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Think Critically About Claims That “Research Proves” One Thing or Another
You can hardly turn on the TV or read the news without stumbling across a claim that “research proves” one product works better than another, or that drinking certain beverages or eating certain foods is good for you. Most of the time, these claims offer some kernel of truth, but it’s usually misleading to claim that existing research really “proves” something beyond any doubt — especially when making claims about society.
To be clear, sociologists definitely appreciate the value of research. A good sociologist will insist on empirical verification of any fact about the social world, and after they have that verification, they will critically examine it to see what its strengths and limitations are.
It’s precisely because sociologists so greatly value high-quality research that they want to see it done as well as possible. A research study can be hugely expensive and time-consuming, and if there’s a methodological error or if its results are interpreted inaccurately, all that effort becomes a waste.
Having seen and conducted many research studies, sociologists know just how difficult it is to conduct a convincing study. It’s well worth paying attention to the statistical significance of a study’s results, but you also have to ask how those results were achieved. When someone tells you that “research proves” something, don’t be afraid to ask what that research is and how it was conducted.
Beware of Unprovable Assertions
About Society
If research studies are faulty, they can be improved with better research . . .
but there are also many statements people make about society that are totally unprovable. A statement is unprovable if there is no information that can be gathered to support or refute it. The kind of unprovable statements you typically hear about society are those that are so vague that it’s almost impossible to imagine how you would go about verifying whether or not they’re correct. For example:
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“Life used to be simpler.” Simpler how? Technology was less advanced and there were fewer career options, but does that mean that people’s lives were actually less complicated? If you were to conduct a study measuring how simple life is, what information would you gather?
“Boys will be boys.” What does it mean to “be a boy”? Boys have Y chromosomes, yes, but is that really what this statement means? Or does it mean that there’s a particular type of behavior associated with being a boy that boys always do and have always done? What behavior is that? Can you prove it?
“The government should stay out of it.” Why? What should the government do, and what should the government not do? The proper role of government is an incredibly complex question, and different people have different views on the question. Data can help determine what works and what doesn’t, but there’s no clear answer to the question of what any given social institution (government, education, the family) “should” or “shouldn’t” do.
When you hear statements like these, think about what kind of information would help to answer the question. Is there an objective way to answer the question with evidence? If not, then it’s something that simply must be taken (or not) as a matter of faith.
Sometimes “a matter of faith” is actually a theological question regarding God or the supernatural world, but “having faith” can also mean simply trusting someone or holding on to a hope. In this sense, everyone has faith in something: You may have faith in your friends, or have faith that things will work out in your romantic relationship. Having faith is important, but it’s also important to understand the difference between a matter of faith and a matter of fact.
Understand Barriers to Effective
Communication
You may have heard it said that everyone’s human, and that deep down inside people are the same. It certainly is true that there’s common ground to be found even among people from very different walks of life, but it’s also true that there are very different languages and customs on Earth, and you can’t take for granted that a word or gesture that means something to you will mean the same thing to the next person.
This doesn’t just apply to the kind of intercultural differences you’d find between, say, someone from downtown London and someone from the Australian outback. Every household has its own little culture, and it can be frustrating trying to communicate with someone who lives just down the street.
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How can you transcend these barriers? Sociology doesn’t have any easy answers, but at least it can help you be aware of the barriers. The more you learn about societies and traditions other than your own, the more respect you have for those differences, and the more you appreciate that as difficult as it is to achieve understanding among people from very different social situations, it’s critically important.
Chapters 5 and 6 have a lot more information about culture and interpersonal communication.
Know the Difference Between the
Identity You Choose and the
Identities Others Choose For You
Sociologists draw a clear distinction between race, which is something other people look at you and decide to associate with you, and ethnicity, which is something that you choose for yourself. The same principle applies to all aspects of identity: People will look at you, or will learn things about you, and will make assumptions — some reasonable, some unreasonable — about who you are. (See Chapter 6 to read about Erving Goffman and his theory that you’re an “actor” on a social “stage.”)
Sociologists emphasize that “who you are” is shaped by your society and by your place in it, so it’s not that you can or should try to ignore your social context. The way you dress, what you say, where you live, who you associate with — those things do affect the way other people think about you, and in turn do affect the way you think about yourself. Further, the meanings
of those things change from place to place and from time to time. Wearing sneakers to a baseball game and wearing sneakers to a wedding are very different things, and as much as you might prefer not to be judged by what you wear, clothes — along with other lifestyle choices — are symbols, and people will think differently about you depending on how you look.
But that’s not to say that you don’t have any choices in society! You can, and do every day, shape your own identity by the messages you send and the actions you take.
Many sociologists believe that there is no “you” in any meaningful sense outside of your social context — that is, that you and everyone around you think about you in terms of your society — so it’s not necessarily selling out to take social expectations into account when making choices about your life. That doesn’t mean, though, that you always have to meet those expectations! You didn’t get to choose the society you were born into, but you do get to choose how you navigate through it.
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Understanding Art: If It Seems Confusing,
That’s Exactly the Point
People have strong feelings about painting, music, theater — about all the arts. Everybody knows what they like and, in general, what they don’t, but they don’t always think very hard about why. Sociology probably won’t be very helpful in explaining precisely why one song makes you cry and another makes you cringe, but sociologists of culture have spent a lot of time studying how different kinds of art have been used in different ways at different times. Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but art is a social institution — and like all social institutions, it makes a lot more sense when you consider it in its social context.
Have you ever looked at a painting or a sculpture that the “experts” say is amazing, but that you can’t understand in the slightest and don’t even like? Maybe there are works of art, or songs, that even offend you — and probably, you’re not alone in being offended by those things. What you may not realize is that the artist probably knows it will offend or confuse you and people like you, and that may be part of why the artist is doing it. If you look at a painting and feel angry or confused, it may not be because you don’t understand it or you’re not smart enough or well-educated enough: making you angry
or confused while making other people swoon with delight may be precisely what the artist was trying to accomplish. That doesn’t mean you’re wrong to feel the way you do.
Art always belongs to its place and its time. Some works of art may be resonant to people for hundreds or even thousands of years, whereas others may seem dated within a few months. If a critic likes something — well, they come from a particular social context, and if that’s not a social context you share, it only makes sense that you won’t be interested in the same things for the same reasons. It doesn’t mean you’re “wrong” when you say you don’t like a piece of art or a certain song.
Art doesn’t have to match your couch — it’s more important that it matches your own sense of what is beautiful and interesting.
Be Smart About Relationship-Building
“It’s all about who you know” sounds like one of those unprovable assertions, but sociologists are appreciating its wisdom more and more every year. If this book were written 20 or 30 years earlier, it might not have had an entire chapter on social networks; but today, sociologists understand that networks are at the heart of almost every social process. If you live in the United States, then yes, in a sense the United States is “your society.” But on a
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concrete, day-to-day basis, it’s the actual people who you know and interact with who are truly “your society.” I barely know the woman who lives across the hall from me, but I call or e-mail my friend Whitney across the country in Virginia multiple times a week. My social tie to Whitney makes her much more influential in my life than most people in my home city of Minneapolis. (See Chapter 7 for more on social networks.)
What does this mean for you? It means that it’s a good idea to be deliberate about making and maintaining social connections. Think about what social networks you want to be a part of, and work your way in to them through both professional and personal connections. The more people you know, the better your information is and the more powerful you are in those people’s social context.
This doesn’t mean you ought to spend all your time trying to make friends with people you wouldn’t otherwise associate with — but it does mean that if you want to achieve a certain goal in society, it pays to make connections with people who are connected to that job you want or that place you want to be. Be sincere about relationship-building, but also be assertive about making and keeping valuable social ties. It’s highly likely to pay off.
Network sociologists agree that it’s good to exert some effort to meet people and maintain social connections that you’ve made, but it’s not necessarily beneficial to seem like an over-aggressive “networker.” No one likes to feel like they’re being used by someone else who only wants information or influence from them. Your most useful social ties are those with people you genuinely have something in common with.
Changing Society: Be Optimistic, But
Keep Your Expectations Reasonable
So you have some issues with the world? Yeah, who doesn’t? Want to change the world? Go for it! You can do it; at least, you can change something.
Still, appreciate that your society is the way it is for a lot of complex reasons. From the things you hate most about your society to the things you love dearly, it’s been a long road that’s led to your time and place. When dramatic social change happens quickly, it’s typically because of very unusual (and possibly quite painful) circumstances. Historical sociologists have spent decades and decades trying to understand the fascinating and mysterious course of social history.