Big data and development sociology: An overview and application on governance and accountability through digitalization in Tanzania

The digital revolution and the widespread use of the internet have changed many realms of empirical social science research. In this paper, we discuss the use of big data in the context of development sociology and highlight its potential as a new source of data. We provide a brief overview of big data and development research, discuss different data types, and review example studies, before introducing our case study on active citizenship in Tanzania which expands on an Oxfam-led impact evaluation. The project aimed at improving community-driven governance and accountability through the use of digital technology. Twitter and other social media platforms were introduced to community animators as a tool to hold national and regional key stakeholders accountable. We retrieve the complete Twitter timelines up to October 2021 from all ~200 community animators and influencers involved in the project (over 1.5 million tweets). We find that animators have started to use Twitter as part of the project, but most have stopped tweeting in the long term. Employing a dynamic difference-in-differences design, we also do not find effects of Oxfam-led training workshops on different aspects of animators' tweeting behavior. While most animators have stopped using Twitter in the long run, a few have continued to use social media to raise local issues and to be part of conversations to this day. Our case study showcases how (big) social media data can be part of an intervention, and we end with recommendations on how to use digital data in development sociology.

Pathways to Environmental Inequality: How Urban Traffic Noise Annoyance Varies across Socioeconomic Subgroups

The article investigates how socioeconomic background affects noise annoyance caused by residential road traffic in urban areas. It is argued that the effects of socioeconomic variables (migration background, education, and income) on noise annoyance tend to be underestimated because these effects are mainly indirect. We specify three indirect pathways. (1) A "noise exposure path" assumes that less privileged households are exposed to a higher level of noise and therefore experience stronger annoyance. (2) A "housing attributes path" argues that less privileged households can shield themselves less effectively from noise due to unfavorable housing conditions and that this contributes to annoyance. (3) Conversely, an "environmental susceptibility path" proposes that less privileged people are less concerned about the environment and have a lower noise sensitivity, and that this reduces their noise annoyance. Our analyses rest on a study carried out in four European cities (Mainz and Hanover in Germany, Bern and Zurich in Switzerland), and the results support the empirical validity of the three indirect pathways.

Individuals of high socioeconomic status are altruistic in sharing money but egoistic in sharing time

The questions of whether and how socioeconomic status (SES) predicts prosocial behavior have sparked an interest from different disciplines, yet experimental evidence is inconclusive. We embedded two types of dictator games in a web survey with 7772 participants from Germany, Poland, Sweden, and the US. Each participant was asked to split a sum of money and a fixed amount of time between themself and a recipient. While higher-SES individuals are more generous than lower-SES individuals in the money game, they are more egoistic in the time game. In addition, the SES of the recipient matters more in the money game than in the time game. These results point towards the relevancy of a situationally contingent social norm of redistribution in studying the relationship between SES and prosocial behavior.

Annoyance due to residential road traffic and aircraft noise: Empirical evidence from two European cities

Based on a study in two European cities, Mainz in Germany and Zurich in Switzerland, the article investigates both acoustical and non-acoustical factors affecting indoor annoyance due to residential road traffic and aircraft noise. We specifically focus on three factors: (1) the role of windows as a feature of the building where people live; (2) the role of individual environmental concern as a general attitude; and (3) the role of household income as an indicator of socioeconomic resources. Empirical results show that closed windows in general and closed high-quality windows in particular are an important barrier against outdoor road traffic and aircraft noise, as well as a helpful subjective coping tool against corresponding annoyances. Environmental concern, too, proves to be a significant predictor of noise annoyance. Environmentally highly concerned people articulate feelings of annoyance more often than environmentally less concerned ones. As expected income is negatively related to road traffic noise annoyance. However, we find a positive association of income with annoyance from aircraft noise. Although objective exposure to aircraft noise is lower for high-income households, they feel stronger annoyed by noise from airplanes. Income shows various indirect effects on noise annoyance. A comparative analysis of road traffic and aircraft noise annoyance yields similarities, but also remarkable differences in terms of their influence factors.

Large and persistent effects of green energy defaults in the household and business sectors

Non-monetary incentives that encourage pro-environmental behaviour can contribute to combating climate change. Here, we investigated the effect of green energy defaults in the household and business sectors. In two large-scale field studies in Switzerland of over 200,000 households and 8,000 enterprises, we found that presenting renewable energy to existing customers as the standard option led to around 80% of the household and business sector customers staying with the green default, and the effects were largely stable over a time span of at least four years. Electricity consumption had only a weak effect on default acceptance. Our data do not indicate moral licensing: accepting the green default did not lead to a disproportionate increase in electricity consumption. Compared with men, women in both the household and business sectors were slightly more likely to accept the green default. Overall, non-monetary incentives can be highly effective in both the household and business sectors.

Context effects and the temporal stability of stated preferences

In stated preference studies it is assumed that individuals' answers reflect true preferences and are stable over time. We test these two assumptions of validity and reliability using as an example a choice experiment study on ethical consumption that measures preferences for a Peace Product jointly produced by Israeli and Palestinian producers as well as for organic products. In a web survey conducted in Germany, we investigate the validity assumption by manipulating the question context and presenting one group of respondents with questions on anti-Semitic and anti-Arabic attitudes before the choice tasks, and presenting another group with these questions after the choice tasks. In order to test the assumption of temporal stability, the same experimental set-up was repeated in a second survey based on a new sample ten months after the first. However, prior to the second survey an external event, a major violent dispute between Israelis and the Palestinians occurred. Overall, we find evidence for a context effect but not for temporal instability. In both surveys, the placement of the attitudinal questions before the choice tasks has a positive effect on the valuation of products from Israel, Palestinian products and the Peace Product (i.e. a directional context effect). The respondents seem to act according to an anti-discrimination norm. In line with this reasoning, we find an attention shift caused by the attitudinal questions. Organic products are valued much less positively if discriminatory attitudes are surveyed before the choice tasks. Furthermore, despite the violent dispute, stated preferences are very stable over time. This indicates high reliability of stated preference studies and encourages the use of study results by private and public decision makers.

Do information, price, or morals influence ethical consumption? A natural field experiment and customer survey on the purchase of Fair Trade coffee

We address ethical consumption using a natural field experiment on the actual purchase of Fair Trade (FT) coffee in three supermarkets in Germany. Based on a quasi-experimental before-and-after design the effects of three different treatments - information, 20% price reduction, and a moral appeal - are analyzed. Sales data cover actual ethical purchase behavior and avoid problems of social desirability. But they offer only limited insights into the motivations of individual consumers. We therefore complemented the field experiment with a customer survey that allows us to contrast observed (ethical) buying behavior with self-reported FT consumption. Results from the experiment suggest that only the price reduction had the expected positive and statistically significant effect on FT consumption.

Three experimental approaches to measure the social context dependence of prejudice communication and discriminatory behavior

Empirical research on discrimination is faced with crucial problems stemming from the specific character of its object of study. In democratic societies the communication of prejudices and other forms of discriminatory behavior is considered socially undesirable and depends on situational factors such as whether a situation is considered private or whether a discriminatory consensus can be assumed. Regular surveys thus can only offer a blurred picture of the phenomenon. But also survey experiments intended to decrease the social desirability bias (SDB) so far failed in systematically implementing situational variables. This paper introduces three experimental approaches to improve the study of discrimination and other topics of social (un-)desirability. First, we argue in favor of cognitive context framing in surveys in order to operationalize the salience of situational norms. Second, factorial surveys offer a way to take situational contexts and substitute behavior into account. And third, choice experiments - a rather new method in sociology - offer a more valid method of measuring behavioral characteristics compared to simple items in surveys. All three approaches - which may be combined - are easy to implement in large-scale surveys. Results of empirical studies demonstrate the fruitfulness of each of these approaches.

Are the affluent prepared to pay for the planet? Explaining willingness to pay for public and quasi-private environmental goods in Switzerland

A large number of 'environmental justice' studies show that wealthier people are less affected by environmental burdens and also consume more resources than poorer people. Given this double inequity, we ask, to what extent are affluent people prepared to pay to protect the environment? The analyses are couched within the compensation/affluence hypothesis, which states that wealthier persons are able to spend more for environmental protection than their poorer counterparts. Further, we take into account various competing economic, psychological and sociological determinants of individuals' willingness to pay (WTP) for both public environmental goods (e.g., general environmental protection) and quasi-private environmental goods (e.g., CO(2)-neutral cars). Such a comprehensive approach contrasts with most other studies in this field that focus on a limited number of determinants and goods. Multivariate analyses are based on a general population survey in Switzerland (N = 3,369). Although income has a positive and significant effect on WTP supporting the compensation hypothesis, determinants such as generalized interpersonal trust that is assumed to be positively associated with civic engagement and environmental concern prove to be equally important. Moreover, we demonstrate for the first time that time preferences can considerably influence survey-based WTP for environmental goods; since investments in the environment typically pay off in the distant future, persons with a high subjective discount rate are less likely to commit.