for by news sources, but the end media product (an article, a program, a blog post) does not clearly indicate that the message has been paid or influenced in any way. Such media opacity, or media non-transparency, ruins the trust and transparency between the media and the public and have implications for transparency of new forms of advertising and public relations (such as native advertising and brand journalism).
+Media transparency is defined to be a normative concept and is achieved when:
+
+there are many competing sources of information;
+the method of information delivery is known; and
+funding of media production is disclosed and publicly available.
+An important note concerning Media Transparency is the use of ICTs, which can be defined as "Information and Communication Technology". ICTs are the online ways in which communication will be discussed in the following sections of this entry page.
+
+== The background of ICTs and transparency (Heidegger and McLuhan) ==
+Transparency using the Internet has been a large fascination of social scientists, and the research surrounding transparency continues to grow. The basis to understanding transparency and technology is emphasized by Yoni Van Den Eede to be the work of Martin Heidegger and Marshall McLuhan. Eede claims, "In recent years several approaches – philosophical, sociological, psychological – have been developed to come to grips with our profoundly technologically mediated world" (Eede, 2011). Yet continues to explain that these recent discoveries would have not been made without the work first accomplished concerning media and technology by Heidegger and McLuhan.  
+Martin Heidegger began the studies without using the word transparency, but its relevance is clear within his "Tool Analysis". The "Tool Analysis" argues that one is never aware of the tools they use in their every life until it no longer functions as it should, or as Eede concludes, "the tool is 'transparent' in the sense that we don't notice it "as-tool". The tool in this context is media, and as the study argues we do not notice media and the presence it holds in our life. Eede expands on the Tool Analysis curated by Heidegger as she states there are two ways in which humans use tools, readiness to hand and presence at hand. This separation of readiness and presence is explained further by G. Harman as he argues that the theory proposed by Heidegger can be understood through what we consciously view as helpful versus what is unconsciously helping us (humankind). Harman claims, "If I observe a table and try to describe its appearance, I silently rely on a vast armada of invisible things that recede into a tacit background. The table that hovers visibly before my mind is outnumbered by all the invisible items that sustain my current reality: floor, oxygen, air conditioning, bodily organs" (Harman, 2010). Through understanding this 'table' analogy, one can conclude that the table in this sense is technology, and its use to create transparency and understanding within society concerning social and economic doings of government and the greater power of which governs each nation and entity is the vast background of which is overlooked, just as the surroundings of the table are. Through this understanding of theory, transparency can then be further explored for its major importance in creating ones  environment consciously and unconsciously.  
+Another important theorist to consider when researching ICTs and transparency is Marshall McLuhan, who coined the term "the medium is the message". McLuhan conducted his work within the 1960s, with the introduction of the global village and age of technology use in communications.  The concept of transparency is heavily explored within McLuhan's media theory which examines the media as the channels of medium in which media is presented (television, radio, etc.) which are then defined to be the real messages of the media themselves, and emphasis is placed upon understanding the means of medium rather than content itself as they "manifest themselves first and foremost in the way we perceive, process and interpret sense data" (Eede, 2011). Through understanding the actual medium to be the message, and as the medium itself creates a greater understanding and transparent view of the world around us, one can conclude that McLuhan's work is essential to then looking to understand why ICTs and a sense of transparency concerning day to day life, government work, and national/ global work is of importance. McLuhan, to summarize, concluded that society must be more involved, and that its participates are actively looking to be more involved as they navigate their social understanding and surrounding.

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+title: "Media transparency"
+chunk: 2/3
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_transparency"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:24.059279+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Propaganda and media transparency ==
+Within the study conducted by the Government Information Quarterly, Media Transparency is understood through means of its ability to aid societies with openness and anti-corruption. This unbiased approach at understanding media transparency specifically deals with how media transparency is an important aspect of social and economic development. The article cited explores the four main channels of transparency at the governmental level; proactive dissemination by the government; release of requested materials by the government; public meetings; and leaks from whistleblowers. These four means of communication help to deter any type of negative propaganda posed by governments and officials and work towards complete transparency of which is arguably necessary to create a thriving social and economic system. Propaganda stands to be a threat to accurate distribution and intake of information, of which disrupts all that transparency works to accomplish. The following sections open on greater aspects of Propaganda, and different ways in which transparency is disrupted as well.  
+
+== Media bribery and corruption ==
+Corruption and Media Bribery are large concepts of interest when considering the importance of Media Transparency. The concept of Media Bribery emerged in response to claims of bias within the media. This lack of media transparency can be perceived as a form of corruption. Media transparency is a means to diminish unethical and illegal practices in the relationships between news sources and the media. Within a study conducted by the Government Information Quarterly it is stated that, "The focus on corruption as an economic issue has been part of an overall rise in global interest in transparency. Internationally, corruption has received great attention since 1990 due to fears of increasing opportunities for illicit activity due to globalization (Brown & Cloke, 2005)". There are many areas of concern when it comes to bribery and corruption, specifically law enforcement and government regulation. Corruption of the media and barriers to transparency can be captured through means of propaganda and misinformation. These can be actively be worked against through means of administrative reform, stricter watch and regulation of law enforcement, and through means of social change.  
+
+== Media transparency and power (George Gerbner and Cultivation Theory) ==
+Academics at the University of Oxford and Warwick Business School, conducting empirical research on the operation and effects of transparent forms of clinical regulation in practice, describe a form of 'spectacular transparency'. The social scientists suggest that government policy tends to react to high-profile media 'spectacles', leading to regulatory policy decisions that appear to respond to problems exposed in the media have new perverse effects in practice, which are unseen by regulators or the media.
+The degree to which state agents work to influence video production contradicts the use of those images by news organizations as indexical, objective representations. Because people tend to strongly equate seeing with knowing, video cultivates an inaccurate impression that they are getting the "full picture". It has been said that "what is on the news depends on what can be shown". The case studies (include case studies) for this project demonstrate that what can be shown is often decided in concern with political agents. Essentially, the way the media presents its information can creates an illusion of transparency. The presentation of media is further explored for its interest in the human experience through work done by George Gerbner and his Cultivation Theory. As explained by analyst W. James Potter, Gerbner was "concerned with the influence that a much broader scope of messages gradually exerted on the public as people were exposed to media messages in their everyday lives" (Potter, 2014). Gerbner quenstioned previous theorists attempts to understand media and power over civilization by means of television programs and direct intake. Gerbner asserted that in order to understand the impact of the media, research must be done concerning the environment in which people are living, and studying the world as presented by medium channels. Potter argues that "while Gerbner recognized that there were individual differences in interpretations of messages, cultivation was not concerned about those variations in interpretations; instead, cultivation focused on the dominant meanings that the media presented to the public" (Potter, 2014). Through Gerbner's Cultural Indicators Research Project, power is explored through its presentation in the media, and George argues that to create a transparent environment in which cultural and social norms are unbiased, one must look to understand whether transparency is being held by media sources or if it is being manipulated in order to control civilization and keep power. The work of analyst John A. Lent uncovers Gerbner's understanding of power structure through the control of media and medium channels as he states," viewers came to consider the world as rightly belonging to the power and money elite depicted on television – young, white males, idealized as heroic doctors and other professionals. He warned that women, minorities and the elderly seeing these role models repeatedly were apt to accept their own inferior positions and opportunities as inevitable and deserved, which he said was an indictment of their civil rights" (Lent 2006 p.88). Power, then can be understood with those who control the media outlets, and the level of transparency concerning worldly events, biased opinions, and representation that are conveyed to the citizens who live within the media controlled environment. Power is not within the eye of the beholder, yet within those who project to the greater population.

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+title: "Media transparency"
+chunk: 3/3
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_transparency"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:24.059279+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Electronic government ==
+The creation of an Electronic Government and the use of the internet along with social media is a new way to get information concerning government work and service to citizens. The use of media in all electronic forms is argued to be an "influential factor in the restoration of trust in government because it has the potential to improve government performance and transparency" within the study published by the Public Performance and Management Review (Song and Lee, 2016). The study continues to argue that many studies have reported that through information and transaction services available on government websites, citizens feel a sense of effectiveness, accessibility, responsiveness, and satisfaction, all of which constitute an overall sense of trust in government. These information and transaction services are more specifically categorized as social media sites that connect citizens to their government. Song and Lee conclude that, "social media can be defined as a group of Web 2.0 technologies that facilitate interactions between users [...] By their nature, social media afford easy access to information through convenient devices like cell phones and tablets, enable user-created content, and provide visible social connections" (Song and Lee, 2016). From a citizens perspective, transparency is attained through understanding their local governments actions and movements, along with creating open lines of communication; all of which can be done through social media and other means of online communication. Song and Lee conclude following their experiment concerning media use in relation to government that " social media in government enable citizens to gain easier access to government and be more informed about current events, policies, or programs, heightening their perception of transparency in government" (Song and Lee, 2016). This conclusion argues for social media presence in governmental action and role in order to create transparency; media transparency is needed for a cohesive and close-knit society. 
+
+== Trust in government and transparency (Coleman) ==
+The ability to curate trust is essential within the means of transparency and communication. Within the article published by Changsoo Song and Jooho Lee, the two explain trust though work compiled by social theorist J. S Coleman as he looks to simply trust through equivocal explanation. The study states that, "Three essential elements" are used in explaining what leads a potential trustor (e.g., the citizen) to vest trust in a trustee (e.g., the government):
+
+p = chance of receiving gain (i.e., the probability that the trustee is trustworthy),
+L = potential loss (if the trustee is untrustworthy), and
+G =potential gain (if the trustee is trustworthy)
+Song and Lee then apply this framework to governmental context and conclude that role of information is necessary in trust-building as governments must perform or take in action in their citizens interest (and visibly show this action or performance via social media), in order to gain trust in and respect for their work.
+
+== See also ==
+
+== References ==
+
+== Further reading and videos ==
+Sakr, Naomi (2010). "News, Transparency and the Effectiveness of Reporting from Inside Arab Dictatorships". International Communication Gazette. 72: 35–50. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.1006.7676. doi:10.1177/1748048509350337. S2CID 145010412.
+Crow, Deserai Anderson (2010). "Local Media and Experts: Sources of Environmental Policy Initiation?". Policy Studies Journal. 38: 143–164. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.298.1546. doi:10.1111/j.1541-0072.2009.00348.x.
+- YouTube (McLuhan Hot and Cold Theory)

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+title: "Mediatization (media)"
+chunk: 1/12
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediatization_(media)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:25.325938+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Mediatization (or medialization) is a method whereby the mass media influence other sectors of society, including politics, business, culture, entertainment, sport, religion, or education.  Mediatization is a process of change or a trend, similar to globalization and modernization, where the mass media integrates into other sectors of the society. Political actors, opinion makers, business organizations, civil society organizations, and others have to adapt their communication methods to a form that suits the needs and preferences of the mass media. Any person or organization wanting to spread messages to a larger audience have to adapt their messages and communication style to make it attractive for the mass media.
+
+== Introduction ==
+The concept of mediatization still requires development, and there is no commonly agreed definition of the term. For example, a sociologist, Ernst Manheim, used mediatization as a way to describe social shifts that are controlled by the mass media, while a media researcher, Kent Asp, viewed mediatization as the relationship between politics, mass media, and the ever-growing divide between the media and government control. Some theorists reject precise definitions and operationalizations of mediatization, fearing that they would reduce the complexity of the concept and the phenomena it refers to, while others prefer a clear theory that can be tested, refined, or potentially refuted.
+The concept of mediatization is seen not as an isolated theory, but as a framework that holds the potential to integrate different theoretical strands, linking micro-level with meso- and macro-level processes and phenomena, and thus contributing to a broader understanding of the role of the media in the transformation of modern societies.
+Technological developments from newspapers to radio, television, Internet, and interactive social media helped shape mediatization. Other important influences include changes in organization and economic conditions of the media, such as the growing importance of independent market-driven media and a decreasing influence of state-sponsored, public service, and partisan media.
+Mass media influence public opinion and the structure and processes of political communication, political decision-making and the democratic process. This political influence is not a one-way influence. While the mass media may influence government and political actors, the politicians also influence the media through regulation, negotiation, or selective access to information.
+The increasing influence of economic market forces is typically seen in trends such as tabloidization and trivialization, while news reporting and political coverage diminish to slogans, sound bites, spin, horse race reporting, celebrity scandals, populism, and infotainment.
+
+== History ==
+
+The Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan is sometimes associated with the founding of the field. He proposed that a communication medium, not the messages it carries, should be the primary focus of study.
+The Hungarian-born sociologist Ernest Manheim was the first to use the German word Mediatisierung to describe the social influence of the mass media in a book published in 1933, though with little elaboration on the concept.
+
+Mediatisierung already existed in German but had a different meaning (see German mediatisation). In his Theory of Communicative Action, the German sociologist Jürgen Habermas used the word in 1981. Whether Habermas used the word in the old meaning or in the new meaning of media influence is debated. The first appearance of the word mediatization in the English language may be in the English translation of Theory of Communication Action.
+The Swedish professor of journalism, Kent Asp, was the first into develop the concept of mediatization to a coherent theory in his seminal dissertation, where he investigated the mediatization of politics. His dissertation was published as a book in Swedish in 1986. Kent Asp described the mediatization of political life, by which he meant a process whereby "a political system to a high degree is influenced by and adjusted to the demands of the mass media in their coverage of politics."
+In the tradition of Kent Asp, the Danish media science professor Stig Hjarvard further developed the concept of mediatization and applied it not only to politics but also to other sectors of society, including religion. Hjarvard defined mediatization as a social process whereby the society is saturated and inundated by the media to the extent that the media can no longer be thought of as separated from other institutions within the society.
+Mediatization has since gained widespread usage in English despite sounding awkward. Mediatization theory is part of a paradigmatic shift in media and communication research. Following the concept of mediation, mediatization has become a significant concept for capturing how processes of communication transform society in large-scale relationships.
+While the early theory building around mediatization had a strong center in Europe, many American media sociologists and media economists made observations about the effects of commercial mass media competition on news quality, public opinion, and political processes. For example, David Altheide discussed how media logic distorts political news, and John McManus demonstrated how economic competition violates media ethics and makes it difficult for citizens to evaluate the quality of the news. The European theorists readily embraced Altheide's concept of media logic, and now the two lines of research are integrated into one standard paradigm.
+Modern theorists now believe there is a new form of mediatization developing. This next phase of mediatization has been dubbed "deep mediatization". Industry change caused through mediatization only increase under deep mediatization and may quickly grow out of control.
+
+== Schools of mediatization ==
+Theorists have distinguished three theoretical schools of mediatization, listed below.

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+title: "Mediatization (media)"
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+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:25.325938+00:00"
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+---
+
+=== Institutionalist ===
+The leading scholars of this school of mediatization, David Altheide and Robert Snow, coined the term media logic in 1979. Media logic refers to the form of communication and the process through which media transmit and communicate information. The logic of media forms the fund of knowledge that is generated and circulated in society.
+Building on Marshall McLuhan, Altheide discusses the role of communication formats for the recognition, definition, selection, organization, and presentation of experience. A central thesis is that knowledge affects social activities more than wealth or force. A consequence of this is communication technology influencing power. For example, Gutenberg's printing press enabled the wide distribution of his Bible, which was a threat to the dominance of the Catholic Church.
+Altheide has emphasized that social order is communicated. It has severe consequences if this communication is exaggerated and dramatized to fit the media logic. The media may create moral panics by exaggerating and misrepresenting social problems. One example documented by Altheide is a media panic over missing children in the 1980s. The media gave the impression that many children were abducted by criminals, when in fact, most of the children listed as missing were runaways or involved in custody disputes.
+The penchant of the media for emotional drama and horror may lead to gonzo journalism and perversion of justice. Altheide describes "gonzo justice" as a process where the media become active players in the persecution of perceived wrongdoers, where public humiliation replaces court trials without concern for due process and civil liberties. Gonzo journalism can have severe consequences for democracy and international relations when, for example, international conflicts are presented by dramatizing the evil of foreign heads of state, such as Muammar Gaddafi, Manuel Noriega, and Saddam Hussein.
+
+=== Socio-constructivist ===
+The social constructivist school of mediatization theory involves discussions at a high level of abstraction to embrace the complexity of the interaction between mass media and other fields of society. The theorists are not denying the relevance of empirical research of causal connections but warning against a linear understanding of process and change.
+The theorists want to avoid the extreme positions of either technological determinism or social determinism. Their approach is not media-centric in the sense of a one-sided approach to causality, but media-centered in the sense of a holistic understanding of the various intersecting social forces at work, allowing a particular perspective and emphasis on the role of the media in these processes.
+The concept of media logic is criticized with the argument that there is not one media logic but many media logics, depending on the context.
+Andreas Hepp, a leading theorist of the constructivist school of mediatization theory, describes the role of the mass media not as a driving force but as a molding force. This force is not a direct effect of the material structure of the media. The molding force of the media only becomes concrete in different ways of mediation that are highly contextual.
+Hepp does not see mediatization as a theory of media effects, but as a sensitizing concept that draws our attention to fundamental transformations we experience in today's media environment. This concept provides a panorama of investigating the meta-process of interrelation between media communicative change and sociocultural change. These transformations are seen in three ways in particular: the historical depth of the process of media-related transformations, the diversity of media-related transformations in different domains of society, and the connection of media-related transformations to further processes of modernization.
+Hepp is deliberately avoids precise definitions of mediatization by using metaphors such as molding force and panorama. He argues that precise definitions may limit the complexity of the interrelations where it is important to consider both the material and the symbolic domain. However, materialists argue that such a loosely defined concept may too easily become a matter of belief rather than a proper theory than can be tested.
+The process of media change is coupled with technological change. The emergence of digital media has brought a new stage of mediatization, which can be called deep mediatization. Deep mediatization is an advanced stage of the process in which all elements of our social world are intricately related to digital media and their underlying infrastructures, and where large IT corporations play a greater role.

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+title: "Mediatization (media)"
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+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:25.325938+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Religion ===
+The application of mediatization theory to the study of religion was initiated by Stig Hjarvard with a main focus on Northern Europe. 
+Hjarvard described how the media have gradually taken over many of the social functions that used to be performed by religious institutions, such as rituals, worship, mourning, celebration, and spiritual guidance. This can be considered part of a general process of modernization and secularization. Religious activities are less controlled and organized by the church and instead subsumed under the media logic and delivered through genres like news, documentaries, drama, comedy, and entertainment.
+The mass media and the entertainment industry are combining aspects of folk religion such as trolls, vampires, and magic with the iconography and liturgy of institutionalized religions into a mixture that Hjarvard calls banal religion. Television shows depicting astrology, séances, exorcism, chiromancy, etc. are legitimizing superstition and supporting an individualization of belief while the church's control over access to religious texts is weakened. Such TV shows, as well as novels and films like Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings, and computer games such as the World of Warcraft are all sources of religious imagination. 
+Hjarvard argues that these representations of banal religion are not irrelevant, but fundamental in the production of religious thoughts and feelings where the institutionalized religious texts and symbols arise as secondary features, in a sense as rationalization after the fact.
+David Morgan is criticizing Hjarvard's concept of mediatization for being limited to a specific historical context. Morgan argues that the mediatization of religion is not necessarily connected with modernization and secularization. Historically, communication through music, art, and writing have had a degree of ubiquity similar to the modern mass media and have shaped human society in distinct ways. 
+Religious life has always been mediated when people believe that séances communicate with spirits of the dead, prayers communicate with deities, icons establish connection to the heavenly saint, and sacred objects are facilitating interaction between human actors and the divine. 
+Morgan shows how British evangelical printed texts in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries shaped religious life. These texts were not endorsed by the state or the church, but still explicitly Christian. This is an example of mediatization that was not connected with secularization or modernization. 
+Morgan agrees, however, that mediatization remains a useful concept for describing the effects of certain forms of media use. The intrigue or mystery that many find in fiction, exotic religions, occultism, astrology, dreams, etc. — what Hjarvard calls banal religion — suggests that images, music, and objects carry a potency that operates independent of explicit or institutional religion.
+Studies of religious media in other parts of the world confirm that mediatization is not necessarily connected with secularization. 
+Televangelism has a large influence on religious life in Northern America. 
+The American concept of televangelism has been copied in many parts of the world and adopted not only by Christian evangelists, but also by Islamic, Buddhist, and Hinduist preachers. This has led to increased competition between the established religious institutions and self-styled televangelists, between different sects, and between different religions. 
+Televangelism is a powerful medium for fund raising which has enabled televangelists to establish large business enterprises combining religious activity with entertainment and trade.
+The internet has opened many new possibilities for religious communication. Memorial sites on the internet have supplemented or replaced physical cemeteries. 
+Dalai Lama performs religious ceremonies online which help Tibetan refugees and diaspora recreate religious practices outside of Tibet. 
+Many religious communities around the world are using interactive internet media to communicate with believers, transmit services, give directions and advise, answer questions, and even engage in dialogues between different religions. 
+The social media allow a more democratic and less centralized religious dialogue.
+Sharing of religious texts, images, and videos on social media is often encouraged by religious communities. Unlike the traditional commercial information economy based on copyright, some televangelists in Singapore are deliberately sharing their media products without intellectual property rights in order to allow their followers to share these works on social media and make new combinations, compositions, and mash-ups such that new ideas can develop and thrive.

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+title: "Mediatization (media)"
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+category: "reference"
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+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:25.325938+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Subcultures ===
+Hjarvard and Peterson summarize the media's role in cultural change: "(1) When various forms of subcultures try to make use of media for their own purposes, they often become (re-)embedded into mainstream culture; (2) National cultural policies often serve as levers for increased mediatization; (3) Mediatization involves a transformation of the ways in which authority and expertise are performed and reputation is acquired and defended; and (4) Technological developments shape the media's affordances and thus the particular path of mediatization."
+Mediatization research explores the ways in which media are embedded in cultural transformation. For example, "tactical" mediatization designates the response of community organizations and activists to wider technological changes. Kim Sawchuk, professor in Communication Studies, worked with a group of elderly who managed to retain their own agency in this context. For the elderly, the pressure to mediatize comes from various institutions that are transitioning to online services (government agencies, funding, banks, etc.), among other things. A tactical approach to media is one that comes from those who are subordinates within these systems. It means to implement work-arounds to make the technologies work for them. For example, in the case of the elderly group she studies, they borrowed equipment to produce video capsules explaining their mandate and the importance of this mandate for their communities, which allowed them to reach new audiences while keeping the tone and style of face-to-face communication they privilege in their day-to-day practice. Doing this, they also subverted expectations about the ability of the elderly to use new media effectively.
+Another example of study is one that is focused on the media-related practices of graffiti writers and skaters, showing how media integrate and modulate their everyday practices. The analysis also demonstrates how the mediatization of these subcultural groups brings them to become part of mainstream culture, changes their rebellious and oppositional image and engages them with the global commercialization culture.
+Another example is how media's omnipresence informs the ways Femen's protests may take place on public scenes, allow communication between individual bodies and a shared understanding of activist imaginary. It aims to analyse how their practices are moulded by the media and how these are staged in manners that facilitate spreadability.
+
+== See also ==
+Attention economy
+Concentration of media ownership
+Digital citizen
+Echo chamber (media)
+Mass communication
+Media culture
+Media literacy
+Media psychology
+Mediacracy
+Media effects
+Media studies
+Mediated Stylistics
+Social aspects of television
+
+== References ==

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+title: "Mediatization (media)"
+chunk: 3/12
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediatization_(media)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:25.325938+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Materialist ===
+The materialist school of mediatization theory studies how society, to an increasing degree, becomes dependent on the media and their logic. The studies combine results from different areas of science to describe how changes in the media and society are interrelated. In particular, they are focusing on how the political processes in Western democracies are changing through mediatization.
+The mediatization of politics can be characterized by four different dimensions, according to the Swedish professor of political communication Jesper Strömbäck and the Swiss professor of media research Frank Esser:
+The first dimension refers to the degree to which the media constitute the most important source of information about politics and society.
+The second dimension refers to the degree to which the media have become independent from other political and social institutions.
+The third dimension refers to the degree to which media content and the coverage of politics and current affairs are guided by media logic rather than political logic. This dimension deals with the extent to which the media's needs and standards of newsworthiness, rather than those of political actors or institutions, are decisive for what the media cover and how they cover it.
+The fourth dimension refers to how media logic or political logic guides political institutions, organizations, and actors.
+This four-dimensional framework makes it possible to break down the highly complex process of the mediatization of politics into discrete dimensions that can be studied empirically. The relationship between these four dimensions can be described as follows: If the mass media provide the most important source of information and the media are relatively independent, then media will be able to shape their contents to fit their demand for optimizing the number of readers and viewers, i.e., the media logic, while politicians have to adjust their communication to fit this media logic. The media are never completely independent, of course. They are subject to political regulation and dependent on economic factors and news sources. Scholars are debating where the balance of powers between media and politicians lies.
+The central concept of media logic contains three components: professionalism, commercialism, and technology. Media professionalism refers to the professional norms and values that guide journalists, such as independence and newsworthiness. Commercialism refers to the result of economic competition between commercial news media. The commercial criteria can be summarized as the least expensive mix of content that protects the interests of sponsors and investors while garnering the largest audience advertisers will pay to reach. Media technology refers to the specific requirements and possibilities that are characteristic of each of the different media technologies, including newspapers with their emphasis on print, radio with its emphasis on audio, television with its emphasis on visuals, and digital media with their emphasis on interactivity and instantaneousness.
+Mediatization plays a key role in social change that can be defined by four tendencies: extension, substitution, amalgamation, and accommodation. Extension refers to how communication technology extends the limits of human communication in terms of space, time, and expressiveness. Substitution refers to how media consumption replaces other activities by providing an attractive alternative or simply by consuming time that might otherwise have been spent on, for example, social activities. Amalgamation refers to how media use is woven into the fabric of everyday life so that the boundaries between mediated and nonmedia activities and between mediated and social definitions of reality are becoming blurred. Accommodation refers to how actors and organizations of all sectors of society, including business, politics, entertainment, sport, etc., adapt their activities and modes of operation to fit the media system.
+There is a vigorous discussion about the role of mediatization in society. Some argue that we live in a mediatization society where mass media deeply penetrate all spheres of society and are complicit in the rising political populism, while others warn against inflating mediatization to a meta-process or a superordinate process of social change. The media should not be seen as powerful agents of change because it is rare to observe the consequences of intentional actions by the media. The social consequences of mediatization are more often to be seen as unintended consequences of the media structure.
+
+== Influence of media technology ==
+
+=== Newspapers ===
+Newspapers have been available since the 18th century and became more widespread in the early 20th century due to improvements in printing technology (see history of journalism).
+Four typical types of newspapers can be distinguished: popular, quality, regional, and financial newspapers. The popular or tabloid newspapers typically contain a high proportion of soft news, personal focus, and negative news. They often use sensationalism and attention-catching headlines to increase single-copy sales from newsstands and supermarkets, while quality newspapers are generally considered to have a higher quality of journalism. Relying more on subscriptions than on single copy sales, they have less need for sensationalism. Regional newspapers have more local news, while financial newspapers have more international news of interest to their readers.
+Early newspapers were often partisan, associated with a particular political party, while today they are mostly controlled by free market forces.
+
+=== Telegraph ===
+The introduction of the electric telegraph in the US in the mid-19th century significantly influenced the contents of newspapers, giving them easy access to national news. This increased voter turnout for presidential elections.

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+---
+title: "Mediatization (media)"
+chunk: 4/12
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediatization_(media)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:25.325938+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Radio ===
+When radio became commonly available, it became an efficient medium for news, education of the public, and propaganda. Exposure to radio programs with educational content significantly increased children's school performance. Campaigns about the health effects of tobacco smoking and other health issues have been effective.
+The effects of radio programs may be unintended. For example, soap opera programs in Africa that portrayed attractive lifestyles affected people's norms and behaviors and their political preferences for redistribution of wealth.
+The radio can also facilitate political activism. Radio stations targeting a black audience had a strong effect on political activism and participation in the civil rights movement in the southern US states in the 1960s.
+The radio could also be a strong medium for propaganda in the years before television became available. The Roman Catholic priest Charles Coughlin in Michigan embraced radio broadcasting when radio was a new and rapidly expanding technology during the 1920s. Coughlin initially used the new possibility for reaching a mass audience for religious sermons, but after the onset of the Great Depression, he switched to mainly voicing his controversial political opinions, which were often antisemitic and fascistic. The radio was also a powerful tool for propaganda in Nazi Germany in the 1930s and during the war. The Nazi government facilitated the distribution of cheap radio receivers (Volksempfänger), which enabled Adolf Hitler to reach a large audience through his frequent propaganda speeches, while it was illegal for the Germans to listen to foreign radio stations. In Italy, Benito Mussolini used the radio for similar propaganda speeches.
+
+=== Television ===
+The social impact of radio was reduced after the war when television outcompeted the radio. Kent Asp, who studied the interaction of television with politics in Sweden, has identified a history of increasing mediatization. The politicians recognized in the 1960s that television had become a predominant channel for political communication took place through the following decades. The gradual acclimatization, adjustment, and adoption of media logic in political communication took place through the following decades. By the 2000s, the political institutions had almost completely integrated the logic of television and other mass media into their procedures.
+Television outcompeted newspapers and radio and crowded out other activities such as play, sports, study, and social activities. This outcome has led to lower school performance for children who have access to entertainment TV programs.
+TV viewers tend to imitate the lifestyle of role models that they see on entertainment shows. This imitation has resulted in lower fertility and higher divorce rates in various countries.
+Television is delivering strong messages of patriotism and national unity in China where the media are state-controlled.
+
+=== Toys/Play ===
+The mediatization of toys in the United States can be traced back to the post-World War II era of the 1950s. Advertisers saw the rise of children's television programming as an opportunity to utilize a new medium to market toys. Toys became heavily promoted in the media through television. Commercialization of children's television programs increased in the 1980s after the deregulation of American television. Over time, this led to the creation of popular toy brands and characters, such as G.I. Joe and Barbie, who were given their own television shows and movies to sell more toys. With the rise of the Internet, tablets, smartphones, and other Internet-connected devices, the toy and media industries have become even more closely linked, giving companies even greater opportunities to market their toys to children with the help of mediatization.
+
+=== Internet ===
+The advent of the Internet has created new opportunities and conditions for traditional newspapers and online-only news providers. Many newspapers are now publishing their news on paper and also online. This shift has enabled a more diverse assembly of breaking news, longer reports, and traditional magazine journalism. The increased competition in a diversified media market has led to more human interest and lifestyle stories and less political news, especially in the online versions of the newspapers.
+
+=== Social media ===
+Social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, have enabled a more interactive form of mass communication. The new form of Internet media that allow user-generated content has been called Web 2.0. The possibilities for user involvement have increased opportunities for networking, collaboration, and civic engagement. Protest movements, in particular, have benefited from an independent communication infrastructure.
+The circulation of messages on social media relies, to a great extent, on users who like, share, and re-distribute messages. This kind of circulation of messages is controlled less by the logic of market economics and more by the principles of memetics. Messages are selected and recirculated based on a new set of criteria different from the selection criteria of newspapers, radio, and television. People tend to share the psychologically appealing and attention-catching messages. Social media users are remarkably bad at evaluating the truth of the messages they share. Studies show that false messages are shared more often than true messages because false messages are more surprising and attention-catching. This spreading of false information has led to the proliferation of fake news and conspiracy theories on social media. Attempts to counter misinformation by fact-checking have had limited effect.
+People prefer to follow the Internet forums, pages, and groups they agree with. At the same time, the media prefer topics that are already popular. This has led to the large-scale occurrence of echo chambers and filter bubbles. A consequence of this is that the political arena has become more polarized because different groups of citizens are attending to different news sources, though the evidence of this effect is mixed.

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+---
+title: "Mediatization (media)"
+chunk: 5/12
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediatization_(media)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:25.325938+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Other forms of communication channels ===
+Online political participation may affect the political standpoints of frequent media consumers due to mass mediatization, which is becoming increasingly prevalent. Blogs, videos, and websites are all examples of alternative communication channels, as opposed to traditional media, such as newspapers and television.
+Through blog, video and website communication, individuals can gain a further connection to political institutions through freely expressing their views and opinions. This communication is possible because the Internet is bringing elites and members of the public closer together. Any ordinary person can send e-mails to a politician or a political journalist, expecting a response, or even generate millions of impressions upon regular viewers on YouTube or the Internet by publishing their opinions.
+Through these alternative means of communication, many people find that online participation with politics and even high-status politicians is becoming increasingly common and accessible. Expressive communication through the Internet proves to be more effective than communication through traditional sources, as prosumers (a combination of a producer and consumer making their media as a consumer) are becoming powerful through their reach. This alternative means of communication makes it more likely for false information to spread online, however, through sources that are unreliable and that anybody can post on, such as TikTok, and political participation can be damaged by this or corrupted through ideas or concepts that are not true.
+Online participation has led to in-person political activities and the contribution of political activists. An example is Howard Dean's Blog for America, which served as a forum for people from various backgrounds to get involved and coordinate events in the 2004 election. Online communication breeds offline communication through activism organized online, which takes place in the real world.
+
+=== Physical resources ===
+Media materialism is a theory that addresses the media's impact on the physical environment. Media materialism covers three aspects:
+
+The consumption of natural resources for industrial production of modern communication technology
+The energy consumption of communication technology in residential and institutional sectors
+The waste that is created by discarded cell phones, televisions, computers, etc.
+
+== Influence of market forces ==
+The economic mechanisms that influence the mass media are quite complex because commercial mass media are competing on many different markets at the same time:

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+title: "Mediatization (media)"
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+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediatization_(media)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:25.325938+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Competition for consumers, i.e. readers, listeners, and viewers
+Competition for advertisers and sponsors
+Competition for investors
+Competition for access to information sources, such as politicians, experts, etc.
+Competition for content providers and access rights, e.g. transmission rights for sports events
+The economists Carl Shapiro and Hal Varian wrote that information commodity markets don't work. There are several reasons for 
+this.
+An important characteristic that makes information markets different from most other markets is that the fixed costs are high while the variable costs are low or zero. The fixed costs are the costs of producing content. This includes journalistic work, research, production of educational content, entertainment, etc. The variable costs are the marginal costs of adding one more consumer. The costs of broadcasting a TV show are the same whether there is one viewer or a million viewers, hence the variable costs are zero. In general, the variable costs for digital media is virtually zero because information can be copied at very low costs. The variable costs for newspapers are the costs of printing and selling one more copy, which are low but not 
+zero.
+Commercial mass media are competing for a limited supply of advertising money. The more media companies that compete for advertising money, the lower the price of advertising, and the less money each company has for covering the fixed costs of producing content. Free competition in a media market with many competitors can lead to ruinous competition where the revenue for each company is hardly enough to produce content of the lowest possible 
+quality.
+The news media are not only competing for advertisers with other news media, they are also competing for advertisers with other companies that mainly facilitate communication rather than produce information, such as search engines and social media. IT companies such as Google, Facebook, etc. are dominating the advertising market, leaving less than half of the revenue for news media.
+The strong dependence on advertising money is forcing commercial mass media to mainly target audiences that are profitable to the advertisers. They tend to avoid controversial content and avoid issues that the advertisers dislike.
+The competition for access to politicians, police, and other important news sources can enable these sources to manipulate the media by providing selective information and by favoring those media that give them positive coverage.
+Competition between TV stations for transmission rights to the most popular sports events, the most popular entertainment formats, and the most popular talk show hosts can drive up prices to extreme levels. This is often a winner-takes-it-all market where perhaps a pay TV channel is able to outbid the public broadcast channels. The result is that for example a popular sports event will be available to fewer viewers at higher prices than would result if competition was 
+limited.
+Thus, competition on media markets is very different from competition on other markets with higher variable costs. Many studies have shown that fierce competition between news media results in trivialization and poor quality. We are seeing a large amount of cheap entertainment, gossip, and sensationalism, and very little civic affairs and thorough journalistic 
+research. 
+Newspapers are particularly affected by the increasing competition, resulting in lower circulation and lower journalistic quality.
+Classical economic theory would predict that competition leads to diversity, but this is not always the case with media markets. Moderate competition may lead to niche diversification, but there are many examples where fierce competition instead leads to wasteful sameness. Many TV channels are producing the same kind of cheap entertainment that appeals to the largest possible audience.
+The high fixed costs favor large companies and large markets.
+Unregulated media markets often lead to concentration of ownership, which can be horizontal (same company owning multiple channels) or vertical (content suppliers and network distributors under same owner). Economic efficiency is improved by the concentration of ownership, but it may reduce diversity by excluding unaffiliated content 
+suppliers.
+Unregulated markets tend to be dominated by a few large companies, while smaller firms may occupy niche positions. Large markets are characterized by monopolistic competition where each company offers a slightly different product. The cable TV companies are differentiated along political lines in the USA where the fairness doctrine no longer applies.
+We may expect that a company that runs multiple broadcast channels would produce different content on the different channels to avoid competing with itself, but the evidence shows a mixed picture. Some studies show that market concentration increases diversity and innovation, while other studies show the 
+opposite.
+A market where multiple companies own one TV channel each does not guarantee diversity either. 
+On the contrary, we often see wasteful duplication where everybody is trying to reach the same mainstream audience with the same kind of 
+programs. 
+The situation is different for publicly funded TV channels. The non-commercial Danish national TV, for example, has multiple broadcast channels sending different kinds of content in order to meet its public service 
+obligation.
+European countries have a tradition for public service radio and television that is funded fully or partially by government subsidies or mandatory license payment for everybody who has a radio or TV. Historically, these public service broadcasters have delivered high quality programmes including news based on thorough journalistic investigation, as well as educational programmes, public information, debate, special programs for minorities, and 
+entertainment. 
+However, broadcasters who depend on government funding or mandatory license payments are vulnerable to political pressure from the incumbent government. Some media are protected from political pressure through strong charters and arms-length oversight organizations, while those with weaker protection are more influenced by pressure from 
+politicians.
+The public service broadcasters in several European countries initially had monopoly on broadcasting, but the strict regulation was relaxed in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Competition from commercial radio and TV stations had a strong impact on the public service broadcasters. 
+In Greece, the new competition from commercial TV led to lower quality and less diversity, contrary to the expectation of the economists. The contents of the public channels became similar to the commercial channels with less news and more 
+entertainment. 
+In the Netherlands, diversity of TV programs increased in periods with moderate competition, but decreased in periods with ruinous competition.
+In Denmark, the degree of dependence on advertising and private investors influenced the amount of trivialization, but even a publicly financed advertisement-free TV channel became more trivialized as a result of competition with commercial channels. 
+In Finland, the government has avoided ruinous competition by strict regulation of the TV market. The result is more diversity.

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+---
+title: "Mediatization (media)"
+chunk: 7/12
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediatization_(media)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:25.325938+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Sociocultural change ==
+The concept of mediatization is focusing not only on media effects but on the interrelation between the change of media communication on the one hand and sociocultural changes on the other. Some aspects of sociocultural change are reviewed in the following sections.
+
+=== Crime, disaster, and fear ===
+It is a common adage that fear sells. News media are often using fearmongering to attract readers, listeners, and viewers. 
+Stories about crime, disaster, dangerous diseases, etc. have a prominent place in many news media. 
+Historically, the tabloid newspapers have relied quite a lot on crime news in order to make customers buy today's 
+newspaper. 
+This strategy has been copied by the electronic media, especially when competition is 
+fierce.
+The news media have often created moral panics by exaggerating minor social problems or even completely imaginary dangers 
+as seen, for example, in the satanic cult scare.
+The scare stories may have political consequences, even if the media have only economic motives. Politicians often implement draconian laws and tough on crime policies because they feel compelled to react to the perceived dangers.
+In a larger perspective, the high affinity of many news media for crime and disaster has led to a culture of fear where people are taking unnecessary precautions against minor or unlikely dangers while they pay less attention to the much higher risks of, for example, lifestyle diseases or traffic accidents.
+Psychologists fear that the heavy exposure to crime and disaster in the media is fostering a mean world syndrome causing depression, anxiety, and 
+anger. 
+The perception of the world as a dangerous place may lead to authoritarian submission, conformism, and aggression against minorities according to the theory of 
+right-wing authoritarianism.
+The culture of fear may have a strong influence on the whole culture and political climate. A widespread perception of collective danger can push the culture and politics in the direction of authoritarianism, intolerance, and bellicosity, according to regality theory. This is an unintended consequence of the economic competition between the news media.
+Law enforcement agencies have learned to cooperate with the mass media to dramatize crime in order to promote their own agenda.
+It is often suspected that politicians actively take advantage of the media's proclivity for fearmongering in order to promote a particular agenda. Warnings about possible terror attacks have increased public support for the US 
+president, 
+and the fearful sentiments after the September 11 terror attacks have been used to garner support for the wars in Afghanistan and 
+Iraq.
+
+=== Mediatization of ignorance ===
+Unlike other forms of mediatization that focus on spreading knowledge, the mediatization of ignorance involves the mediatization of unknowns (known unknowns). The mediatization of ignorance occurs when information that has not yet been vetted, fully understood, or confirmed by experts moves through various media channels and is presented to audiences as fact. Three phases are found in the mediatization of ignorance: the revelation, the acceleration, and the irredeemable phases. During the revelation phase, information that experts still need to fully vetted is revealed to the media; however, communicative leaders such as scientists, health professionals, or researchers still have control of the narrative. During the acceleration phase, the information spreads rapidly and becomes, regardless of validity, what the audience begins to view as reality. Communicative leaders lose control of the narrative during this phase of the mediatization of ignorance. Finally, during the irredeemable phase, experts lose all control of the narrative even after gathering scientific evidence to prove that the non-vetted information was false.
+An example of the three phases of the mediatization of ignorance can be found during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic surrounding the hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) drug. During the revelation phase, the media heard that the HCQ could be a potential treatment for COVID-19 based on limited initial evidence. This revelation sparked media and audience interest. The topic of the HCQ drug was later boosted into the acceleration phase after Donald Trump endorsed the drug, even though evidence of the drug's effectiveness was still lacking. Due to the reports of success and a celebrity endorsement, there was a temporary shortage of the HCQ drug due to high demand based on the perceived effectiveness of the drug. Even though later research and trials revealed little to no effectiveness of the HCQ drug against the COVID-19 virus, the irredeemable phase of the mediatization of ignorance had already been reached. Because of this, the link between the ineffective drug and COVID-19 had already been established and believed as true by a majority of audiences.
+
+=== Democracy and news media ===
+A democracy can only function properly if voters are well informed about candidates and political issues. It is generally assumed that the news media are serving the function of informing voters. However, since the late 20th century there has been a growing concern that voters may be poorly informed because the news media are focusing more on entertainment and gossip and less on serious journalistic research on political 
+issues.
+The media professors Michael Gurevitch and Jay Blumler have proposed a number of functions that the mass media are expected to fulfill in a democracy:

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+title: "Mediatization (media)"
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+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:25.325938+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Surveillance of the sociopolitical environment
+Meaningful agenda setting
+Platforms for an intelligible and illuminating advocacy
+Dialogue across a diverse range of views
+Mechanisms for holding officials to account for how they have exercised power
+Incentives for citizens to learn, choose, and become involved
+A principled resistance to the efforts of forces outside the media to subvert their independence, integrity, and ability to serve the audience
+A sense of respect for the audience member, as potentially concerned and able to make sense of his or her political environment
+This proposal has inspired a lot of discussions over whether the news media are actually fulfilling the functions that a well functioning democracy requires.
+Commercial mass media are generally not accountable to anybody but their owners, and they have no obligation to serve a democratic function. 
+They are controlled mainly by economic market forces. Fierce economic competition may force the mass media to divert themselves from any democratic ideals and focus entirely on how to survive the competition.
+Quality or elite newspapers are still providing serious political news, while tabloid newspapers and commercial TV stations deliver more soft news and entertainment. The quality of the news media is different in different countries, depending on regulation and market structure. However, even the quality newspapers are dumbing down their contents in order to target more readers when competition is fierce.
+Public service media have an obligation to provide reliable information to voters. Many countries have publicly funded radio and television stations with public service obligations, especially in Europe and Japan, while such media are weak or non-existent in other countries including the 
+USA.
+Several studies have shown that the stronger the dominance of commercial broadcast media over public service media, the less the amount of policy-relevant information in the media and the more focus on horse race journalism, personalities, and the peccadillos of politicians. Public service broadcasters are characterized by more policy-relevant information and more respect for journalistic norms of impartiality than the commercial media. However, the trend of deregulation has put the public service model under increased pressure from competition with commercial 
+media.
+Many journalists would prefer to hold their professional standards high, but the competition for audience is forcing them to deliver more soft news and entertainment and less substantial public affairs coverage. Politics has become popularized to such a degree that the lines between politics and entertainment are becoming increasingly 
+blurred. 
+At the same time, the commercialization has made the news media vulnerable to external influence and manipulation.
+The tabloidization and popularization of the news media is seen in an increasing focus on human examples rather than statistics and principles. The ability to find effective political solutions to social problems is hampered when problems tend to be blamed on individuals rather than on structural causes. 
+This person-centered focus may have far-reaching consequences not only for domestic problems but also for foreign policy when international conflicts are blamed on foreign heads of state rather than on political and economic structures. 
+A strong focus on fear and terrorism has allowed military logic to penetrate public institutions, leading to increased surveillance and the erosion of civil rights.
+There is more focus on politicians as personalities and less focus on political issues in the popular media. Election campaigns are covered more as horse races and less as debates about ideologies and issues. The dominating focus on spin, conflict, and competitive strategies has made voters perceive the politicians as egoists rather than idealists. This fosters mistrust and a cynical attitude to politics, less civic engagement, and less interest in 
+voting.
+Bargaining between political parties becomes more difficult under media focus because necessary concessions will make individual negotiators lose credibility. Negotiations require an atmosphere of privacy which allows for compromises, communicated to the public as collective decisions without indicating any winner or loser.
+A considerable decline in the quantity and quality of negotiation outcomes seems likely due to this incompatibility between news media logic and political bargaining logic.
+The responsiveness and accountability of the democratic system is compromised when lack of access to substantive, diverse, and undistorted information is handicapping the citizens' capability of evaluating the political process.
+Formal ties between newspapers and political parties were common in the first half of the 20th century, but rare today. Instead, politicians must adapt to the media logic. Many politicians have found ways to manipulate the media to serve their own ends. They often stage events or leak information with the sole purpose of getting the media to cover their agenda.
+The fast pace and trivialization in the competitive news media is handicapping the political debate. Thorough and balanced investigation of complex political issues does not fit into this format. The political communication is characterized by short time horizons, short slogans, simple explanations, and simple answers. This is conducive to political populism rather than serious deliberation.
+The Italian businessman and populist politician Silvio Berlusconi took advantage of the fact that he owned many of the commercial TV stations. This secured him a favorable coverage that enabled him to become prime minister for a total of nine years. 
+Studies in Italy show that individuals exposed to entertainment TV as children were less cognitively sophisticated and less civic minded as adults. Exposure to educational content, on the other hand, improved the cognitive abilities and civic engagement.
+People form habits around their media consumption and often stick to the same media. 
+This is an easy way to minimize the cognitive efforts of information processing. 
+An experiment in China showed that consumers who were given access to uncensored news tended to stick to their old habits and watch the state censored news media. However, after given incentives to watch the uncensored news, they kept preferring the uncensored news, which led to persistent changes in their knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes.
+Some commentators have presented an optimistic view, arguing that democracy is still functioning despite the shortcomings of the media, 
+while others deplore the rise of political populism, polarization, and extremism that the popular media seem to be contributing 
+to.
+Many media scholars have discussed non-commercial news media with public service obligations as a means to improve the democratic process by providing the kind of political contents that a free market does not 
+provide. 
+The World Bank has recommended public service broadcasting services in order to strengthen democracy in developing countries. These broadcasting services should be accountable to an independent regulatory body that is adequately protected from interference from political and economic interests.

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+title: "Mediatization (media)"
+chunk: 9/12
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediatization_(media)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:25.325938+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Democracy and social media ===
+The emergence of the internet and the social media has profoundly altered the conditions for political communication. The social media have given ordinary citizens easy access to voice their opinion and share information while bypassing the filters of the large news media. This is often seen as an advantage for democracy.
+The social media make it possible for politicians to get immediate feedback from citizens on their policy proposals, but they also make it difficult for politicians and business leaders to hide information.
+The new possibilities for communication have fundamentally changed the way social movements and protest movements operate and organize. The internet and social media have provided powerful new tools for democracy movements in developing countries and emerging democracies, enabling them to organize protests and to produce visual events suitable for the 
+media.
+The social media and search engines are financed mainly by advertising. They are able to target advertisements specifically to the population segments that the advertisers select. The fact that these media act like marketing companies and consultants may compromise their neutrality.
+Another problem is that the social media have no truth filters. The established news media have to guard their reputation as trustworthy, while ordinary citizens may post unreliable information. Echo chambers may emerge when people are sharing unchecked information with groups of like minded people. Studies find evidence of clusters of people with the same opinions on social media like Facebook. People tend to trust information shared by their friends. This may lead to selective exposure to partisan opinions, but several studies show that people are exposed to a more diverse set of news and opinions on social media than on traditional news media.
+False stories are shared more than true stories, as discussed above. Conspiracy theories, whether true or false, are shared on social media because people find them interesting, exciting, and entertaining. The proliferation of conspiracy beliefs may undermine public trust in the political system and public officials. A noteworthy example is the mistrust of health officials during the COVID-19 pandemic.
+Some studies indicate that there are political asymmetries in responses to misinformation due to differences in personality characteristics and media structures. Psychological traits such as close-mindedness, uncertainty avoidance, and resistance to change are more common among conservatives than among liberals and moderates. These traits, combined with more selective media use and a more insular nature of the conservative media ecosystem, make conservatives more likely than liberals to share and believe misinformation. Liberal citizens are more likely to share fact-checking information than conservatives. Furthermore, liberal and moderate media are more likely than conservative media to fact check their stories and to retract false 
+stories.
+State regulation of social media is a problem for free speech. Instead, major social media have implemented self-regulation in order to defend their reputation. 
+Social media are often sanctioning against hate speech, 
+while general misinformation is more difficult to combat. The medias' own filters are often unreliable and vulnerable to manipulation.
+Some social media are publishing fact-checking information in order to counter misinformation. Studies of the effects of fact-checking have given mixed results. Some studies find that fact-checking is reducing the beliefs in misinformation. 
+Other studies find that corrective information influences knowledge but not voting intentions. 
+Fact-checking may even be counterproductive when people do not trust the fact-checking organizations or when they construct 
+counter-arguments.
+Some observers have proposed media literacy education as a means to make people less susceptible to believe misinformation. 
+Research suggests that media literacy education is most effective when it includes personal feedback.
+The social media are very vulnerable to manipulation because it is possible to set up fake accounts. Various propaganda agencies are secretly setting up large numbers of fake social media accounts pretending to be ordinary people. The fake accounts are often operated by automated computers programmed to act like real people, the so-called bots. 
+Such fake accounts and bots are used for spreading and sharing propaganda, disinformation, and fake news. Business operators may spread disinformation about competitors or stock markets; political organizations may try to influence the public opinion in political matters; and military intelligence organizations may use the spreading of disinformation as a means of information warfare. 
+For example, the Russian web brigades or troll farms have disseminated large amounts of fake news in order to influence the election of US president Donald Trump in 2016, according to  
+an intelligence report. See also Russian interference in the 2016 Brexit referendum. Bots have also been highly involved in spreading misinformation about 
+COVID-19.
+
+=== Mediatization of politics ===
+The mediatization of politics focuses on the transformative effect media exerts on politics. It is argued that there are four dimensions of the transformation of politics. The first dimension focuses on media as the source of political information. If politics is highly mediatized, a public's only way of learning about new laws and policy is through the media. The second dimension is concerned with the media's independency from politics and whether or not the media is able to speak out against political figures. The third dimension focuses on which logic rules the media–– media logic or political logic. If politics are low to moderately mediatized, political logic (media coverage of laws and policy) will be favored whereas if politics are highly mediatized, media logic (coverage of entertaining and dramatized political stories) will be favored. Finally, the fourth dimension focuses on whether or not political figures favor media or political logic.

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+---
+title: "Mediatization (media)"
+chunk: 10/12
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediatization_(media)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:25.325938+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Political populism ===
+Populism refers to a political style characterized by anti-establishment and anti-elite rhetoric and a simplified, polarized definition of political issues. The establishment is often evoked in populist rhetoric as the source of crisis, breakdown, or corruption. This can take the form of the denial of expert knowledge and the championing of common sense against the bureaucrats. Much of the appeal of populists comes from their disregard for "appropriate" ways of acting in the political realm. This includes a tabloid style with the use of slang, political incorrectness, and being overly demonstrative and colorful, as opposed to the elite behaviors of rigidness, rationality, and technocratic 
+language. 
+Citizens with populist attitudes have a preference for tabloid media content that simplifies issues in binary "us" versus "them" oppositions.
+It is often difficult for populist politicians to get their messages through the mainstream media, especially when these messages contain unverified claims or socially inappropriate speech. The internet has provided populists with new communication channels that match their needs for unfiltered communication. Populists sometimes rely on borderline truths, forged content, manipulative speech, and unverified claims that would not pass the gatekeepers at reputable news media. The availability of independent internet media and social media has thus opened a door to the spreading of biased information, selective perception, confirmation bias, motivated reasoning, and inclinations to reinforce in-group identities in echo chambers. This has paved the way to a rise in populism around the 
+world.
+Another factor contributing to the rise of populism is the concentration of ownership of internet news media. This enables the dissemination of attention-catching content targeted at specific audience segments in a fragmented market. The content that is most profitable happens to also be the most emotional, incendiary, polarizing, and divisive messages. This contributes to inflating the loudest and most antagonistic voices and intensifying social conflicts by distorting facts and limiting exposure to competing ideas.
+Right-wing populism is characterized by short and emotional or scandalizing messages without sophisticated theorizing. The communication is controlled by strong charismatic leaders in an asymmetric top-down manner. The social media pages of populist politicians are often heavily moderated to suppress critical comments. The type of reasoning is based mostly on anecdotal evidence and emotional narratives, while abstract arguments based on statistics or theory are dismissed as 
+elitist.
+Left-wing populism is less top-down controlled and more engaging than right-wing populism. For example, the Spanish party Podemos is relying on a media strategy of viral dissemination of emotional, controversial, and provocative messages.
+Populism has led to strong polarization in many countries. The lack of shared world view and agreed-upon facts is an obstacle to meaningful democratic dialogue. Extreme political polarization may undermine the trust in democratic institutions, leading to erosion of civil rights and free speech and in some cases even reversion to autocracy.
+
+=== Sport ===
+Sport is a prime example of mediatization. The organization of sports is highly influenced by the mass media, and the media in turn are influenced by sports.
+Sport has historically had a very close relationship with mass media through a parallel development of sports organizations and sports journalism. Big sports events, such as the Tour de France and the UEFA Champions League, were originally invented and initiated by newspapers.
+The mass media are important for sports organizations. The media help attract new participants, encourage spectators, and attract sponsors, advertisers, and investors. 
+Broadcasting of sports events is important for sports organizations as well as for television stations. This has led to increasing commercialization of sports since the 1980s. We have seen the development of close partnerships between a relatively small number of highly professional sports organizations and big broadcast organizations. The rules of the games, as well as tournament structures etc., have been adjusted to fit the entertainment focus of television and other news media.
+The commercialization of elite sport has led to an increased focus on individual athletes and individual teams through press photos, interviews, merchandise, and fan culture leading to the rise of stardom and extremely high salaries.
+The most popular sports can attract huge amounts of money through sponsorship and transmission rights, while a majority of less popular sports are marginalized and find it hard to attract funding. The most popular athletes, in particular, are traded or transferred at extreme prices.
+Popular sports events are used not only for advertising products and companies, but also for promoting countries through the organization of large international sporting events, such as the Olympic Games, world championships, etc.
+The commercialization and professionalization of sports has led to an increasing integration of sport enterprises and entertainment media, and a growing industry involving professional coaches, consultants, biomechanical experts, etc.
+These developments have led to new ethical concerns about the erosion of the spirit of amateurism and the ideals of fair play. Athletes in elite sports are often forced to play to the extreme limits of the rules in order to maximize their chances of winning. This makes them poor role models for amateurs and fans. The large sums of money at stake increase the temptations to various forms of cheating, such as unfair play, doping, match fixing, bribery, etc. 
+Among the concerns are also sponsorships with unhealthy products and the gambling industry.
+The competition for exclusive transmission rights to popular sports events has driven up prices to such levels that several countries have implemented anti-siphoning laws to make sure that consumers have free access to watch these events.

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+---
+title: "Middleman minority"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middleman_minority"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:27.651582+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+A middleman minority is a minority population whose main occupations link producers and consumers are traders, moneylenders, service providers, etc. This often results in the minority having a disproportionately large role in trade, finance, or commerce, without holding the significant political power associated with a dominant minority.
+A middleman minority does not hold an "extreme subordinate" status in society, but may suffer discrimination and bullying for being perceived as outsiders to both elite and majority populations. Middleman minorities are more likely to emerge in stratified or colonial societies, where significant power gaps may exist between dominant elites and subordinate consumers, thereby fulfilling a niche within the economic status gap.
+Middleman minorities often are associated with stereotypes of greed or clannishness. During periods of economic or political instability, middleman minorities often arouse the hostility of their host society or are used as scapegoats, which has been theorized by Bonacich to perpetuate a reluctance to assimilate completely. Economic nationalism or exclusion from gainful employment can further reinforce tendencies to start businesses or create new economic value outside of existing value chains.
+The "middleman minority" concept was developed by sociologists Hubert Blalock and Edna Bonacich in the 1960s and by following political scientists and economists.
+
+
+== Examples ==
+In Africa
+Indians in East Africa, especially British Commonwealth countries
+Indians in Uganda
+Indians in Kenya
+Indians in Tanzania
+Igbos in Nigeria
+In South Africa:
+Indian South Africans
+Cape Malays
+Syrians and Lebanese in West Africa
+In South Asia
+Kashmiri Pandits in India
+Gujaratis in India
+Marwaris in India
+Parsis in India
+Bohras in India
+Marwaris in Nepal
+Thakalis in Nepal
+Newars in Nepal
+Tibetans in Nepal
+Tamils in colonial Sri Lanka
+In North America
+Jewish Americans
+Armenian Americans
+Indian Americans
+Japanese Americans
+Korean Americans
+Chinese Americans
+Chinese Americans in the Mississippi Delta
+Greek Americans
+Lebanese Americans
+In South America
+Japanese in South America
+Lebanese in South America
+The majority of the 19th and early 20th centuries Middle Eastern immigrants to Brazil (Lebanese, Syrians, etc., collectively called "arabes" or "turcos", the latter term because they came from the Ottoman Empire) were peddlers, merchants and other types of non-"producers".
+In West Asia
+Ottoman Greeks
+Arab Christians in the Arab world
+Hadhrami Arabs
+Armenians in the Ottoman Empire
+Armenians in Baku during the Russian Empire
+Persian Armenians in Safavid dynasty
+Azerbaijanis during the Imperial era of Iran (16th–20th centuries) and in contemporary Iran
+Azerbaijanis in the Tsardom of Russia, in the Russian Empire and in contemporary Russia
+Ottoman Jews
+Radhanite Jews
+In East and Southeast Asia
+Particular Han Chinese subgroups in modern-day China
+Min-speaking people
+Wu-speaking people
+Cantonese people
+Hakka people
+Koreans in Manchuria in the late Qing Dynasty era and in modern-day Northeast China
+Hui people in China
+Chinese in Mongolia during Qing rule
+Chinese in Southeast Asia
+Chinese Filipinos
+Thai Chinese
+Chinese Indonesians
+Malaysian Chinese
+Peranakan Chinese
+Indians in Southeast Asia
+Bugis and Minangkabau in Indonesia and Malaysia
+Elsewhere
+Indo-Fijians
+European Jews
+Vietnamese in the Czech Republic
+
+
+== See also ==
+Colonialism, particularly exploitation colonialism and plantation colonies
+Dominant minority
+Minoritarianism
+Model minority
+Neocolonialism
+World on Fire, which discusses the similar concept of "market-dominant minorities"
+Yuri Slezkine's book The Jewish Century (2004) discussed the concept of "Mercurian" people "specializ[ing] exclusively in providing services to the surrounding food-producing societies," which are characterized as "Apollonians"
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== Further reading ==
+Silverman, Robert Mark. 2000. Doing Business in Minority Markets: Black and Korean Entrepreneurs in Chicago’s Ethnic Beauty Aids Industry. New York: Garland Publishing.
+Cobas, José A. (Apr 1987). "Ethnic enclaves and middleman minorities: alternative strategies of immigrant adaptation?". Sociol Perspect. 30 (2): 143–61. doi:10.2307/1388996. JSTOR 1388996. PMID 12315137. S2CID 28038205.
+Pál Nyíri,  Chinese in Eastern Europe and Russia: A Middleman Minority in a Transnational Era, 2007, ISBN 0415446864

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+---
+title: "Mode of production"
+chunk: 1/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mode_of_production"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:28.869292+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+In the Marxist theory of historical materialism, a mode of production (German: Produktionsweise, "the way of producing") is a specific combination of the:
+
+Productive forces: these include human labour power and means of production (tools, machinery, factory buildings, infrastructure, technical knowledge, raw materials, plants, animals, exploitable land).
+Social and technical relations of production: these include the property, power and control relations (legal code) governing the means of production of society, cooperative work associations, relations between people and the objects of their work, and the relations among the social classes.
+Marx said that a person's productive ability and participation in social relations are two essential characteristics of social reproduction, and that the particular modality of those social relations in the capitalist mode of production is inherently in conflict with the progressive development of the productive capabilities of human beings. A precursor concept was Adam Smith's mode of subsistence, which delineated a progression of types of society based upon how the citizens of a society provided for their material needs.
+
+== Significance of concept ==
+Building on the four-stage theory of human development of the Scottish Enlightenment – Hunting/Pastoral/Agricultural/Commercial Societies, each with its own socio-cultural characteristics – Marx articulated the concept of mode of production: "The mode of production in material life determines the general character of the social, political, and spiritual processes of life."
+Marx considered that the way people relate to the physical world and the way people relate to each other socially are bound up together in specific and necessary ways: "men [who] produce cloth, linen, silk...also produce the social relations amid which they prepare cloth and linen." People must consume to survive, but to consume they must produce and in producing they necessarily enter into relations which exist independently of their will.
+For Marx, the whole secret of why/how a social order exists and the causes of social change must be discovered in the specific mode of production that a society has. He further argued that the mode of production substantively shaped the nature of the mode of distribution, the mode of circulation and the mode of consumption, all of which together constitute the economic sphere. To understand the way wealth was distributed and consumed, it was necessary to understand the conditions under which it was produced.
+A mode of production is historically distinctive for Marx because it constitutes part of an organic totality (or self-reproducing whole) which is capable of constantly re-creating its own initial conditions and thus perpetuate itself in a more or less stable ways for centuries, or even millennia. By performing social surplus labour in a specific system of property relations, the labouring classes constantly reproduce the foundations of the social order. A mode of production normally shapes the mode of distribution, circulation and consumption and is regulated by the state. As Marx wrote to Annenkov, "Assume particular stages of development in production, commerce and consumption and you will have a corresponding social order, a corresponding organization of the family and of the ranks and classes, in a word, a corresponding civil society."
+However any given mode of production will also contain within it (to a greater or lesser extent) relics of earlier modes, as well as seeds of new ones.  The emergence of new productive forces will cause conflict in the current mode of production. When conflict arises, the modes of production can evolve within the current structure or cause a complete breakdown.
+
+=== Process of socioeconomic change ===
+The process by which social and economic systems evolve is based on the premise of improving technology. Specifically, as the level of technology improves, existing forms of social relations become increasingly insufficient for fully exploiting technology. This generates internal inefficiencies within the broader socioeconomic system, most notably in the form of class conflict. The obsolete social arrangements prevent further social progress while generating increasingly severe contradictions between the level of technology (forces of production) and social structure (social relations, conventions and organization of production) which develop to a point where the system can no longer sustain itself and is overthrown through internal social revolution that allows for the emergence of new forms of social relations that are compatible with the current level of technology (productive forces).
+The fundamental driving force behind structural changes in the socioeconomic organization of civilization are underlying material concerns—specifically, the level of technology and extent of human knowledge and the forms of social organization they make possible. This comprises what Marx termed the materialist conception of history (see also materialism) and is in contrast to an idealist analysis, (such as that criticised by Marx in Proudhon),  which states that the fundamental driving force behind socioeconomic change are the ideas of enlightened individuals.
+
+== Modes of production ==
+The main modes of production that Marx identified include primitive communism, slave society, feudalism, capitalism and communism. In each of these stages of production, people interact with nature and production in different ways. Any surplus from that production was distributed differently. Marx propounded that humanity first began living in primitive communist societies, then came the ancient societies such as Rome and Greece which were based on a ruling class of citizens and a class of slaves, then feudalism which was based on nobles and serfs, and then capitalism which is based on the capitalist class (bourgeoisie) and the working class (proletariat). In his idea of a future communist society, Marx explains that classes would no longer exist, and therefore the exploitation of one class by another is abolished.

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+title: "Mode of production"
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+category: "reference"
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+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:28.869292+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Primitive communism ===
+Marx and Engels often referred to the "first" mode of production as primitive communism.  In classical Marxism, the two earliest modes of production  were those of the tribal band or horde, and of the Neolithic kinship group. Tribal bands of hunter gatherers represented for most of human history the only form of possible existence. Technological progress in the Stone Age was very slow; social stratification was very limited (as were personal possessions, hunting grounds being held in common); and myth, ritual and magic are seen as the main cultural forms. Due to their limited means of production (hunting and gathering) each individual was only able to produce enough to sustain themselves, thus without any surplus there is nothing to exploit. This inherently makes them communist in social relations although primitive in productive forces.
+
+=== Asiatic and tributary modes of production ===
+
+The Asiatic mode of production is a controversial contribution to Marxist theory, first used to explain pre-slave and pre-feudal large earthwork constructions in India, the Euphrates and Nile river valleys (and named on this basis of the primary evidence coming from greater "Asia"). The Asiatic mode of production is said to be the initial form of class society, where a small group extracts social surplus through violence aimed at settled or unsettled band and village communities within a domain. It was made possible by a technological advance in data-processing – writing, cataloguing and archiving – as well as by associated advances in standardisation of weights and measures, mathematics, calendar-making and irrigation.
+Exploited labour is extracted as forced corvee labour during a slack period of the year (allowing for monumental construction such as the pyramids, ziggurats and ancient Indian communal baths). Exploited labour is also extracted in the form of goods directly seized from the exploited communities. The primary property form of this mode is the direct religious possession of communities (villages, bands, and hamlets, and all those within them) by the gods: in a typical example, three-quarters of the property would be allotted to individual families, while the remaining quarter would be worked for the theocracy. The ruling class of this society is generally a semi-theocratic aristocracy which claims to be the incarnation of gods on earth. The forces of production associated with this society include basic agricultural techniques, massive construction, irrigation, and storage of goods for social benefit (granaries). Because of the unproductive use of the creamed-off surplus, such Asiatic empires tended to be doomed to fall into decay.
+Marxist historians such as John Haldon and Chris Wickham have argued that societies interpreted by Marx as examples of the AMP are better understood as Tributary Modes of Production (TMP). The TMP is characterized as having a "state class" as its specific form of ruling class, which has exclusive or almost exclusive rights to extract surplus from peasants over whom, however, it does not exercise tenurial control.
+
+=== Ancient mode of production ===
+The agricultural revolution led to the development of the first civilizations. With the adoption of agriculture at the outset of the Neolithic Revolution, and accompanying technological advances in pottery, brewing, baking, and weaving, there came a modest increase in social stratification, and the birth of class with private property held in hierarchical kinship groups or clans. Animism was replaced by a new emphasis on gods of fertility; and (possibly) a move from matriarchy to patriarchy took place at the same time. Technological advances in the form of cheap iron tools, coinage, and the alphabet, and the division of labour between industry, trade and farming, enabled new and larger units to develop in the form of the polis, which called in turn for new forms of social aggregation. A host of urban associations – formal and informal – took over from earlier familial and tribal groupings. Constitutionally agreed law replaced the vendetta - an advance celebrated in such new urban cultural forms as Greek tragedy: thus, as Robert Fagles put it, "The Oresteia is our rite of passage from savagery to civilization...from the blood vendetta to the social justice."
+Ancient Greece and Rome are the most typical examples of this antique mode of production. The forces of production associated with this mode include advanced (two field) agriculture, the extensive use of animals in agriculture, industry (mining and pottery), and advanced trade networks. It is differentiated from the Asiatic mode in that property forms included the direct possession of individual human beings (slavery): thus for example Plato in his ideal city-state of Magnesia envisaged for the leisured ruling class of citizens that "their farms have been entrusted to slaves, who provide them with sufficient produce of the land to keep them in modest comfort." The ancient mode of production is also distinguished by the way the ruling class usually avoids the more outlandish claims of being the direct incarnation of a god and prefers to be the descendants of gods, or seeks other justifications for its rule, including varying degrees of popular participation in politics.
+It was not so much democracy, but rather the universalising of its citizenship, that eventually enabled Rome to set up a Mediterranean-wide urbanised empire, knit together by roads, harbours, lighthouses, aqueducts, and bridges, and with engineers, architects, traders and industrialists fostering interprovincial trade between a growing set of urban centres.
+
+=== Feudal mode of production ===

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+title: "Mode of production"
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+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:28.869292+00:00"
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+---
+
+Feudalism Is the third mode of production where by the major means of production was land. The fall of the Western Roman Empire returned most of Western Europe to subsistence agriculture, dotted with ghost towns and obsolete trade-routes Authority too was localised, in a world of poor roads and difficult farming conditions. The new social form which, by the ninth century, had emerged in place of the ties of family or clan, of sacred theocracy or legal citizenship was a relationship based on the personal tie of vassal to lord, cemented by the link to landholding in the guise of the fief. This was the feudal mode of production, which dominated the systems of the West between the fall of the classical world and the rise of capitalism. (Similar systems existing in most of the world as well.) This period also saw the decentralization of the ancient empires into the earliest nation-states.
+The primary form of property is the possession of land in reciprocal contract relations, military service for knights, labour services to the lord of the manor by peasants or serfs tied to and entailed upon the land. Exploitation occurs through reciprocated contract (though ultimately resting on the threat of forced extractions). The ruling class is usually a nobility or aristocracy, typically legitimated by some concurrent form of theocracy. The primary forces of production include highly complex agriculture (two, three field, lucerne fallowing and manuring) with the addition of non-human and non-animal power devices (clockwork and wind-mills) and the intensification of specialisation in the crafts—craftsmen exclusively producing one specialised class of product.
+The prevailing ideology was of a hierarchical system of society, tempered by the element of reciprocity and contract in the feudal tie. While, as Maitland warned, the feudal system had many variations, extending as it did over more than half a continent, and half a millennium, nevertheless the many forms all had at their core a relationship that (in the words of John Burrow) was "at once legal and social, military and economic...at once a way of organising military force, a social hierarchy, an ethos and what Marx would later call a mode of production."
+During this period, a merchant class arises and grows in strength, driven by the profit motive but  prevented from developing further profits by the nature of feudal society, in which, for instance, the serfs are tied to the land and cannot become industrial workers and wage-earners. This eventually precipitates an epoch of social revolution (i.e.: the English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the French Revolution of 1789, etc.) wherein the social and political organization of feudal society (or the property relations of feudalism) are overthrown by a nascent bourgeoisie.
+
+=== Capitalist mode of production ===
+
+By the close of the Middle Ages, the feudal system had been increasingly hollowed out by the growth of free towns, the commutation for money of servile labour, the replacement of the feudal host by a paid soldiery, and the divorce of retainership from land tenure – even if feudal privileges, ethics and enclaves would persist in Europe till the end of the millennium in residual forms. Feudalism was succeeded by what Smith called the Age of Commerce, and Marx the capitalist mode of production, which spans the period from mercantilism to imperialism and beyond, and is usually associated with the emergence of modern industrial society and the global market economy. Marx maintained that central to the new capitalist system was the replacement of a system of money serving as the key to commodity exchange (C-M-C, commerce), by a system of money leading (via commodities) to the re-investment of money in further production (M-C-M’, capitalism) – the new and overriding social imperative.
+The primary form of property is that of private property in commodity form – land, materials, tools of production, and human labour, all being potentially commodified and open to exchange in a cash nexus by way of (state guaranteed) contract: as Marx put it, "man himself is brought into the sphere of private property".  The primary form of exploitation is by way of (formally free) wage labour (see Das Kapital), with debt peonage, wage slavery, and other forms of exploitation also possible. The ruling class for Marx is the bourgeoisie, or the owners of capital who possess the means of production, who exploit the proletariat for surplus value, as the proletarians possess only their own labour power which they must sell in order to survive. Yuval Harari reconceptualised the dichotomy for the 21st Century in terms of the rich who invest to re-invest, and the remainder who go into debt in order to consume for the benefit of the owners of the means of production.
+Under capitalism, the key forces of production include the overall system of modern production with its supporting structures of bureaucracy, bourgeois democracy, and above all finance capital. The system's ideological underpinnings took place over the course of time, Frederic Jameson for example considering that "the Western Enlightenment may be grasped as part of a properly bourgeois cultural revolution, in which the values and the discourse, the habits and the daily space, of the ancien régime were systematically dismantled so that in their place could be set the new conceptualities, habits and life forms, and value systems of a capitalist market society" – utilitarianism, rationalised production (Weber), training and discipline (Foucault) and a new capitalist time-structure.
+
+=== Communist mode of production ===
+
+==== Lower-stage of communism ====

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+---
+title: "Mode of production"
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+category: "reference"
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+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:28.869292+00:00"
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+---
+
+The bourgeoisie, as Marx stated in The Communist Manifesto, has "forged the weapons that bring death to itself; it has also called into existence the men who are to wield those weapons—the modern working class—the proletarians." Historical materialists henceforth believe that the modern proletariat are the new revolutionary class in relation to the bourgeoisie, in the same way that the bourgeoisie was the revolutionary class in relation to the nobility under feudalism. The proletariat, then, must seize power as the new revolutionary class in a dictatorship of the proletariat.Between capitalist and communist society there lies the period of the revolutionary transformation of the one into the other. Corresponding to this is also a political transition period in which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat.Marx also describes a communist society developed alongside the proletarian dictatorship:Within the co-operative society based on common ownership of the means of production, the producers do not exchange their products; just as little does the labor employed on the products appear here as the value of these products, as a material quality possessed by them, since now, in contrast to capitalist society, individual labor no longer exists in an indirect fashion but directly as a component part of total labor. The phrase "proceeds of labor", objectionable also today on account of its ambiguity, thus loses all meaning. What we have to deal with here is a communist society, not as it has developed on its own foundations, but, on the contrary, just as it emerges from capitalist society; which is thus in every respect, economically, morally, and intellectually, still stamped with the birthmarks of the old society from whose womb it emerges. Accordingly, the individual producer receives back from society—after the deductions have been made—exactly what he gives to it. What he has given to it is his individual quantum of labor. For example, the social working day consists of the sum of the individual hours of work; the individual labor time of the individual producer is the part of the social working day contributed by him, his share in it. He receives a certificate from society that he has furnished such-and-such an amount of labor (after deducting his labor for the common funds); and with this certificate, he draws from the social stock of means of consumption as much as the same amount of labor cost. The same amount of labor which he has given to society in one form, he receives back in another.This lower-stage of communist society is, according to Marx, analogous to the lower-stage of capitalist society, i.e. the transition from feudalism to capitalism, in that both societies are "stamped with the birthmarks of the old society from whose womb it emerges." The emphasis on the idea that modes of production do not exist in isolation but rather are materialized from the previous existence is a core idea in historical materialism.
+There is considerable debate among communists regarding the nature of this society. Some such as Joseph Stalin, Fidel Castro, and other Marxist–Leninists believe that the lower-stage of communism constitutes its own mode of production, which they call socialist rather than communist. Marxist–Leninists believe that this society may still maintain the concepts of property, money, and commodity production. Other communists argue that the lower-stage of communism is just that; a communist mode of production, without commodities or money, stamped with the birthmarks of capitalism. Anarchists reject a transitional state, and call for universal flat hierarchiess.
+
+==== Higher-stage of communism ====
+To Marx, the higher-stage of communist society is a free association of producers which has successfully negated all remnants of capitalism, notably the concepts of states, nationality, sexism, families, alienation, social classes, money, property, commodities, the bourgeoisie, the proletariat, division of labor, cities and countryside, class struggle, religion, ideology, and markets. It is the negation of capitalism.
+
+Marx made the following comments on the higher-phase of communist society:In a higher phase of communist society, after the enslaving subordination of the individual to the division of labor, and therewith also the antithesis between mental and physical labor, has vanished; after labor has become not only a means of life but life's prime want; after the productive forces have also increased with the all-around development of the individual, and all the springs of co-operative wealth flow more abundantly—only then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be crossed in its entirety and society inscribe on its banners: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!
+
+== Base and superstructure ==
+Marxists such as Chris Harman, Terry Eagleton and R.J. Robinson have argued that historical models of production generally rely upon forces and relations of production that they cannot produce through their own normal means. For example, pre-modern complex societies such as ancient Rome or the Aztecs were unable to control a wide range of natural phenomena such as the weather, harvests, childbirth, and so on. Where such limited modes of production prevailed, systems of practice and then belief for persuading or bribing supernatural powers to intervene on humanity's behalf developed – i.e., religions. Similarly, industrial societies require a large supply of skilled and disciplined workers, but these cannot be created through the ordinary mechanisms of capitalism (i.e., producing and selling commodities). 
+This gives rise to the Marxist paradigm of 'Base and superstructure', in which such shortcomings in the underlying mode of production (the 'base') are managed through 'relatively autonomous' systems ('superstructures').
+
+== See also ==
+
+== References ==
+
+== Further reading ==
+Perry Anderson, Passages from Antiquity to Feudalism.
+Perry Anderson, Lineages of the Absolutist State.
+G.E.M. De Ste Croix, The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World: From the Archaic Age to the Arab Conquests.
+Chris Harman, A People's History of the World.
+Barry Hindess & Paul Q. Hirst, Pre-capitalist modes of production. London: Routledge, 1975.
+Lawrence Krader, The Asiatic Mode of Production; Sources, Development and Critique in the Writings of Karl Marx.
+Ernest Mandel, Marxist Economic Theory.
+Ellen Meiksins Wood, The Origin of Capitalism: A Longer View.
+George Novack, Understanding History: Marxist Essays.
+Fritjof Tichelman, The Social Evolution of Indonesia: The Asiatic Mode of Production and its Legacy.
+W.M.J. van Binsbergen & P.L. Geschiere, ed., Old Modes of Production and Capitalist Encroachment.
+Charles Woolfson, The Labour Theory of Culture.
+Harold Wolpe, ed. The articulation of modes of production.
+Michael Perelman, Steal This Idea: Intellectual Property Rights and the Corporate Confiscation of Creativity.

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+
+Modernity, a topic in the humanities and social sciences, is both a historical period (the modern era) and the ensemble of particular socio-cultural norms, attitudes, and practices that arose in the wake of the Renaissance—in the Age of Reason of 17th-century thought and the 18th-century Enlightenment. Commentators variously consider the era of modernity to have ended by 1930, with World War II in 1945, or as late as the period falling between the 1980s and 1990s; the following era is often referred to as "postmodernity". The term "contemporary history" is also used to refer to the post-1945 timeframe, without assigning it to either the modern or postmodern era. (Thus "modern" may be used as a name of a particular era in the past, as opposed to meaning "the current era".)
+Depending on the field, modernity may refer to different time periods or qualities. In historiography, the 16th to 18th centuries are usually described as early modern, while the long 19th century corresponds to modern history proper. While it includes a wide range of interrelated historical processes and cultural phenomena (from fashion to modern warfare), it can also refer to the subjective or existential experience of the conditions they produce, and their ongoing impact on human culture, institutions, and politics.
+As an analytical concept and normative idea, modernity is closely linked to the ethos of philosophical and aesthetic modernism. These political and intellectual currents that intersect with the Enlightenment and subsequent developments, including existentialism, modern art, the formal establishment of social science, and contemporaneous antithetical developments such as Marxism. Additionally, it encompasses the social relations associated with the rise of capitalism, as well as shifts in attitudes associated with secularization, liberalization, modernization, and post-industrial life.
+By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, modernist art, politics, science and culture had come to dominate not only Western Europe and North America, but almost every populated area on the globe, including movements opposing the West or opposing globalization. The modern era is closely associated with the development of individualism, capitalism, urbanization and progressivism—that is, the belief in the possibilities of technological and political progress. Perceptions of problems arising from modernization, which can include the advent of world wars, the reduced role of religion in some societies, or the erosion of traditional cultural norms, have also led to anti-modernization movements. Optimism and the belief in consistent progress (also referred to as whig history) have been subject to criticism in postmodern thought, while the global hegemonic dominance (particularly in the form of imperialism and colonialism) of various powers in western Europe and Anglo-America for most of the period has been criticized in postcolonial theory.
+In the context of art history, modernity (Fr. modernité) has a more limited sense, modern art covering the period of c. 1860–1970. Use of the term in this sense is attributed to Charles Baudelaire, who in his 1863 essay "The Painter of Modern Life", designated the "fleeting, ephemeral experience of life in an urban metropolis", and the responsibility art has to capture that experience. In this sense, the term refers to "a particular relationship to time, one characterized by intense historical discontinuity or rupture, openness to the novelty of the future, and a heightened sensitivity to what is unique about the present".
+
+== Etymology ==
+The Late Latin adjective modernus, a derivation from the adverb modo ("presently, just now", also "method"), is attested from the 5th century CE, at first in the context of distinguishing the Christian era of the Later Roman Empire from the Pagan era of the Greco-Roman world. In the 6th century CE, Roman historian and statesman Cassiodorus appears to have been the first writer to use modernus ("modern") regularly to refer to his own age.
+The terms antiquus and modernus were used in a chronological sense in the Carolingian era. For example, a magister modernus referred to a contemporary scholar, as opposed to old authorities such as Benedict of Nursia. In its early medieval usage, the term modernus referred to authorities regarded in medieval Europe as younger than the Greco-Roman scholars of Classical antiquity and/or the Church Fathers of the Christian era, but not necessarily to the present day, and could include authors several centuries old, from about the time of Bede, i.e. referring to the time after the foundation of the Order of Saint Benedict and/or the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
+The Latin adjective was adopted in Middle French, as moderne, by the 15th century, and hence, in the early Tudor period, into Early Modern English. The early modern word meant "now existing", or "about the present times", not necessarily with a positive connotation. English author and playwright William Shakespeare used the term modern in the sense of "everyday, ordinary, commonplace".
+The word entered wide usage in the context of the late 17th-century quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns within the Académie Française, debating the question of "Is Modern culture superior to Classical (Græco–Roman) culture?" In the context of this debate, the ancients (anciens) and moderns (modernes) were proponents of opposing views, the former believing that contemporary writers could do no better than imitate the genius of Classical antiquity, while the latter, first with Charles Perrault (1687), proposed that more than a mere Renaissance of ancient achievements, the Age of Reason had gone beyond what had been possible in the Classical period of the Greco-Roman civilization. The term modernity, first coined in the 1620s, in this context assumed the implication of a historical epoch following the Renaissance, in which the achievements of antiquity were surpassed.
+
+== Phases ==
+Modernity has been associated with cultural and intellectual movements of 1436–1789 and extending to the 1970s or later.
+According to Marshall Berman, modernity is periodized into three conventional phases dubbed "Early", "Classical", and "Late" by Peter Osborne:

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+
+Early modernity: 1500–1789 (or 1453–1789 in traditional historiography)
+People were beginning to experience a more modern life (Laughey, 31).
+Classical modernity: 1789–1900 (corresponding to the long 19th century (1789–1914) in Hobsbawm's scheme)
+Consisted of the rise and growing use of daily newspapers, telegraphs, telephones and other forms of mass media, which influenced the growth of communicating on a broader scale (Laughey, 31).
+Late modernity: 1900–1989
+Consisted of the globalization of modern life (Laughey, 31).
+In the second phase, Berman draws upon the growth of modern technologies such as the newspaper, telegraph, and other forms of mass media. There was a great shift into modernization in the name of industrial capitalism. Finally, in the third phase, modernist arts and individual creativity marked the beginning of a new modernist age as it combats oppressive politics, economics as well as other social forces including mass media.
+Some authors, such as Lyotard and Baudrillard, believe that modernity ended in the mid- or late 20th century and thus have defined a period subsequent to modernity, namely Postmodernity (1930s/1950s/1990s–present). Other theorists, however, regard the period from the late 20th century to the present as merely another phase of modernity; Zygmunt Bauman calls this phase liquid modernity, Giddens labels it high modernity (see High modernism).
+
+== Definitions ==
+
+=== Political ===
+Politically, modernity's earliest phase starts with Niccolò Machiavelli's, works which openly rejected the classical theories on politics in favor of new and original ways to think about conduct in civil government, and outwardly disagreed with the classical approach to political history. Machiavelli argued, for example, that violent divisions within political communities are unavoidable, but can also be a source of strength which lawmakers and leaders should account for and even encourage in some ways.
+Machiavelli's recommendations were sometimes influential upon kings and princes, but eventually came to be seen as favoring free republics over monarchies. Machiavelli in turn influenced Francis Bacon, Marchamont Needham, James Harrington, John Milton, David Hume, and many others.
+Important modern political doctrines which stem from the new Machiavellian realism include Mandeville's influential proposal that "Private Vices by the dextrous Management of a skilful Politician may be turned into Publick Benefits" (the last sentence of his Fable of the Bees), and also the doctrine of a constitutional separation of powers in government, first clearly proposed by Montesquieu. Both these principles are enshrined within the constitutions of most modern democracies. It has been observed that while Machiavelli's realism saw a value to war and political violence, his lasting influence has been "tamed" so that useful conflict was deliberately converted as much as possible to formalized political struggles and the economic "conflict" encouraged between free, private enterprises.
+Starting with Thomas Hobbes, attempts were made to use the methods of the new modern physical sciences, as proposed by Bacon and Descartes, applied to humanity and politics. Notable attempts to improve upon the methodological approach of Hobbes include those of John Locke, Spinoza, Giambattista Vico, and Rousseau. David Hume made what he considered to be the first proper attempt at trying to apply Bacon's scientific method to political subjects, rejecting some aspects of the approach of Hobbes.
+Modernist republicanism openly influenced the foundation of republics during the Dutch Revolt (1568–1609), English Civil War (1642–1651), American Revolution (1775–1783), the French Revolution (1789–1799), and the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804).
+A second phase of modernist political thinking begins with Rousseau, who questioned the natural rationality and sociality of humanity and proposed that human nature was much more malleable than had been previously thought. By this logic, what makes a good political system or a good man is completely dependent upon the chance path a whole people has taken over history. This thought influenced the political (and aesthetic) thinking of Immanuel Kant, Edmund Burke, and others and led to a critical review of modernist politics. On the conservative side, Burke argued that this understanding encouraged caution and avoidance of radical change. However, more ambitious movements also developed from this insight into human culture, initially Romanticism and Historicism, and eventually both the Communism of Karl Marx, and the modern forms of nationalism inspired by the French Revolution, including, in one extreme, the German Nazi movement.
+On the other hand, the notion of modernity has been contested also due to its Euro-centric underpinnings. Postcolonial scholars have extensively critiqued the Eurocentric nature of modernity, particularly its portrayal as a linear process originating in Europe and subsequently spreading—or being imposed—on the rest of the world. Dipesh Chakrabarty contends that European historicism positions Europe as the exclusive birthplace of modernity, placing European thinkers and institutions at the center of Enlightenment, progress, and innovation. Latin America's version of modernity is a prime example of a contradiction to European modernity. During Europe's imperial conquest, ultimately created a dominant version of colonialism that the world would associate with modernity, Mexico provided an alternative version of modernity that contradicted the brutal and harsh nature of colonial Europe. This narrative marginalizes non-Western thinkers, ideas, and achievements, reducing them to either deviations from or delays in an otherwise supposedly universal trajectory of modern development. Frantz Fanon similarly exposes the hypocrisy of European modernity, which promotes ideals of progress and rationality while concealing how much of Europe’s economic growth was built on the exploitation, violence, and dehumanization integral to colonial domination. Similarly, Bhambra argued that beyond economic advancement, Western powers "modernized" through colonialism, demonstrating that developments such as the welfare systems in England were largely enabled by the wealth extracted through colonial exploitation.
+
+=== Sociological ===
+
+In sociology, a discipline that arose in direct response to the social problems of modernity, the term most generally refers to the social conditions, processes, and discourses consequent to the Age of Enlightenment. In the most basic terms, British sociologist Anthony Giddens describes modernity as

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+
+...a shorthand term for modern society, or industrial civilization. Portrayed in more detail, it is associated with (1) a certain set of attitudes towards the world, the idea of the world as open to transformation, by human intervention; (2) a complex of economic institutions, especially industrial production and a market economy; (3) a certain range of political institutions, including the nation-state and mass democracy. Largely as a result of these characteristics, modernity is vastly more dynamic than any previous type of social order. It is a society—more technically, a complex of institutions—which, unlike any preceding culture, lives in the future, rather than the past.
+Other writers have criticized such definitions as just being a listing of factors. They argue that modernity, contingently understood as marked by an ontological formation in dominance, needs to be defined much more fundamentally in terms of different ways of being. 
+
+The modern is thus defined by the way in which prior valences of social life ... are reconstituted through a constructivist reframing of social practices in relation to basic categories of existence common to all humans: time, space, embodiment, performance and knowledge. The word 'reconstituted' here explicitly does not mean replaced.
+This means that modernity overlays earlier formations of traditional and customary life without necessarily replacing them. In a 2006 review essay, historian Michael Saler extended and substantiated this premise, noting that scholarship had revealed historical perspectives on modernity that encompassed both enchantment and disenchantment. Late Victorians, for instance, "discussed science in terms of magical influences and vital correspondences, and when vitalism began to be superseded by more mechanistic explanations in the 1830s, magic still remained part of the discourse—now called 'natural magic,' to be sure, but no less 'marvelous' for being the result of determinate and predictable natural processes." Mass culture, despite its "superficialities, irrationalities, prejudices, and problems," became "a vital source of contingent and rational enchantments as well." Occultism could contribute to the conclusions reached by modern psychologists and advanced a "satisfaction" found in this mass culture. In addition, Saler observed that "different accounts of modernity may stress diverse combinations or accentuate some factors more than others...Modernity is defined less by binaries arranged in an implicit hierarchy, or by the dialectical transformation of one term into its opposite, than by unresolved contradictions and oppositions, or antinomies: modernity is Janus-faced."
+In 2020 Jason Crawford critiqued this recent historiography on enchantment and modernity. The historical evidence of "enchantments" for these studies, particularly in mass and print cultures, "might offer some solace to the citizens of a disenchanted world, but they don't really change the condition of that world." These "enchantments" offered a "troubled kind of unreality" increasingly separate from modernity. Per Osterrgard and James Fitchett advanced a thesis that mass culture, while generating sources for "enchantment", more commonly produced "simulations" of "enchantments" and "disenchantments" for consumers.
+Of the available conceptual definitions in sociology, modernity is "marked and defined by an obsession with 'evidence'", visual culture, and personal visibility. Generally, the large-scale social integration constituting modernity, involves:
+
+increased movement of goods, capital, people, and information among formerly discrete populations, and consequent influence beyond the local area
+increased formal social organization of mobile populaces, development of "circuits" on which they and their influence travel, and societal standardization conducive to socio-economic mobility
+increased specialization of the segments of society, i.e., division of labor, and area inter-dependency
+increased level of excessive stratification in terms of social life of a modern man
+Increased state of dehumanisation, dehumanity, unionisation, as man became embittered about the negative turn of events which sprouted a growing fear.
+man became a victim of the underlying circumstances presented by the modern world
+Increased competitiveness among people in the society (survival of the fittest) as the jungle rule sets in.
+
+=== Cultural and philosophical ===
+The era of modernity is characterised socially by industrialisation and the division of labour, and this test. and philosophically by "the loss of certainty, and the realization that certainty can never be established, once and for all". With new social and philosophical conditions arose fundamental new challenges. Various 19th-century intellectuals, from Auguste Comte to Karl Marx to Sigmund Freud, attempted to offer scientific and/or political ideologies in the wake of secularisation. Modernity may be described as the "age of ideology".
+
+For Marx what was the basis of modernity was the emergence of capitalism and the revolutionary bourgeoisie, which led to an unprecedented expansion of productive forces and to the creation of the world market. Durkheim tackled modernity from a different angle by following the ideas of Saint-Simon about the industrial system. Although the starting point is the same as Marx, feudal society, Durkheim emphasizes far less the rising of the bourgeoisie as a new revolutionary class and very seldom refers to capitalism as the new mode of production implemented by it. The fundamental impulse to modernity is rather industrialism accompanied by the new scientific forces. In the work of Max Weber, modernity is closely associated with the processes of rationalization and disenchantment of the world.
+Critical theorists such as Theodor Adorno and Zygmunt Bauman propose that modernity or industrialization represents a departure from the central tenets of the Enlightenment and towards nefarious processes of alienation, such as commodity fetishism and the Holocaust. Contemporary sociological critical theory presents the concept of rationalization in even more negative terms than those Weber originally defined. Processes of rationalization—as progress for the sake of progress—may in many cases have what critical theory says is a negative and dehumanising effect on modern society.

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+
+Enlightenment, understood in the widest sense as the advance of thought, has always aimed at liberating human beings from fear and installing them as masters. Yet the wholly enlightened earth radiates under the sign of disaster triumphant.
+What prompts so many commentators to speak of the 'end of history', of post-modernity, 'second modernity' and 'surmodernity', or otherwise to articulate the intuition of a radical change in the arrangement of human cohabitation and in social conditions under which life-politics is nowadays conducted, is the fact that the long effort to accelerate the speed of movement has presently reached its 'natural limit'. Power can move with the speed of the electronic signal – and so the time required for the movement of its essential ingredients has been reduced to instantaneity. For all practical purposes, power has become truly exterritorial, no longer bound, or even slowed down, by the resistance of space (the advent of cellular telephones may well serve as a symbolic 'last blow' delivered to the dependency on space: even the access to a telephone market is unnecessary for a command to be given and seen through to its effect.
+Consequent to debate about economic globalization, the comparative analysis of civilizations, and the post-colonial perspective of "alternative modernities", Shmuel Eisenstadt introduced the concept of "multiple modernities". Modernity as a "plural condition" is the central concept of this sociologic approach and perspective, which broadens the definition of "modernity" from exclusively denoting Western European culture to a culturally relativistic definition, thereby: "Modernity is not Westernization, and its key processes and dynamics can be found in all societies".
+
+=== Secularization ===
+
+Central to modernity is emancipation from religion, specifically the hegemony of Christianity (mainly Roman Catholicism), and the consequent secularization. According to writers like Fackenheim and Husserl, modern thought repudiates the Judeo-Christian belief in the Biblical God as a mere relic of superstitious ages. It all started with Descartes' revolutionary methodic doubt, which transformed the concept of truth in the concept of certainty, whose only guarantor is no longer God or the Church, but Man's subjective judgement.
+Theologians have adapted in different ways to the challenge of modernity. Liberal theology, over perhaps the past 200 years or so, has tried, in various iterations, to accommodate, or at least tolerate, modern doubt in expounding Christian revelation, while Traditionalist Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and fundamentalist Protestant thinkers and clerics have tried to fight back, denouncing skepticism of every kind. Modernity aimed towards "a progressive force promising to liberate humankind from ignorance and irrationality".
+
+=== Scientific ===
+
+In the 16th and 17th centuries, Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and others developed a new approach to physics and astronomy which changed the way people came to think about many things. Copernicus presented new models of the Solar System which no longer placed humanity's home, Earth, in the centre. Kepler used mathematics to discuss physics and described the regularities of nature this way. Galileo actually made his famous proof of uniform acceleration in freefall using mathematics.
+Francis Bacon, especially in his Novum Organum, argued for a new methodological approach. It was an experimental-based approach to science, which sought no knowledge of formal or final causes.  Yet, he was no materialist. He also talked of the two books of God, God's Word (Scripture) and God's work (nature). But he also added a theme that science should seek to control nature for the sake of humanity, and not seek to understand it just for the sake of understanding. In both these things, he was influenced by Machiavelli's earlier criticism of medieval Scholasticism, and his proposal that leaders should aim to control their own fortune.
+Influenced both by Galileo's new physics and Bacon, René Descartes argued soon afterward that mathematics and geometry provided a model of how scientific knowledge could be built up in small steps. He also argued openly that human beings themselves could be understood as complex machines.
+Isaac Newton, influenced by Descartes, but also, like Bacon, a proponent of experimentation, provided the archetypal example of how both Cartesian mathematics, geometry and theoretical deduction on the one hand, and Baconian experimental observation and induction on the other hand, together could lead to great advances in the practical understanding of regularities in nature.
+
+=== Technological ===
+One common conception of modernity is the condition of Western history since the mid-15th century, or roughly the European development of movable type and the printing press. In this context, modern society is said to have developed over many periods and to be influenced by important events that represent breaks in the continuity.
+
+=== Artistic ===
+
+After modernist political thinking had already become widely known in France, Rousseau's re-examination of human nature led to a new criticism of the value of reasoning itself which in turn led to a new understanding of less rationalistic human activities, especially the arts. The initial influence was upon the movements known as German Idealism and Romanticism in the 18th and 19th centuries. Modern art therefore belongs only to the later phases of modernity.
+For this reason art history keeps the term modernity distinct from the terms Modern Age and Modernism – as a discrete "term applied to the cultural condition in which the seemingly absolute necessity of innovation becomes a primary fact of life, work, and thought". And modernity in art "is more than merely the state of being modern, or the opposition between old and new".
+In the essay "The Painter of Modern Life" (1863), Charles Baudelaire gives a literary definition: "By modernity, I mean the transitory, the fugitive, the contingent".
+Advancing technological innovation, affecting artistic technique and the means of manufacture, changed rapidly the possibilities of art and its status in a rapidly changing society. Photography challenged the place of the painter and painting. Architecture was transformed by the availability of steel for structures.
+
+=== Theological ===
+From conservative Protestant theologian Thomas C. Oden's perspective, modernity is marked by "four fundamental values":

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+
+"Moral relativism (which says that what is right is dictated by culture, social location, and situation)"
+"Autonomous individualism (which assumes that moral authority comes essentially from within)"
+"Narcissistic hedonism (which focuses on egocentric personal pleasure)"
+"Reductive naturalism (which reduces what is reliably known to what one can see, hear, and empirically investigate)"
+Modernity rejects anything "old" and makes "novelty ... a criterion for truth". This results in a great "phobic response to anything antiquarian". In contrast, "classical Christian consciousness" resisted "novelty".
+Within Roman Catholicism, Popes Pius IX and Pius X ruled that Modernism (in a particular definition of the Catholic Church) was a danger to the Christian faith. Pope Pius IX compiled a Syllabus of Errors, published on 8 December 1864, to describe his objections to Modernism. Pope Pius X further elaborated on the characteristics and consequences of Modernism, from his perspective, in an encyclical letter entitled Pascendi Dominici gregis ("Feeding the Lord's Flock") on 8 September 1907. Pascendi Dominici gregis stated that the principles of Modernism, taken to a logical conclusion, led to atheism. The Roman Catholic Church was serious enough about the threat of Modernism that it required all Roman Catholic clergy, pastors, confessors, preachers, religious superiors and seminary professors to swear an Oath against modernism from 1910 until this directive was rescinded in 1967, in keeping with the directives of the Second Vatican Council.
+The Second Vatican Council provided a new Catholic vision of the modern world and its own relationship with it. The Council's decree on "the apostolate of the laity" (November 1965) asserts that "modern conditions" require the apostolate of lay Catholics to be "broadened and intensified", describing "constantly increasing population, continual progress in science and technology, and closer interpersonal relationships" as indicators of modernity and that "many areas of human life have become increasingly autonomous", which is "as it should be", although this autonomy "sometimes involves a degree of departure from the ethical and religious order and a serious danger to Christian life".
+
+== See also ==
+
+== Notes ==
+
+== References ==
+
+== Bibliography ==
+
+== Further reading ==
+
+== External links ==
+
+ Media related to Modernity at Wikimedia Commons

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+
+In sociology, moral shock is a cognitive and emotional process that encourages participation. James M. Jasper, who originally coined the term, used it to help explain why people might join a social movement in the absence of pre-existing social ties with members. It denotes a kind of visceral unease, triggered by personal or public events, that captures people’s attention. Moral shocks often force people to articulate their moral intuitions. It is an appealing concept because it brings together emotional, moral, and cognitive dynamics. According to David A. Snow and Sarah A. Soule, authors of “A Primer on Social Movements”, the moral shock argument says that some events may be so emotionally moving or morally reprehensible that individuals will feel that they must join the cause regardless of their connection or ties to members of that organization. Moral shock is similar in many ways to shock advertising which uses analogous techniques to help increase brand success and awareness.  Moral shocks have been shown to help recruit people to the animal rights movement, the movement for peace in Central America, anti-abortion campaigns  and anti-racist movements. 
+Deborah Gould has suggested another role for moral shocks: radicalizing or reinforcing the commitment of those already active in a protest movement. She says that the 1986 Bowers v. Hardwick decision by the U.S. Supreme Court had this effect on the U.S. gay and lesbian rights movements. Hardwick told the lesbian and gay community that their own government supported their oppression. Indignation at one’s own government can be especially moving, as it involves a sense of betrayal. Furthermore, violent repression of peaceful protest is thus a frequent source of moral shock.
+The impact of moral shock is illustrated in the film Unborn in the USA in which the ProLife on Campus organization is highlighted in its travels to college campuses across the country. Using a set of extremely large and graphic images of abortion and abortion procedures the group attempts to portray their anti-abortion messages on college campuses—targeting young people who they believe are particularly prone to getting involved. They believe the images are very effective ways to shine light on the truth of what abortion does to innocent children. Unless the public is made aware of this perceived injustice, it will never be able to end, according to statements on their website. The group’s slogan is “Winning Hearts…Changing Minds…and Saving Lives…” 
+Brian Lowe suggests that moral shocks are especially likely when someone holds a sweeping movement ideology that takes the form of a “quasi-religion.”
+
+
+== Jasper on Moral Shocks ==
+In Chapter 5 of The Art of Moral Protest, Jasper defines a moral shock as "an unexpected event or piece of information [which] raises such a sense of outrage in a person that she becomes inclined toward political action, with or without the network of personal contacts emphasized in mobilization and process theories."  For example, seeing a documentary about illicit banking practices may motivate an individual to participate in financial reform efforts.  The motivation generated by a moral shock is, as the conceptual label makes plain, moral in nature; it operates at a level of normative force beyond just the purely cognitive or emotional.  However, it is important to note that "for a moral shock to lead to protest, it must have an explicit cognitive dimension as well as moral and emotional ones."  Moral shocks are moral insofar as they create a sense of outrage or indignation, emotional insofar as anger or frustration accompanies this outrage, and cognitive insofar as the shock is delivered via words and symbols.  For instance, the aforementioned documentary uses such cognitive devices to get its message across, but it also relies on emotional appeal and the resulting, normatively stronger, sense of moral outrage.
+Moral shock as a concept is especially important because it pinpoints a factor that motivates individuals to protest that is not reducible to factors highlighted by resource mobilization and political opportunity theories (e.g., social networks, preexisting beliefs).  The Art of Moral Protest shows that would-be protestors do not always know other protestors and often formulate their beliefs on the fly, so to speak.  Hence, Jasper’s concept is able to account for an additional path into protest, a path emphasizing the relative importance of events and their initial consciousness-raising effects on individuals.
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mores-0.md

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+---
+title: "Mores"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mores"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:33.916302+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Mores (, sometimes ; from Latin  mōrēs [ˈmoːreːs], plural form of singular mōs, meaning "manner, custom, usage, or habit") are social norms that are widely observed within a particular society or culture.  Mores determine what is considered morally acceptable or unacceptable within any given culture. A folkway is what is created through interaction and that process is what organizes interactions through routine, repetition, habit and consistency.
+William Graham Sumner (1840–1910), an early U.S. sociologist, introduced both the terms "mores" (1898)
+and "folkways" (1906) into modern sociology.
+Mores are strict in the sense that they determine the difference between right and wrong in a given society, and people may be punished for their immorality which is common place in many societies in the world, at times with disapproval or ostracizing. Examples of mores include traditional prohibitions on lying, cheating, causing harm, alcohol use, drug use, marriage beliefs, gossip, slander, jealousy, disgracing or disrespecting parents, refusal to attend a funeral, politically incorrect humor, sports cheating, vandalism, leaving trash, plagiarism, bribery, corruption, saving face, respecting your elders, religious prescriptions and fiduciary responsibility.
+Folkways are ways of thinking, acting and behaving in social groups which are agreed upon by the masses and are useful for the ordering of society. Folkways are spread through imitation, oral means or observation, and are meant to encompass the material, spiritual and verbal aspects of culture. Folkways meet the problems of social life; we feel security and order from their acceptance and application. Examples of folkways include: acceptable dress, manners, social etiquette, body language, posture, level of privacy, working hours and five day work week, acceptability of social drinking—abstaining or not from drinking during certain working hours, actions and behaviours in public places, school, university, business and religious institution, ceremonial situations, ritual, customary services and keeping personal space.
+
+
+== Terminology ==
+The English word morality comes from the same Latin root "mōrēs", as does the English noun moral. However, mores do not, as is commonly supposed, necessarily carry connotations of morality. Rather, morality can be seen as a subset of mores, held to be of central importance in view of their content, and often formalized into some kind of moral code or even into customary law. Etymological derivations include More danico, More judaico, More veneto, Coitus more ferarum, and O tempora, o mores!.
+The Greek terms equivalent to Latin mores are ethos (ἔθος, ἦθος, 'character') or nomos (νόμος, 'law'). As with the relation of mores to morality, ethos is the basis of the term ethics, while nomos gives the suffix -onomy, as in astronomy.
+
+
+== Anthropology ==
+
+The meaning of all these terms extend to all customs of proper behavior in a given society, both religious and profane, from more trivial conventional aspects of custom, etiquette or politeness—"folkways" enforced by gentle social pressure, but going beyond mere "folkways" or conventions in including moral codes and notions of justice—down to strict taboos, behavior that is unthinkable within the society in question, very commonly including incest and murder, but also the commitment of outrages specific to the individual society such as blasphemy. Such religious or sacral customs may vary. Some examples include funerary services, matrimonial services; circumcision and covering of the hair in Judaism, Christian Ten Commandments, New Commandment and the sacraments or for example baptism, and Protestant work ethic, Shahada, prayer, alms, the fast and the pilgrimage as well as modesty in Islam, and religious diet.
+While cultural universals are by definition part of the mores of every society (hence also called "empty universals"), the customary norms specific to a given society are a defining aspect of the cultural identity of an ethnicity or a nation. Coping with the differences between two sets of cultural conventions is a question of intercultural competence.
+Differences in the mores of various nations are at the root of ethnic stereotype, or in the case of reflection upon one's own mores, autostereotypes.
+The customary norms in a given society may include indigenous land rights, honour, filial piety, customary law and the customary international law that affects countries who may not have codified their customary norms. Land rights of indigenous peoples is under customary land tenure, its a system of arrangement in-line with customs and norms.  This is the case in colonies. An example of a norm is a culture of honor exists in some societies, where the family is viewed as the main source of honor and the conduct of family members reflects upon their family honor. For instance some writers say in Rome to have an honorable stance, to be equals with someone, existed for those who are most similar to one another (family and friends) this could be due to the competing for public recognition and therefore for personal and public honor, over rhetoric, sport, war, wealth and virtue. To protrude, stand out, be recognized and demonstrate this "A Roman could win such a "competition" by pointing to past evidences of their honor" and "Or, a critic might be refuted by one's performance in a fresh showdown in which one's bona fides could be plainly demonstrated." Honor culture only can exist if the society has for males the shared code, a standard to uphold, guidelines and rules to follow, do not want to break those rules and how to interact successfully and to engage, this exists within a "closed" community of equals.
+Filial piety is ethics towards one's family, as Fung Yu-lan states "the ideological basis for traditional [Chinese] society" and according to Confucious repay a burden debt back to ones parents or caregiver but its also traditional in another sense so as to fulfill an obligation to ones own ancestors, also to modern scholars it suggests extends an attitude of respect to superiors also, who are deserving to have that respect.
+
+
+== See also ==
+
+Culture-bound syndrome
+Enculturation
+Euthyphro dilemma, discussing the conflict of sacral and secular mores
+Habitus (sociology)
+Nihonjinron "Japanese mores"
+Piety
+Political and Moral Sociology: see Luc Boltanski and French Pragmatism
+Repugnancy costs
+Value (personal and cultural)
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mudsill_theory-0.md

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+---
+title: "Mudsill theory"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mudsill_theory"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:35.090897+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Mudsill theory is the proposition that there must be, and always has been, a lower class or underclass for the upper classes and the rest of society to rest upon.
+The term derives from a mudsill, the lowest threshold that supports the foundation for a building.
+
+
+== History ==
+The theory was first articulated by James H. Hammond, a Democratic United States senator from South Carolina and a wealthy Southern plantation owner, in a speech on March 4, 1858. Hammond argued that every society must find a class of people to do menial labor, whether called slaves or not, and that assigning that status on a racial basis followed natural law, while the Northern United States' social class of white wage laborers presented a revolutionary threat.
+
+
+== Criticism ==
+Many saw the argument as a weak justification for exploitation and a flimsy example of manipulating science to reference as proof.
+Mudsill theory and similar rhetoric has been dubbed "the Marxism of the Master-Class" which fought for the rights of the propertied elite against what were perceived as threats from the abolitionists, lower classes and non-whites to gain higher standards of living.
+Abraham Lincoln argued forcefully against the mudsill theory, particularly in a speech in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1859, where he delineated its incompatibility with Free Soil. In his view, mudsill advocates "conclude that all laborers are necessarily either hired laborers, or slaves" since to them, "nobody labors unless somebody else, owning capital... induces him to do it." Further, mudsillers believed that these laborers were "fatally fixed" in their status. Lincoln contrasted his view that labor was in fact the source of capital by noting that a majority of persons in Free States were "neither hirers nor hired" but in such professions as farming, where they worked for themselves.
+
+
+== See also ==
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== External links ==
+ The 'Mudsill' Theory speech at Wikisource
+"Mudsill Theory" introductory speech given by James Henry Hammond
+"Mudsill Theory", from John Taylor Gatto's The Underground History of American Education

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcotizing_dysfunction-0.md

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+---
+title: "Narcotizing dysfunction"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcotizing_dysfunction"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:36.326088+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Narcotizing dysfunction is a theory that as mass media inundates people on a particular issue, they become apathetic to it, substituting knowledge for action. It is suggested that the vast supply of communication Americans receive may elicit only a superficial concern with the problems of society. This would result in real societal action being neglected, while superficiality covers up mass apathy. Thus, it is termed "dysfunctional" as it indicates the inherent dysfunction of both mass media and social media during controversial incidents and events. The theory assumes that it is not in the best interests of people to form a social mass that is politically apathetic and inert. The term narcotizing dysfunction was identified in the article "Mass Communication, Popular Taste and Organized Social Action", by Paul F. Lazarsfeld, and Robert K. Merton.
+Mass media's overwhelming flow of information has caused the populace to become passive in their social activism. Because the individual is assailed with information about a huge range of issues and problems, and they are knowledgeable about or able to discuss these issues, they believe they are helping to resolve these issues. As more time is spent educating oneself on current issues, there is a decrease in time available to take organized social action. Courses of action may be discussed, but they are rather internalized and rarely come to fruition. In short, people have unwittingly substituted knowledge for action. People's consciences are clear, as they think they have done something to address the issue. However, being informed and concerned is not a replacement for action. Even though there are increasing numbers of political messages, information, and advertisements available through traditional media and online media, political participation continues to decline. People pay close attention to the media, but there is an overexposure of messages that can get confusing and contradictory so people do not get involved in the political process.
+
+
+== History ==
+The term "narcotizing dysfunction" gained popularity from its use in the 1946 article "Mass Communication, Popular Taste, and Organized Social Action", by Paul F. Lazarsfeld and Robert K. Merton. Along with the status conferral function (i.e., mass media bestow prestige and enhance the authority of individuals and groups by legitimizing their status) and the reaffirmation of social norms function (i.e., mass media enforce social norms by exposing deviations from these norms to public view), they spotted a third social significance of mass media that had gone largely unnoticed: a narcotizing effect making the masses of the population politically inert.
+The expression condenses three principles:the first supposition is that informational excess could lead to a tragic numbness and social detachment. It has to do with the social risks associated with technology use, namely, the threat of desensitizing the individual’s awareness by means of a surplus of means of communication. The second assumption relies on the assertion that to know is the same as to act. The narcotizing dysfunction draws attention to the fact that individuals tend to consider that because they are informed about a subject, they are necessarily concerned with it—as if there was a correspondence between information and political commitment. The third assumption relates to the other two: to address a problem is not necessarily to engage with it. That is, being informed is not a replacement for action. By saturating people with information, mass media could be producing exactly what it wants to prevent: ignorance, indifference, and obliviousness.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Collective identity
+Intellectualization
+Doomscrolling
+Media fatigue
+Slacktivism
+
+
+== Notes ==
+
+
+== References ==
+Baran, S.;Davis, D: Mass Communication Theory (fifth edition) (Wadsworth, 2009).
+Lazarsfeld, Paul Felix, and Robert King Merton. Mass Communication, Popular Taste and Organized Social Action. Bobbs-Merrill, College Division, 196AD.
+Mateus, S. (2020). Narcotizing dysfunction. In D. Merskin (Ed.), The SAGE international encyclopedia of mass media and society (Vol. 1, pp. 1159-1161). Thousand Oaks,, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. doi: 10.4135/9781483375519.n440

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natal_alienation-0.md

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+---
+title: "Natal alienation"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natal_alienation"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:37.534255+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Natal alienation is the estrangement or disconnection from historical memory which occurs by severing an individual from their kinship traditions, cultural heritage (including language and religion), and economic inheritance through experiences of social death. It creates the conditions in which an individual, now estranged from knowledge of their social heritage, can become a commodity defined by their relationship to systems and structures that often caused and benefit from their very alienation. 
+The term was coined by sociologist Orlando Patterson in reference to the conditions of African slaves through the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. The natally alienated individual is embodied in the colonized individual who has been forced to reject or forget their own histories, being born into a society which prevents them from participating in or knowing their traditions and conditions them to forget them. It has been described as the inheritance of disinheritance and an existential homelessness.
+
+
+== Examples ==
+American-born African enslaved people who were brought to the American colonies experienced high rates of natal alienation. Scholar Cornel West identifies that, while only 4.5% of all Africans imported to the "New World" arrived in North America, this percentage quadrupled "through an incredibly high rate of slave reproduction." As West identifies, this had the following result: "Second- and third-generation Africans in the USA made sense of and gave meaning to their predicament without an immediate relation to African worldviews and customs."
+Aboriginal Australians have been described as undergoing extreme forms of natal alienation. As Belinda Wheeler details, "successive removal policies have directly resulted in generations of mothers with 'no prototype' for transmitting the basics of mothering knowledge to their own children, let alone knowledge of traditional Aboriginal worldview, practices, and values." Australia instituted policies in the twentieth century to "eliminate Aborigines through the eugenic expedient of 'breeding them white,'" which was standardized in all of its states by 1937.  
+The majority of the Indigenous peoples of California experienced natal alienation through the California Genocide by the end of the nineteenth century. Scholar Wendy Cheng writes that they "were reduced to naturally vanishing, picturesque figures in a sentimentalized history." 
+Huanani-Kay Trask writes that natal alienation creates a psychological dependency for Indigenous peoples: "Generations become addicted to the worst cultural habits of colonial society which increases both, ignorance of, and alienation from the native culture...."
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necropolitics-0.md

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+---
+title: "Necropolitics"
+chunk: 1/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necropolitics"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:38.697921+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Necropolitics is a sociopolitical theory of the use of social and political power to dictate how some people may live and how some must die. The deployment of necropolitics creates what Achille Mbembe calls deathworlds, or "new and unique forms of social existence in which vast populations are subjected to living conditions that confer upon them the status of the living dead." Mbembe, author of On the Postcolony, was the first scholar to explore the term in depth in his 2003 article, and later, his 2019 book of the same name. Mbembe identifies racism as a prime driver of necropolitics, stating that racialized people's lives are systemically cheapened and habituated to loss.
+
+== Concept ==
+Necropolitics is often discussed as an extension of biopower, the Foucauldian term for the use of social and political power to control people's lives. Foucault first discusses the concepts of biopower and biopolitics in his 1976 work, The Will to Knowledge: The History of Sexuality Volume I. Foucault presents biopower as a mechanism for "protecting", but acknowledges that this protection often manifests itself as subjugation of non-normative populations. The creation and maintenance of institutions that prioritize certain populations as more valuable is, according to Foucault, how population control has been normalized.
+Mbembe's concept of necropolitics acknowledges that contemporary state-sponsored death cannot be explained by the theories of biopower and biopolitics, stating that "under the conditions of necropower, the lines between resistance and suicide, sacrifice and redemption, martyrdom and freedom are blurred." Jasbir Puar assumes that discussions of biopolitics and necropolitics must be intertwined, because "the latter makes its presence known at the limits and through the excess of the former; [while] the former masks the multiplicity of its relationships to death and killing in order to enable the proliferation of the latter."
+Mbembe was clear that necropolitics is more than simply a right to kill (Foucault's droit de glaive). While his view of necropolitics does include various forms of political violence such as the right to impose social or civil death, and the right to enslave others, it is also about the right to expose other people (including a country's own citizens) to mortal danger and death. Cultural theorist Lauren Berlant calls this gradual and persistent process of elimination slow death. According to Berlant, only specific populations are "marked out for wearing out" and the conditions of being worn out and dying are intimately linked with "the ordinary reproduction of [daily] life."
+Necropolitics is a theory of the walking dead, in which specific bodies are forced to remain in suspended states of being located somewhere between life and death. Mbembe provided a way of analyzing these "contemporary forms of subjugation of life to the power of death." He utilized examples of slavery, apartheid, the colonization of Palestine and the figure of the suicide bomber to illustrate differing forms of necropower over the body (statist, racialized, a state of exception, urgency, martyrdom) and how this reduces people to precarious life conditions.
+According to Marina Gržinić, necropolitics precisely defines the forms taken by neo-liberal global capitalist cuts in financial support for public health, social and education structures. To her, these extreme cuts present intensive neo-liberal procedures of ‘rationalization’ and ‘civilization’.
+
+== Living death ==
+Mbembe's understanding of sovereignty, according to which the living are characterized as "free and equal men and women," informs how he expands the definition of necropolitics to include not only individuals experiencing death, but also experiencing social or political death. An individual unable to set their own limitations due to social or political interference is then considered, by Mbembe, to not be truly alive, as they are no longer sovereign over their own body. The ability for a state to subjugate populations so much so that they do not have the liberty of autonomy over their lives is an example of necropolitics. This creates zones of existence for the living dead, those who no longer have sovereignty over their own body. R. Guy Emerson writes that necropolitics exists beyond the limits of administrative or state power being imposed on bodies, but also becomes internalized, coming to control behaviors over fear of death or fear of exposure to death worlds.
+Frédéric Le Marcis discusses how the contemporary African prison system acts as an example of necropolitics. Referring to the concept of living death as "stuckness", Le Marcis details life in prison as a state-sponsored creation of death; some examples he provides include malnourishment through a refusal to feed inmates, a lack of adequate healthcare, and the excusing of certain violent actions between inmates. Racism, discussed by Foucault as an integral component of wielding biopower, is also present in Le Marcis' discussion of the necropolitical prison system, specifically regarding the ways in which murder and suicide are often overlooked among inmates. Mbembe also contends that matters of homicide and suicide within state-governed institutions housing "less valuable" members of the necroeconomy are simply another example of social or political death.
+Ilana Feldman brings as an example the experience of Palestinian refugees in the situation of prolonged displacement. In her ethnographic work, a number of interviewees share how the combination of bad leadership, poor services in refugee camps and lack of international support resulted in a collective climate of hopelessness.
+
+== Queer and trans necropolitics ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necropolitics-1.md

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+title: "Necropolitics"
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+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necropolitics"
+category: "reference"
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+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:38.697921+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Jasbir Puar coined the term queer necropolitics to analyze the post-9/11 queer outrage regarding gay bashing and simultaneous queer complicity with Islamophobia. Through Mbembe's discussions, Puar addresses the dismissal of racism within the LGBTQ+ community as a form of assimilation and of distancing away from non-normative populations who are generally affected by necropolitics. Puar's research specifically focuses on the notion that "the homosexual other is white, the racial other is straight," which discounts queer people of color and their worth as a population, and reinforces tolerance of harm towards them. As a prime example of this, Puar brings up the Israeli colonization of Palestine, in which Israel uses its non-Palestinian LGBTQ+ population to project an image of itself as a "tolerant, diverse, and democractic society," in order to deflect people from examining its "dismal human rights record" (Pinkwashing (LGBTQ)).
+Many scholars use Puar's queer necropolitics in conjunction with Judith Butler's concept of a grievable life. Butler's discussion of the HIV/AIDS epidemic specifically addresses the shortcomings of Foucault's concept of biopower for non-normative populations that experience multiple intersections of Other-ness. Butler connects the lives of queer individuals to those of "war casualties that the United States inflicts," noting that these deaths cannot be publicly grieved unless the perpetrators regard their victims as noteworthy. Butler claims that obituaries normalize the necropolitics of the lives of queer people and the lives of people of color.
+In "Trans Necropolitics: A Transnational Reflection on Violence, Death, and the Trans of Color Afterlife" Snorton and Haritaworn investigate the necropolitical nature of trans people of color's lives and examine the 'making dead' of trans people of color, and especially trans women of color, as an intentionally violent political strategy.
+
+=== Against trans and gender-diverse people ===
+In the academic article Necropolitics and Trans Identities: Language Use as Structural Violence, authors Kinsey Stewart and Thomas Delgado argue that language can also harm the dead and that the use of language within medicolegal death investigation reflects and reinforces structural violence against transgender and gender diverse people.
+
+== Further developments ==
+Khaled Al-Kassimi, the author of International Law, Necropolitics, and Arab Lives, recently expanded the theoretical framework of necropolitics by engaging in an epistemic inquiry to deconstruct the philosophical and theological reasons as to why Western modernity necessitates deploying "necropower" for onto-epistemic coherence. In doing so, Al-Kassimi mentions that while racism is a material explanation to the exercise of necropolitics, it is the epistemic schism between both "spiritual Arabia" and "secular Europe" that demands the latter to "ban" the former from the juridical order and render them the "living-dead".
+By navigating Latin-European scholastics in the 15th century, including the positivist juridical turn during and after the Enlightenment period, Al-Kassimi concludes that "Arab epistemology emphasiz[ing] the spiritual rather than simply the material" requires "secular" Western modernity to demand the elevation of Arab subjects to the exception and rendering them through technologies of racism and essentialist narratives as "bare-life", "Muselmann", or the "living-dead"; that is, objects of sovereign necropower.
+
+== See also ==
+Assemblage (philosophy)
+Biopolitics
+Dispositif
+Moral hazard
+Brinkmanship
+Desecration of graves
+Israeli razing of cemeteries in the Gaza Strip
+List of ways people dishonor the dead
+Lifeworld
+Social murder
+
+== References ==
+
+== Further reading ==
+Geller, P.L. (2021). "What Is Necropolitics?". In: Theorizing Bioarchaeology. Bioarchaeology and Social Theory. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70704-0_5
+Rouse, C.M. (2021). "Necropolitics versus Biopolitics: Spatialization, White Privilege, and Visibility during a Pandemic". In: Journal of Cultural Anthropology. Vol. 36, No. 3. https://doi.org/10.14506/ca36.3.03

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neophile-0.md

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+---
+title: "Neophile"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neophile"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:39.926150+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Neophile or Neophiliac, a term popularised by author Robert Anton Wilson,  is a personality type characterized by a strong affinity for novelty. The term was used earlier by Christopher Booker in his 1969 book The Neophiliacs, and by J. D. Salinger in his 1965 short story "Hapworth 16, 1924".
+
+
+== Characteristics ==
+Neophiles/Neophiliacs have the following basic characteristics:
+
+The ability to adapt rapidly to extreme change.
+A distaste or downright loathing of routine.
+A desire to experience novelty.
+A corresponding and related desire to create novelty.
+A neophile is distinct from a revolutionary in that anyone might become a revolutionary if pushed far enough by the reigning authorities or social norms, whereas neophiles are revolutionaries by nature. Their intellectual abhorrence of tradition and repetition usually bemoans a deeper emotional need for constant novelty and change. The meaning of neophile approaches and is not mutually exclusive to the term visionary, but differs in that a neophile actively seeks first-hand experience of novelty rather than merely pontificating about it.
+The opposite of a neophile is a neophobe; a person with an aversion to novelty and change. Robert Anton Wilson speculates in his 1983 book 
+Prometheus Rising that the Industrial Revolution and related enlightenment represents one of the first periods of history in which neophiles were a dominant force in society. Wilson observes that neophobes tend to regard neophiles, especially extreme ones, with fear and contempt, and to brand them with titles such as "witch," "satanist," "heretic," etc.
+
+
+== Types ==
+Open-source advocate and programmer Eric S. Raymond observes that this personality is especially prevalent in certain fields of expertise; in business, these are primarily computer science and other areas of high technology. Raymond speculates that the rapid progress of these fields (especially computers) is a result of this. A neophile's love of novelty is likely to lead them into subjects outside of the normal areas of human interest. Raymond observes a high concentration of neophiles in or around what he calls "leading edge subcultures" such as science fiction fandom, neo-paganism, transhumanism, etc. as well as in or around nontraditional areas of thought such as fringe philosophy or the occult. Raymond observes that most neophiles have roving interests and tend to be widely well-read.
+There is more than one type of neophile. There are social neophiles (the extreme social butterfly), intellectual neophiles (the revolutionary philosopher and the technophile), and physical/kinetic neophiles (the extreme sports enthusiast). These tendencies are not mutually exclusive, and might exist simultaneously in the same individual.
+The word "neophilia" has particular significance in Internet and hacker culture. The New Hacker's Dictionary gave the following definition to neophilia:
+
+The trait of being excited and pleased by novelty. Common among most hackers, SF fans, and members of several other connected leading-edge subcultures, including the pro-technology 'Whole Earth' wing of the ecology movement, space activists, many members of Mensa, and the Discordian/neo-pagan underground (see geek). All these groups overlap heavily and (where evidence is available) seem to share characteristic hacker tropisms for science fiction, music.
+Research has uncovered a possible link between certain predisposition to some kind of neophilia and increased levels of the enzyme monoamine oxidase A.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Fad
+Technophilia
+Technophobia
+Futurism
+Novelty seeking
+Low arousal theory
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== External links ==
+Heidi Dawley, The disorder of these times, neophilia (2006)

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_society-0.md

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+---
+title: "Network society"
+chunk: 1/3
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_society"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:41.127039+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Network society is the set of social, political, economic, and cultural changes brought about by the widespread use of networked digital information and communication technologies.
+The intellectual origins of the idea can be traced back to the work of early social theorists such as Georg Simmel who analyzed the effect of modernization and industrial capitalism on complex patterns of affiliation, organization, production and experience.
+
+== Origins ==
+The term network society was coined by Jan van Dijk in his 1991 Dutch book De Netwerkmaatschappij (The Network Society) and by Manuel Castells in The Rise of the Network Society (1996), the first part of his trilogy The Information Age. In 1978 James Martin used the related term 'The Wired Society' indicating a society that is connected by mass- and telecommunication networks. 
+Van Dijk defines the network society as a society in which a combination of social and media networks shapes its prime mode of organization and most important structures at all levels (individual, organizational and societal). He compares this type of society to a mass society that is shaped by groups, organizations and communities ('masses') organized in physical co-presence.
+Manuel Castells defines the network society as a new social structure emerging from advances in information and communication technologies. It represents a shift from industrial production to a knowledge economy, where information flows across global networks.
+Key concepts include:
+
+Space of Flows: The technological ability to engage in activities across distances without physical proximity. Functions like financial markets and media networks operate within this space.
+Timeless Time: A condition where traditional sequences of social time are disrupted, allowing for asynchronous interactions and random disturbances.
+The network society alters the experience of space and time, leading to flexible work arrangements, precarious employment, and global interconnectivity. These changes reinforce new class divisions and reshape relationships between individuals and institutions.
+
+== Wellman, Hiltz, and Turoff ==
+Wellman studied the network society as a sociologist at the University of Toronto. His first formal work was in 1973, "The Network City" with a more comprehensive theoretical statement in 1988. Since his 1979 "The Community Question", Wellman has argued that societies at any scale are best seen as networks (and "networks of networks") rather than as bounded groups in hierarchical structures. More recently, Wellman has contributed to the theory of social network analysis with an emphasis on individualized networks, also known as "networked individualism". In his studies, Wellman focuses on three main points of the network society: community, work and organizations. He states that with recent technological advances an individual's community can be socially and spatially diversified. Organizations can also benefit from the expansion of networks in that having ties with members of different organizations can help with specific issues.
+In 1978, Roxanne Hiltz and Murray Turoff's The Network Nation explicitly built on Wellman's community analysis, taking the book's title from Craven and Wellman's "The Network City". The book argued that computer supported communication could transform society. It was remarkably prescient, as it was written well before the advent of the Internet. Turoff and Hiltz were the progenitors of an early computer supported communication system, called EIES.
+
+== Manuel Castells ==
+According to Castells, networks constitute the new social morphology of our societies.  When interviewed by Harry Kreisler from the University of California Berkeley, Castells said "...the definition, if you wish, in concrete terms of a network society is a society where the key social structures and activities are organized around electronically processed information networks. So it's not just about networks or social networks, because social networks have been very old forms of social organization. It's about social networks which process and manage information and are using micro-electronic based technologies." The diffusion of a networking logic substantially modifies the operation and outcomes in processes of production, experience, power, and culture. For Castells, networks have become the basic units of modern society. Van Dijk does not go that far; for him these units still are individuals, groups, organizations and communities, though they may increasingly be linked by networks.
+The network society goes further than the information society that is often proclaimed. Castells argues that it is not purely the technology that defines modern societies, but also cultural, economic and political factors that make up the network society.  Influences such as religion, cultural upbringing, political organizations, and social status all shape the network society. Societies are shaped by these factors in many ways. These influences can either raise or hinder these societies. For van Dijk, information forms the substance of contemporary society, while networks shape the organizational forms and infrastructures of this society.
+The space of flows plays a central role in Castells' vision of the network society. It is a network of communications, defined by hubs where these networks crisscross. Élites in cities are not attached to a particular locality but to the space of flows.
+Castells puts great importance on the networks and argues that the real power is to be found within the networks rather than confined in global cities. This contrasts with other theorists who rank cities hierarchically.

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+title: "Network society"
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+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:41.127039+00:00"
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+---
+
+== Jan van Dijk ==
+Van Dijk has defined the idea "network society" as a form of society increasingly organizing its relationships in media networks gradually replacing or complementing the social networks of face-to-face communication. Personal and social-network communication is supported by digital technology.  This means that social and media networks are shaping the prime mode of organization and most important structures of modern society.
+Van Dijk's The Network Society describes what the network society is and what it might be like in the future.  The first conclusion of this book is that modern society is in a process of becoming a network society.  This means that on the internet interpersonal, organizational, and mass communication come together. People become linked to one another and have access to information and communication with one another constantly. Using the internet brings the “whole world” into homes and work places.  Also, when media like the internet becomes even more advanced it will gradually appear as “normal media” in the first decade of the 21st century as it becomes used by larger sections of the population and by vested interests in the economy, politics and culture. It asserts that paper means of communication will become out of date, with newspapers and letters becoming ancient forms for spreading information.
+
+== Interaction with new media ==
+
+New media are “media which are both integrated and interactive and also use digital code at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries.”
+In western societies, the individual linked by networks is becoming the basic unit of the network society. In eastern societies, this might still be the group (family, community, work team) linked by networks. In the contemporary process of individualisation, the basic unit of the network society has become the individual who is linked by networks. This is caused by simultaneous scale extension (nationalisation and internationalisation) and scale reduction (smaller living and working environments)  Other kinds of communities arise. Daily living and working environments are getting smaller and more heterogenous, while the range of the division of labour, interpersonal communications and mass media extends. So, the scale of the network society is both extended and reduced as compared to the mass society. The scope of the network society is both global and local, sometimes indicated as “glocal”. The organization of its components (individuals, groups, organizations) is no longer tied to particular times and places. Aided by information and communication technology, these coordinates of existence can be transcended to create virtual times and places and to simultaneously act, perceive and think in global and local terms.
+There is an explosion of horizontal networks of communication, quite independent from media business and governments, that allows the emergence of what can be called self-directed mass communication. It is mass communication because it is diffused throughout the Internet, so it potentially reaches the whole planet. It is self-directed because it is often initiated by individuals or groups by themselves bypassing the media system. The explosion of blogs, vlogs, podding, streaming and other forms of interactive, computer to computer communication set up a new system of global, horizontal communication Networks that, for the first time in history, allow people to communicate with each other without going through the channels set up by the institutions of society for socialized communication.
+What results from this evolution is that the culture of the network society is largely shaped by the messages exchanged in the composite electronic hypertext made by the technologically linked networks of different communication modes. In the network society, virtuality is the foundation of reality through the new forms of socialized communication. Society shapes technology according to the needs, values and interests of people who use the technology. Furthermore, information and communication technologies are particularly sensitive to the effects of social uses on technology itself. The history of the internet provides ample evidence that the users, particularly the first thousands of users, were, to a large extent, the producers of the technology. However, technology is a necessary, albeit not sufficient condition for the emergence of a new form of social organization based on networking, that is on the diffusion of networking in all realms of activity on the basis of digital communication networks.

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+title: "Network society"
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+---
+
+== Modern examples ==
+The concepts described by Jan van Dijk, Barry Wellman, Hiltz and Turoff, and Manuel Castells are embodied in much digital technology. Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, instant messaging and email are prime examples of the Network Society at work. These web services allow people all over the world to communicate through digital means without face-to-face contact. This demonstrates how the ideas of society changing will affect the persons we communicate over time.
+Network society does not have any confinements and has found its way to the global scale. Network society is developed in modern society that allows for a great deal of information to be traded to help improve information and communication technologies.  Having this luxury of easier communication also has consequences. This allows for globalization to take place by having more and more people joining the online society and learning about different techniques with the world wide web. This benefits users who have access to the internet, to stay connected at all times with any topic the user wants. Individuals without internet may be affected because they are not directly connected into this society. People always have an option to find public space with computers with internet. This allows a user to keep up with the ever changing system. Network society is constantly changing the “cultural production in a hyper-connected world.” 
+Social Structures revolve around the relationship of the “production/consumption, power, and experience.” These conclusively create a culture, which continues to sustain by getting new information constantly. Our society system was a mass media system where it was a more general place for information. Now the system is more individualized and custom system for users making the internet more personal. This makes messages to the audience more inclusive sent into society. Ultimately allowing more sources to be included to better communication. Network society is seen as a global system that helps with globalization. This is beneficial to the people who have access to the internet to get this media. The negative to this is the people without access do not get this sense of the network society. These networks, that have now been digitized, are more efficient of connecting people. Everything we know now can be put into a computer and processed. Users put messages online for others to read and learn about. This allows people to gain knowledge faster and more efficiently. Networked society allows for people to connect to each other quicker and to engage more actively. This networks go away from having a central theme, but still has a focus in what it is there to accomplish.
+
+== See also ==
+
+== References ==
+
+== External links ==
+
+The Network Society on Googlebooks
+Interview with Manuel Castells Archived 2008-08-03 at the Wayback Machine

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+
+The neurodiversity paradigm is a framework for understanding human brain function that considers the diversity within sensory processing, motor abilities, social comfort, cognition, and focus as neurobiological differences. This diversity falls on a spectrum of neurocognitive differences. The neurodiversity movement views autism and other neurodivergences as a natural part of human neurological diversity—not diseases or disorders, just "difference[s]". 
+Neurodivergences include autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, developmental prosopagnosia, developmental speech disorders, dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, dysnomia, intellectual disability, obsessive–compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, sensory processing disorder, synesthesia, and Tourette syndrome. 
+The neurodiversity movement started in the late 1980s and early 1990s with the start of Autism Network International. Much of the correspondence that led to the formation of the movement happened over autism conferences, namely the autistic-led Autreat, penpal lists, and Usenet. The framework grew out of the disability rights movement and builds on the social model of disability, arguing that disability partly arises from societal barriers and person-environment mismatch (e.g. the double empathy problem theory by Damian Milton), rather than attributing disability purely to inherent deficits. It instead situates human cognitive variation in the context of biodiversity and the politics of minority groups. Some neurodiversity advocates and researchers, including Judy Singer and Patrick Dwyer, argue that the neurodiversity paradigm is the middle ground between a strong medical model and a strong social model.
+Neurodivergent individuals face unique challenges in education, in their social lives, and in the workplace. The efficacy of accessibility and support programs in career development and higher education differs from individual to individual. Social media has introduced a platform where neurodiversity awareness and support has emerged, further promoting the neurodiversity movement.
+The neurodiversity paradigm has been controversial among disability advocates, especially proponents of the medical model of autism, with opponents arguing it risks downplaying the challenges associated with some disabilities (e.g., in those requiring little support becoming representative of the challenges caused by the disability, thereby making it more difficult to seek desired treatment), and that it calls for the acceptance of things some wish to be treated for. In recent years, to address these concerns, some neurodiversity advocates and researchers have attempted to reconcile what they consider different seemingly contradictory but arguably partially compatible perspectives. Some researchers, such as Patrick Dwyer, Ari Ne'eman and Sven Bölte, have advocated for mixed, integrative or combined approaches that involve both neurodiversity approaches and biomedical approaches, for example teaching functional communication (whether verbal or nonverbal) and treating self-injurious behaviors or co-occurring conditions like epilepsy and depression with biomedical approaches.
+
+== History and developments ==
+The word neurodiversity first appeared in publication in 1998, in an article by American journalist Harvey Blume, as a portmanteau of the words neurological diversity, which had been used as early as 1996 in online spaces such as InLv to describe the growing concept of a natural diversity in humanity's neurological expression. The same year, it was published in Judy Singer's sociology honors thesis, drawing on discussions on the independent living mailing list that included Blume. Singer has described herself as "likely somewhere on the autistic spectrum".
+Blume was an early advocate who predicted the role the Internet would play in fostering the international neurodiversity movement. In a New York Times piece on June 30, 1997, Blume described the foundation of neurodiversity using the term neurological pluralism. Some authors also credit the earlier work of autistic advocate Jim Sinclair in laying the foundation for the movement. Sinclair's 1993 speech "Don't Mourn For Us" emphasized autism as a way of being, claiming "it is not possible to separate the person from the autism."
+The neurodiversity movement grew largely from online interaction. The internet's design lent well to the needs of many autistic people. People socialized over listservs and IRCs. Some of the websites used for organizing in the neurodiversity movement's early days include sites like Autistics.Org and Autistic People Against Neuroleptic Abuse. Core principles were developed from there. Principles such as advocating for the rights and autonomy of all people with brain disabilities with a focus on autism. The main conflicts from the beginning were about who the real experts on autism are, what causes autism, what interventions are appropriate, and who gets to call themselves autistic. During the 2000s, people started blogs such as Mel Baggs' Ballastexistenz and Kevin Leitch's Left Brain Right Brain. Eventually, Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) was started by Ari Ne'eman and Scott Robertson to further align the neurodiversity movement with the greater disability rights movement. ASAN led the Ransom Notes Campaign to successfully remove stigmatizing disability ads posted by the NYU Child Study Center. This was a massive turning point for the neurodiversity movement.
+From there, the neurodiversity movement continued to grow with the formation of more organizations in the early 2010s such as Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network and The Thinking Person's Guide to Autism. More autistic people were appointed to federal advisory boards like Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee and National Council on Disability. There were various campaigns like the ongoing #StopTheShock related to the use of aversive treatment at Judge Rotenberg Center and various protests against Autism Speaks. Various flashblogs popped up during the 2010s to support campaigns. Annual traditions were formed such as Disability Day of Mourning and Autistics Speaking Day.
+Damian Milton notes that, in 2014, Nick Walker attempted to define neurodiversity, the neurodiversity movement, and the neurodiversity paradigm. Walker tied neurodiversity to the idea that "all brains are to a degree unique". She also defined the movement as a rights movement, and the paradigm as a broader discussion of diversity, cultural constructions and social dynamics.
+An important question is which neurodivergences traditionally viewed as disorders should be depathologized and exempt from attempts to remove them. Autistic advocate Nick Walker suggested preserving "forms of innate or largely innate neurodivergence, like autism" while conditions like epilepsy or traumatic brain injury could be removed from the person without fundamentally changing the person because these are not pervasively linked to the individual's personality or perception of the world.

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+
+== Scientific debates, research findings, and neurodiversity-based reforms ==
+In recent years, the concept of neurodiversity and many related findings that challenged traditional knowledge and practices in the autism field have gained traction among many members of the scientific and professional communities, who have argued that autism researchers and practitioners have sometimes been too ready to interpret differences as deficits and such deficit-oriented and neuronormative approaches may cause harm. It has also been suggested that there are both ethical issues and practical risks in attempting to reduce or suppress some autistic traits (e.g. some stimming behaviors that do not cause harm to self or others, focused interests) that can sometimes be adaptive or instilling neurotypical social behaviors (e.g. eye contact, body language) through interventions. Researchers and advocates are concerned about such issues and risks as most recent studies and multiple systematic reviews have indicated that higher levels of masking, passing as neurotypical, or camouflaging are generally associated with poorer mental health outcomes including depression, clinical anxiety, and suicidality among autistic people (including children, adolescents, and adults) and across various regions or cultures. In addition, three reviews published in 2024 and 2025 indicated some forms of repetitive behaviors can be adaptive for sensory regulation and emotional regulation of some autistic people, and masking or suppressing some autistic repetitive behaviors that can be adaptive may risk worsening mental health and well-being. One multiple-year longitudinal study found that autistic children who showed decrease in repetitive behaviors experienced more severe and worsening in mental health symptoms, whereas autistic children who showed increase in repetitive behaviors experienced less severe mental health challenges. Relatedly, qualitative studies have shown some forms of applied behavioral interventions increase camouflaging or masking of autistic traits (e.g. stimming) for some autistic people, with negative effects on mental health. In addition, quantitative evidence regarding adverse effects (e.g. in terms of trauma, worsened mental health or mental health hospitalizations, reinforcement of masking or making autistic people "look normal") of some applied behavioral interventions is emerging, and appears widespread (with roughly 40-80% of autistic participants reporting such negative experiences across multiple studies). Apart from studies on adverse effects of early behavioral interventions, multiple dozens of qualitative studies, including studies systematically reviewed by Brede et al. (2022) have shown negative experiences accessing and receiving mental health services (e.g. lack of accurate understanding from clinicians, iatrogenic harm) are common and reported by most autistic participants.
+
+Moreover, researchers have found that psychoeducation based on the medical model is associated with higher stigma. Another study found that endorsements of normalization and curative goals (goals of some medical models) are associated with heightened stigma. Similarly, some researchers and advocates also argue that a medicalizing approach can contribute to stigma and ableism, and that the persistent focus on biological research in autism based on deficit-based medical model is at odds with the priorities of those in the autism community.
+The neurodiversity paradigm is controversial in autism advocacy. A prevalent criticism is that autistic people with higher support needs would continue to have challenges even if society was fully accommodating and accepting of them. Some critics of the neurodiversity paradigm, such as family members that are responsible for the care of such an autistic individual, think it might lead to overlooking or downplaying these challenges. In response, it has been stated that neurodiversity does not deny disability and support needs and that not having certain abilities or needing support is not intrinsically a bad thing, because notions of normal functioning are culturally and economically relative and historically contingent and there are cultures in which questions like "Will my child ever be able to live independently?" or "Who will care for my child after I die?" do not arise because support is provided by other members of the community as a matter of course. 
+
+Some scholars have noted points of contact between the neurodiversity movement and evolutionary psychiatry and evolutionary psychology. A 2024 perspective in Autism Research argued that evolutionary psychiatry can, in some contexts, support neurodiversity's goals by framing certain neurocognitive traits as part of human variation while remaining agnostic about clinical management or rights‑based advocacy. Related commentaries in psychiatric journals have encouraged careful evaluation of evolutionary accounts of autism alongside neurodiversity perspectives.
+Autistic self-advocate and researcher Ari Ne'eman has suggested a trait-based approach, where elements of the medical (or pathology) model can be applied in treating certain traits, behaviors, or conditions that are intrinsically harmful (e.g. self-injury behaviors, epilepsy, or other co-occurring health conditions), while neurodiversity approaches can be applied to non-harmful or sometimes adaptive autistic traits (e.g. some stimming behaviors that do not result in self-injury, intense interests) of the same individual. Relatedly, some neurodiversity researchers, as well as autistic people, advocates and researchers, have advocated for application and sometimes integration or combination of both neurodiversity approaches and biomedical research plus practice.
+In recent years, researchers, providers of various support services, and neurodivergent people have advocated for more neurodiversity-affirming support services/therapies, with both new therapy strategies being developed and advancements or reforms of existing therapy strategies (e.g. social skills programs, applied behavior analysis (ABA) interventions, occupational therapy) informed by experiences, strengths, interests, preferences, and feedback of autistic people as well as neurodiversity approaches and findings, with some evidence for beneficial effects. In addition, some researchers and advocates have called for more neurodiversity-affirming and lived-experience informed psychoeducation and stigma reduction methods.
+
+== Neurodivergent and neurotypical/neuroconforming ==

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+
+According to Kassiane Asasumasu, who coined the terms in the year 2000, neurodivergent/neurodivergence refers to those "whose neurocognitive functioning diverges from dominant societal norms in multiple ways". She emphasized that it should not be used to exclude people but rather to include them and therefore intended for these terms to apply to a broad variety of people, not just people with neurodevelopmental differences, such as autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and dyslexia. It is also used as an umbrella term to describe people with atypical mental and behavioral traits, such as mood, personality, sensory processing, and eating disorders. However, people with some neurological conditions, such as cerebral palsy, Parkinson's disease, and multiple sclerosis, are normally excluded.
+Under the neurodiversity framework, these differences are often referred to as neurodivergences, in an effort to challenge the medical model of disability (sometimes referred to in the neurodiversity community as the "pathology paradigm"). This term provided activists a way to advocate for increased rights and accessibility for people with atypical neurocognitive functioning, both autistic and non-autistic.
+Neurotypical (an abbreviation of neurologically typical, sometimes NT) is a neologism widely used in the neurodiversity movement as a label for anyone who has a neurotype that fits into the norm of thinking patterns. Thus, the term "neurotypical" includes anyone who is not autistic, and does not have ADHD, dyslexia, anxiety, or any other difference that would be considered neurodivergent. The term has been adopted by both the neurodiversity movement and some members of the scientific community.
+Neuroscience writer Mo Costandi views terms like neurotypical as not being of use in neuroscience, while others, including Uta Frith and Francesca Happé, use the term freely. Ginny Russell mentions that there is no clear bimodal distribution separating autistic and non-autistic people because many non-autistic people have some autistic traits. Another criticism, that neurotypicality is a dubious construct because nobody can be considered truly neurotypical, has been said by Nick Walker to reflect a misunderstanding of the term because it is meant to describe those who can adapt to society's norms without much effort, not to imply that all neurotypical people's brains are the same.
+Early definitions described neurotypicals as individuals who are not autistic. Early uses of NT were often satirical, as in the Institute for the Study of the Neurologically Typical, but it has been adopted by the neurodiversity movement too, and is now used in a serious manner.
+In contrast to some of the shortcomings of terms like neurotypical (such as its underlying assumption that neurodivergent experiences are an anomaly, i.e., not typical), a growing group of advocates in the neurodivergent movement prefer other terms such as neuroconforming. The term allistic is also used, meaning 'not autistic'.
+
+== Double empathy theory ==
+
+The theory of the double empathy problem argues that autistic people do not inherently lack empathy as often supposed by people who see autism as pathological, but most autistic people may struggle in understanding and empathizing with non-autistic people whereas most non-autistic people also lack understanding and empathy for autistic people. It was originally conceived in 2012 by autistic scholar Damian Milton. The theory argues that characteristics and experiences of autistic and non-autistic people are so different that it is hard for one to understand how the other thinks and empathize with each other; for example, non-autistic people may not understand when an autistic person is overwhelmed.
+An increasing number of studies in the 2010s and 2020s have found support for double empathy theory and related concepts such as bidirectional social interaction. One study comparing the conversations and socialization of autistic groups, non-autistic groups, and mixed groups found that autistic people were more able to build rapport with other autistic people than with non-autistic people, and at a level similar to the purely non-autistic group. A systematic review published in 2024 found that most autistic people have good interpersonal relations and social-communication experiences with most autistic people, and interactions between autistic people are associated with better quality of life across multiple domains, including mental health and emotional well-being.
+The double empathy problem theory implies there is no simple fix that can help each group better empathize with each other, but it is worthwhile to bridge the double empathy gap through more equal contact and enhancing public understanding and empathy about autistic people based on neurodiversity-affirming approaches. The advantage of the theory is reducing pathologization of autistic people by identifying that most people struggle to empathize with people with different neurotypes. It can also help neurotypical individuals to better understand how neurodivergent people think and empathize and to recognize their own limitations in empathizing with autistic people. Jaswal and Akhtar (2019) highlight the difference between being socially uninterested and appearing socially uninterested, and challenge preconceived notions of a lack of social motivation. For example, testimonies from autistic individuals report that avoiding eye contact serves an important function of helping them to concentrate during conversation, and should not be interpreted as expressing social disinterest.

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+
+== Neurodiversity lite ==
+The term neurodiversity lite has been used to describe a diluted form of the neurodiversity paradigm that has appeared as the concept has entered mainstream discourse.  
+The phrase is used to refer to applications of neurodiversity language that emphasize difference as a benign or fashionable form of human diversity, but critics argue that these applications omit the paradigm's original grounding in disability rights and structural critiques of ableism.  
+In this framing, conditions such as autism and ADHD are often associated with positive traits (or "superpowers") including creativity, attention to detail, hyperfocus, or unconventional problem-solving.  
+This perspective has been linked to reductions in stigma, increased self-acceptance, and the promotion of workplace initiatives that seek to recognize neurodivergent strengths.  
+Commentators have also identified limitations in the concept. Critics note that it may overemphasize exceptional abilities while downplaying the barriers faced by individuals with high support needs, intellectual disabilities, or limited speech.  
+This tendency has been described as particularly evident in corporate and media discourses, where neurodivergence is portrayed as a "superpower" aligned with productivity and innovation, often positioning autistic people as desirable employees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. Critics argue that such portrayals highlight individuals who can succeed in neurotypical environments with minimal accommodations, while overlooking those who require greater support.  
+Scholars suggest that by centering traits valued by institutions, such as technical skills or problem-solving ability, neurodiversity-lite may promote forms of inclusion that do not address accessibility or systemic barriers. Some commentators argue that this usage shifts neurodiversity from a rights-based and justice-oriented paradigm toward a branding strategy.
+
+== Within disability rights movements ==
+
+The neurodiversity paradigm was developed and embraced first by autistic people, but has been applied to other conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), developmental speech disorders, dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, dysnomia, intellectual disability, developmental prosopagnosia, obsessive–compulsive disorder, Tourette syndrome, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, schizoaffective disorder, synesthesia, Angelman syndrome, sensory processing disorders, and, somewhat more controversially, personality disorders such as antisocial personality disorder. Neurodiversity advocates and organizations like the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) do not agree with using medical interventions as a way to remove neurodevelopmental differences that are fundamentally linked to the personality and perception of the world, such as autism. Rather, they promote support systems such as inclusion-focused services, accommodations, communication and assistive technologies, occupational training, and independent living support. The intention is for individuals to receive support that honors human diversity and feel that they are able to freely express themselves. Other forms of interventions may cause them to feel as though they are being coerced or forced to adapt to social norms, or to conform to a behavioral standard or clinical ideal.
+Proponents of neurodiversity strive to reconceptualize autism and related conditions in society by acknowledging that neurodivergence is not something that needs to be cured and that the idea of curing it makes no conceptual sense because differences like autism are so pervasive that removing the autistic parts of the person is tantamount to replacing the autistic person by a different person. An important aim is also changing the language from the current "condition, disease, disorder, or illness"-based nomenclature, "broadening the understanding of healthy or independent living", acknowledging new types of autonomy, and giving neurodivergent individuals more control over their interventions, including the type, timing, and whether there should be interventions at all.
+
+Activists such as Jennifer White-Johnson have helped bring attention to the neurodiversity movement, by creating symbols of protest and recognition, including a combination of the black power fist and infinity symbol.
+A 2009 study separated 27 students with conditions including autism, dyslexia, developmental coordination disorder, ADHD, and having suffered a stroke into two categories of self-view: "A 'difference' view—where neurodiversity was seen as a difference incorporating a set of strengths and weaknesses, or a 'medical/deficit' view—where neurodiversity was seen as a disadvantageous medical condition". They found that, although all of the students reported uniformly difficult schooling careers involving exclusion, abuse, and bullying, those who viewed themselves from the "difference" view (41% of the study cohort) "indicated higher academic self-esteem and confidence in their abilities and many (73%) expressed considerable career ambitions with positive and clear goals". Many of these students reported gaining this view of themselves through contact with neurodiversity advocates in online support groups.
+A 2013 online survey which aimed to assess conceptions of autism and neurodiversity suggested that conception of autism as a difference, and not a deficit, is developmentally beneficial and "transcend[s] a false dichotomy between celebrating differences and ameliorating deficit".
+Neurodiversity advocate John Elder Robison argues that the disabilities and strengths conferred by neurological differences may be mutually inseparable. "When 99 neurologically identical people fail to solve a problem, it's often the 1% fellow who's different who holds the key. Yet that person may be disabled or disadvantaged most or all of the time. To neurodiversity proponents, people are disabled because they are at the edges of the bell curve, not because they are sick or broken."
+
+== Higher education ==
+There are several models that are used to understand disability. There is the medical model of disability that views people as needing to be treated or cured. Another model is the social model of disability, which puts emphasis on the way that society treats people with disabilities. Through the social model of disability, the experiences of neurodivergent students in higher education are partially influenced by the reactions and attitudes of other students and the institution itself.

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+---
+title: "Neurodiversity"
+chunk: 5/7
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurodiversity"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:42.364272+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Experiences of neurodivergent students ===
+The emotional experiences of neurodivergent students in higher education depend on a combination of factors, including the type of disability, the level of support needs, and the student's access to resources and accommodations. A common difficulty for neurodivergent students is maintaining social relationships, which can give rise to loneliness, anxiety, and depression. There is also the added stress and difficulty of transitioning into higher education, as well as the responsibilities and task management required in college. Many neurodivergent students may find that they need added support. As for academics, neurodivergent students may experience difficulties in learning, executive function, managing peer relationships in the classroom or in group work, and other difficulties that can affect academic performance and success in higher education. However, neurodivergent students may find that their differences are a strength and an integral part of their new social roles as adults.
+
+=== Higher education institutions ===
+The typical curriculum and format of higher education may pose as a challenge for neurodivergent students, and a lack of support and flexibility from staff may further complicate the university experience. Thus, reasonable adjustments are available to students who disclose their disabilities. However, these adjustments or accommodations may put an emphasis on academics, and less on the various challenges of higher education on neurodivergent students. For instance, neurodivergent students in higher education also report a need for non-academic supports, such as social mentorships and resources for strength-based interventions in order to further assist neurodivergent students in the social aspects of college life. Similarly, career preparation that is specifically targeted for neurodivergent students is lacking. There are several programs, such as supported employment, that exist to help assist neurodivergent individuals in finding and obtaining a job. However, many of these programs do not exist in schools. This can make it difficult for neurodivergent students to find a career path that they feel is attainable for them. Another consideration is the implementation of a universal design for learning approach (UDL) when building learning spaces or communal areas that considers the needs of neurodivergent students. A UDL design incorporates a design that accommodates the needs of all students, including the neurodivergent population.
+According to a 2023 article, universities and post-secondary establishments would show more tolerance towards neurodivergent people. A tolerant environment can increase autonomy, leading to kindness and understanding among students. Higher education institutions offer counseling and support services to students. However, neurodivergent students face particular challenges that impair their ability to receive consistent support and care. Additionally, counseling and support services face a lack of funding, personnel, and specialists that can adequately support neurodivergent students. Overall, these services work for some students and not for others.
+Nachman and colleagues reviewed several articles published by two-year community colleges and found some discrepancies in the way that they perceived and categorized "disabled" students and "non-disabled" students. They found that all of the articles were attempting to normalize disability. Many of them put a distinct separation between typical and atypical learners as well as their potential academic achievement. Nachman also found that many of the articles showed a lack of autonomy for neurodivergent students. They had little power in regard to academic choices and classroom management.
+
+== In the workplace ==
+Neurodivergent individuals are subjected to bias when applying and interviewing for job positions. Specifically, neurodivergent individuals can have their social engagement style compared to neurotypical individuals, which can affect their ability to obtain a job. Stigmas against neurodivergence (especially against autistic individuals) and cognition challenges in social situations can hinder an individual's ability to perform well in a traditional job interview. Organizations such as Specialisterne aim to use neurodivergent employees' particular skills – such as pattern recognition, detection of deviations, attention to detail, analytical thinking, and extended focus – in the workforce, as well as educate companies on supporting neurodivergent employees.
+In a systematic review that considered developmental dyslexia as "an expression of neurodiversity", it was suggested that neurodiversity is not yet an established concept in the workplace, and therefore, support from social relationships and work accommodations is minimal. Furthermore, another systematic review that focused on pharmacological and combined pharmacological/psychosocial interventions for adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder found that there were few workplace-based intervention studies, and suggested that additional research needs to be conducted to figure out how to best support neurodivergent employees in the workplace.
+
+=== Military service and conscription ===
+
+Military policies around the world have excluded individuals with autism from service, which neurodiversity advocates argue is a form of discrimination.
+In the United States, the Department of Defense officially bars all autistic individuals from joining the military. However, a soldier diagnosed with autism while already on active duty can continue to serve. This often leads to individuals pursuing a diagnosis in secret, as they fear it could jeopardize their careers. Advocates like Cortney Weinbaum argue that the military should embrace neurodiversity to enhance national security and that the U.S. government is wrong to classify neurodivergent individuals as disabled. They recommend systematic reforms, including providing accommodations, updating job descriptions, and training staff.
+In Sweden, a policy of excluding autistic individuals from military service has led to legal challenges. While Sweden made changes to allow some individuals with mild ADHD to serve, it has maintained its strict exclusion of those with autism. This has prompted several lawsuits from neurodiversity advocates, who argue the policy is discriminatory. Erik Fenn, who was initially denied enlistment due to his autism diagnosis, successfully sued the government and was deemed eligible for conscription. As of early 2025, Fenn is serving, and the Swedish military is facing multiple lawsuits over its exclusionary policies.

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+---
+title: "Neurodiversity"
+chunk: 6/7
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurodiversity"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:42.364272+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== In social media ==
+The increase in representation of the neurodiversity movement in the media came about with changes in the technology of the media platforms themselves. The recent addition of text-based options on various social media sites allows disabled users to communicate, enjoy, and share at a more accessible rate. Social media has a two-fold benefit to the neurodivergent community: it can help spread awareness and pioneer the neurodiversity movement, and it can also allow members of the communities themselves to connect.
+
+=== Social media as a platform ===
+Media platforms allow the connection of individuals of similar backgrounds to find a community of support with one another. Online networking and connections enable users to determine their comfort level in interactions, giving them control over their relationships with others. For the neurodivergent community, social media has proven to be a valuable tool for forming relationships, especially for those who find social situations challenging. By connecting neurodivergent users, media platforms provide "safe spaces" that are helpful in forming relationships. Some media developers have created platforms like "Blausm" that are designed specifically to connect neurodivergent users and families.
+
+=== Social media as a driving force ===
+Social media also allows users to spread awareness about the neurodiversity movement. Increasing awareness about mental conditions has been shown to increase the amount of factual information spread. The spread of information through social media exposure can assist the neurodiversity movement in educating the public about understanding disabilities such as autism and sifting out misinformation. By sharing neurodivergent experiences from a first-hand perspective, social media can educate the public and destigmatize certain conditions. Still, negative portrayals of neurodivergence can have an obstructive impact on members of the community.
+Higher awareness and acceptance through social media can lead people to self-identify as neurodivergent. Generally, self-diagnosis is discouraged in psychiatry because it is thought to be wrong more often than a professional assessment and because it is said that it trivializes challenges by turning them into fashion labels. Robert Chapman, in contrast, questions the reliability of professional autism assessments as they often overlook the experiences of individuals who are not white cisgender male children and states that self-identification is not done for fashion purposes but because it helps understanding one's strengths and challenges. Sue Fletcher-Watson argues that because autism should not be classified as a disorder and no treatment should follow a diagnosis, autistic individuals should have the autonomy to self-identify as autistic, liberating them from the power of medical professionals in defining autism and determining who belongs to the autistic community. A group of researchers created a preliminary self-report questionnaire for autistic people.
+
+=== Challenges within media ===
+Although representation of the neurodivergent community has grown with the help of social media platforms, those users are often criticized and misunderstood. Social media has not entirely removed the social barriers that restrict inclusion of neurodivergent people. Some have reported needing to conform to the mainstream view of their disability to be seen as "authentic" users. Doing so has indirectly made it more difficult for neurodivergent users to grow platforms. Non-disabled users assessing the authenticity of neurodivergent individuals based on stereotypes indicates that the neurodiversity movement has not achieved its goal of inclusion.
+
+== Clinical setting ==
+
+=== Medicine and healthcare ===
+Medical and healthcare professionals have begun to acknowledge neurodivergence among employees. Specifically, more groups are being created that are centered around advocacy and peer support among medical and healthcare professionals who associate themselves with neurodiversity, such as Autistic Doctors International, created by Dr. Mary Doherty. Another approach is the implementation of a 5-minute video summary (5MVS) for medical learners and physicians who have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It consists of a 5-minute recorded video summary in which an engaging speaker presents the relevant information from a scientific article about ADHD using a brief PowerPoint presentation shared using videoconferencing technology. The researchers state that providing this educational tool for helping medical learners and physicians with ADHD acquire relevant information from scientific articles could help in addressing their inattention, impulsivity or hyperactivity, and improve their development of critical appraisal skills when working in healthcare.
+Similarly, healthcare systems may benefit from hiring neurodivergent individuals to gain a unique perspective when caring for patients. Some healthcare staff agree that inviting neurodivergent individuals to join patient advisory groups or hiring them as staff are essential steps to acceptance and integration in the workforce. Neurodivergent people's unique strengths can be vital to health system innovation and improvement efforts. One example of the push toward this is the Stanford Neurodiversity Project, in which one of their goals is to discover the strengths of neurodivergent individuals and make use of their talents to increase innovation and productivity of their society, such as working in the field of healthcare and medicine.
+Neurodiversity has also recently been investigated as a new way of working within neurodevelopmental clinics in the UK. A team of researchers in Portsmouth, England, have created an approach in aiding neurodivergent individuals known as PANDA, or the Portsmouth Alliance Neurodiversity Approach. This approach may help medical and healthcare professionals facilitate understanding, communication and early support for children who may identify as being neurodivergent.

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+---
+title: "Neurodiversity"
+chunk: 7/7
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurodiversity"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:42.364272+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Therapy ==
+Neurodiversity and the role it plays in therapeutic settings has been a central focal point in recent years. Many therapists and mental health professionals have pushed for more inclusive psychotherapeutic frameworks appropriate for neurodivergent individuals. One example is neurodivergence-informed therapy, which reframes dysfunction as interconnectedness among society rather than strictly individual, advocating for acceptance and pride in the neurodiversity community, and the push for therapists to pursue humility regarding the knowledge and education associated with individuals who identify as neurodivergent. Similarly, neurodiversity-affirming therapy supports neurodivergent differences, rather than viewing them as something that should be eliminated, and to offer ways to support the individual with difficult areas, while still appreciating their needs and strengths.
+Therapeutic programs and interventions are also being investigated for the neurodivergent community. Self-determination programs that help neurodivergent individuals achieve their goals in life have been found to be successful, with neurodivergent participants finding it to be "appropriate, acceptable, and feasible". Various approaches (e.g., eye-tracking, longitudinal data, computational modeling) in understanding perceptual decision-making in neurodivergent individuals are also being studied and the implications it may have in the therapeutic environment in working with the neurodivergent population.
+Another form of therapeutic intervention in that has been investigated in neurodivergent individuals is the use of Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions (NDBIs). NDBIs have been shown to have positive effects on language and social-communication while, at the same time, respecting individuals' needs and autonomy. One of the key goals in this type of intervention is putting the focus of therapy on the neurodivergent individual themselves in the creation of intervention goals, procedures, and outcomes. In doing so, they are likely to be seen as more acceptable, useful, and effective to that individual.
+In addition to support from neurodiversity advocates for affirming therapies, concerns have been raised about the role of certain approaches such as applied behavior analysis. Neurodivergent individuals and activists tend to emphasize that these interventions aim to enforce conformity with expectations of society rather than addressing the needs of the person receiving the intervention. While a large body of research on the role of ABA seems to support its efficacy in cognitive and behavioral outcomes, a meta-analysis by Sandbank et al. challenges the evidence. Additionally, there are concerns regarding long-term mental health impacts and with the measures used in determining social validity by those who have raised these concerns. In addition to advocates from within the neurodivergent community, some behavioral analysts have begun to reconsider the role of these therapies with the context of a neurodiversity framework.
+
+== See also ==
+
+Autistic Pride Day
+Mad pride
+Neuroqueer theory
+Neuroinclusive design
+Psychiatric survivors movement
+
+== Notes ==
+
+== References ==
+
+== Further reading ==
+
+== External links ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomos_(sociology)-0.md

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+---
+title: "Nomos (sociology)"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomos_(sociology)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:43.552220+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+In sociology, nomos (plural: nomoi) is a habit or custom of social and political behavior that is socially constructed and historically specific. It refers not only to explicit laws but to all of the normal rules and forms people take for granted in their daily activities. Because it represents order that is validated by and binding on those who fall under its jurisdiction, it is a social construct with ethical dimensions.
+
+
+== Background ==
+Nomos was an Ancient Greek term that was used for a broad range of societal or socio-political norms or laws in the city-states (poleis) of that time. This was the basis for the literary claims that Hellenes were different or morally superior to the "warlike" and "bloodthirsty" tribes of the Thracians, who were accused of intemperate drunkenness, immorality and uninhibited sexuality.
+
+
+== Carl Schmitt ==
+Carl Schmitt began using the term in his 1934 publication On the Three Types of Juristic Thought to denote the "concrete order" of a people. He later extended its use into his 1950 book The Nomos of the Earth in the International Law of the Jus Publicum Europaeum.
+
+
+== Peter L. Berger ==
+After Schmitt, the next influential writer to use the term in a modern context is Peter L. Berger. Berger writes of human beings fashioning a world by their own activity. Berger sees this taking place through a continual threefold cycle between individuals and society: externalisation, objectivation, and internalization.
+The world thus fashioned has an order—a set of principles—which comes to be read on to society by individuals through externalisation and objectivation, and also internalised in each individual. This order thus comes to be assumed, spoken of, and placed into social discourse to be treated as common sense. This ordering of the world and experience, which is a corporate and social process as well as an individual one, is a nomos.
+Berger writes of the "socially established nomos" being understood "as a shield against terror;" in other words, "the most important function of society is nomization." We all need this structuring nomos: it provides us with stability and predictability; a frame of reference in which to live. The alternative is the chaos and terror of what Berger calls anomie.
+
+To be most effective, the nomos must be taken for granted. The structure of the world created by human and social activity is treated not as contingent, but as self-evident:Whenever the socially established nomos attains the quality of being taken for granted, there occurs a merging of its meanings with what are considered to be the fundamental meanings inherent in the universe.Berger sees this happening in all societies; while in "archaic societies" the nomos is expressed in religious terms, "in contemporary society, this archaic cosmization of the social world is likely to take the form of 'scientific' propositions about the nature of men rather than the nature of the universe." Therefore, while its expression has most often been religious, this process of world-construction is not necessarily religious in itself. 
+Later, Berger explores the part that religious belief has played in nomoi: it provides a connection with the cosmic, seeking to provide a completeness to that religious world-view.Every human society is an edifice of externalized and objectivated meanings, always intending a meaningful totality. Every society is engaged in the never completed enterprise of building a humanly meaningful world. Cosmization implies the identification of this humanly meaningful world with the world as such, the former now being grounded in the latter, reflecting it or being derived from it in its fundamental structures. Such a cosmos, as the ultimate ground and validation of human nomoi, need not necessarily be sacred. Particularly in modern times there have been thoroughly secular attempts at cosmization, among which modern science is by far the most important. It is safe to say, however, that originally all cosmization had a sacred character.
+
+
+== Robert Cover ==
+The next landmark in the use of the term is generally thought to be by Robert Cover in his influential 1982 paper "Nomos and Narrative". His use of the term is rooted in Berger's argument that nomos requires mythology and narrative, as pillars for the understanding of the meaning of each act within a particular nomos.
+Cover argues that, while the mechanisms of law and social control are part of law, students of the law, and legal actors, should instead focus on the normative universe, the whole of the means of social control. As with Berger, Cover roots the nomos in "narrative," or what a post-structuralist would call meta-narrative. Cover argues that no set of legal institutions exists apart from the narratives that locate it and give it meaning.
+He argues that this is due to the fact that our moral sense is composed of the narratives from which we draw conclusions, and by which we locate ourselves in relation to other people. Because narrative is morality, the normative universe must rest on narrative. Since we also construct our view of the universe physically from narrative, Cover argues that the normative universe is as much a part of our existence as the physical universe.
+Cover then makes an argument of incorporation: just as we develop increasingly complex responses to the physical world, so too is our development of responses to "otherness" conditioned over time by interaction. From this, he argues that societies that have great legal systems rest on more than formal and technical virtuosity, but in the richness of their understanding of the normative universe.
+He argues that the explicit relationship between formal apparatus of a society, in this case a legal society, and the normative range of behavior is the fulcrum to understanding whether the society is functional or not.
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomothetic-0.md

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+---
+title: "Nomothetic"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomothetic"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:44.825170+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Nomothetic literally means "proposition of the law" (Greek derivation) and is used in  philosophy, psychology, and law with differing meanings.
+
+
+== Etymology ==
+In the general humanities usage, nomothetic may be used in the sense of "able to lay down the law", "having the capacity to posit lasting sense" (from Ancient Greek: νομοθετικός, romanized: nomothetikós, from νομοθέτης, nomothétēs, 'lawgiver', from νόμος, nómos, 'custom, law' and ultimately Proto-Indo-European: *nem-, lit. 'take, give, account, apportion'), e.g., 'the nomothetic capability of the early mythmakers' or 'the nomothetic skill of Adam, given the power to name things.'
+
+
+== In psychology ==
+In psychology, nomothetic refers to research about general principles or generalizations across a population of individuals. For example, the Big Five model of personality and Piaget's developmental stages are nomothetic models of personality traits and cognitive development respectively. In contrast, idiographic refers to research about the unique and contingent aspects of individuals, as in psychological case studies.
+In psychological testing, nomothetic measures are contrasted to ipsative or idiothetic measures, where nomothetic measures are measures that are observed on a relatively large sample and have a more general outlook.
+
+
+== In other fields ==
+In sociology, nomothetic explanation presents a generalized understanding of a given case, and is contrasted with idiographic explanation, which presents a full description of a given case.  Nomothetic approaches are most appropriate to the deductive approach to social research inasmuch as they include the more highly structured research methodologies which can be replicated and controlled, and which focus on generating quantitative data with a view to explaining causal relationships.
+In anthropology, nomothetic refers to the use of generalization rather than specific properties in the context of a group as an entity.
+In history, nomothetic refers to the philosophical shift in emphasis away from traditional presentation of historical text restricted to wars, laws, dates, and such, to a broader appreciation and deeper understanding.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Nomothetic and idiographic
+Nomological
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norm_entrepreneur-0.md

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+---
+title: "Norm entrepreneur"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norm_entrepreneur"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:46.020245+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+A norm entrepreneur or moral entrepreneur is an individual, group, or formal organization that seeks to influence a group to adopt or maintain a social norm on the basis of assumed boundaries of altruism, deviance, duty, or compassion.
+
+
+== Terminology ==
+The term moral entrepreneur was coined by the sociologist Howard S. Becker in Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance (1963) in order to help explore the relationship between law and morality, as well as to explain how deviant social categories become defined and entrenched. In Becker's view, moral entrepreneurs fall into roughly two categories: rule creators, and rule enforcers.
+The term norm entrepreneur was coined by Cass Sunstein in his 1996 paper titled Social Norms and Social Roles. In his paper, Sunstein highlights that existing social conditions can often be more fragile than is typically assumed, as they depend on social norms to which many may not be strongly aligned. Sunstein identifies a category of people, who he calls norm entrepreneurs, who are interested in changing social norms. Their willingness and ability to persuade others of the desirability and appropriateness of certain behaviors drives the first stage of the norm life cycle – norm emergence. If they are successful in their endeavors they can produce what he calls norm bandwagons and norm cascades, which lead to substantial changes in social norms.
+Wunderlich (2020) provides an overview of norms research and discusses the emergence and development of international norms. She defines norm entrepreneurship and presents a taxonomy of various types of norm entrepreneurs, exploring their motives, objectives, and delineating the tools and conditions for their success. Wunderlich argues there is a bias towards "feel-good" norm Entrepreneurship.
+
+
+== Rule creator and rule enforcer ==
+
+Rule creators generally express the conviction that some kind of threatening social evil exists that must be combated. "The prototype of the rule creator," Becker explains, is the "crusading reformer:"He is interested in the content of rules. The existing rules do not satisfy him because there is some evil which profoundly disturbs him. He feels that nothing can be right in the world until rules are made to correct it. He operates with an absolute ethic; what he sees is truly and totally evil with no qualification. Any means is justified to do away with it. The crusader is fervent and righteous, often self-righteous.These moral crusaders are primarily focused on successful persuasion of others, with less concern about the means by which this persuasion is achieved. Successful moral crusades are generally dominated by those in the upper social strata of society. They often include religious groups, lawmaking bodies, and stakeholders in a given field. There is political competition in which these moral crusaders originate crusades aimed at generating reform, based on what they think is moral, therefore defining deviance. Moral crusaders must have power, public support, generate public awareness of the issue, and be able to propose a clear and acceptable solution to the problem. The degree of a moral entrepreneur's power is highly dependent upon the social and cultural context. 
+The sociology of social control seeks to predict and explain the behavior of both rule creators and rule enforcers. The creation and application of explicit rules are seen as characteristics of moralism, or the tendency to treat people as enemies. Among the social conditions that are identified as sources of moralism are status superiority and social remoteness between the agents of social control and the people whose behavior they regulate. Thus, the most likely targets of both rule creators and rule enforcers are those who are socially inferior, culturally different, and personally unknown. It is their behavior that is most likely to seem objectionable and to call forth the strenuous efforts of moral entrepreneurs. Once moral entrepreneurs or claimsmakers define the behaviors of these individuals or groups as deviant or a moral threat, then the entire group may be seen by society as a deviant subculture. Similarly, they or their behavior may be seen as the roots of the next moral panic. This is often the goal of the moral entrepreneurs: to rally the support of society behind their specific aims through the redefining of behaviors and groups as deviant or problematic. Alternately, those individuals with social power, wealth, high status, or large public support bases are the most likely to assert this power and to act as a moral entrepreneur.
+
+
+== Social problems ==
+According to Richard Posner—who was also influential to the concept of moral entrepreneurship, after Howard Becker—moral entrepreneurs are people with "the power to change our moral intuitions." They do not use rational argument, and according to Posner: Rather, they mix appeals to self-interest with emotional appeals that bypass our rational calculating faculty and stir inarticulable feelings of oneness with or separateness from the people (or it could be land, or animals) that are to constitute, or be ejected from, the community that the moral entrepreneur is trying to create. They teach us to love or hate whom they love or hate. Moral entrepreneurs are critical for moral emergence (and moral panic) because they call attention to or even 'create' issues by using language that names, interprets, and dramatizes them. Typifying is a prominent rhetorical tool employed by moral entrepreneurs when attempting to define social problems. Typification is when claimsmakers characterize a problem's nature which is most commonly done by suggesting that a problem is best understood from a particular perspective (i.e. medical, moral, criminal, political, etc.)  Therefore, moral entrepreneurs often engage in typification by claiming that certain behaviors or groups are acting in morally dangerous ways. Moral entrepreneurs are more successful at defining deviance when they can identify an entire group with a particular behavior and create fear that the behavior represents a danger not only to the group but also to the rest of society. Through typification and the creation of a dangerous class, moral entrepreneurs aim to place the activities of a particular group on the public's agenda and label certain actions as social problems.
+Claimsmakers in areas such as the problem of drinking and driving, child abuse, or date rape, play an important role in the creation of the rhetoric that creates and determines what is deviant and what is a considered a problem in society. 
+
+
+== Lawmaking ==
+Moral entrepreneurs are also central in the construction of social deviance, including the development of drug scares. The role of moral entrepreneurs in this instance, for example, is to assign responsibility to drugs for an array of preexisting public problems. Over the course of the past century, drug laws have been passed with the intent of reducing drug problems; even if they have not done this, they have certainly expanded the power of the social control held by moral entrepreneurs. 
+
+
+== See also ==
+Deviance (sociology)
+Labeling theory
+Lobbying
+Moral panic
+Norm (social)
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== Further reading ==
+Becker, Howard S. (1963). Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance. New York: The Free Press. pp. 147–153.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_type-0.md

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+---
+title: "Normal type"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_type"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:47.168549+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Normal type (in German: Normaltyp) is a typological term in sociology coined by the German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies (1855–1936). It can be considered both as a forerunner of, and a challenge to, the rather better known concept of Max Weber’s: the ideal type (in German Idealtyp).
+
+
+== Tönnies’ distinctions ==
+Tönnies drew a sharp line between the realm of conceptualization (of sociological terms, including ‘normal types’) and the realm of reality (of social action). The first must be treated axiomatically and in a deductive way (pure sociology); the second, empirically and in an inductive way (applied sociology). Following Tönnies, reality (the second realm) cannot be explained without concepts, which belong to the first realm, or else you will fail because you try to define x by something derived from x.
+Tönnies’ Normaltyp was thus a conceptual tool created on a logical basis, an almost mathematical concept always open to subsequent refinement from a confrontation with the empirical evidence.
+The contrast with Weber's ‘ideal type’ came from the latter's ‘accentuation’ of certain elements of a real social process, which is under sociological (or historical) scrutiny - “the one-sided accentuation of one or more points of view ... of a great many diffuse, discrete, more or less present and occasionally absent concrete individual phenomena”, as Weber himself put it. From Tönnies’ point of view, an ideal type cannot explain reality, because it is derived from reality by accentuation, but might help to understand reality.
+The normal type moved from abstract to concrete; the ideal type from concrete to abstract.
+
+
+== Weber's survival ==
+Nevertheless, Weber's term survived in the sociological community, since his Idealtyp helped to understand social forces, and for him sociology had both to explain and to understand things – a daring combination, but successful in the eyes of many sociologists.
+
+
+== See also ==
+
+Georg Simmel
+Structure and agency
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== External links ==
+Ferdinand Tonnies

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+title: "Normalization (sociology)"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normalization_(sociology)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:48.339010+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Normalization refers to social processes through which ideas and actions come to be seen as 'normal' and become taken-for-granted or 'natural' in everyday life. There are different behavioral attitudes that humans accept as normal, such as grief for a loved one's suffering or death, avoiding danger, and not participating in cannibalism.
+
+
+== Foucault ==
+The concept of normalization can be found in the work of Michel Foucault, especially Discipline and Punish, in the context of his account of disciplinary power.  As Foucault used the term, normalization involved the construction of an idealized norm of conduct – for example, the way a proper soldier ideally should stand, march, present arms, and so on, as defined in minute detail – and then rewarding or punishing individuals for conforming to or deviating from this ideal. In Foucault's account, normalization was one of an ensemble of tactics for exerting the maximum social control with the minimum expenditure of force, which Foucault calls "disciplinary power".  Disciplinary power emerged over the course of the 19th century, came to be used extensively in military barracks, hospitals, asylums, schools, factories, offices, and so on, and hence became a crucial aspect of social structure in modern societies.
+
+In Security, Territory, Population, a lecture given at the Collège de France in 1978, Foucault defined normalization thus:Normalization consists first of all in positing a model, an optimal model that is constructed in terms of a certain result, and the operation of disciplinary normalization consists in trying to get people, movements, and actions to conform to this model, the normal being precisely that which can conform to this norm, and the abnormal that which is incapable of conforming to the norm. In other words, it is not the normal and the abnormal that is fundamental and primary in disciplinary normalization, it is the norm. That is, there is an originally prescriptive character of the norm and the determination and the identification of the normal and the abnormal becomes possible in relation to this posited norm.
+
+
+== Normalization process theory ==
+Normalization process theory is a middle-range theory used mainly in medical sociology and science and technology studies to provide a framework for understanding the social processes by which new ways of thinking, working and organizing become routinely incorporated in everyday work. Normalization process theory has its roots in empirical studies of technological innovation in healthcare, and especially in the evaluation of complex interventions.
+Normalization process theory covers four primary domains: (i) sense-making that creates coherence, (ii) organizing mental activity to manifest cognitive participation related to the behavior, (iii) operationalizing the behaviour through collective action, and (iv) appraising and adapting behaviours through reflexive monitoring.  Implementation of a normalization process can be studied through the "NPT toolkit".
+
+For example, the responses may indicate that the intervention ‘makes sense’ to participants (Coherence), but that specific aspects of engagement (Cognitive Participation) appear low, suggesting that further effort could be targeted at broadening participation or working on participants’ commitment to making the intervention work.
+
+
+== See also ==
+
+
+== References ==

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+---
+title: "Occupational closure"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_closure"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:49.531297+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+In sociology, an occupational closure (or professional demarcation) is the process whereby a trade or occupation (vocation) transforms itself, or tries to transform itself, into a true profession by closing off entry to the profession to all but those people who are suitably qualified, as defined by the practitioners already practicing the occupation in any given jurisdiction. This can be achieved by licensure (occupational licensing) and professional certification, barring entry to all except those who have passed certain entrance examinations and grades of training, or by allowing entry only to those who have gained membership of a specific professional body (a professional association, such as a particular medical society). It can also be achieved by trade unionism, and most especially craft unionism as contrasted with industrial unionism, in countries where sufficient union membership (as a percentage of workers in an occupation) can be achieved despite the prevailing gradient of union busting. 
+What this means in practical terms, is that an architect or physician, for example, will firstly be a university graduate in their main subject, second, will have passed entrance examinations to join a recognised professional body and thirdly, will also be licensed to practise medicine or architecture, usually also obtained through sitting examinations. Therefore, such professions are open only to those who satisfy these requirements and are closed to everyone else. It is thus illegal for any other person to practice medicine or to pose as an architect.
+Occupational closure has both benefit and potential harm (to society), which must be counterbalanced. The benefit is that it ensures that the service provided by a profession to the public remains a high-quality service, with as few incompetents, quacks, charlatans, and scammers as it is humanly possible to prevent. The potential harm concerns the problems of credentialism and educational inflation (forms of rent-seeking) and even the creation of red tape–induced regional or nationwide staffing shortages. Although fighting against the potential harms is laudable and necessary, it cannot be done too aggressively without allowing the prevalence of quality lapses (poor service quality) and malpractice to rise. An optimal balance must be sought by administrators, regulators, and (in some cases) legislators. Occupational licensing can be anti-competitive and violate competition law.
+
+
+== History ==
+The origin of this process is said to have been with guilds during the Middle Ages, when 'professionals' fought for exclusive rights to practice their crafts or trades as journeymen, and to engage unpaid apprentices.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Credentialism
+Licensure
+Occupational licensing
+Profession
+Professionalization
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== Further reading ==
+Cavanagh, Sheila A. L. (March 2003). "The gender of professionalism and occupational closure: the management of tenure-related disputes by the 'Federation of Women Teachers' Associations of Ontario' 1918-1949". Gender and Education. 15 (1): 39–57(19). doi:10.1080/0954025032000042130. S2CID 144632048.
+Mahony, Karen; Van Toen, Brett (1990). "Mathematical formalism as a means of occupational closure in computing: Why 'hard' computing tends to exclude women". Gender and Education. 2 (3): 319–331. doi:10.1080/0954025900020306. ISSN 0954-0253.
+Gustavo S. Mesch & Daniel Czamanski (1997). "Occupational closure and immigrant entrepreneurship: Russian Jews in Israel". The Journal of Socio-Economics. 26 (6): 597–610. doi:10.1016/S1053-5357(97)90060-3.
+Weeden, Kim A. (2001). "Why do some occupations pay more than others? Social closure and earnings inequality in the United States". American Journal of Sociology. 108 (3): 55–101. doi:10.1086/344121. JSTOR 344121. S2CID 141719403.
+Witz, Anne (November 1990). "Patriarchy and professions: The gendered politics of occupational closure". Sociology. 24 (4): 675–690. doi:10.1177/0038038590024004007. S2CID 143826607.

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+title: "Occupational prestige"
+chunk: 1/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_prestige"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:50.761030+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Sociologists use the concept of occupational prestige (also known as job prestige) to measure the relative social-class positions people may achieve by practicing a given occupation. Occupational prestige results from the consensual rating of a job - based on the belief of that job's worthiness. The term prestige itself refers to the admiration and respect that a particular occupation holds in a society. Occupational prestige is prestige independent of particular individuals who occupy a job. Sociologists have identified prestige rankings for more than 700 occupations based on results from a series of national surveys. They have created a scale (with 0 being the lowest possible score and 100 being the highest) and then rank given occupations based on survey results. Occupational prestige differentials have wide ranging implications regarding the distribution of social resources and life chances, which can translate into nested sets of social inclusion and exclusion. 
+
+== History ==
+People rate the ‘general standing’ of an occupation (the most common question). It is taken to be a measure of occupational prestige and hence of the social status of occupations. Many other criteria have been proposed, including ‘social usefulness’ as well as ‘prestige’ and ‘status’ themselves. In order to obtain the scale of occupations (which is invariably taken to be national in application), respondents' ratings are aggregated.
+Job prestige did not become a fully developed concept until 1947 when the National Opinion Research Center (NORC), under the leadership of Cecil C. North, conducted a survey which held questions regarding age, education, and income in regard to the prestige of certain jobs. This was the first time job prestige had ever been researched, measured, and taught. Duncan's Socioeconomic Index (DSI, SEI)  became one of the most important outcomes of this survey, as it gave various occupational categories different scores based on the survey results as well as the result of the 1950 Census of Population. During the 1960s the NORC did a second generation of surveys which became the basis for the socioeconomic status (SES) score until the 1980s as well as the foundation for Trieman's International Prestige Scale in 1977. Out of these surveys and research job prestige has been defined in various ways. Some definitions include:
+
+The consensual nature of rating a job based on the collective belief of its worthiness.
+Prestige is the measurement of the "desirability" of an occupation in terms of socioeconomic rewards.
+Prestige reflects factual, scientific knowledge about the material rewards attached to certain occupations.
+Different people seem to weight these issues differently in their understanding of prestige. Most people seem to implicitly view prestige as a weighted average of income and education and this is the operational definition used in indices like DSI and ISEI. However other people (especially in the working class) seem to have more moralized notions of how much a job helps society and would, for instance, rate doctors high and lawyers low even though both jobs require postgraduate degrees and earn high incomes.
+The indicators most commonly used to measure SES come from Duncan's (1961) Socioeconomic Index (SEI), a composite of occupational prestige, income, and education. Duncan used data from North and Hart's study of 1949 occupational prestige and census data to conduct the first correlational study of the statistical relationship between education, income, and occupation. Duncan focused on white males with at least a high school education and income of $3,500 or more in 1949, and found correlations among income, public-ranking of occupational prestige, and educational level of around 0.75. The study did not report whether the index included a sample of ethnic minorities.
+The SEI model continues to influence the way researchers measure SES. The National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS:88, NCES, 1988) initially employed a measure of SES developed by Stevens and Featherman (1981) based on father's income, mother's income, father's education, mother's education, and father's and mother's occupation as rated by the SEI model. In the first-year follow-up study, the National Center for Education Statistics (1990) used the Nakao and Treas (1994) revised SEI model.
+
+== Calculating occupational prestige in the United States ==
+During the 1960s through the 1980s job prestige was calculated in a variety of different ways. People were given index cards with about 100 or so jobs listed on them and had to rank them from most to least prestigious. This ranking system was known as placing jobs in a "ladder of social standing."   Another method they used in this time period was to have the respondents rank jobs on a "horizontal ruler" using specific guidelines such as estimated income, freedom of choice, and how interesting the job was. No matter what the method the outcomes were generally the same.
+Although pay and fame have little to do with occupational prestige, measures of prestige are a part of the concept of socioeconomic status (SES). Jobs with high prestige are more likely to have a higher level of pay stability, better lateral career mobility, and established professional associations. Some popular scales that are used to measure SES include the Hollingshead four-factor index of social status, the Nam-Powers-Boyd scale, and Duncan's Socioeconomic Index.
+A 2007 Harris Poll of 1,010 U.S. adults suggested that occupational prestige is linked to perceived impact on community welfare, the highest ranking jobs being firefighter, scientists, and teachers. Lower ranking jobs include well-paid positions such as brokers, actors, and bankers. Police officers and engineers tended to fall somewhere in the middle of the ladder. According to The Harris Poll (2007), the following are the changes over the last quarter century of American's view as the most and least prestigious jobs:

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+title: "Occupational prestige"
+chunk: 2/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_prestige"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:50.761030+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Those who see teachers as having "very great" prestige has risen 25 points from 29 to 54 percent;
+Those who say lawyers have "very great" prestige has fallen 14 points, from 36 to 22 percent;
+Scientists have fallen 12 points from 66 to 54 percent;
+Athletes have fallen ten points from 26 to 16 percent;
+Physicians have fallen nine points from 61 to 52 percent;
+Bankers have fallen seven points from 17 to 10 percent;
+Entertainers have fallen six points from 18 percent to 12 percent.
+
+== List of occupations by prestige ==
+
+=== Occupations by prestige (NORC) ===
+The list of occupations by prestige assembled by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) in 1989 is the one most commonly used. The list includes over 800 occupations, but only the top 30 with the highest prestige scores are listed here.
+
+== See also ==
+Achieved status
+Identity performance
+Occupational inequality
+Otis Dudley Duncan
+Role engulfment
+Status attainment
+Status symbol
+
+== References ==
+
+=== Notes ===
+
+=== Sources ===
+Stevens, G; Featherman, D. L. (1981). "A Revised Socioeconomic Index of Occupational Status". Social Science Research. 10 (4): 364–395. doi:10.1016/0049-089x(81)90011-9.
+Klaczynski, Paul A (1991). "Sociocultural Myths and Occupational Attainment: Educational Influences on Adolescents' Perceptions of Social Status". Youth and Society. 22 (4): 448–467. doi:10.1177/0044118x91022004002. S2CID 144036559.
+"In U.S., Women's Weight Gain Brings Loss of Income, Job Prestige, Study Finds."  Health & Medicine Weekly, 2005, June. Retrieved March 9, 2006, from NewRx database.
+Schooler, C., & Schoenbach, C. (1994, September). "Social Class, Occupational Status, Occupational Self-Direction, and Job Income: A Cross-National Examination. Sociological Forum." Academic Search Premier database, 1994, September 431–459.
+Ollivier. "Too much money off other people's backs': status in late modern societies". The Canadian journal of sociology. 2000 vol:25 iss:4 pg:441 -470.
+Witt, Jon, ed. Soc 2012. 2012. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012. 245-46. Print.
+
+== External links ==
+http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=25198&nfid=mnf
+http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=793

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+---
+title: "Occupational segregation"
+chunk: 1/5
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_segregation"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:51.989296+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Occupational segregation is the distribution of workers across and within occupations, based upon demographic characteristics, most often gender. More types of occupational segregation include racial and ethnicity segregation, and sexual orientation segregation. These demographic characteristics often intersect. While a job refers to an actual position in a firm or industry, an occupation represents a group of similar jobs that require similar skill requirements and duties. Many occupations are segregated within themselves because of the differing jobs, but this is difficult to detect in terms of occupational data. Occupational segregation compares different groups and their occupations within the context of the entire labor force. The value or prestige of the jobs are typically not factored into the measurements.
+Occupational segregation levels differ on a basis of perfect segregation and integration.  Perfect segregation occurs where any given occupation employs only one group.  Perfect integration, on the other hand, occurs where each group holds the same proportion of positions in an occupation as it holds in the labor force.
+Many scholars, such as Biblarz et al., argue that occupational segregation often occurs in patterns, either horizontally (across occupations) or vertically (within the hierarchy of occupations) and is most likely caused by gender-based discrimination. However, in the past, occupational segregation with regard to race has not been well researched, with many studies choosing to compare two groups instead of multiple. Due to the fact that different genders of different racial/ethnic backgrounds experience different obstacles, measuring occupational segregation is more nuanced. Ultimately, occupational segregation results in wage gaps and the loss of opportunities for capable candidates who are overlooked because of their gender and race.
+
+== Types ==
+
+=== Gender ===
+
+The gendered division of labor helps to explain the hierarchy of power across gender identity, class, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. Socialist feminists contribute to this ideology through a Marxist frame of alienated labor and the means of production. Heidi Hartmann emphasized the gendered division of labor as patriarchal control over women's labor. Wally Saccombe suggested the mode of production should become a unity of production and reproduction, in which women's reproductive abilities are viewed as a valuable source of labor or income. The "wages for housework" movement in the late 1970s showcased the importance of gender inequality in the workplace. Socialist feminists critiqued the exploitation of women's household and reproductive labor, since it was not viewed as a commodity that deserved payment in the market economy. Women often experience working a "double day" or "second shift" when they go to a wage-earning job and then come home to take care of children and the home.
+Researchers, policymakers, and the general public in North America tend to show more concern about the under-representation of women in STEM fields than the under-representation of men in care-oriented occupations such as healthcare, elementary education, and domestic careers (HEED).
+
+==== Horizontal ====
+Horizontal segregation refers to differences in the number of people of each gender presents across occupations. Horizontal segregation is likely to be increased by post-industrial restructuring of the economy (post-industrial society), in which the expansion of service industries has called for many women to enter the workforce. The millions of housewives who entered the economy during post-industrial restructuring primarily entered into service-sector jobs where they could work part-time and have flexible hours. While these options are often appealing to mothers, who are often responsible for the care work of their children and their homes, they are also unfortunately most available in lower-paying and lower-status occupations. The idea that nurses and teachers are often pictured as women whereas doctors and lawyers are often assumed to be men are examples of how highly ingrained horizontal segregation is in our society.
+
+==== Vertical ====
+The term vertical segregation describes men's domination of the highest status jobs in both traditionally male and traditionally female occupations. Colloquially, the existence of vertical segregation is referred to as allowing men to ride in a "glass escalator" through which women must watch as men surpass them on the way to the top positions. Generally, the less occupational segregation present in a country, the less vertical segregation there is because women have a better chance of obtaining the highest positions in a given occupation as their share of employment in that particular occupation increases.
+Vertical segregation can be somewhat difficult to measure across occupations because it refers to hierarchies within individual occupations. For example, the category of Education Professionals (a category in the Australian Standard Classification of Occupations, Second Edition) is broken down into "School Teachers," "University and Vocational Education Teachers," and "Miscellaneous Education Professionals." These categories are then further broken down into subcategories. While these categories aptly describe the divisions within education, they are not comparable to the hierarchical categories within other occupations, and thus make comparisons of levels of vertical segregation quite difficult.
+
+==== Occupational segregation by industry ====
+Historically, women have been underrepresented in roles of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) worldwide. The countries with the three highest percentages of female graduates in STEM in recent years are Sint Maarten (Dutch part) (100% in 2017), Samoa (67% in 2021) and Myanmar (61% in 2018) and the countries with the lowest percentages are Afghanistan (13% in 2020), Andorra (12% in 2024), and Bermuda (8% in 2023).

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+title: "Occupational segregation"
+chunk: 2/5
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_segregation"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:51.989296+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Race ===
+Different minorities have different factors influencing their segregation. In the United States, Alonso-Villar et al. concluded that Asians are the most segregated group based on data of the overall distribution of employment, while Hispanics are the most segregated in local markets. Asians tend to be concentrated in both low pay jobs, such as sewing machine operators or tailors, and high pay jobs like medical or computer engineering jobs. This range may be due to the fact that within the "Asian" category, data for different ethnicities differ, such as between Southeast Asians and East Asians. When the factors of human capital characteristics and geographic variables are removed, African and Native Americans are the most segregated. While Asians and Hispanics tend to be segregated due to their individual skills and characteristics, black people and Native Americans tend to be unconditionally segregated against.
+Almost 90% of jobs in the United States either overrepresent or underrepresent black males, which demonstrates segregation. Overrepresentation occurs in lower paid jobs, while underrepresentation occurred in higher paid jobs. Jobs with overrepresentation of black and Latino males tend to decrease pay over time.
+
+=== Intersectionality ===
+The intersectionality of race/ethnicity and gender in occupational segregation means that the two factors build on one another in a complex way to create their own unique sets of issues. Between genders, there are preconceived notions; when gender is further split up by race and ethnicity, stereotypes differ even more. Women are treated to more segregation than men; however, the comparison of different sexes shows that a higher racial/ethnic disparity exists within men in comparison to their female counterparts. Within the workplace, the distribution of Hispanic, Asian, African American, and Native American women is very similar. Nonetheless, within low paid jobs, Hispanic women represent the largest demographic.
+
+== In the United States ==
+
+=== Gender trends ===
+Over the last century in the United States, there has been a surprising stability of segregation-index scores, which measure the level of occupational segregation of the labor market.  There were declines in occupational segregation in the 1970s and 1980s, as technologies that made the care work of the home quicker and easier allowed more women time to enter the workforce.
+
+=== Racial trends ===
+Data for sex segregation after the 1990s is extensive but data for racial segregation is less comprehensive. Additionally, although it is easy to see national trends, it does not always reflect the trends within different sectors. Certain regions of the United States are more prone to occupational segregation. Due to the history of slavery, Jim Crow, and the slow transition into an industrial economy, the South's workforce has been more racially segregated than the rest of the United States.
+The Great Migration (1910 - 1970) represented a shift in the African American population from the South to the North, and from agricultural to industrial jobs. The Great Depression (1929 - 1933) caused many African Americans to be fired first compared to others in their companies, which caused them to turn towards self employment, with jobs such as housework or opening up their own businesses as dressmakers or shop owners. In the 1940s, the types of jobs available began to shift from industrial to service, while the agricultural portion switched to machines that did not require many workers. This shift both created new jobs and pushed other jobs out. Racial segregation began to decline after the creation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
+Data has shown that black women at all education levels are placed into jobs with lower wages when their white female peers of similar skill and education levels are given higher paid jobs due solely to their racial advantage. Occupational segregation has not only affected what jobs African American women are given but their salary as well. Data from Equitable Growth states the wage gap between black women and white men is "often interpreted by economists as the closest approximation of real discrimination". Of the observed variables, however, racial and gender differences in industry and occupation—collectively referred to as workplace segregation—explain by far the largest portion of the gap (28 percent, or 10 cents for every dollar earned by a white man)". One of the main reasons occupational segregation is an issue for black women in the first place is the racial and ethnic discrepancy in access to high-quality educational and financial resources, which hurts children's educational outcomes, and college access results in long-term labor market opportunities instead of higher-paying jobs.
+
+== Causes ==

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+title: "Occupational segregation"
+chunk: 3/5
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_segregation"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:51.989296+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Individual preferences ===
+According to Eli Ginzberg, self-selection starts at a young age, and has many different stages. As children begin thinking about jobs, they are open to all possibilities and are not limited by their gender, race, or social class. At the end of young adulthood, the final occupation choice depends on the person's degree of education, the value they place on different occupations, their emotions in response to the world around them, and the environmental restrictions they have. Adults choose jobs that have a work environment that is familiar to them and that they believe has value. Although individuals have different preferences for the jobs they want, society and job inequality can influence these choices.
+Some women self-select out of higher status positions, choosing instead to have more time to spend at home and with their families. According to Sarah Damaske, this choice is often made because high status positions do not allow time for the heavy domestic workload that many women expect to take on due to the gendered division of labor in the home. Working-class women in particular also sometimes self-select out of more time-intensive or higher-status positions to maintain the traditional gender hierarchy and household accord.
+Human capital explanations posit additionally that men are more likely than women to preference their work life over their family life. However, the General Social Survey found that men were only slightly less likely than women to value short hours, and that preferences for particular job characteristics depended mostly on age, education, race, and other characteristics rather than on gender. In addition, other research has shown that men and women likely hold endogenous job preferences, meaning that their preferences are due to the jobs they hold and those they have held in the past rather than related inherently to gender. After taking into consideration men and women's jobs, there is no difference in their job preferences. Men and women engaged in similar types of work have similar levels of commitment to work and display other similar preferences.
+
+=== Educational disparities ===
+Minorities are subjected to a language barrier. For some immigrants, despite having high levels of experience in the country they come from, they are unable to obtain an equally ranked job due to unfamiliarity with the language. Many immigrants who come to the United States are Asians or Hispanics who cannot speak English. Immigrants may experience over or under education. Those who do not have high proficiency in English are limited to low paying jobs that also have low expectations for skills not pertaining to language. Since minority workers tend to be younger (the median ages of Hispanic, Native American, black, and Asian workers being 35, 38, 39 and 39 respectively, compared to the median age of white people, which is 42), they have less experience, which makes them less competitive candidates.
+Low education accounts for a large percentage of why Native Americans and black people are more segregated in the workplace. However, although racial and ethnicity differences in education levels is said to be the primary explanation for the wage gap, when comparing the wages between races/ethnicities with the same educational level, there are still differences, suggesting that this is not the only reason why a wage gap exists. Black men who graduate from high school or drop out have an unemployment rate double the unemployment rate of their white peers. People who belong to a racial/ethnic minority will have a disadvantage in getting a job, regardless of their educational background.
+Human capital explanations are those that argue that an individual's and a group's occupational and economic success can be at least partially attributed to accumulated abilities developed through formal and informal education and experiences. Human capital explanations for occupational segregation, then, posit that a difference in educational levels of men and women is responsible for persistent occupational segregation. Because of their alleged fewer educational merits, their lower salary is justified. Contrary to this theory, however, over past 40 years, women's educational attainment has outpaced that of men. One area of education that might play a substantial role in occupational segregation, however, is the dearth of women in science and mathematics. STEM fields tend to be pipelines to higher paying jobs. Therefore, the lack of women in higher paying jobs might be partially because they do not pursue science and mathematics in school. This can be seen in areas such as finance, which is very mathematics heavy and is also a very popular field for those who eventually rise to high status positions in the private sector. This choice, like others, is often a personal preference or made because of the cultural idea that women are not as good as men at mathematics.
+
+=== Work disparities ===
+Employers can influence the pay disparity for women and minorities in three ways. They may do this through sorting women and racial minorities into lower paying jobs while their counterparts receive higher paying jobs, selectively not choosing women and racial minorities for promotions, and cater their recruiting and advertising to people who are not women or racial minorities. At the same time, employers systematically undervalue the work of women and racial/ethnic minorities in a concept known as valuative discrimination. For many jobs, in between the point of contact and the completion of the application, one of the roles of human resources is to direct applicants to certain jobs. Human resource steering can occur when this role is used to turn women and racial minorities to jobs with lower salaries.
+Human capital explanations posit that men tend to rise to higher positions than women because of a disparity in work experience between the genders. The gap between men and women's tenure rises with age, and female college graduates are more likely than males to interrupt their careers to raise children. Such choices may also be attributed to the gendered division of labor which holds women primarily responsible for domestic duties.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_segregation-3.md

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+---
+title: "Occupational segregation"
+chunk: 4/5
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_segregation"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:51.989296+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Job search strategies ===
+According to sociologists Hanson and Pratt, men and women employ different strategies in their job searches that play a role in occupational segregation. These differing strategies are influenced by power relations in the household, the gendered nature of social life, and women's domestic responsibilities. The last factor, in particular, leads women to prioritize the geographical proximity of paid employment when searching for a job. In addition, most people have been found to find their jobs through informal contacts. The gendered nature of social life leads women to have networks with smaller geographical reach than men. Thus, the location of women in female-dominated occupations which are lower-status and lower pay is the result of "severe day-to-day time constraints" rather than a conscious and long-term choice made that would be able to maximize pay and prestige.
+Residential communities consisting of a single racial minority in metropolitan areas tend to form job networks due to isolation from other races. Job networks are often used as a better way to find good employment opportunities, but it can be detrimental if it does not result in higher wages. Networks can lead to unequal access to job opportunities and for minorities, result in reduced competition for higher paid job markets and increased competition in lower ones. This results in a decrease in wage price for the labor markets. Black and Latino men who use networks mainly consisting of their own race have a lower rate of employment, while white men will have higher rates of employment. Additionally, for those who immigrate illegally, it is easier to get certain low paying jobs. Because they often network within their community, these jobs are further concentrated with certain racial/ethnic groups.
+
+== Effects ==
+
+=== Wage gap ===
+
+Women in female-dominated jobs pay two penalties: the average wage of their jobs is lower than that in comparable male-dominated jobs, and they earn less relative to men in the same jobs. Since 1980, occupational segregation is the single largest factor of the gender pay gap, accounting for over half of the wage gap. In addition, women's wages are negatively affected by the percentage of females in a job, but men's wages are essentially unaffected.
+Wages decreases occur for all workers, regardless of race. The crowding hypothesis postulates that occupational segregation lowers all women's earnings as a result of women's exclusion from primarily male occupations and segregation into a number of predominantly female-dominated occupations. Given that feminine skills are traditionally rewarded less both in salary and prestige, the crowding of women into certain occupations makes these occupations valued less in both pay and prestige.
+Crowding is found to be alleviated through macro-changes in occupational segregation. Teaching, for example, at least in recent generations, is traditionally a female-dominated profession. However, when positions open up for women in business and other high-earning occupations, school boards must raise the salaries of potential teachers to attract candidates. This is an example of how even women in traditionally female-dominated professions still benefit salary-wise from the gendered integration of the market.
+Wage gaps begin at the point of hire. In Penner's study on the role of occupational sorting for starting salary in a firm, he found that the average market salary rate for the women hired was 67 percent of that of men. Compared to that of white people, the average market salary rate for black, Hispanics, and Asians were 72, 84, and 90 percent, respectively. Since market salary rates are predetermined before the applicants are hired, the differences in market salaries between each group is the result of occupational sorting.
+Globally, women continue to earn significantly less than men, with average earnings amounting to just 77 cents for every dollar earned by their male peers (International Labour Organization [ILO], 2022). This disparity is even more distinct for women who belong to marginalized groups—such as racial and ethnic minorities, migrants, or those with caregiving responsibilities—and for mothers in particular, an occurrence often referred to as the "motherhood wage penalty."
+Von Lockette found that in metropolitan areas with a high concentration of occupational segregation, less-educated black, Latino, and white males received less pay. In areas of residential segregation, white men were able to receive better pay, while black and Latino men received less, which indicates the possibility that social/job networks have an effect on pay.
+
+=== Lost opportunities ===
+The abilities women and minorities can offer are wasted because they are allocated to inappropriate roles. Those who are highly skilled cannot contribute to the "constantly changing labor economy", resulting in a decrease in efficiency and diverse thinking. In addition, women face financial exclusion. Survey data from Ghana show that women cocoa farmers are about 20% less likely than men to secure loans and nearly 50% less likely to hold bank accounts, which keeps them out of better-paid roles and perpetuates occupational segregation. This is due to a variety of reasons such as governmental restrictions, barriers to land, credit, training, and leadership. To actively keep black people out of higher positions in the workforce, management often allocates black executives to positions that are more racialized, such as diversity positions or liaison jobs that connect them to the black community.
+
+== Measurement ==
+Occupational segregation is measured using Duncan's D (or the index of dissimilarity), which serves as a measure of dissimilarity between two distributions.
+To calculate D:
+
+Identify N different occupations.
+Calculate the percentage of men (or other ascribed category) who work in each of the occupations and the percentage of women who work in each occupation.  Give each group a variable name (e.g. when comparing men and women, m1 equals the percentage of men, and w1 equals the percentage of women).
+Duncan's D is calculated using this formula: 
+  
+    
+      
+        D
+        =
+        (
+        1
+        
+          /
+        
+        2
+        )
+        
+          ∑
+          
+            i
+            =
+            1
+          
+          
+            N
+          
+        
+        (
+        
+          m
+          
+            1
+          
+        
+        −
+        
+          w
+          
+            1
+          
+        
+        )
+      
+    
+    {\displaystyle D=(1/2)\sum _{i=1}^{N}(m_{1}-w_{1})}
+  

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_segregation-4.md

@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+---
+title: "Occupational segregation"
+chunk: 5/5
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_segregation"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:51.989296+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Duncan's D uses percentages.  In a given occupation, the number of a certain demographic in that occupation should be divided by the total number of the same demographic in all of the occupations.  For example:  You may have 10 men who are nurses out of 600 total people.  The value for the occupation of male nurses should be 10/600, or .0166.
+Because it compares ratios of both groups, a score of 0 means that there is equal representation between the two groups, while a score of 1 demonstrates a high concentration of one group and unequal distribution between both groups. The number derived from this equation is equal to the proportional of one group that must change their position for equality to happen.
+
+== Solutions ==
+
+=== Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ===
+Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was designed to ensure fair treatment and legal protection to women and minority groups. Title VII states that it is illegal to "discriminate in employment based on a person's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin," and is enforced by the EEOC. Claims of discrimination are sent to the EEOC to be resolved. The EEOC also seeks out places where systemic discrimination occurs. It can have both direct and indirect effects in resolving discrimination: it can help the victim win cases against discrimination of their company, while simultaneously influencing companies around them to change their policies to avoid possible future transgressions. It also sets precedents in court under Title VII.
+The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission receives a report covering the race, ethnicity, and gender of employees in nine different categories from each private employer that have "more than 100 employees and government contractors with more than 50 employees and contracts worth $50,000." This was required by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
+Wages increase as the EEOC charges against an industry increase. In the past few decades, wage increases as a response to filed court cases are larger for black women in comparison to white women. However, this could be due to more black women filing for discrimination. Wilhelm shows that filing for gender discrimination transgressions is working, but filing for racial discrimination transgressions is less likely to work.
+
+=== Diversity programs ===
+Common diversity practices include affirmative action plans, diversity committees and task forces, diversity managers, diversity training, diversity evaluations for managers, networking programs, and mentoring programs. Kalev found that diversity in the workplace does not occur as a result of programs like diversity training and diversity evaluations, which are intended to stop managerial stereotypes through education. When workplaces incorporated programs designed to help women and minorities increase their reach, like networking or mentoring, their diversity increased moderately. Programs that worked considerably were those that changed the structure of the workplace and held them responsible for change, such as affirmative action plans, diversity committees, and diversity staff positions. These programs acknowledge that segregation is systemic and more than just individual bias. White women benefit the most from affirmative action, and black women benefit more than black men. Implementation of these programs allow for the other programs to work better too.
+One drawback to initiatives such as affirmative action is that people may view women and minorities as undeserving of their positions. Other pushbacks to diversity training include white guilt and perceptions that minorities are trying to gain power over them.
+
+=== Changes in culture ===
+Gender egalitarian cultural principles, or changes in traditional gender norms, are one possible solution to occupational segregation in that they reduce discrimination, affect women's self-evaluations, and support structural changes. Horizontal segregation, however, is more resistant to change from simply modern egalitarian pressures. Changes in norms may reinforce the impact of occupational integration in that once people see women in traditionally male-dominated occupations, their expectations about women in the labor market might be changed.
+Some scholars, such as Haveman and Beresford, therefore argue that any policies aimed at reducing occupational inequality must focus on culture changes. According to Haveman and Beresford, people in the United States have historically tended to reject policies that only support one group (unless that group is them). Therefore, effective policies for limiting occupational segregation must aim to provide benefits across groups. Therefore, policies that aim at capping work hours for salaried workers or mandate on-site employer sponsored childcare might be most effective.
+In addition, the more occupational integration that occurs, the more women are in the positions to make powerful decisions affecting occupational segregation. If the overall market becomes less segregated, those who make personnel decisions in traditionally female-dominated occupations will have to make jobs, even higher status jobs, more attractive to women to retain them.  School boards, for example, will have to appoint more women to department head positions and other positions of authority in order to retain women workers, whereas those jobs might previously have gone to men.
+
+== See also ==
+Achievement gap in the United States
+Banishment room
+Division of labour
+Employee morale
+Gender equality
+Glass ceiling
+Mommy track
+Occupational inequality
+Occupational sexism
+Online segregation
+Psychological impact of discrimination on health
+Shared earning/shared parenting marriage
+Social stratification
+Racial inequality in the United States
+Racial segregation in the United States
+Residential segregation in the United States
+
+== References ==
+
+=== Bibliography ===

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-third_hypothesis-0.md

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+---
+title: "One-third hypothesis"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-third_hypothesis"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:53.220801+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The one-third hypothesis (OTH) is a sociodynamic theory asserting that a subgroup's prominence increases as it approaches one-third of the total population and diminishes after it exceeds that number. It was first stated by sociologist Hugo O. Engelmann in a letter to the American Sociologist in 1967:
+
+"...we would expect that the most persistent subgroups in any group would be those which approximate one-third or, by similar reasoning, a multiple of [i.e., a power of] one-third of the total group. Being the most persistent, these groups also should be the ones most significantly implicated in ongoing sociocultural transformation. This does not mean that these groups need to be dominant, but they play prominent roles."
+The OTH involves two mathematical curves. One represents the likelihood that a subgroup of a specific size will emerge. The other represents the probability that it will persist. The product of these two curves matches the prediction of the one-third hypothesis.
+
+
+== Statistical formalization ==
+Statistically speaking, the group that is one-third of the population is the one most likely to persist and the group that is two-thirds the one most likely to dissolve into splinter groups, as if reacting to the cohesiveness of the group that is one-third.
+According to the binomial coefficient a group of size r occurs in a population of size n in 
+  
+    
+      
+        
+          
+            
+              
+                (
+              
+              
+                n
+                r
+              
+              
+                )
+              
+            
+          
+        
+      
+    
+    {\displaystyle {\tbinom {n}{r}}}
+  
+ ways. Because each group of size r can dissolve in 2 r subgroups, the total number of ways all groups of size r can emerge and dissolve equals 3 n, in keeping with the summation:
+
+Said otherwise, large groups close to two-thirds of the population will be more likely than any other groups to dissolve into splinter groups. A corollary of this consideration is that much smaller groups will be the ones most likely to emerge and to persist.
+If groups of size r occur with a probability of 
+  
+    
+      
+        
+          
+            
+              
+                (
+              
+              
+                n
+                r
+              
+              
+                )
+              
+            
+          
+        
+        
+          p
+          
+            r
+          
+        
+        
+          q
+          
+            n
+            −
+            r
+          
+        
+        
+      
+    
+    {\displaystyle {\tbinom {n}{r}}p^{r}q^{n-r}\!}
+  
+ and dissolve into subgroups with a probability of 
+  
+    
+      
+        
+          q
+          
+            r
+          
+        
+        
+      
+    
+    {\displaystyle q^{r}\!}
+  
+, then the equation reduces to 
+  
+    
+      
+        
+          
+            
+              
+                (
+              
+              
+                n
+                r
+              
+              
+                )
+              
+            
+          
+        
+        
+          p
+          
+            r
+          
+        
+        
+          q
+          
+            n
+          
+        
+        
+      
+    
+    {\displaystyle {\tbinom {n}{r}}p^{r}q^{n}\!}
+  
+ and given that p and q are each equal to 1/2, Engelmann's One-Third Hypothesis can be readily deduced. It takes the form of
+
+where n is the number of people and r is the size of a group and can be verified for large numbers by using the Stirling's approximation formula.
+
+
+== Early research and recent prediction ==
+A perfect example of the OTH was illustrated by Wayne Youngquist’s 1968 “Wooden Shoes and the One-Third Hypothesis,” which documented the German population in Milwaukee little more than a century ago. As Germans approached one-third of city’s population they became more and more prominent. As they exceeded that level their importance began to abate.
+The first empirical test of Engelmann’s OTH came in the form of the 1967 Detroit riot. It did not explain the cause of the riots but was aimed at explaining their timing.
+Sam Butler, in 2011, explicitly cited Engelmann and the One-Third Hypothesis in his analysis of London's riots and their aetiology.
+The idea is discussed in Malcom Gladwell's Revenge of the Tipping Point.
+
+
+== Criticism ==
+The OTH was never without its critics. Early on K. S. Srikantan correctly questioned the assumption that p and q are each equal to ½. Even if they are not, however, so long as p + q = 1, the maximum value of r will occur at pn/(1+p). The group most likely to emerge and persist will always be smaller than half of the population.
+In social dynamics the OTH is sometimes referred to as critical mass. The terminology, though appropriate, has become ambiguous because “critical mass” is used in a variety of ways that do not suggest the OTH at all. Similarly, the OTH is sometimes called the two-thirds theory.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Interaction frequency
+Urban riots
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontological_security-0.md

@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+---
+title: "Ontological security"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontological_security"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:54.434714+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The term ontological security was coined by psychiatrist R. D. Laing in the book The Divided Self in which it is described as a "basic existential position" from which a person "will encounter all the hazards of life, social, ethical, spiritual, biological, from a centrally firm sense of his [sic] own and other people's reality and identity." Ontological, in this context, is not used in a philosophical sense but in an empirical one, since Laing considered it the “best adverbial or adjectival derivative of being.”  The intellectual traditions that inform the concept are psychoanalysis, specifically British object relations theory in which Laing was trained, and existential philosophy.
+In sociology, ontological security is a stable mental state derived from a sense of continuity in regard to the events in one's life. Anthony Giddens (1991) refers to ontological security as a sense of order and continuity in regard to an individual's experiences. He argues that this is reliant on people's ability to give meaning to their lives. Meaning is found in experiencing positive and stable emotions, and by avoiding chaos and anxiety. If an event occurs that is not consistent with the meaning of an individual's life, this will threaten that individual's ontological security. Ontological security also involves having a positive view of self, the world, and the future.
+
+
+== History ==
+The term ontological security was first introduced into the field of psychology in 1960 by R. D. Laing in his book The Divided Self. He used the term to distinguish mentally healthy individuals from those with schizophrenia and other schizophrenia spectrum disorders. According to Laing, a person with schizophrenia does not feel wholly embodied, but instead experiences a constant threat of implosion, coming from the outside world, which can eventually develop into hallucinations, delusions, and paranoia. This psychological sense of the term relates to basic symptoms of schizophrenia and self-disorders.
+The term was subsequently adopted by sociologists, but in a decontextualized sense – for example, sociologists would not claim that people who are not ontologically secure (in the sociological sense) have schizophrenia, or that home ownership, which is associated with ontological security, would prevent someone from developing schizophrenia.
+
+
+== Threat of death ==
+
+Philip A. Mellor and Chris Shelling talk about this concept in regard to thanatology, arguing that when death strikes, it causes people to "question the meaningfulness and reality of the social frameworks in which they participate, shattering their ontological security".
+
+
+== Applications ==
+
+
+=== Home ownership ===
+
+"It has been said that people need the confidence, continuity and trust in the world which comprise ontological security in order to lead happy and fulfilled lives, and furthermore that ontological security can be attained more through owner occupied than rented housing".
+Children are more likely to have a positive ontological security when the child's parents own their own home. Reportedly, home ownership also improves parenting and allows for a future transfer of assets, thus facilitating ontological security.
+What is also true is that in societies such as Germany and other Northern European countries, where renting is stable and well regulated, stability does not necessarily equate with home ownership.
+In the UK, working poor and many middle income families are under severe financial stress due to the increasing cost of home ownership and of renting, which pays the mortgages of landlords. Both of these are encouraged by the Government's ideology of 'growing the economy' which in turn creates chronic stress that often lead to health-related issues which impact adults' and children's lives adversely.
+The issue of ontological security, then, has to do with security of tenure in regard to stability of home life for the child and his or her parents, rather than home ownership per se.
+One has to be cautious in this regard to avoid co-opting the concept of ontological security for any specific economic agenda, and always be focused on the lived experience and how it plays out under the influence of Government policies and events in the material concrete reality.
+Furthermore, reducing the matter of a child's ontological security to the material aspect of housing ignores issues such as 'traditional' parenting practices, religiosity, unresolved parental trauma disrupting empathy-based relationships and other chronic stressors that are almost ubiquitous.
+
+
+=== Adult learners ===
+"Adult educators also must secure the learners' ontological security against existential anxieties by associating learners' network and groups based on trust".
+
+
+=== International relations ===
+The concept of ontological security has been applied in international relations. According to C. Nicolai L. Gellwitzki, international relations research has developed along three distinct lines: a sociological approach inspired by Anthony Giddens, an existential approach drawing on philosophers such as Paul Tillich, Martin Heidegger, and Søren Kierkegaard, and a psychoanalytic approach, primarily based on the work of either Melanie Klein or Jacques Lacan.
+The Giddensian approach has argued that states seek to ensure their ontological security (the security of self and self-conception), in addition to their pursuit of physical security (such as protecting the territorial integrity of the state). To ensure their ontological security, states may even jeopardize their physical security. Ontological security in world politics can be defined as the possession, on the level of the unconscious and practical consciousness, of answers to fundamental questions that all polities in some way need to address such as existence, finitude, relations with others and their autobiography. Collective actors such as states become ontologically insecure when critical situations rupture their routines thus bringing fundamental questions to public discourse.
+In contrast, the existential approach primarily focuses on the constitutive role of anxiety in global politics, whereas psychoanalytic approaches explore the psychological mechanisms underpinning anxiety management. The existential perspective treats anxiety as an inherent condition of being and statehood arising from the fundamental groundlessness of life and the international system. Meanwhile, psychoanalytic frameworks examine how collective actors employ psychological defenses, such as projection or splitting, to maintain a coherent sense of self and manage the internal and external tensions that threaten their identity.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Anthony Giddens
+Depersonalization
+Maslow's hierarchy of needs
+Personal identity
+Strategic culture
+
+
+== Footnotes ==
+
+
+== External links ==
+Scotland, Ontological security and psychosocial benefits from the home

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_class_system-0.md

@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+---
+title: "Open class system"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_class_system"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:55.598669+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+An open class system is the stratification that facilitates social mobility, with individual achievement and personal merit determining social rank.  The hierarchical social status of a person is achieved through their effort.  Any status that is based on family background, ethnicity, gender, and religion, which is also known as ascribed status, becomes less important.  There is no distinct line between the classes and there would be more positions within that status.  Core industrial nations seem to have more of an ideal open class system. In an open class system there is scope for social mobility.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Enculturation
+
+
+== Further reading ==
+Windows on Humanity by Conrad Kottak. Chapter 17, page 398.
+Sociology and You by Shepard and Greene McGraw Hill.A-26

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opportunity_hoarding-0.md

@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+---
+title: "Opportunity hoarding"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opportunity_hoarding"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:56.854683+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Opportunity hoarding occurs when privileged social groups control access to community resources and prevent underprivileged groups from utilizing important resources. The process occurs when a dominant group identifies viable resources and acts in ways that prevents them from being used by individuals outside of this group. Minority groups are often negatively impacted and excluded from the most advantageous economic, social, or educational opportunities. Economic disadvantages and exploitation result when dominant groups benefit from the control of resources produced through the effort of minority groups. In education, middle class families stand to benefit from opportunity hoarding by securing top social and economic advantages for their children. In the school context, opportunity hoarding contributes to the educational achievement gap when parents ensure that their children get all the educational needs that they believe their children need to have so they "do not fail" in both school and the greater economic environment among their peers, the workplace to the disadvantage of students from historically marginalized groups.
+Opportunity hoarding can occur through parental involvement from middle-class parents using their political, social, economic, and cultural capital to secure the best educational opportunities for their children. Examples of this are greatly focused on tracking and ensuring that their children are in the high and tracked classes that often time have the best teachers and the least amount of behavior problems. Tracking practices vary greatly by school and in complexity, but the outcome of tracking is often the same as students are placed on vocational or college preparatory paths for their future. Educators, such as teachers, often fight for tracking as it allows them to match the curriculum and their teaching pedagogue to the homogeneity of their class roster. In relationship to opportunity hoarding, tracking greatly benefits high socioeconomic students. Within highly tracked schools, upper middle class and wealthy parents are often actively and aggressively securing top opportunities for their students.
+Opportunity hoarding demonstrates the financial, organizational, and institutional advantages the students in suburbs acquired and utilized to take advantage of immeasurable opportunities when students in urban environments and schools faced some of the most concentrated poverty and lack of opportunities even with the federal measures, such as Title I, to increase the educational status within the urban education environments. Some lower and working class parents counter the impact of opportunity hoarding through opportunity prying, an attempt to “pry” any opportunity out of the middle-class families to provide their children educational opportunity. This often looks like the enrollment of lower socioeconomic status students in voucher schools, parent trigger laws, however lower socioeconomic status families often remain in underperforming schools.
+Alongside exploitation, opportunity hoarding has been identified as one of the components of collective violence that sustain a spectrum of inequalities between members of a society.
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outgroup_favoritism-0.md

@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+---
+title: "Outgroup favoritism"
+chunk: 1/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outgroup_favoritism"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:58.080113+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Outgroup favoritism is a social psychological construct intended to capture why some socially disadvantaged groups will express favorable attitudes (and even preferences) toward social, cultural, or ethnic groups other than their own. Considered by many psychologists as part of a variety of system-justifying motives, outgroup favoritism has been widely researched as a potential explanation for why groups—particularly those disadvantaged by the normative social hierarchy—are motivated to support, maintain, and preserve the status quo. Specifically, outgroup favoritism provides a contrast to the idea of ingroup favoritism, which proposes that individuals exhibit a preference for members of their own group over members of the outgroup.
+
+== Outgroup favoritism and system justification ==
+In a 1994 review of the existing literature on the ideas people employ to legitimize and support ideas, structures, and behaviors, psychologists John T. Jost and Mahzarin Banaji observed that the existing theories of ego-justification (i.e., the utilization of stereotypes as a means to protect the self) and group justification (i.e., the utilization of stereotypes to protect the status of a given social group) could not adequately explain why members of a given ingroup would express negative stereotypes about themselves, often times leveraging these in contexts that disadvantaged their own group.
+It was out of the attempt to explain the phenomena of outgroup favoritism that led to the development of what would later become system justification theory. According to Jost and Banaji, system justification theory is constructed around the notion that people have three basic needs: 1) a need for certainty and meaning, 2) a need for safety and security, and 3) a need for a shared reality (i.e., epistemic, existential, and relational needs). Taking inspiration from the body of work already examining how people justify their experiences to themselves on the individual and group levels, Jost and Banaji additionally proposed that people meet these three needs on a systemic level.
+Contrary to the long-standing idea that strong identification with the group on an individual level will generate the opposite (i.e., individuals are motivated to preserve a positive image of their own group), system justification theory is founded upon the idea that people meet their epistemic, existential, and relational needs on a systemic level, sometimes above and beyond the individual and group-levels. Conceptualized within a system justification theory framework, outgroup favoritism is best understood as an expression of how people are motivated to defend/preserve the status quo of a given system even when the normative ideologies and practices run counter to their own interests.
+
+== Proof of concept ==
+In the 2000-2020s research on this phenomenon tends to fall into three dominant streams. The first of these examines assessments of outgroup favoritism on the group attitude level. Work in this area commonly involves asking members of socially disadvantaged groups the extent to which they would support policies or structures that favor socially advantaged groups. Scholars have examined group-level expressions of out-group favoritism along dimensions ranging from political ideology to economic status to gender. For example, in one of the classic (albeit, somewhat debated) studies, Mark Hoffarth and John Jost analyzed two different samples of sexual minority participants to examine the relationship between implicit stereotypic attitudes about sexual minorities, political orientation, and support for same-sex marriage.
+Across two samples, researchers found a three-way interaction across the implicit association of sexual minorities with negative stereotypes, conservative political ideology, and support of same-sex marriage. Specifically, they found support for their original hypotheses that political conservatism is strongly associated with the endorsement of negative stereotypes on the implicit level and opposition to same-sex marriage, even amongst sexual minority groups. While the exact interpretation of these findings is still a topic of debate within the system justification literature, this study is one of the most widely cited within the academic community for demonstrating that even groups disadvantaged by the (in this case, legal) structures of the existing status quo will express and employ negative stereotypes about their own group and oppose policies that appear to contradict their own interests. 
+
+== Proposed mechanisms and correlates ==
+The second predominant stream within the literature investigates the potential mechanisms and correlated constructs that might fuel the behaviors characteristic of outgroup-favoritism-based motivations. In this area, scholars have struggled to isolate the mechanisms behind outgroup favoritism specifically from those of system-justifying motives more broadly. Consequently, much of the literature in this area tends to focus on how outgroup favoritism interacts with other components of system justification theory such as negative self-stereotyping, depressed entitlement, and the role of individual beliefs.
+
+=== Implicit associations ===
+According to the American Psychological Association's dictionary, implicit association captures the subconscious attitudinal associations people express toward various object/evaluative pairings. The most common method of capturing these underlying attitudes is via the implicit association test, a task in which participants are asked to sort members of specific categories (e.g., race) into specific evaluative categories (e.g., good/bad). One common method for capturing outgroup favoritism is via the implicit association test, the idea being that minority group members exist within a societal context that repeatedly reinforces their minority (and commonly, inferior) status. Scholars argue that this repeated exposure embeds rationalizing social inequality on an automatic level such that outgroup preference expresses itself most saliently using implicit measures.
+For an example of how this operates, researchers recruited 110 African-American undergraduate students and asked them to categorize faces across two categories: Black/White and pleasant/unpleasant. After completing the IAT task, participants were presented with a task and told that their partner would either be Black or White. Participants were then asked to rate their partner in terms of performance expectations and likability. The authors found that for stereotypically "White" tasks, African Americans implicitly favored Whites, giving them higher performance evaluations and likability—the implication being that, in strongly racially-stereotyped contexts, individuals from minority groups will implicitly express outgroup favoritism.

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+---
+title: "Outgroup favoritism"
+chunk: 2/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outgroup_favoritism"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:58.080113+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Negative self-stereotyping ===
+Negative self-stereotyping refers to the idea that members of various groups will express or endorse group stereotypes about fellow members of their own group that are unflattering and even outright harmful. While much of this work is concentrated on examining gender, scholars have demonstrated that negative self-stereotyping occurs across a variety of social identities including race and sexuality. For an example of how this works (and the proposed connections to outgroup favoritism): Burkley and Blanton conducted a 2008 study in which they asked men and women to complete a math test. All participants received failure feedback and were additionally asked to complete a stereotype endorsement measure with the order of these two components varying across conditions. The authors found that women were far more likely to embrace a negative stereotype about gendered math ability after receiving failure feedback, which they interpret as supporting the notion that individuals will palliatively leverage negative stereotypes against their own group. Extending this work, other scholars in this area have conducted studies on how women will negatively self-stereotype themselves as lacking a wide range of "masculine" traits or competencies after being exposed to information that threatens a gendered status quo.
+Similar to Jost and Hoffarth's analyses of conservative sexual minority members, scholars are continuing to critique how negative self-stereotyping interacts with outgroup favoritism. Though many agree that the two share close links, there is an ongoing debate as to whether negative self-stereotyping is an expression of outgroup favoritism or whether it should be operationalized and studied as an independent, but related concepts. On the one hand, several authors argue that, because outgroup favoritism is operationalized as a motive instead of a behavior or attitude, negative self-stereotyping is a clear behavioral and attitudinal expression of an underlying outgroup preference motive that is itself the product of internalized inferiority (essentially, that the stereotyping behavior can't occur without a motive and the motive itself can't be measured independent of its behavioral correlate). Jost explicitly states that it is "not that people have a special motivation to favor the outgroup merely because it is an outgroup. Rather, outgroup favoritism is seen as one manifestation of the tendency to internalize and thus perpetuate the system of inequality." Furthermore, given that system justification theory is motivation-based, some scholars propose that behavioral and attitudinal constructs like negative self-stereotyping would not be appropriate to consider independently of their motives in a purely motive-based understanding of system justification.
+On the other hand, those that consider negative self-stereotyping as a separate construct under the system justification umbrella note that negative self-stereotyping mediates similar outcomes to outgroup favoritism regardless of whether outgroup favoritism is considered as a variable. The amorphous nature of this debate is not helped by the research indicating that both negative self-stereotyping and outgroup favoritism engender similar beneficial and detrimental outcomes. For example, many scholars' findings support that both negative self-stereotyping and outgroup favoritism have similarly palliative effects by allowing individuals within unjust systems to rationalize the status quo as fair and valid (in line with system justification theory).
+This work finds that both constructs provide the positive effect of buffering one's self-image against personal and social threats. In line with the "as sub-components" argument, research has demonstrated that the rationalization that occurs as a product from both negative self-stereotyping and outgroup favoritism allows individuals to justify existing inequality. Scholars have found that for both constructs, the perception that preservation of the status quo is the most important goal within a society has the detrimental side-effect of reducing the drive to challenge or change existing discriminatory systems by relieving an individual of his/her/their personal responsibility to engage in such efforts. Due to the similarities in outcomes for both constructs, research has trended toward looking at negative self-stereotyping and outgroup favoritism as interactive system justification components, but this is an area still under discussion.

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+---
+title: "Outgroup favoritism"
+chunk: 3/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outgroup_favoritism"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:58.080113+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Depressed entitlement ===
+Within the psychological literature, entitlement is defined as the judgments people make about their deservingness of specific outcomes based upon their identity or their actions. In 1997, as part of the evolving solidification of system justification theory, Jost and Banaji proposed that one of the important cognitive mechanisms for reconciling outgroup favoritism is a depressed sense of what a given individual deserves. Essentially, in order to hold the idea that the outgroup is more favorable and therefore more deserving of specific outcomes that preserve the status quo, the oppressed ingroup must rationalize these beliefs with a depressed sense of entitlement to various cognitive, social, and psychological resources within a system.
+The classic study in this area was conducted by Jost in 1997. Jost recruited 132 undergraduate students (68 men and 64 women) from Yale College. The participants were asked to generate "open-ended thought-lists" in response to a prompt and later evaluate the quality and deservingness of their own efforts. The thought-lists were then rated by two independent judges (one woman and one man) who were unaware of the hypotheses and the gender of the participants. The judges evaluated the thought-lists on seven dimensions: meaningfulness, logicality, sophistication, vividness, persuasiveness, originality, and insightfulness.
+The purpose of this rating procedure was to ensure that there were no differences in the objective quality of thought-lists generated by men and women. Jost found that the independent judges perceived no differences in quality between thought-lists written by men and thought-lists written by women on any of the eight dimensions, indicating that the objective quality of the thought-lists did not differ based on the gender of the author. However, when participants evaluated and paid themselves for their thought-list contributions, women's self-ratings were significantly lower than men's self-ratings on the dimensions of self-payment and insight. According to Jost, the finding that the independent judges did not perceive any differences in the quality of thought-lists generated by men and women, but women evaluated and paid themselves differently by rating their own contributions lower than men demonstrated the "depressed-entitlement effect" observed in previous research. Specifically, that depressed entitlement may be the cognitive mechanism that leads to the expression of outgroup preference (though, like most dimensions of system justification theory, this is a matter of academic debate).
+
+=== Role of individual belief systems ===
+
+==== Just-world fallacy ====
+Originally proposed by Melvin J. Lerner in 1980, the just-world fallacy proposes that individuals have a need to believe that their environment is a just and orderly place where people usually get what they deserve. In confirming the existence of this cognitive bias, Lerner and Simmons conducted what has now become the classic study in the just world fallacy literature. Incorporating heavy influence from Stanley Milgram, the researchers asked participants to observe a confederate receiving electric shocks. The severity of the shocks and the innocence of the victim were manipulated. The researchers found that participants tended to derogate the victim more when the shocks were severe, suggesting that people are more likely to blame innocent victims when the outcomes are more negative.
+Given the advances in ethics in the social sciences that constrain such methodologies, but still inspired by Lerner and Simmons' original work, current research in this area commonly involves presenting participants with scenarios or vignettes that involve innocent victims experiencing negative outcomes. Participants are then asked to evaluate the victims and assign responsibility or blame for their situation. These studies often manipulate the severity of the outcome or the perceived innocence of the victim to examine how these factors influence participants' reactions. Extensions of this work typically involve manipulating factors such as the attractiveness or likability of the victim, the presence of empathy instructions, or the level of personal involvement in the situation. These studies consistently show that people are more likely to derogate innocent victims when they perceive the world as just and orderly.
+In terms of outgroup favoritism, researchers have proposed that just world beliefs potentially contribute to the expression of favorable attitudes toward advantaged groups. Specifically, some researchers propose that just world beliefs serve as an ideological foundation for outgroup favoritism, the logic being that in a just and fair hierarchical system, a position of advantage is internally attributable to the members of the advantaged group (i.e., advantaged group members must deserve what they have because the world is a fair place). 
+
+==== Meritocracy ====
+In a similar vein to just world beliefs, the American Psychological Association's dictionary defines meritocracy as a system that rewards individuals based on what they accomplish within said system. Specifically, the term was first credited to the sociologist Michael Young in his book The Rise of the Meritocracy. Given the complexity of meritocracy as a concept, researchers have historically focused on the role of meritocratic beliefs in informing prejudices and biases. For example, several sociological and psychological scholars have found that meritocratic beliefs are correlated with increased prejudice and discrimination on the basis of aspects of social identity like gender or educational status. In terms of outgroup favoritism, researchers have proposed that meritocratic beliefs serve a similar role to those of just world beliefs, meaning that meritocratic beliefs may serve as a form of ideological foundation leading to an increase in outgroup preference.

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+---
+title: "Outgroup favoritism"
+chunk: 4/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outgroup_favoritism"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:58.080113+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Negative consequences ==
+The third stream of literature on outgroup favoritism is dedicated to examining the consequences minority group members might bear as a result of holding implicit preferences for outgroup members. Numerous studies examining members of minority groups have found that expressions of outgroup favoritism correlate with a number of different detrimental psychological outcomes under specific conditions. Specifically, that while outgroup favoritism and other system justification motives serve palliative functions, there is a point at which reality/perception incongruence inhibits this palliative effect. Outgroup favoritism appears to be beneficial to psychological wellbeing depending on the individual's level of internalization of dominant ideologies and their awareness of system rigidity.
+To exemplify how this works: a 2007 study examining the psychological health of 316 Black undergraduates found that implicit outgroup favoritism (i.e., African American students implicitly favoring Whites) is correlated with increased depression and lower overall psychological functioning. However, since this study other scholars have examined the relationships between implicit "anti-Black" bias, the centrality of social identity, and psychological health. These studies found that while Black participants with higher levels of anti-Black bias were found to be at higher risk for depression, this outcome varied as a function of the amount of racial discrimination they perceived to begin with. Such findings support the dual-outcome model of outgroup favoritism (particularly for minority groups). On the one hand, outgroup favoritism can lead to benefits by allowing individuals to justify systems of inequality. Yet once the evidence that inequality exists becomes salient enough, such tendencies actually lead to decreases in psychological well-being as individuals begin to attribute perceived discrimination internally (i.e., to themselves) rather than externally.
+
+== Critiques ==
+As somewhat alluded to in the previous sections, academics are continuing to discuss the nature of system justification theory (and by extension, outgroup favoritism). Considering outgroup favoritism as part of the broader ecosystem of system justification theory means accepting the basic premise that the need to justify the systemic status quo is sufficiently powerful that people will endorse ideologies and practices supportive of "the norm" even when these ideologies and practices run counter to their own interests. Yet, in a debate that continues to the present day, outgroup favoritism has been critiqued as contradicting the long-standing idea that strong identification with the group on an individual level will generate the opposite (i.e., individuals are motivated to preserve a positive image of their own group. Specifically, critics argue that the instances of outgroup favoritism thus far observed within the literature are best attributed to demand characteristics or the internalization of social norms (which inherently elevate the status of the dominant group).
+
+=== Interactions with social identity theory ===
+This perspective is echoed in some of the broader critiques of system justification theory—particularly those emphasizing that a need for "social accuracy" and a "positively distinct social identity" are sufficient to explain the expression of outgroup favoritism observed by members of low-status groups. In 2023, Rubin and colleagues posited a new model for understanding outgroup favoritism within the context of social identity theory (of which ingroup favoritism is a core component). They termed this new model the Social Identity Model of System Attitudes (SIMSA). Within SISMA, the authors propose that outgroup favoritism is instead best understood as a functional adaptation that fulfills a social-identity-based need to perceived the social world in an accurate way.
+In a published rejoinder in the British Journal of Social Psychology, Jost and colleagues refuted this idea as incorrectly equating outgroup favoritism with the accurate perception of an unjust reality. The main argument being that outgroup favoritism goes beyond simply acknowledging that a system is unjust or unfair, but rather demonstrates a motivated preference for the prioritization of a group outside of one's own. Citing the work on implicit associations, negative self-stereotyping, and depressed entitlement, Jost and his colleagues emphasize that if outgroup favoritism was merely an expression of accurate social perception, scholars would not have observed the cognitive mechanisms people employ whilst expressing outgroup favoritism if it did not serve some system-justifying function above and beyond a social-identity one. Rubin and colleagues have since responded by clarifying their position, arguing that they were not equating outgroup favoritism with acceptance of an unjust social reality but rather accurate perception. Jost and his colleagues have yet to respond.
+
+== See also ==
+Allophilia
+Endophobia
+Reverse discrimination
+Self-hatred
+Internalized oppression
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overchoice-0.md

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+---
+title: "Overchoice"
+chunk: 1/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overchoice"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:59.301563+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Overchoice or choice overload is the paradoxical phenomenon that choosing between a large variety of options can be detrimental to decision making processes. The term was first introduced by Alvin Toffler in his 1970 book, Future Shock. 
+
+== Psychological process ==
+The phenomenon of overchoice occurs when many equivalent choices are available. Making a decision becomes overwhelming due to the many potential outcomes and risks that may result from making the wrong choice. Having too many approximately equally good options is mentally draining because each option must be weighed against alternatives to select the best one. The satisfaction of choices by number of options available can be described by an inverted U model. In this model, having no choice results in very low satisfaction. Initially more choices lead to more satisfaction, but as the number of choices increases it then peaks and people tend to feel more pressure, confusion, and potentially dissatisfaction with their choice. Although larger choice sets can be initially appealing, smaller choice sets lead to increased satisfaction and reduced regret. Another component of overchoice is the perception of time. Extensive choice sets can seem even more difficult with a limited time constraint.
+
+== Preconditions ==
+Choice overload is not a problem in all cases, there are some preconditions that must be met before the effect can take place. First, people making the choice must not have a clear prior preference for an item type or category. When the choice-maker has a preference, the number of options has little impact on the final decision and satisfaction. Second, there must not be a clearly dominant option in the choice set, meaning that all options must be perceived of equivalent quality. One option cannot stand out as being better from the rest. The presence of a superior option and many less desirable options will result in a more satisfied decision. Third, there is a negative correlation between choice assortment (quantity) and satisfaction only in people less familiar with the choice set. This means that if the person making a choice has expertise in the subject matter, they can more easily sort through the options and not be overwhelmed by the variety.
+
+== Psychological implications ==
+Decision-makers in large choice situations enjoy the decision process more than those with smaller choice sets, but feel more responsible for their decisions. Despite this, more choices result with more dissatisfaction and regret in decisions. The feeling of responsibility causes cognitive dissonance when presented with large array situations. In this situation, cognitive dissonance results when there is a mental difference between the choice made and the choice that should have been made. More choices lead to more cognitive dissonance because it increases the chance that the decision-maker made the wrong decision. These large array situations cause the chooser to feel both enjoyment as well as feel overwhelmed with their choices. These opposing emotions contribute to cognitive dissonance, and causes the chooser to feel less motivated to make a decision. This also disables them from using psychological processes to enhance the attractiveness of their own choices.
+The amount of time allotted to make a decision also has an effect on an individual's perception of their choice. Larger choice sets with a small amount of time results in more regret with the decision. When more time is provided, the process of choosing is more enjoyable in large array situations and results in less regret after the decision has been made.
+
+== Reversal when choosing for others ==
+Choice overload is reversed when people choose for another person. Polman has found that overload is context dependent: choosing from many alternatives by itself is not demotivating. 
+Polman found that it is not always a case of whether choices differ for the self and others at risk, but rather "according to a selective focus on positive and negative information". Evidence shows there is a different regulatory focus for others compared to the self in decision-making. Therefore, there may be substantial implications for a variety of psychological processes in relation to self-other decision-making.
+Among personal decision-makers, a prevention focus is activated and people are more satisfied with their choices after choosing among few options compared to many options, i.e. choice overload. However, individuals experience a reverse choice overload effect when acting as proxy decision-makers.
+
+== In an economic setting ==
+The psychological phenomenon of overchoice can most often be seen in economic applications. There are limitless  products currently on the market. Having more choices, such as a vast amount of goods and services available, appears to be appealing initially, but too many choices can make decisions more difficult. According to Miller (1956), a consumer can only process seven items at a time. After that the consumer would have to create a coping strategy to make an informed decision. This can lead to consumers being indecisive, unhappy, and even refrain from making the choice (purchase) at all. Alvin Toffler noted that as the choice turns to overchoice, "freedom of more choices" becomes the opposite—the "unfreedom". Often, a customer makes a decision without sufficiently researching his choices, which may often require days. When confronted with too many choices especially under a time constraint, many people prefer to make no choice at all, even if making a choice would lead to a better outcome.
+The existence of over choice, both perceived and real, is supported by studies as early as the mid-1970s. Numbers of various brands, from soaps to cars, have been steadily rising for over half a century. In just one example—different brands of soap and detergents—the numbers of choices offered by an average US supermarket went from 65 in 1950, through 200 in 1963, to over 360 in 2004. The more choices tend to increase the time it requires to make a decision.

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+---
+title: "Overchoice"
+chunk: 2/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overchoice"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:49:59.301563+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Variety and complexity ===
+There are two steps involved in making a choice to purchase. First, the consumer selects an assortment. Second, the consumer chooses an option within the assortment. Variety and complexity vary in their importance in carrying out these steps successfully, resulting in the consumer deciding to make a purchase. 
+Variety is the positive aspect of assortment. When selecting an assortment during the perception stage, the first stage of deciding, consumers want more variety. 
+Complexity is the negative aspect of assortment. Complexity is important for the second step in making a choice—when a consumer needs to choose an option from an assortment. When making a choice for an individual item within an assortment, too much variety increases complexity. This can cause a consumer to delay or opt out of making a decision.  
+Images are processed as a whole when making a purchasing decision. This means they require less mental effort to be processed which gives the consumer a sense that the information is being processed faster. Consumers prefer this visual shortcut to processing, termed "visual heuristic" by Townsend, no matter how big the choice set size. Images increase our perceived variety of options. As previously stated, variety is good when making the first step of choosing an assortment. On the other hand, verbal descriptions are processed in a way that the words that make up a sentence are perceived individually. That is, our minds string words along to develop our understanding. In larger choice sets where there is more variety, perceived complexity decreases when verbal descriptions are used.
+
+== See also ==
+Analysis paralysis
+Buyer's remorse
+Choice architecture
+Information overload
+Market cannibalism
+Satisficing
+The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less, a 2004 book by Barry Schwartz
+Tyranny of small decisions
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Page_3-0.md

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+---
+title: "Page 3"
+chunk: 1/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Page_3"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:00.541613+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Page 3, or Page Three, was a British newspaper convention of publishing a large image of a topless female glamour model (known as a Page 3 girl) on the third page of mainstream red top tabloids. Introduced in November 1969 by The Sun, the feature boosted the paper's readership and prompted competing tabloids—including The Daily Mirror, The Sunday People and The Daily Star—to begin featuring topless models on their own third pages. Well-known Page 3 models included Linda Lusardi, Samantha Fox, Katie Price, and Keeley Hazell.
+Although supporters of Page 3 defended it as a harmless British cultural tradition, the feature generated controversy throughout its history. It attracted criticism both from conservatives, who tended to view it as softcore pornography inappropriate for inclusion in national newspapers, and feminists, who argued that Page 3 objectified women's bodies, negatively affected girls' and women's body image, and perpetuated sexism. Labour Party MP Clare Short began campaigning in the mid-1980s to have Page 3 images banned from newspapers; her efforts were subsequently supported by other MPs, including Harriet Harman, Stella Creasy, Lynne Featherstone, and Caroline Lucas. Some politicians, including Nick Clegg and Ed Vaizey, expressed concern that banning the feature would compromise press freedom. The British government never enacted legislation against Page 3.  
+In 2012, activist Lucy-Anne Holmes launched the No More Page 3 campaign with the goal of persuading newspaper editors and owners to voluntarily end the feature. The campaign collected over 240,000 signatures on an online petition and gained support from over 140 MPs, as well as trade unions, universities, and women's groups. In February 2013, Rupert Murdoch, owner of The Sun, suggested that Page 3 could become a "halfway house", featuring glamour photographs without showing nudity. In August of that year, The Sun replaced topless Page 3 girls with clothed glamour models in its Republic of Ireland edition. In January 2015, its UK editions also moved to a clothed glamour format, after printing topless Page 3 images for over 45 years. In April 2019, The Daily Star became the last print daily to cease printing topless images, ending the convention in Britain's mainstream tabloid press. As of 2026, the only British tabloid still publishing topless models is the niche Sunday Sport. 
+
+== History ==
+After Rupert Murdoch relaunched the loss-making Sun newspaper in tabloid format on 17 November 1969, editor Larry Lamb began to publish photographs of clothed glamour models on its third page to compete with The Sun's principal rival, The Daily Mirror, which was printing photos of models wearing lingerie or bikinis. The Sun's first tabloid edition showed that month's Penthouse Pet, Ulla Lindstrom, wearing a suggestively unbuttoned shirt. Page 3 photographs over the following year were often provocative, but did not feature nudity until The Sun celebrated the first anniversary of its relaunch on 17 November 1970 by printing model Stephanie Khan in her "birthday suit" (i.e. in the nude). Sitting in a field, with one of her breasts fully visible from the side, Khan was photographed by Beverley Goodway, who became The Sun's principal Page 3 photographer until he retired in 2003. Alison Webster took over Goodway's role in 2005 and remained until the feature was phased out. 

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Page_3-1.md

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+---
+title: "Page 3"
+chunk: 2/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Page_3"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:00.541613+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Page 3 was not a daily feature at the beginning of the 1970s, and The Sun only gradually began to feature Page 3 models in more overtly topless poses. Believing that Page 3 should feature "nice girls", Lamb sought to avoid the image of top-shelf pornography titles by asking The Sun's female reporters to review Page 3 images to ensure women would not regard them as "dirty". Regardless, the feature, and the paper's other sexual content, led to some public libraries banning The Sun. A then Conservative-controlled council in Sowerby Bridge, Yorkshire, took the first such decision, but reversed it after a series of local stunts organised by the newspaper and a change in the council's political orientation in 1971.
+Page 3 is partly credited with boosting The Sun's circulation. In the year after it introduced Page 3, its daily sales doubled to over 2.5 million, and it became the UK's bestselling newspaper by 1978. Competing tabloids, including The Daily Mirror, The Sunday People, and The Daily Star, also began publishing topless models to increase their own sales, although The Daily Mirror and The Sunday People discontinued the practice in the 1980s, calling the photographs demeaning to women. In 1986, David Sullivan launched The Sunday Sport, which featured numerous images of topless models throughout each edition. In 1988, The Sun launched the companion feature "Page 7 Fella", which featured images of barechested male models. It did not gain popularity and was dropped in the 1990s.
+Page 3 launched the careers of many well-known 1980s British glamour models, including Debee Ashby, Donna Ewin, Samantha Fox, Kirsten Imrie, Kathy Lloyd, Gail McKenna, Suzanne Mizzi, and Maria Whittaker, some of whom were aged 16 or 17 when they started modeling for the feature. Some Page 3 girls became well-known celebrities and went on to careers in entertainment. Fox, who began appearing on Page 3 as a 16-year-old in 1983, became one of the most-photographed British women of the 1980s, behind only Princess Diana and Margaret Thatcher. After leaving Page 3, she launched a successful singing career.
+In the mid-1990s, The Sun began printing Page 3 photographs in colour as standard, rather than mostly in black and white. Captions to Page 3 images, which had previously contained sexually suggestive double entendre, were replaced by a listing of models' first names, ages, and hometowns. It later added a "News in Briefs" item that gave the model's thoughts on current affairs. After polling readers, in 1997 The Sun ceased featuring models who had undergone breast augmentation, such as Katie Price and Melinda Messenger. In June 1999, it launched the official Page3.com website, which featured additional photos of current Page 3 models, archival images of former Page 3 models, and other related photo and video content.
+Beginning in 2002, The Sun ran an annual contest called Page 3 Idol. Amateur models could submit photographs to be voted on by readers, with the winner receiving a cash prize and a Page 3 modeling contract. Notable Page 3 Idol winners included Nicola T, Keeley Hazell, and Lucy Collett. 
+In May 2004, the Sexual Offences Act 2003 came into effect in England and Wales, Section 45 of which raised the minimum age to appear in such publications from 16 to 18. 
+In 2020, Channel 4 produced an hour-long documentary, Page Three: The Naked Truth, to mark 50 years since The Sun first introduced Page 3.
+
+== Opposition ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Page_3-2.md

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+---
+title: "Page 3"
+chunk: 3/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Page_3"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:00.541613+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Page 3 was controversial and divisive throughout its history. Its defenders often characterised it as an inoffensive British cultural tradition, as when Conservative Party MP Richard Drax in 2013 called it a "national institution" that provided "light and harmless entertainment". Its critics generally considered Page 3 images demeaning to women or as softcore pornography that should not be published in national newspapers readily available to children. Some politicians—notably Labour Party MPs Clare Short, Harriet Harman, and Stella Creasy, Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone, and Green Party MP Caroline Lucas—made efforts to have Page 3 removed from newspapers. Meanwhile, The Sun vigorously defended the feature, typically representing Page 3's critics as prudes, spoilsports, or ideologues, while sometimes depicting female critics as physically unattractive and jealous. When Clare Short in 1986 tried to introduce a House of Commons bill banning topless models from British newspapers, The Sun ran a "Stop Crazy Clare" campaign, distributing free car stickers, calling Short a "killjoy", printing unflattering images of her, and polling readers on whether they would prefer to see Short's face or the back of a bus.
+As a co-founder of Women in Journalism, Rebekah Brooks was reported to be personally offended by Page 3, and was widely expected to terminate it when she became The Sun's first female editor in 2003. However, upon assuming her editorship, Brooks defended the feature, calling its models "intelligent, vibrant young women who appear in The Sun out of choice and because they enjoy the job." When Clare Short stated in a 2004 interview that she wanted to "take the pornography out of our press", saying "I'd love to ban [Page 3 because it] degrades women and our country", Brooks targeted Short with a "Hands Off Page 3" campaign that included printing an image of Short's face superimposed on a topless woman's body, calling Short "fat and jealous", and parking a double-decker bus with a delegation of Page 3 models outside Short's home. The Sun also called Harman a "feminist fanatic" and Featherstone a "battleaxe" for their opposition to Page 3. Brooks later said that she regretted The Sun's "cruel and harsh" attacks on Short, listing them among the mistakes she had made as editor.
+In February 2012, the Leveson Inquiry heard arguments for and against Page 3. Women's advocacy groups argued that Page 3 demeaned women and promoted sexist attitudes, but The Sun's then-editor Dominic Mohan called the feature an "innocuous British institution" that had become "part of British society". In his report, Lord Justice Leveson called Page 3 "a taste and decency issue" and stated that it thus fell outside his remit of investigating media ethics. Clare Short questioned Leveson's finding, stating: "Surely the depiction of half the population in a way that is now illegal on workplace walls and before the watershed in broadcasting, is an issue of media ethics?"
+Lucy-Anne Holmes, a writer and actress from Brighton, began campaigning against Page 3 after noticing during the 2012 Summer Olympics that the largest photograph of a woman in the nation's best-selling newspaper was not of an Olympic athlete but of "a young woman in her knickers". Arguing that Page 3 perpetuated sexism, portrayed women as sex objects, negatively affected girls' and women's body image, and contributed to a culture of sexual violence, Holmes launched the No More Page 3 campaign in August of that year. The campaign collected over 240,000 signatures on an online petition and gained support from over 140 MPs, as well as a number of trade unions, universities, charities, and women's advocacy groups. It sponsored two women's soccer teams, Nottingham Forest Women F.C. and Cheltenham Town L.F.C., who played with the "No More Page 3" logo on their shirts. 
+Lynne Featherstone called for a ban on Page 3 in September 2012, claiming that it contributed to domestic violence against women. Then–deputy prime minister Nick Clegg expressed concern that banning the images would compromise freedom of the press, stating: "If you don't like it, don't buy it ... you don't want to have a moral policeman or woman in Whitehall telling people what they can and cannot see." In June 2013, Caroline Lucas defied parliamentary dress code by wearing a "No More Page Three" T-shirt during a House of Commons debate on media sexism. She stated: "If Page 3 still hasn't been removed from The Sun by the end of [2013], I think we should be asking the government to step in and legislate." Culture minister Ed Vaizey responded that the government did not plan to regulate the content of the press, saying that adults had the right to choose what they read. Then–prime minister David Cameron also declined to support a ban on Page 3, stating during an interview with BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour: "This is an area where we should leave it to consumers to decide, rather than to regulators." After becoming The Sun's editor in June 2013, David Dinsmore confirmed he would continue printing photographs of topless models, calling it "a good way of selling newspapers".
+
+== End of the feature ==

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+---
+title: "Page 3"
+chunk: 4/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Page_3"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:00.541613+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+In February 2013, Rupert Murdoch suggested on Twitter that The Sun could transition to a "halfway house", featuring glamour photographs without showing nudity. In August 2013, editor Paul Clarkson replaced topless Page 3 girls with clothed glamour models in The Sun's Republic of Ireland edition, citing cultural differences between the UK and Ireland. The No More Page 3 campaign thanked Clarkson for "taking the lead in the dismantling of a sexist institution" and asked David Dinsmore to follow suit with The Sun's UK editions.
+After publishing Page 3 for over 44 years, on 17 January 2015 The Sun began featuring images of women wearing lingerie and bikinis on its third page. On 20 January, The Times, another Murdoch title, reported that the tabloid was "quietly dropping one of the most controversial traditions of British journalism." The decision to discontinue Page 3 received significant media attention. On 22 January, The Sun appeared to change course, publishing a Page 3 image of a winking model with her breasts fully exposed and a caption mocking those who had commented on the end of the feature. However, The Sun did not feature Page 3 thereafter.
+Longtime campaigner Clare Short called the decision to terminate the feature "an important public victory for dignity", while Nicky Morgan, then Minister for Women and Equalities, called it "a small but significant step towards improving the media portrayal of women and girls". A spokeswoman for the No More Page 3 campaign called it "truly historic news" and "a huge step for challenging media sexism". Caroline Lucas criticized the transition to clothed glamour, saying: "So long as The Sun reserves its right to print the odd topless shot, and reserves its infamous page for girls clad in bikinis, the conversation isn't over." 
+Some former Page 3 models defended the feature and the women who had appeared in it. Appearing on ITV's Good Morning Britain, model Nicola McLean called Page 3 models "strong-minded women" who "certainly don't feel like we have been victimised". In a televised debate with Harman and Germaine Greer, model Chloe Goodman challenged the other participants to explain why feminists were telling women how to live their lives. Harman responded: "In a hundred years' time, if you look back at the newspapers of this country, and you see women standing in their knickers with their breasts showing, what would you think about women's role in society?" Separately, Debee Ashby, who had first appeared on Page 3 in the 1980s at age 16, called its cancellation long overdue.
+Despite abolishing the feature in its print editions, The Sun continued publishing topless images on its official Page3.com website until March 2017. No new online content appeared after that point, and the website was taken offline in 2018. In April 2019, The Daily Star shifted to a clothed glamour format, becoming the last mainstream print daily to discontinue printing topless images. This ended the tradition in the mainstream British press, with only the niche Sunday Sport continuing to publish topless images in tabloid format as of 2023.
+
+== Notable Page 3 Girls ==
+
+Women who have posed for Page Three include:  
+
+== Television documentary ==
+On the fiftieth anniversary of the Page 3 feature, British television carried a documentary titled Page Three: The Naked Truth on Channel Four, which aired on 17 June 2024. It included stories and updates about the lives of some of the women who appeared in the magazine over the years. After it aired, it was the most popular search term on Wikipedia, garnering 589,000 page views in a single day.
+For the month of June it tallied more than 800,000 views, against 25,000 for a typical month.
+
+== Publications ==
+The Sun (1970s – January 2015)
+The Daily Mirror / Sunday People (1970s – 1980s)
+The Daily Star (1970s – April 2019)
+The Sunday Sport / Midweek Sport / Weekend Sport (1986 – present)
+The Daily Sport (1991 – April 2011)
+
+== See also ==
+
+Page 3 culture
+Hot Shots Calendar
+Lad culture
+Lad mags
+Sunshine Girl
+
+== References ==
+
+== Bibliography ==
+Perry, John (2005). Page 3 – The Complete History Laid Bare. News International Newspapers The Sun. ISBN 9781845792299.
+
+== External links ==
+Page Three girls – the naked truth from the BBC website

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Page_3_culture-0.md

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+---
+title: "Page 3 culture"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Page_3_culture"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:01.786956+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Page 3 culture is the name given to tabloid culture in India covering India's partying, high society or upper class, and metropolitan culture, specifically Mumbai's, Delhi's and Bangalore's, which are all a feature of page three tabloid newspapers.
+
+
+== Description ==
+The term originates from India's colourful daily newspaper supplements appearing usually on the third page that document parties. Page 3 features colour photo spreads of celebrities and the nouveau riche at parties. Those featured on page 3 often include fashion designers, socialites, models, remix music divas and the glamorous and rich.
+Page 3 has become a phenomenon which arose from sensationalism.
+
+
+== In popular culture ==
+The "Page 3" culture has been the theme of a Hindi film by Madhur Bhandarkar, Page 3 (2005), which won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film amongst other awards.
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== External links ==
+"Tabloidization of the Media: The Page Three Syndrome". Press Council of India.
+"Page 3 culture stems from half-naked women". MiD DAY.
+thehindubusinessline.com

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paralanguage-0.md

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+---
+title: "Paralanguage"
+chunk: 1/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paralanguage"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:03.034865+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Paralanguage, also known as vocalics, is a component of meta-communication that may modify meaning, give nuanced meaning, or convey emotion, by using suprasegmental techniques such as prosody, including pitch, volume, intonation, etc. It is sometimes defined as relating to nonphonemic properties only.  Paralanguage may be expressed consciously or unconsciously.
+The study of paralanguage is known as paralinguistics and was invented by George L. Trager in the 1950s, while he was working at the Foreign Service Institute of the U.S. Department of State. His colleagues at the time included Henry Lee Smith, Charles F. Hockett (working with him on using descriptive linguistics as a model for paralanguage), Edward T. Hall developing proxemics, and Ray Birdwhistell developing kinesics. Trager published his conclusions in 1958, 1960 and 1961.
+His work has served as a basis for all later research, especially those investigating the relationship between paralanguage and culture (since paralanguage is learned, it differs by language and culture). A good example is the work of John J. Gumperz on language and social identity, which specifically describes paralinguistic differences between participants in intercultural interactions. The film Gumperz made for BBC in 1982, Multiracial Britain: Cross talk, does a particularly good job of demonstrating cultural differences in paralanguage and their impact on relationships.
+Paralinguistic information, because it is phenomenal, belongs to the external speech signal (Ferdinand de Saussure's parole) but not to the arbitrary conmodality. Even vocal language has some paralinguistic as well as linguistic properties that can be seen (lip reading, McGurk effect), and even felt, e.g. by the Tadoma method.
+
+== Aspects of the speech signal ==
+
+=== Perspectival aspects ===
+Speech signals arrive at a listener's ears with acoustic properties that may allow listeners to identify location of the speaker (sensing distance and direction, for example). Sound localization functions in a similar way also for non-speech sounds. The perspectival aspects of lip reading are more obvious and have more drastic effects when head turning is involved.
+
+=== Organic aspects ===
+The speech organs of different speakers differ in size. As children grow up, their organs of speech become larger, and there are differences between male and female adults. The differences concern not only size, but also proportions. They affect the pitch of the voice and to a substantial extent also the formant frequencies, which characterize the different speech sounds. The organic quality of speech has a communicative function in a restricted sense, since it is merely informative about the speaker. It will be expressed independently of the speaker's intention.
+
+=== Expressive aspects ===
+Paralinguistic cues such as loudness, rate, pitch, pitch contour, and to some extent formant frequencies of an utterance, contribute to the emotive or attitudinal quality of an utterance.  Typically, attitudes are expressed intentionally and emotions without intention, but attempts to fake or to hide emotions are not unusual.
+Consequently, paralinguistic cues relating to expression have a moderate effect of semantic marking. That is, a message may be made more or less coherent by adjusting its expressive presentation. For instance, upon hearing an utterance such as "I drink a glass of wine every night before I go to sleep" is coherent when made by a speaker identified as an adult, but registers a small semantic anomaly when made by a speaker identified as a child. This anomaly is significant enough to be measured through electroencephalography, as an N400. Autistic individuals have a reduced sensitivity to this and similar effects.
+Emotional tone of voice, itself paralinguistic information, has been shown to affect the resolution of lexical ambiguity. Some words have homophonous partners; some of these homophones appear to have an implicit emotive quality, for instance, the sad "die" contrasted with the neutral "dye"; uttering the sound /dai/ in a sad tone of voice can result in a listener writing the former word significantly more often than if the word is uttered in a neutral tone.
+
+=== Linguistic aspects ===
+Ordinary phonetic transcriptions of utterances reflect only the linguistically informative quality. The problem of how listeners factor out the linguistically informative quality from speech signals is a topic of current research.
+Some of the linguistic features of speech, in particular of its prosody, are paralinguistic or pre-linguistic in origin. A most fundamental and widespread phenomenon of this kind is described by John Ohala as the "frequency code". This code works even in communication across species. It has its origin in the fact that the acoustic frequencies in the voice of small vocalizers are high, while they are low in the voice of large vocalizers. This gives rise to secondary meanings such as "harmless", "submissive", "unassertive", which are naturally associated with smallness, while meanings such as "dangerous", "dominant", and "assertive" are associated with largeness. In most languages, the frequency code also serves the purpose of distinguishing questions from statements. It is universally reflected in expressive variation, and it is reasonable to assume that it has phylogenetically given rise to the sexual dimorphism that lies behind the large difference in pitch between average female and male adults.
+In text-only communication such as email, chatrooms and instant messaging, paralinguistic elements can be displayed by emoticons, font and color choices, capitalization and the use of non-alphabetic or abstract characters. Nonetheless, paralanguage in written communication is limited in comparison with face-to-face conversation, sometimes leading to misunderstandings.
+
+== Specific forms of paralinguistic respiration ==
+
+=== Gasps ===

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+---
+title: "Paralanguage"
+chunk: 2/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paralanguage"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:03.034865+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+A gasp is a kind of paralinguistic respiration in the form of a sudden and sharp inhalation of air through the mouth. A gasp may indicate difficulty breathing and a panicked effort to draw air into the lungs. Gasps also occur from an emotion of surprise, shock or disgust. Like a sigh, a yawn, or a moan, a gasp is often an automatic and unintentional act. Gasping is closely related to sighing, and the inhalation characterizing a gasp induced by shock or surprise may be released as a sigh if the event causing the initial emotional reaction is determined to be less shocking or surprising than the observer first believed.
+As a symptom of physiological problems, apneustic respirations (a.k.a. apneusis), are gasps related to the brain damage associated with a stroke or other trauma.
+
+=== Sighs ===
+
+A sigh is a kind of paralinguistic respiration in the form of a deep and especially audible, single exhalation of air out of the mouth or nose, that humans use to communicate emotion. It is a voiced pharyngeal fricative, sometimes associated with a guttural glottal breath exuded in a low tone.  It often arises from a negative emotion, such as dismay, dissatisfaction, boredom, or futility. A sigh can also arise from positive emotions such as relief, particularly in response to some negative situation ending or being avoided. Like a gasp, a yawn, or a moan, a sigh is often an automatic and unintentional act. 
+Scientific studies show that babies sigh after 50 to 100 breaths. This serves to improve the mechanical properties of lung tissue, and it also helps babies to develop a regular breathing rhythm. Behaviors equivalent to sighing have also been observed in animals such as dogs, monkeys, and horses.
+In text messages and internet chat rooms, or in comic books, a sigh is usually represented with the word itself, 'sigh', possibly within asterisks, *sigh*.
+Sighing is also a reflex, governed by a few neurons.
+
+=== Moans and groans ===
+
+Moans and groans are both extended sounds emanating from the throat, typically indicating pain, and occasionally displeasure. Moans and groans are also made while engaging in sexual activity.  Moaning and groaning is additionally traditionally associated with ghosts, and their supposed experience of suffering in the afterlife.
+
+=== Throat clearing ===
+
+Throat clearing is a metamessaging nonverbal form of communication used in announcing one's presence upon entering the room or approaching a group.  It is done by individuals who perceive themselves to be of higher rank than the group they are approaching and utilize the throat-clear as a form of communicating this perception to others. It can convey nonverbalized disapproval.
+In chimpanzee social hierarchy, this utterance is a sign of rank, directed by alpha males and higher-ranking chimps to lower-ranking ones and signals a mild warning or a slight annoyance.
+As a form of metacommunication, the throat-clear is acceptable only to signal that a formal business meeting is about to start.
+It is not acceptable business etiquette to clear one's throat when approaching a group on an informal basis; 
+the basis of one's authority has already been established and requires no further reiteration by this ancillary nonverbal communication.
+
+=== Mhm ===
+Mhm is between a literal language and movement, by making a noise "hmm" or "mhm", to make a pause for the conversation or as a chance to stop and think.
+The "mhm" utterance is often used in narrative interviews, such as an interview with a disaster survivor or sexual violence victim. In this kind of interview, it is better for the interviewers or counselors not to intervene too much when an interviewee is talking. The "mhm" assures the interviewee that they are being heard and can continue their story. Observing emotional differences and taking care of an interviewee's mental status is an important way to find slight changes during conversation.
+
+=== Huh? ===
+"Huh?", meaning "what?" (that is, used when an utterance by another is not fully heard or requires clarification), is an essentially universal expression, but may be a normal word (learned like other words) and not paralanguage.
+Huh is claimed to be a universal syllable. A 2013 study suggested that the word/syllable huh is perhaps the most recognized syllable throughout the world. It is an interrogative which crosses geography, language, cultures and nationalities.
+
+== Physiology of paralinguistic comprehension ==
+
+=== fMRI studies ===
+Several studies have used the fMRI paradigm to observe brain states brought about by adjustments of paralinguistic information. One such study investigated the effect of interjections that differed along the criteria of lexical index (more or less "wordy") as well as neutral or emotional pronunciation; a higher hemodynamic response in auditory cortical gyri was found when more robust paralinguistic data was available. Some activation was found in lower brain structures such as the pons, perhaps indicating an emotional response.
+
+== See also ==
+Business communication
+Intercultural competence
+Kinesics
+Meta message
+Meta-communication
+Metacommunicative competence
+Prosody (linguistics)
+Proxemics
+
+== References ==
+
+== Further reading ==
+Cook, Guy (2001) The Discourse of Advertising. (second edition) London: Routledge. (chapter 4 on paralanguage and semiotics).
+Robbins, S. and Langton, N. (2001) Organizational Behaviour: Concepts, Controversies, Applications (2nd Canadian ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
+Traunmüller, H. (2005) "Paralinguale Phänomene" (Paralinguistic phenomena), chapter 76 in: SOCIOLINGUISTICS An International Handbook of the Science of Language and Society, 2nd ed., U. Ammon, N. Dittmar, K. Mattheier, P. Trudgill (eds.), Vol. 1, pp. 653–665. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/New York.
+Matthew McKay, Martha Davis, Patrick Fanning [1983] (1995) Messages: The Communication Skills Book, Second Edition, New Harbinger Publications, ISBN 1-57224-592-1, ISBN 978-1-57224-592-1, pp. 63–67.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasocial_interaction-0.md

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+---
+title: "Parasocial interaction"
+chunk: 1/18
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasocial_interaction"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:05.400852+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Parasocial interaction (PSI) refers to a kind of psychological relationship experienced by an audience in their mediated encounters with performers in the mass media, particularly on television and online platforms. Viewers or listeners come to consider media personalities as friends, despite having no or limited interactions with them. PSI is described as an illusory experience, such that media audiences interact with personas (e.g., talk show hosts, celebrities, fictional characters, social media influencers) as if they are engaged in a reciprocal relationship with them. The term was coined by Donald Horton and Richard Wohl in 1956.
+Parasocial interaction is a one sided relationship where an audience member feels familiarity, closeness, or emotional connection toward a public figure or creator. Even though that person does not know the audience personally, the audience can still feel familiarity, trust and attachment. Parasocial interaction can happen through many kinds of media, including TV shows, podcasts, livestreams and social platforms where creators speak directly to viewers. The term first became widely used when researchers tried to explain why TV and radio personalities could feel familiar to audiences. Now it is used far beyond those formats. Social media and live-streaming make the feeling easier to sustain, since people get constant updates and a more casual tone. As result, the connection can develop across time and influence how audiences react to public figures. On social media, frequent updates and direct address may make these connections easier to sustain over time. Due to readily available media resources and the amount of time spent on media resources, children and teens are easily subjected to developing parasocial relationships at a young age. 
+A parasocial interaction, an exposure that garners interest in a persona, becomes a parasocial relationship after repeated exposure to the media persona causes the media user to develop illusions of intimacy, friendship, and identification. Positive information learned about the media persona results in increased attraction, and the relationship progresses. Parasocial relationships are enhanced due to trust and self-disclosure provided by the media persona.
+Media users are loyal and feel directly connected to the persona, much as they are connected to their close friends, by observing and interpreting their appearance, gestures, voice, conversation, and conduct. Media personas have a significant amount of influence over media users, positive or negative, informing the way that they perceive certain topics or even their purchasing habits.  Studies involving longitudinal effects of parasocial interactions on children are still relatively new, according to developmental psychologist Sandra L. Calvert.
+Social media introduces additional opportunities for parasocial relationships to intensify because it provides more opportunities for intimate, reciprocal, and frequent interactions between the user and persona. These virtual interactions may involve commenting, following, liking, or direct messaging. The consistency in which the persona appears could also lead to a more intimate perception in the eyes of the user.

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+---
+title: "Parasocial interaction"
+chunk: 2/18
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasocial_interaction"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:05.400852+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Evolution of the term ==
+Parasocial interaction was first described from the perspective of media and communication studies. In 1956, Horton and Wohl explored the different interactions between mass media users and media figures and determined the existence of a parasocial relationship (PSR), where the user acts as though they are involved in a typical social relationship. However, parasocial interaction existed before mass media, when a person would establish a bond with political figures, gods or even spirits.
+Since then, the term has been adopted by psychologists in furthering their studies of the social relationships that emerge between consumers of mass media and the figures they see represented there. Horton and Wohl suggested that for most people, parasocial interactions with personae complement their current social interactions, while also suggesting that there are some individuals who exhibit extreme parasociality, or they substitute parasocial interactions for actual social interactions. Perse and Rubin (1989) contested this view, finding that parasocial interactions occurred as a natural byproduct of time spent with media figures.
+Parasocial interaction is often described as a one sided form of social connection that develops through media. Rather than forming through direct, mutual interaction, it can build as audiences repeatedly see or hear the same public figure over time. As viewers become familiar with a person's voice, style and routines, the interaction can begin to feel personal. The relationship is still not reciprocal. A communication style that feels direct or conversational can strengthen this effect, especially when a media figure speaks to the audience as if addressing them individually or just shares personal details that create a sense of intimacy. In earlier research, this kind of pattern was often discussed in relation to television and radio personalities. Today, these dynamics also appear in digital media, where frequent content and ongoing visibility can make public figures feel more present in everyday life.
+Although the concept originated from a psychological topic, extensive research of PSI has been performed in the area of mass communication with manifold results. Psychologists began to show their interest in the concept in the 1980s, and researchers began to develop the concept extensively within the field of communication science. Many important questions about social psychology were raised concerning the nature of these relationships that are problematic for existing theories in those fields. The concept of parasocial interaction and detailed examination of the behavioral phenomena that it seeks to explain have considerable potential for developing psychological theory.
+The conceptual development of parasocial interaction (PSI) and parasocial relationship (PSR) are interpreted and employed in different ways in various literatures. When it is applied in the use-and-gratifications (U&G) approaches, the two concepts are typically treated interchangeably, with regard primarily to a special type of "interpersonal involvement" with media figures that includes different phenomena such as interaction and identification. In contrast to the U&G approaches, research domains such as media psychology and semiotics argue for a clear distinction between the terms.
+PSI specifically means the "one-sided process of media person perception during media exposure", whereas PSR stands for "a cross-situational relationship that a viewer or user holds to a media person, which includes specific cognitive and affective components". Schmid & Klimmt (2011) further argue that PSI and PSR are progressive states such that what begins as a PSI has the potential to become a PSR. Dibble, Hartmann and Rosaen (2016) suggest that a PSR can develop without a PSI occurring, such as when the characters do not make a direct connection with the viewer.
+In sum, the terms, definitions, and models explicating PSI and PSR differ across scientific backgrounds and traditions. For example, Dibble et al. (2016) argued that PSI and PSR are often "conflated conceptually and methodologically". To test their assertion, they tested for parasocial indicators with two different scales used for parasocial inquiry: the traditional PSI-Scale and the newer EPSI-Scale, and compared results between the two.
+The traditional PSI-Scale, along with modified forms of it, is the most widely used measure of PSI assessment. However, Dibble et al. (2016) found evidence supporting their hypothesis that the newer EPSI-Scale was a better measure of PSIs and that the traditional scale merely revealed participants' liking of characters. Because of varying conceptions, it is difficult for researchers to reach a consensus.
+
+== Scientific research ==
+Studying social interaction, and by extension parasocial interaction (PSI), follows a social cognitive approach to defining individual cognitive activity. Accordingly, there are similar psychological processes at work in both parasocial relationships and face-to-face interactions. However, the parasocial relationship does not follow the process of the typical long-term relationship. The media user remains a stranger to the media figure, whereas this "strangeness" would gradually evaporate in typical social interaction.
+Many parasocial relationships fulfill the needs of typical social interaction, but potentially reward insecurity. Many who possess a dismissive attachment style to others may find the one-sided interaction to be preferable in lieu of dealing with others, while those who experience anxiety from typical interactions may find comfort in the lives of celebrities consistently being present. Additionally, whatever a celebrity or online figure may do can provoke emotional responses from their audiences—some even going as far as suffering from negative feelings because of it.
+The research of PSI obtained significant interest after the advent of the uses and gratifications approach to mass communication research in the early 1970s. A study of early soap opera identified two essential functions of PSI: companionship and personal identity. Rosengren and Windahl further argued that PSI could be identified in the process of viewers' interacting with media figures, but such interaction did not produce identification. This is an important distinction, because identification has a longer history than PSI. Subsequent research has indicated that PSI is evident when identification is not present.

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+title: "Parasocial interaction"
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+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:05.400852+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Celebrities ===
+Parasocial relationships are more readily formed between social media users and celebrities. On social media, celebrities build and strengthen more intimate relationships with consumers and fans. Celebrities' self-disclosure could allow their fans and audience get connected with those celebrities and stimulate their illusion of in-person relationship with celebrities. Simultaneously, the context of SCPs, supported by Web 2.0 social media technologies, stimulates users' parasocial interactions with celebrities and experts. Uncertainty reduction theory is an example of a way that this can occur. The process of repeated exposure to an individual gradually reduces the user's level of uncertainty, which increases the user's chances of liking this celebrity.
+On some social shopping websites, users could follow celebrities and interact with those people to generate an illusory bond between the celebrities and themselves. Repeated exposure to the celebrity gives users a sense of predictability in their actions, which engenders a sense of loyalty. Parasocial interactions help to increase more social attractions for celebrities and present greater credibility to customers.
+Fans in parasocial relationships with celebrities may affirm their loyalty through various activities, including purchasing products endorsed by celebrities. Unlike influencers, celebrities bring their fans with stronger impulse purchase. Targeted consumers (fans) desire to interact with celebrities, instead of passively receiving information from celebrities. By purchasing and supporting the celebrity endorsing products, fans may build more intimate relationship with celebrities in their imagination.
+In a 2014 journal article, Seung-A Annie Jin and Joe Phua discussed how they conducted studies to determine multiple hypotheses based on the number of followers a celebrity had in correlation to the trust that imparted onto a consumer. This study was done in terms of a celebrity endorsing a product and the likelihood of the consumer to purchase the product after seeing the promotion. Consumers perceived the celebrity with a high number of followers as being more physically attractive, trustworthy, and competent.
+A high number of followers on the celebrity endorser's profile also significantly increased consumers' intention to build an online friendship with the celebrity. The study found that if a celebrity with a higher number of followers was perceived as more trustworthy, the consumer exhibited significantly higher postexposure product involvement and buying intention as opposed to those who were exposed to a celebrity with a lower follower count.
+Merchants on social commerce platforms will find huge potentials of analyzing and applying parasocial interactions to manipulate consumers' purchase intention. In addition to influencing fans to purchase products, celebrities can also influence fans to engage in similar conversational styles. Fans, or audience members, in parasocial relationships may "appear to be accommodating to characters' linguistic styles". As fans continue to interact in a parasocial relationship, there is potential for them to mirror the conversational style of the celebrity while communicating on different platforms of social media.
+
+==== Global fandoms ====
+Unlike Western models, K-pop employs its own highly structured and corporate-based approach to mass intimacy production. K-pop artists entertain their local and global fans through various formats, including music videos, live-streaming programs, and non-music content. Access to paid content through membership creates a sense of exclusive closeness to their idols. Special applications, such as Weverse and V Live, are used by K-pop performers to connect with followers in real-time and update them through a text-simulated environment, which fosters a stronger parasocial relationship. The combination of these sites and social networks (like X/Twitter) allows fans to have direct access to celebrities, making PSRs less one-sided and more vigorous, which sustains loyalty and high popularity.
+The intimate connections between K-pop fans and their idols can be referred to as "parasocial kinship" that develops the illusion of idols as an objects of familial affection and adulation. Some fans explicitly credit their idols for fostering a "zest for life" and aiding them in coping with mental health issues. However, excessive PSI can lead to unhealthy emotional attachment and distorted perceptions of interpersonal relationships and body image anxiety.
+The K-pop fandom system contributes to the parasocial experience, establishes a sense of community, and strengthens PSI. Through fandom activity and communication within fan communities, parasocial interaction is perpetuated at all times. Their activities, such as collaborative projects to market their idols through streaming, viewing, or running support projects, bolster the social bond not only with the band members but also among themselves.

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+---
+title: "Parasocial interaction"
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+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:05.400852+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Companies ===
+As social media relationships grew between celebrities and influencers, businesses created social media profiles for audience engagement. Fast food restaurants have started comedy Twitter accounts to interact with their customers in a personal way. The companies' Twitter accounts respond to tweets from customers, tell jokes and engage in the online industry in ways that create PSI with the consumers. This strategy is working.
+A study done by Lauren I. Labrecque in 2013 found that customers have higher loyalty intentions and are more likely to provide information for the brand when the brand fostered PSIs. The study also showed that these outcomes were less likely when the consumer felt the response from the company's social media account were automated. Furthermore, including personal details and behind-the-scenes ideation in interactions with consumers also triggers PSI and results in a positive impact.
+Another parasocial interaction usage in organizational communication is that CEOs' social media image also contributes to the company's image and reputation. Therefore, CEOs have paid attention to their communication with customers, employees, and investors. They would improve their public features through social media to communicate with the stakeholders.
+In a 2023 study involving the quick serving restaurant (QSR) industry, Banerjee, Sen, and Zahay find that customers' in-store engagement in the form of their social media usage can have strong predictive power. The authors find that social media posts containing product brand mentions created by an engaged customer within a store premise can trigger parasocial interactions in the form of likes, retweets, and replies which can further lead to an increased competitive spillover. Such effects can either increase or decrease based on the competitor density in the area. Combining data from six different databases, the authors show how social media can be leveraged to influence competitive positions in local markets. In this interesting study, the authors caution that seemingly positive customer testimonials from within a store can ultimately end up helping competitor brands and hence store managers must practice diligence in monitoring customer social media posts.
+
+=== Livestreaming ===
+
+According to Ko and Chen (2020), "Live streaming was originally used in broadcasting sporting events or news issues on TV. As the mobile Internet gets more and more popular, now the netizen and small companies can broadcast themselves via the use of live-streaming APP". Many platforms have developed and launched their live stream function, like Taobao.com and Facebook. For online retailers like Taobao.com or Tmall.com, users could follow and interact with the hosts and celebrities like being friends with them.
+"China had up to 433 million live streaming viewers in August 2019 [CNNIC 2019]. The use of live streaming to promote brands and products is "exploding" in the E-commerce field in China [Aliresearch 2020]. For example, during the "June 18" event in 2019, Taobao's live streaming platform drove sales of 13 billion yuan, with the number of merchants broadcasting live streaming increasing by nearly 120% year-on-year. The number of broadcasts grew by 150% year- on-year [CNNIC 2019]."
+From the perspective of a retailer, live streaming provides more opportunities for marketing, branding, improving customer services and increasing revenue. As a customer, live streaming also offers a more synchronic and interactive shopping experience than before. Interactions between streamers/sellers and consumers also help customers get higher quality information about the products, which is different from traditional shopping method.
+According to Xu, Wu and Li (2020), "streaming commerce creates a novel shopping environment that provides multiple stimuli to motivate potential consumers to indulge in their shopping behaviors. It has emerged and shows great potential as a novel business model to add dynamic real-time interaction among sellers (streamers) and consumers (viewers), provide accurate information, and involve hedonic factors to attract consumers to indulge in consumption processes. Viewers are enabled to obtain dynamic and accurate information by watching live streams, develop virtual social relationships with streamers, and enjoy relaxing and entertaining hours while watching attractive streamers".
+Livestreaming permits the viewers and the streamers engage in a real-time interaction to create intimacy and closeness, thus, the credibility and trustworthiness would be reinforced through dynamic interactions. In America, retailers like Amazon and QVC have also worked on their own live streaming shopping platforms to take this huge advantage  Interpersonal relations on livestreaming services occupy a position in between social and parasocial relations, giving livestreaming an exceptional position in the entire landscape of social media.
+
+== Limitations ==
+Most studies find that PSI only occurs as friendship, which is overly restrictive theoretically and practically. People may develop parasocial interactions with media figures they do not consider to be "friends", such as a villain in a show. Though PSI with disliked figures is less likely than with heroes and positive characters, the situation of "love to hate" relationship with disliked characters still occurs. Some researchers realize the restriction of limiting PSIs to friendship, which may preclude them from capture broader situation of meaningful media user reactions.
+In 2010, Tian and Hoffner conduct an online questionnaire measuring the responses from 174 participants to a liked, neutral, or disliked character from the ABC drama Lost. All participants reported the identification they had perceived with the character, as well as the parasocial interaction and how did they try to change their perspectives to be more like the character. According to the whole sample, perceived similarity was a significant positive predictor of both identification and parasocial interaction. Undeniably, parasocial interaction was higher for liked than for neutral and disliked characters based on the study. Parasocial interaction still appeared with liked, neutral and disliked characters. The prevailing perspective of PSI as a friendship is not appropriate based on the theoretical and experimental findings, and many researchers start to improve the measurement of the PSI's concept.

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+---
+title: "Parasocial interaction"
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+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:05.400852+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Future research ==
+One direction for future PSI concerns the advancement of methodology. As theories become more defined and complex, experiments seem to be necessary to be employed in testing hypotheses. Because the meanings of perception and emotion take up much of what parasocial interaction/relationship research interest, the cause and effect is hard to be distinguished and potential spuriousness is difficult to be avoided. For example, whether similarity precedes PSI and whether mediated interaction create a sense of similarity requires experimental validation.
+Cohen also suggested that different types of relationships are encouraged to be analyzed within different genres, which particularly challenges scholars in examining the mediated relationship in reality TV shows (e.g., Survivor). These prototypical reality shows are built around narratives, displaying a lot of emotions which seem to solicit empathy and identification, and also demonstrating the characters' skills towards developing fandom. Ratings and audience responses provide strong evidence that those reality shows create significant mediated relationship, but future inquiries should examine whether this new kind of mediated interaction/relationship evolves or do these interactions/relationships conform to existing patterns.
+The influence of media in childhood has received little attention from developmental psychologists, even though children have a high degree of exposure to media. While many studies and experiments have explored the nature of parasocial relationships, there are many opportunities for future research. For example, a potential future area of research could be the issue of reruns, where the relationships have outcomes which are already known or well-established. In addition, another area of research could focus on production techniques or televisual approaches. This would include techniques such as chiaroscuro or flat lighting, the strategic placement of close-ups or establishing shots, deductive or inductive shot sequences, hip hop editing, or desaturation. These techniques have long been theorized to have some sort of influence on the formation of parasocial relationships, but their influence has yet to be determined.
+The prevailing use of social media and its impact on mediated relationships also requires further study of PSI. Different social media platforms provide channels through which celebrities communicate with their followers easily, making parasocial interaction/relationships seem less unidirectional and perhaps more satisfying and intense. As such, whether social media has made PSI more a part of everyday life needs further exploration. Technological development has been raising questions regarding the role of PSI in our social lives, as media content is available in more places and times. Our mediated friends are never too far away; instead, they actually rest in our pockets and sleep in our beds. Whether this means that we spend more time and effort on cultivating these relationships and will be less dependent on real social relationships, needs further exploration.
+While parasocial relationships are typically seen as a relationship with a media persona whom the individual views positively, more research should be done surround parasocial relationships with media personas who the individual views in a negative sense. There are many instances on social media where negative interactions exist (negative sentiments expressed towards politicians, athletes, etc.). It would be interesting to understand how these negative interactions and relationships can affect us, and our other relationships. Additionally, more research should be done on the well-being consequences of parasocial relationships with media persona who may inspire hate or other negative emotions, such as towards a particular group of people.
+The role that mediated communication and engagement played during the pandemic may have led to media personas being evaluated with similar (or the same) cognitive processes we use when interacting with real-life friends. This may continue to influence our parasocial relationships, and more should be learned regarding the long-term effects of COVID-19 on the functioning of parasocial relationships.
+Other concerns include the continuity of media figures representation across various media outlets, and the notion of parasocial interaction as compensation for lack of social outlets. Popstars, for example, may not only appear on television, but on several different television or radio programs, as either a chat guest or a performer; further repeated viewings of these stars would intensify visual aspects of parasocial interaction with that star. Most research has typically characterized media users as a television viewer who is often solitary and in need of social interaction. The different types of user-figure interaction can be addressed by conceptualizing parasocial interaction as an extension of ordinary social interaction. Through close examination of social encounters that are significant for parasocial relationships, we can continue to distinguish between parasocial interaction as an isolated activity and as longer-term interaction.
+
+== Focus on relationships ==
+
+=== Background ===
+The terms parasocial interactions and parasocial relationships were coined by anthropologist Donald Horton and sociologist R. Richard Wohl in 1956, laying the foundation for the topic within the field of communication studies. Originating from psychology, parasocial phenomena comes from a wide range of scientific backgrounds and methodological approaches. The study of parasocial relationships has increased with the growth of mass and social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, particularly by those investigating advertising effectiveness and journalism. Horton and Wohl have stated that television personas offer the media user a sense of intimacy and have influence over them by using their appearance and gesture in a way that is seen as being engaging, directly addressing the audience, and conversing with them in a friendly and personal manner. By viewing media personas regularly and feeling a sense of trust with the persona, parasocial relationships offer the media user a continuous relationship that intensifies.

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+---
+
+=== Celebrity endorsements and advertising ===
+Advertising and marketing can use media personas to increase brand awareness, keep media users engaged, and increase purchase intention by seeking out attractive media personas. If media personas show that they are interested in and engage in rewarding interactions with media users, then if the media user likes the persona they will reciprocate interactions and over time form a parasocial relationship with them.
+In this social media era, media users are able to have interactions with the media persona that are more intimate, open, reciprocal, and frequent. More media personas are using social media platforms for personal communication, revealing their personal lives and thoughts to consumers. The more frequent and conversational that the media persona self discloses via social media results in media users feeling high levels of intimacy, loyalty, and friendship. Media users know that the chances of receiving a direct message or getting a retweet from a celebrity are highly unlikely, but the possibility gives fans a sense of intimacy and adds authenticity to one-sided parasocial relationships with their favorite personas.
+Celebrity endorsements are so effective with purchase intention because parasocial relationships form such an influential bond of trust. The acceptance and trustworthiness that the media user feels towards the media persona is carried over into the brand that is being promoted. Media users feel that they understand media personas and appreciate their values and motives. This accumulation of time and knowledge acquired of the media persona translates into feelings of loyalty, which can then influence their attitudes, voting decisions, prejudices, change their ideas about reality, willingness to donate, and purchasing advertised products. Celebrities and popular social media personalities who engage in social media endorsements are referred to as influencers.
+
+=== Politics ===
+Through parasocial relationships, politicians seeking to hold office may utilize these relationships to appeal to their voting base and any potential new voters. With the rise of social media being used during campaigns, these politicians now have the opportunity to engage in more personal types of communication with voters. These parasocial interactions between voters and candidates can also be vital in predicting particular political support in various national elections. Voters are starting to feel more connected to candidates who at a glance appear to understand their hardships. When looking at someone like then-candidate Donald Trump in 2016, there was a study that showed those who had already formed parasocial bonds with Trump from his reality TV career were more likely to support him for president than those that did not. Trump was able to make himself appear more authentic which increased the number of parasocial relationships formed by his voters. However, the tendency to form parasocial relationships was not designated to just one party. Both the Democratic and Republican parties attempt to connect with fans on a more personal basis during election periods. As a result, all high-profile politicians regardless of their party may be subject to parasocial relationships from their voters and supporters.
+
+=== Causes and impact ===
+Parasocial relationships are a psychological attachment in which the media persona offers a continuing relationship with the media user. They grow to depend on them, plan to interact with them, count on them much like a close friend. They acquire a history with them and believe they know the persona better than others. Media users are free to partake in the benefits of real relations with no responsibility or effort. They can control their experience or walk away from parasocial relationships freely.
+A media user's bond with media personas can lead to higher self-confidence, a stronger perception of problem focused coping strategies, and a stronger sense of belonging. However these one-sided relationships can also foster an impractical body image, can reduce self-esteem, increase media consumption, and media addiction.
+Parasocial relationships are seen frequently with post-retirement aged media users due to high television consumption and loss of social contacts or activities. However, adolescents are also prone to form parasocial relationships. This is attributed to puberty, the discovery of sexuality and identity, and the idolization of media stars. Women are generally more likely to form stronger parasocial relationships than men.
+Some results indicate that parasocial relationships with media personas increase because the media user is lonely, dissatisfied, emotionally unstable, and/or has unattractive relationship alternatives. Some can use these parasocial relationships as a substitute for real social contact. A media user's personality affects how they use social media and may also vary an individual's pursuit of intimacy and approach to relationships i.e. extroverts may prefer to seek social gratification through face-to-face interactions as opposed to mediated ones.
+Media users use mediated communication to gratify their personal needs, such as to relax, seek pleasure, boredom, or out of habit. In this era of social media and the internet media users have constant access to on demand viewing, constant interactions on hand held mobile devices, and widespread Internet access.
+
+=== Parasocial breakups ===

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+title: "Parasocial interaction"
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+
+Experiencing negative emotional responses as a result of an ending parasocial relationship, i.e. death of a television persona in a series, is known as a parasocial breakup. More intense levels of parasocial breakup could be predicted by loneliness and observing media for companionship.
+Jonathan Cohen, from the Department of Communications in University of Haifa, links parasocial relationships and breakups to social relationship attachment styles. The results and lasting effects of a parasocial breakup may rely on the attachment styles of the person experiencing and initiating the attachment, much like social relationships. Individuals with an anxious attachment style experience more extreme reactions to parasocial breakups, compared to avoidant and secure types.
+The in-person/real life social relationship status of an individual does not affect the intensity of distress or discomfort felt in parasocial breakups.
+Age, however, shows correlation with the intensity of distress at parasocial breakups, as Cohen finds young people (under the age of 20) are more susceptible to strong symptoms of PSB (Parasocial breakup).
+For some people, parasocial breakups can be as simple as avoiding the content concerning the subject of the parasocial tie.
+According to Cohen, the level of distress to the individuals experiencing parasocial breakup depends on the strength and extremity of the bond.
+
+=== Parasocial relationships with fictional characters ===
+Parasocial relationships with fictional characters are more intense than with nonfictional characters, because of the feeling of being completely present in a fictional world. Narrative realism—the plausibility that a fictional world and its characters could exist—and external realism—the level at which aspects of the story map to a person's real world experiences—play a part in heightening one's connections to fictional characters. If a narrative can convince a viewer that a character is plausible and/or relatable, it creates a space for the viewer to form a parasocial relationship with said character. There is a desire for camaraderie that can be built through bonding over a fictional persona.
+Due to the span and breadth of media franchises such as the Harry Potter, Disney, and Star Wars series, consumers are able to engage more deeply and form strong parasocial relationships. These fictional parasocial relationships can extend further than watching the movies or reading the books into official and fan fiction websites, social media, and even extend beyond media to have an in-person experience at national and international theme park attractions.
+For individuals who become very attached to fictional characters, and may or may not depend on them emotionally, even the thought of that character being removed from the story in some way (death, being written out of the story, etc.) can be extremely painful.
+The dread of a fictional character's death (the parasocial breakup) can be much stronger than that of a parasocial breakup with a public figure.
+Parasocial relationships with fictional characters may be affected by external events relating to the actors who play them, and vice versa. For example, if a scandal were to occur with an actor, individuals who had parasocial connections to the character they played may reevaluate their opinions on the character. A parasocial breakup may occur with the fictional character, as a result of the scandal. However, the reverse, where a positive impression of an actor due to an event is created, does not apply. Fictional characters, in this case, are seen as separate from the actor and their good contributions or personality outside of the role.
+
+==== My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fandom ====
+
+In a 2018 study of thousands of bronies (the "Brony Study Project"), clinical psychologist Patrick Edwards and his research colleagues examined preferences of the Mane Six—the main pony characters of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic—and their psychological and parasocial relationships with fans of the series (commonly known as bronies). They found that fans of different characters exhibited distinct psychological profiles that often mirrored their chosen character's canonical personality traits, with characters serving various parasocial functions from aspirational role models to sources of emotional support. Edwards's study showed correlations between character preference and traits like creativity, social anxiety, community engagement, and psychological well-being.
+Tulpas—autonomous mental companions created through sustained imaginative practice—are used by some bronies to create deeper and more interactive parasocial relationships with their favorite characters. Tulpa communities gained popularity when bronies started discussing tulpas of characters from Friendship Is Magic, with the fans using meditation and lucid dreaming techniques to create imaginary friends. According to Samuel Veissière, tulpamancers believe a tulpa is a "real or somewhat-real person".
+A 2022 study by Erica C. Rarity, Matthew R. Leitao, and Abraham M. Rutchick examined the psychological relationship between the brony fandom and the Mane Six. According to the authors, the brony fandom serves as an exemplary case study for parasocial relationships due to its long-running nature, robust community interactions, and clearly defined personalities of the Mane Six. The researchers surveyed 829 bronies to determine whether identification with specific characters correlated with participants exhibiting the personality traits those characters canonically embody. Most of the Mane Six demonstrated strong correlations between character identification and corresponding personality traits.
+
+=== Parasocial romantic fantasy ===
+
+==== Reciprocation ====
+The traditional definition of a parasocial relationship emphasizes that it is one-sided and cannot be reciprocated by performers, meaning that fans solely construct this imagined relationship. With the rise of K-pop, it has become a cultural force across many social aspects beyond music itself. Idol groups debut and build various types of fan communities to attract audiences worldwide. Their success does not rely only on fans individually constructing parasocial relationships. Instead, agencies and idols actively create what can be described as a "reciprocated" process. For example, idols open accounts on fan platforms to send exclusive messages and host live-stream sessions that give fans a sense of intimacy. Fans who are deeply attached to their favorite idols or groups may be more prone to a phenomenon called parasocial romantic fantasy.

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+---
+
+==== Internal motivation ====
+One of the main pleasures in parasocial romantic fantasy is the opportunity to experience a better version of oneself. These fantasies not only encourage people to imagine a perfect partner but also to construct an ideal version of themselves. When fans immerse themselves in romantic fantasies with their idols, they may follow their inner desires and shape the personality they prefer in that imagined relationship. Fans often project their expectations of an ideal partner onto the idol, imagining the idol as more caring, more serious, or possessing other desired traits. This desire for a specific type of partner encourages fans to become deeply involved in such fantasies. In addition, imagining a better version of oneself can bring significant pleasure. Some fans may feel dissatisfied with their real-life personality; through fantasy, they can construct a "perfect" self and interact with a "perfect" partner. From an escapism perspective, some fans engage in these fantasies to escape stressful circumstances in real life. Immersing themselves in fantasies with a desired partner becomes a way to temporarily distance themselves from real-world concerns and pressures.
+
+==== External motivation ====
+The training system, long-term contracts with entertainment companies, and limitations on personal freedom closely resemble the practices Hollywood employed in the 1940s, known as the star system. Under this system, celebrities signed contracts with studios and were deeply controlled and restricted by the terms in those contracts. In many ways, what K-pop does today can be seen as a projection of this earlier system of control. K-pop entertainment companies often shape idols into seemingly "perfect" commodities to maximize revenue. They carefully construct each idol's personality so that it can fulfill different fans' expectations. South Korean entertainment companies actively train idols not only in performance skills but also in building and maintaining a sense of closeness with fans. At the same time, they guide fans to immerse themselves in the illusion of forming an intimate relationship with their idols. The structured training systems of entertainment companies are therefore a major contributor to the formation of this fan community, especially among deeply engaged fans who develop parasocial romantic fantasies.
+
+==== Positive impacts ====
+Social interaction is necessary for human beings, but not everyone can fully acquire it in real life. One way to fill this gap is through what can be called "media interaction". Fans can meet their social needs by engaging in romantic fantasies about their idols, which may reduce their loneliness to some extent. Romantic fantasy can function as an extension of real social interaction and can also affirm a sense of group belonging. In real life, relationships are often unstable because they involve many uncertainties and risks. In parasocial romantic fantasy, however, social pressure is greatly reduced, since most interactions between fans and idols occur online. When idols behave within certain boundaries — acting in ways that meet fans' expectations — fans can easily gain a sense of belonging and satisfaction from these virtual interactions. In addition, some fans have stated that idols have guided them toward discovering clearer career paths and life goals. Through their engagement with idols, fans may better understand their own interests and clarify what they want to pursue in the future. Many highly loyal fans devote significant time to fan-related activities or even seek careers in the entertainment industry, demonstrating the powerful influence that idols can have on their fans.
+
+==== Negative impacts ====
+This phenomenon cultivates competitive consciousness. Fans are encouraged to support their idols through activities such as voting, purchasing albums, and making fan calls, which directly increase visibility. This dynamic fosters intense competition among fan communities. When fans place themselves in a highly important position in their idols' lives, they feel responsible for protecting their idols' reputation and demonstrating how superior their idols are compared to others. For example, conflicts may arise among fans over issues such as screen time distribution. Fans may feel proud and honored when their idols receive more screen time but may become defensive or aggressive when their idols receive less attention. This dynamic can contribute to harsh arguments, hate speech, and cyberbullying. Furthermore, excessive focus on idols' personal lives and deeply imagined intimate relationships can escalate into pathological and uncontrollable situations. Some fans may develop a strong aversion to real life, choosing to avoid it or feeling depressed when facing real-world challenges. This imbalance between the virtual fantasy world and reality can increase the risk of mental health issues.

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+title: "Parasocial interaction"
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+---
+
+=== Theoretical connections and measurement instruments ===
+Rubin analyzed the process of parasocial relationship development by applying principles of uncertainty reduction theory, which states that uncertainty about others is reduced over time through communication, allowing for increased attraction and relationship growth. Other theories that apply to parasocial relationships are social penetration theory, which is based on the premise that positive, intimate interactions produce further rewards in the relationship and the uses and gratifications theory, which states that media users are goal driven and want media to gratify their needs.
+In 1956, T.M. Newcomb's (1956) reinforcement theory explained that following a rewarding interaction an attraction is formed. A gratifying relationship is formed as a result of social attraction and interactive environments created by the media persona.
+The most used measurement instrument for parasocial phenomena is the Parasocial Interaction Scale (PSI Scale), which was developed by Rubin, Perse, and Powell in 1985 to assess interpersonal relationships with media personalities.
+Mina Tsay and Brianna Bodine developed a revised version of Rubin's scale by addressing that parasocial relationship engagement is dictated by a media users personality and motivations. They identified four distinct dimensions that address engagement with media personas from affective, cognitive, and behavioral perspectives. The dimensions assessed how people see media personas as role models, how people desire to communicate with them and learn more about them, and how familiar they are to the individuals. Tsay and Bodine noticed how greater levels of interaction can be formed between the media user and the media persona because of the shift of media and mass communication in recent years. Media users are now able to choose how they want to interact with and initiate in their own media experiences online, such as fan groups, Twitter, and character blogs.
+
+== During the COVID-19 pandemic ==
+Parasocial relationships have been studied in various contexts, but the COVID-19 pandemic created a unique environment in which to study them. Due to the global pandemic, people's social routines were abruptly interrupted; with the beginning of social-distancing and isolation protocols, people forcibly experienced a decrease in their face-to-face (FtF) interactions. To maintain communication with others, people turned to screens and media such as Zoom and FaceTime ("mediated" communication). This shift to mediated communication "blurred" the differences that existed between social and parasocial interactions and relationships. People would interact with their friends in similar ways as they would with media personas who they had parasocial relationships with. For example, one could like and comment on someone's Instagram posts in the same way in both scenarios.
+This environment presented a unique environment to study the parasocial compensation hypothesis, which suggests that parasocial relationships can function as an alternative to typical social relationships.
+
+=== Findings ===
+One study found that individuals in a certain identity domain who lacked friends in real life made up for this deficiency by forming intense parasocial relationships (Bond, 2018), supporting this hypothesis. During the pandemic, studies found that parasocial relationships strengthened during the social distancing phase of COVID-19, further demonstrating how parasocial relationships may in fact have a compensation function.
+The individuals who reported the strongest growth in their parasocial relationships were those who decreased their face-to-face social interactions; this supports the parasocial compensation hypothesis. However, these weren't the only individuals who experienced an increase in strength in their parasocial relationships. Those who increased their use of mediated communication to communicate with friends also demonstrated growth. Overall, there was a strengthening of parasocial relationships during the beginning phases of the pandemic.
+
+=== Explaining increases in growth ===
+One potential explanation for the growth in parasocial relationships is the cognitive distinctions between social and parasocial interactions which were no longer as well-defined. There were likely greater similarities in processing the social engagement of friends and media persona. When the only way to interact with others is through a screen, social engagement becomes much more similar to parasocial engagement. When utilizing these mediated communications, users can perceive greater distance (as compared to real-life interactions), leading them to cognitively process their actual friends in a similar manner as liked media persona. This could lead to processing parasocial interactions with greater intention, which could develop into greater and stronger parasocial relationships.
+Overall, parasocial relationships with media personae grew during the global pandemic, especially for those who may have used these types of interactions to make up for the "social deficiencies" that were caused by COVID-19.
+
+== See also ==
+
+"Stan" – 2000 single by Eminem about a fictional fan who is obsessed with the rapper.
+Stan Twitter – Online community of Twitter users
+Audience capture – Online influencer phenomenon.
+Celebrity worship syndrome – Disorder involving obsession with celebrities
+Contact hypothesis – Psychological hypothesis about intergroup contact
+Cult of personality – Idolization of a leader
+Parasocial contact hypothesis – Influential theory in psychology and media
+Personal god – Deity who can be related to as a person
+Simp – Slang for sycophancy
+Uses and gratifications theory – Theory stating that audiences have power over their media consumption
+Waifu – Fictional character that one feels attraction to
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasocial_interaction-17.md

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+---
+title: "Parasocial interaction"
+chunk: 18/18
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasocial_interaction"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:05.400852+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Further reading ==
+Burnett, Ann; Rhea Reinhardt Beto (2000). "Reading Romance Novels: An Application of Parasocial Relationship Theory". North Dakota Journal of Speech & Theatre. 13.
+Christine, Camella (2001). "Parasocial Relationships in Female College Student Soap Opera Viewers Today". CTA Senior Thesis Papers. Hugh McCarney, Western Connecticut State University. Archived from the original on February 4, 2012. Retrieved July 1, 2006.
+Madison, T.P.; Porter, L. (2015). "The people we meet: Discriminating functions of parasocial interaction". Imagination, Cognition and Personality. 35 (1): 47–71. doi:10.1177/0276236615574490. S2CID 146150339.
+Madison, T.P.; Porter, L.; Greule, A. (2016). "Parasocial compensation hypothesis: Predictors of using parasocial relationships to compensate for real-life interaction". Imagination, Cognition and Personality. 35 (3): 258–279. doi:10.1177/0276236615595232. S2CID 147633805.
+Madison, T.P.; Porter, L. (2016). "Cognitive and imagery attributes of parasocial relationships". Imagination, Cognition and Personality. 35 (4): 4. doi:10.1177/0276236615599340. S2CID 148465228.
+McCourt, Andrea; Jacki Fitszpatrick (February 2001). "The Role of Personal Characteristics and Romantic Characteristics in Parasocial Relationships: A Pilot Study". Journal of Mundane Behaviour. 2 (1). ISSN 1529-3041. Archived from the original on March 9, 2001. Retrieved July 1, 2006.
+Nass, Clifford; S. Shyam Sundar (June 2, 1995). "Is Human-Computer Interaction Social or Parasocial?". Social Responses to Communication Technologies research group, Stanford University. Archived from the original on February 29, 2012. Retrieved July 1, 2006.
+Reynolds, C. (2025): Paralocal relationships: Re-placing civic engagement for the social media age. New Media & Society, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448251356452
+Rubin, Rebecca B.; McHugh, Michael P. (June 1987). "Development of parasocial interaction relationships". Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. 31 (3): 279–292. doi:10.1080/08838158709386664.

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+---
+title: "Parasocial interaction"
+chunk: 3/18
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasocial_interaction"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:05.400852+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+During the last several decades, PSI has been documented in the research analyzing the relationship between audience members and television newscasters, TV and radio talk-show hosts, sitcom characters and other TV celebrities or performers. Research has also been conducted on how a favorable PSI can be facilitated between celebrities and their followers on social media, specifically through the interactions followers have with the celebrities' posts on social media. Although different PSI scales have been employed in these studies, PSI was clearly documented with each persona.
+Noticing the importance of media in the area of psychological research, academic David Giles asserted in his 2002 paper that there is a need for PSI research to move away from the field of mass communication and into the field of psychology. Studies in this area are commonly conducted by focusing a key psychological issue for PSI: concerning the similarity between parasocial relations and ordinary social relations. For example, academic John Turner adopted the idea of homophily (i.e., the tendency for friendships to form between people that are alike in some designated respect) to examine the interpersonal and psychological predictors of parasocial interaction with television performers. The author found that one dimension of homophily (i.e., attitude) was the best predictor of parasocial interaction.
+Hataway indicated that although there seems to be prevailing to analyze PSI in the domain of social psychology, a solid connection to psychological theory and developmental theory has been missing. Hataway further suggested that more psychological research is needed in order to develop parasocial theory. Specific issues cited were "how parasocial relationships are derived from parasocial interaction and the way those relationships further influence media usage as well as a social construction of reality, and how parasocial interaction is cognitively produced". He saw that the majority of PSI research has been conducted by mass communication scholars as a weakness and called for psychologists to refer to Giles's 2002 paper for directions of studies.
+Another important consideration for the study of PSI at a psychological level is that there is a form of PSI existing even in interpersonal social situation. People may use fundamentally the same cognitive processes in both interpersonal and mediated communication. Giles's 2002 paper also suggested that the element of direct interaction occurred in mediated interaction, such as talking to a presenter or celebrity guest, may continue in social interaction, with a cartoon character or a fictional protagonist in the mind. This may finally constitute a new way of interpreting social interaction. A further consideration is application of social cognitive approaches in individual levels. It is traditionally accepted that this approach is inadequate by itself for the study of relationships.
+However, a growing literature on the role of imagination in social interaction suggests that some imaginative activity (e.g., imaginary friends) may be an influential factor in the outcome of real social interaction. PSI is nowadays regarded as an extension of normal social cognition, specifically in terms of the use of the imagination. Current PSI literature commonly acknowledge that the psychological processes acting at the individual level parallel those used in ordinary social activity and relationship building.
+
+== Psychological implications during childhood ==
+The formation of parasocial relationships occurs frequently among adolescents, often creating one-sided and unreciprocated bonds with celebrities they encounter in the media. Parasocial interaction is best explored across a lifespan, which explains the growing focus on parasocial interaction in children and adolescents. Studies conducted have found differences between young girls and boys and how each group engages in parasocial behavior. Adolescent boys have the tendency to favor male athletes, as opposed to adolescent girls who preferred celebrities such as musicians or actresses.
+Sex-role stereotyping is more common in children ages 5–6, but decreases in children age 10–11. Existing literature intimates that attachments, parasocial or otherwise, established in early childhood, are highly influential on relationships created later in life. Many studies have focused on adolescent girls because they are more likely to form a strong bond with a media figure and be influenced in terms of lifestyle choices.
+
+=== Positive consequences ===
+
+==== Identity formation ====
+The primary effect is that of learning: consistent with Bandura's (1986) social cognitive theory, much evidence shows that children learn from positive and negative televised role models and acquire norms and standards for conduct through media outlets such as television and video games. This is supported by a study by Cynthia Hoffner with children aged 7–12, which showed that the gender of children's favorite televised characters was strongly correlated to the gender of the children. The research showed "wishful identification" with parasocial relationships, namely, that boys preferred intelligence, while girls preferred attractiveness when picking favorite characters. This particular gender correlation between children and their preferred role models is both enhanced and mitigated by their separation from reality.
+The lack of actual contact with these idealized figures can offer positive social interactions without risk of rejection or consequent feelings of unworthiness. One cannot know everything about a media figure or icon, allowing adolescents to attach fantasized attributes onto these figures in order to meet their own specific wants or needs. On the other hand, entities far removed from reality tend to be less influential on children.
+A study by Rosaen and Dibble examined correlation between realism of favorite television character and strength of parasocial relationships. Results showed a positive correlation between social realism (how realistic the character is) and strength of parasocial relationships. Results also show age-related differences among children. Older children tended to prefer more realistic characters, while younger children generally had more powerful parasocial relationships with any character. Age did not impact the correlation between social realism and strength of parasocial interaction, which suggests that more real characters are grounds for more powerful parasocial relationships in children of all ages.

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+---
+title: "Parasocial interaction"
+chunk: 4/18
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasocial_interaction"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:05.400852+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+==== Learning through the media ====
+Parasocial relationships may be formed during an individual's early childhood. In particular, toddlers have a tendency to form parasocial connections with characters that they are exposed to from TV shows and film. Children's television shows, such as Dora the Explorer, involve the show's characters directly addressing the audience. The result is young children participating in "pseudo-conversations" with the on-screen characters. The process of engagement and interaction lead children to creating a one-sided bond where they believe that they have formed a relationship with these fictional characters, viewing them as friends. Exposure to this type of media often leads to opportunities for educating the child. Research has shown that children are more capable of grasping a concept if a character that they are parasocially connected to is the one to present it to them.
+The ability to learn from parasocial relationships is directly correlated to the strength of the relationship, as has been shown in work by Sandra L. Calvert and colleagues. In a 2011 study by Lauricella, Gola, and Calvert, eight 21-month-old American infants were taught seriation sequencing (placing objects in the correct order—in this study, nesting a set of cups of various sizes) by one of two characters. One character, Elmo, is iconic in American culture and therefore socially meaningful, and the other, DoDo, although popular with children in Taiwan, is less well known in American media. Children were better able to learn from the socially meaningful character (Elmo) than from the character who was less easily recognized (DoDo).
+Children could become better able to learn from less socially-relevant characters such as DoDo, by developing a parasocial relationship with that character. Accordingly, after children were given DoDo toys to play with, their ability to learn from that character increased. In a later study, this effect was found to be greatest when children showed stronger parasocial relationships: Children's success on the seriation task, and therefore their ability to learn from a less familiar character, was greatest for children who exhibited more emotional nurturing behaviors toward the DoDo toy during play.
+Personalization of a character makes a child more likely to nurture the character, and thus more likely to form a parasocial relationship that would improve learning from videos featuring the character. In place of DoDo and Elmo, a 2014 study instead gave children My Pal Scout and My Pal Violet dolls, which are programmable toys sold by LeapFrog Enterprises. These interactive plush toy dogs can be programmed to say a child's name and have particular favorites (i.e., a favorite food, color, and song). 18-month-old children were given either personalized toys (matched for gender, programmed to say the child's name, and programmed to have the same favorites as the child) or non-personalized toys (the opposite gender, programmed to call the children "Pal" and have random favorites).
+At the end of the study, children who had received personalized dolls were better able to learn from their characters than were children who had received non-personalized toys. Children also nurtured personalized toys more than non-personalized toys. It seems that perceived similarities increase children's interest and investment in the characters, which motivates the development of parasocial relationships and helps improve later screen-based learning.
+
+=== Negative consequences ===
+In the past two decades, people have become increasingly interested in the potential negative impacts media has on people's behavior and cognition. Many researchers have begun to look more closely at how people's relationships with various media outlets affect behavior, self-perception and attachment styles, and specifically in regards to creating parasocial relationships.
+
+==== Body image ====
+Further research has examined these relationships with regard to body image and self-perception. Interest in this more narrow area of research has increased as body image issues have become more prevalent in today's society.
+A study was conducted to examine the relationship between media exposure and adolescents' body image. Specifically, researchers looked at parasocial relationships and the different motivations for self-comparison with a character. This study surveyed 391 7th and 8th grade students and found that media exposure negatively predicted body image. In addition to the direct negative impact, the study indicated that parasocial relationships with favorite characters, motivations to self-compare, and engagement in social comparison with characters amplified the negative effects on kids' body images. Furthermore, the researchers found that making social comparisons with favorite characters distorted actual, or ideal, body image and self-perception. Studies have been done exploring these effects of negative self-perception and body image across both male and female students. [1]
+A study examined the parasocial relationships between men and superheroes; the study looked at muscular versus non-muscular superheroes and men who either did or did not develop a one-sided psychological bond with a superhero character. The results from this study indicated a significant impact on body image, particularly when exposed to muscular superhero characters. Research conducted by Ariana F. Young, Shira Gabriel, and Jordan L. Hollar in 2013 showed that men who did not form a parasocial relationship with a muscular superhero had poor self-perception and felt negative about their bodies after exposure to the muscular character. However, if the men had a PSR with the superhero, the negative effects on body satisfaction were eliminated.
+The increasing presence of beauty filters on social media has also played a large role in users' body image. On Facebook, within the first-year filters were available, over 400,000 creators released and utilized over 1.2 million filters. These filters were consistently seen by billions of viewers, as more than 150 creators surpassed 1 billion views on their content. These filters edit the appearance of the creator which can give a false reality to viewers.

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+title: "Parasocial interaction"
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+category: "reference"
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+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:05.400852+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+==== Unrealistic life expectations ====
+There is research that has been done that highlights the negative role that parasocial relationships play in a person's own self esteem about their personal life. Oftentimes, a person forms a parasocial relationship with a celebrity or influencer because of their personality and the seemingly appealing life that the person lives. Studies show that depression and a decrease in self-esteem can often occur in these relationships due to the person comparing their own life to the potentially unrealistic portrayal of the celebrity's life. It is easy to look at a celebrity who travels on private jets, takes expensive trips, and lives in a mansion and think that their life is perfect. However, most celebrities and influencers hide the negative aspects of their life from public view. This may result in some people feeling their life is boring or insufficient because of a celebrity or influencer's potentially misleading online portrayal.
+
+==== Aggression ====
+Further studies have looked into parasocial relationships and more specifically at the impacts on violent and aggressive behavior. A study done by Keren Eyal and Alan M. Rubin examined aggressive and violent television characters and the potential negative impacts they may have on viewers. The study was based on social cognitive theory and looked at trait aggression in viewers and identification and parasocial interaction with aggressive characters. The researchers measured trait aggression in each of the participants and compared that to the level of identification with aggressive characters. The study found that more aggressive viewers were more likely to identify with aggressive characters and further develop parasocial relationships with the aggressive characters.
+Parasocial interaction has been linked to psychological attachment theory and its consequences have seen the same dramatic effects as real relationship breakups. In considering the relationship between parasocial interaction and attachment styles, Jonathan Cohen found that individuals who were more attached to certain television and media programs tended to be more invested in parasocial relationships. These parasocial interactions use similar psychological thought processes that are often used in real-life personal relationships.
+In parasocial interaction there is no "normal" social interaction; it is a very one-sided relationship. The knowledgeable side has no direct control over the actions of the side it observes, and it is very difficult for it to contact and influence it.
+
+==== Parasocial breakup ====
+While much research focuses on the formation and maintenance of parasocial relationships, other research has begun to focus on what happens when a parasocial relationship is dissolved. Eyal and Cohen, who examined responses to the end of the television series Friends, define parasocial breakup as "a situation where a character with whom a viewer has developed a PSR goes off the air". The distress that media consumers experienced after a parasocial breakup was quite similar to that of a social relationship. However, the emotional distress experienced after the parasocial breakup was weaker than that of the real life interpersonal relationship.
+Lather and Moyer-Guse also considered the concept of parasocial breakup, but in a more temporary sense. While the study focused on parasocial breakups as a result of the writers' strike from 2007 to 2008, the researchers found that media consumers still experienced different levels of emotional distress. This study, like previous studies, showed that parasocial relationships operate very similarly to real-life relationships.
+Gerace examined fans' reactions to the end of the long-running Australian television series Neighbours. Fans reported feelings of considerable grief and perceptions of a parasocial breakup with their favorite character. Fans who formed stronger parasocial relationships with their favorite character, self-identified strongly as a fan of the series, and viewed the series for motives such as entertainment and exposure to different lifestyles reported greater grief and distress at the end of the series. In this study, parasocial bonding with a favorite character involved empathizing with their on-screen experiences and imagining what they were thinking and feeling.
+
+=== Identification and mental health ===
+Parasocial relationships may have negative impact to one's mental health. Identifying such one-sided relationships involves open conversations acknowledging the normality of interpersonal relationships, that attachments are normal, and when it became unhealthy, offer alternatives that can re-route one's attachment to something more positive.

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+title: "Parasocial interaction"
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+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:50:05.400852+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== On the internet ==
+In 1998, John Eighmey, from Iowa State University, and Lola McCord, from the University of Alabama, published a study titled "Adding Value in the Information Age: Uses and Gratifications of Sites on the World Wide Web." In the study, they observed that the presence of parasocial relationships constituted an important determinant of website visitation rates. "It appears," the study states, "that websites projecting a strong sense of personality may also encourage the development of a kind of parasocial relationship with website visitors".
+In 1999, John Hoerner, from the University of Alabama, published a study titled "Scaling the Web: A Parasocial Interaction Scale for World Wide Web Sites", in which he proposed a method for measuring the effects of parasocial interaction on the Internet. The study explained that websites may feature "personae" that host to the visitors to the sites in order to generate public interest.
+Personae, in some cases, are nothing more than the online representations of the actual people, often prominent public figures, but sometimes, according to the study, will be the fictional creations of the sites' webmasters. Personae "take on many of the characteristics of a [real-life] companion, including regular and frequent appearances, a sense of immediacy...and the feeling of a face-to-face meeting." The study makes the point that, even when no such personae have been created, parasocial relationships might still develop. Webmasters might foster parasocial interactions through a conversational writing style, extensive character development and opportunities for email exchange with the website's persona.
+Hoerner used the Parasocial Interaction (PSI) scale, developed by Rubin, Perse, and Powell in 1985, and modified the scale to more accurately assess parasocial interactions on the Internet. They used the scale to gauge participants' reactions to a number of different websites, and, more generally, to determine whether or not parasocial interaction theory could be linked to Internet use. The study concluded, first, that parasocial interaction is not dependent on the presence of a traditional persona on a website. Data showed that websites with described "strong personae" did not attract significantly more hits than other websites selected by the study conductors. "The literal, mediated personality from the newscast or soap opera of the past [around which the original PSI-scale was framed] is gone. The design metaphor, flow of the web experience, and styles of textual and graphic presentations of the information all become elements of a website persona and encourage parasocial interaction by the visitor/user with that persona."
+Algorithm-driven content on digital platforms further enhances compulsive consumption patterns in users. Current tactics have evolved from basic demographic targeting to advanced predictive personalization, especially with the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Analytics investigates online behaviors, including content preferences or website visiting, to characterize users and develop custom-tailored personas that can engage millions of people simultaneously. Personalized messages created by AI have been found to have a significantly greater influence compared to non-personalized messages. 
+The bonding is also formed faster by algorithmic systems that simulate intimacy and authenticity, which ultimately replace social bonds. Automated parasociality offers its users a customized, ever-present, and non-judgmental companionship. The personalized information is intended to foster an deeper sense of closeness and trust with online personalities. This dynamic drives the concern among academic researchers that AI will be able to persuade people more effectively than human beings.

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+title: "Parasocial interaction"
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+---
+
+=== Social media ===
+On social media, parasocial interaction can be easier to develop and maintain because audiences can follow a creators's daily updates and communicate through features like comments, likes, and livestream chats. This constant visibility can make a creator feel familiar and accessible, even though the relationship remains one sided. Platforms also encourage direct address, where creators speak to viewers in a conversational tone or share personal moments, which can strengthen the sense of closeness over time. While many parasocial ties stay casual, they can still shape how people interpret a creator's personality and intensions, especially when audiences feel they "know" the person behind the content.  
+Though most literature has focused on parasocial interaction as a television and film phenomenon, new technologies, namely the Internet, have necessitated a closer look at such interactions. The applications of PSI to computer-mediated environments are continuously documented in literature from the early 2000s and 2010s. Many researchers concluded that, just as parasocial relationships are present in television and radio, they are also present in online environments such as blogs and other social networking sites. Through an exploration of followers on politicians' blogs, academics Kjerstin Thorson and Shelly Rodgers found that parasocial interacting with the politician influences people's opinions about the politician, and promotes them to vote for the politician.
+Social media is designed to be a new channel through which parasocial interaction/relationship can be formed. Research has shown that interacting with individuals through blogs and social media such as Twitter can influence the perceptions of those individuals. As Internet users become more active on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, followers often feel more engaged with them, making the parasocial relationships stronger.
+Social media is defined as "Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0 and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content". While the usage of social media for personal means is common, the use of social media by celebrities has given them an opportunity to have a larger platform for personal causes or brand promotion by facilitating word-of-mouth.
+Social media networks inherit at least one key attribute from the Internet, in that they offer open accessibility for all users. Philip Drake and Andy Miah argue that the Internet, and therefore social networks and blogs, downsize the gatekeeping processes that exist in other mass media forms. They further state that this means that online information can spread unfiltered and thus does not rest on strict framework conditions such as those on television or in newspapers. This, however, remains subject to an ongoing debate within research.
+Through presence on social media platforms, stars and celebrities attempt on the one hand to participate in the production of their image; on the other hand, they must remain present in these media in order to stay on the media's and consequently on the audience's agenda. According to German scholars such as Gregor Daschmann and Holger Schramm, celebrities all have to compete for the public's (limited) attention. In such a competitive environment a famous person must therefore remain present on all accessible media channels.
+
+=== Effects and concerns ===
+Parasocial interaction can influence how audiences relate to a creator or public figure. In many cases, the relationship remains casual, but stronger attachment can lead to expectations for replies, access or personal attention. When those expectations are not met, people may feel disappointed or frustrated, and the situation can turn into boundary issues or conflict online. The impact also depends on context, including the platform and how interactive the creator's content is. Research has discussed both potential benefits, such as enjoyment or a sense of connection, and potential downsides, such as unmet expectations and boundary conflicts. Strong parasocial ties can occasionally affect attitudes, consumer behavior, and decision-making. For instance, viewers might follow the advice of media personalities or embrace their viewpoints. Excessive parasocial attachment, however, can also lead to emotional pain, irrational expectations, or trouble telling the difference between mediated and authentic social relationships. The advantages and disadvantages of parasocial interaction in contemporary media environments are still being studied by researchers. 
+
+==== TikTok ====
+TikTok is a social media platform that allows its creators to create, share, and post short videos. It was created by a Chinese Company ByteDance in 2016 to inspire creativity to a global community. This platform is very popular with it personalized algorithm. Due to the amount of time spent viewing posts and livestreams on TikTok, parasocial relationships can be easily formed because of having the live connection of face-to-face on camera. This experience creates an intimate and somewhat friendship in the viewer's eyes.
+
+==== Twitter ====

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+title: "Parasocial interaction"
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+
+Twitter is one of the most popular social media platforms and a common choice for celebrities who want to chat with their fans without divulging personal access information. In 2013, the analysis from Stever and Lawson assumed that Twitter can be used to learn about parasocial interaction and the study provided a first step in that endeavor. The study included a sample of 12 entertainment media celebrities, 6 males and 6 females, all taken from 2009 to 2012 Twitter feeds.
+The result showed that, although fans interacting with celebrities via Twitter have limited access to communicate with the celebrity, the relationship is still parasocial even though a fan might receive the occasional reply from the celebrity. Twitter can provide a direct connection between followers and celebrities or influencers that gives access to everyday information. It is an entertaining way for most fans since Twitter enables them to be a part of life that they enjoy.
+The more followers one has on Twitter, the greater perceived social influence one has. This is particularly because tweets are broadcast to every follower, who may then retweet these posts to their own followers, which are then rebroadcast to thousands of other Twitter members. Seen as the equivalent to a movie earning a box-office hit or a single track hitting the top of the Billboard charts, the phenomenon of "trending" (i.e., words tagged at a higher rate than others on a social media platform) on Twitter grants users the ability to earn influence on the platform. Twitter, alongside other social media websites, can be utilized by its users as a form of gaining social capital.
+
+=== Online video and livestreaming ===
+Academics at the 2022 Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences referred to interactions on livestreaming services as "cyber-social relations"; they stated that these interactions "take a middle position between" social (there are no spatial proximity and no bodily contact) and parasocial relations (as there is reciprocity and temporal proximity).
+
+==== YouTube ====
+
+YouTube, a social media platform dedicated to sharing video-related content produced by its users, has grown in popularity to become a form of media that's likened to television for the current generation. By content creators granting insight into their daily lives through the practice of vlogging, viewers form close one-sided relationships with these creators that manifest in comment chains, fan art and consistent responses with the creator in question. Parasocial interaction and relationships are commonly formed between the creators and their audiences due to the creator's desire to interact with their fanbase through comments or posts. Many creators share "personal" details of their lives, even if there is little authenticity in the polished identity they convey online.
+The interaction between viewers and celebrities is not limited to product placement or branding – the viewers could socialize with celebrities or influencers that they might not have any chance to contact in reality. Megan Farokhmanesh, for The Verge, wrote that parasocial relationships "are vital to YouTubers' success, and they are what turns viewers into a loyal community. ... Viewers who feel friendship or intimacy with their favorite creators can also have higher expectations and stronger reactions when those expectations are disappointed. ... Because creators often earn money off their fans through memberships, Patreons, and other cash avenues, there are fans who feel entitled to specific details about the lives of creators or even specific content. ... The divide between creators' lives and their work is a fine line".
+In a study conducted by Google in 2017, a reported 40% of millennial YouTube subscribers claimed their "favorite creators understands them better than their friends". For many viewers, parasocial relationships check off the four factors that are defined by Mark Granovetter's "The Strength of Weak Ties" theory: intimacy is gained by the creator's sharing of personal details, by which their viewers may react emotionally; viewers dedicate time to watching content the creator uploads; and what the creator posts—whether sponsored or not—may make the viewer feel as if they are being offered something, like a favor.
+
+==== Twitch ====

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+title: "Parasocial interaction"
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+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Twitch, a video livestreaming service with focuses such as video game live streaming, creative content, and "in real life" streams, has also grown in popularity since launching in June 2011. Twitch's platform encourages creators to directly engage with their fans. According to research, a large draw towards the website is the aspect of users directly participating in a livestream through the chat function. In turn, streamers interact with their audience by greeting them by username or addressing their messages in comments.
+As noted in one study, this type of interaction forms "a sense of community". Twitch livestreams create a digital "third place", a term coined by Ray Oldenburg that describes a public and informal get-together of individuals that are foundational to building a community. This sense of community is further enhanced when users become regular participants of a stream, either by watching live shows frequently or subscribing to the creator.
+Subscribing to a Twitch channel is another way in which viewers participate in a live stream. This is considered a form of digital patronage where audiences pay money to financially support a creator. Forming what an audience member perceives as a personal relationship with their favourite streamer plays a large role in whether or not they choose to subscribe.
+Wired stated that Twitch pioneered "the digital parasocial thing. More specifically, monetizing it on a massive scale". David Finch, in the book Implications and Impacts of eSports on Business and Society, highlighted that streamers on Twitch have many options to monetize their content such as donations through Twitch, channel subscriptions and ad revenue; additionally, Twitch is more associated with livestreaming than YouTube and has "a much higher degree of interaction" between the content creator and the viewer. Finch wrote that "the popularity of Twitch parallels other emerging digital media forms in that it is user-generated, draws on parasocial relationships established online and establishes intimacy in new ways. ... Twitch viewers might similarly regard their time on their favourite Twitch channels as familiar, hilarious and informative encounters with their gaming pals".
+Academics Time Wulf, Frank Schneider, and Stefan Beckert found that parasocial relationships are a key component to a Twitch streamer's success and the audience's enjoyment of Twitch; particularly, Twitch's chat features can foster this relationship. They highlighted that "professional streamers have a personal schedule of streaming times so that users can rely on seeing their friends again—similar to characters of a periodic TV show. Therefore, viewers are able to maintain their relationships with streamers. The stronger bonds between viewers and streamers grow, the more users may support their favorite streamer's success". The Guardian also highlighted the interactive nature of Twitch and that the "format is extremely good at cultivating a relationship among community, establishing itself as a virtual hangout spot for its millions of teenage and college-age users".
+Twitch streamers have also discussed the negatives associated with these parasocial relationships such as harassment and stalking by fans. Cecilia D'Anastasio, for Kotaku, wrote that "Twitch streamers are like digital-age geisha. They host, they entertain, they listen, they respond. They perform their skill—gaming, in most cases—from behind a thick veneer of familiarity. Maybe it's because they let viewers into their homes, or because the live-streaming format feels candid or because of their unprecedented accessibility, but there's something about being an entertainer on Twitch that blurs the line between viewer and friend. It can be hard to keep a healthy distance from fans. And, for fans, it can occasionally be hard to tell the difference between entertainer and companion".
+The Verge and the HuffPost have both specifically highlighted the harassment female Twitch streamers experience. Jesselyn Cook, for HuffPost, wrote that "most all women who earn a living on Twitch know what it's like to have male viewers who, after spending countless hours watching them in real time, develop obsessive feelings of romantic and sexual entitlement. The result is an environment where extreme harassment, rape and death threats, blackmailing, stalking and worse have become regular workplace hazards. Female streamers who spoke to HuffPost said they wish they'd known before joining Twitch that they were also signing up for a torrent of endless, dehumanizing harassment with little to no recourse".