Drawing out culture: productive methods to measure cognition and resonance

Continuing the Story: Maximizing the Intersections of Cognitive Science and Sociology

“…The field, at present, theorizes much more than it “proves,” something that impedes the legitimation of sociological excursions on thought. Happily, some recent projects offer promising ideas in this regard (e.g., Bail ; McDonnell ; Mische ; Vaisey , ). But the field is ripe for growth.…”

Cognition in Situations

“…By applying at the societal level the neat parsimonious model of culture, cognition, and action outlined above, sociologists have contributed to debates about whether values or more fleeting attitudes primarily drive behavior by demonstrating that deeply ingrained values drive behavior through automatic cognition and that deliberative cognitive processes do not confound this causal link (Miles 2015; Vaisey 2009; Vaisey and Lizardo 2010). 7 Further, by generating and analyzing focus group data, sociologists have illustrated that societal membership accounts for intuitive associations within a population (McDonnell 2014) and that, even when there is considerable variation in regard to the sample of research participants' intuitive associations and behaviors, class, gender, and race enable sociologists to maintain the parsimony of the dual process models of cognition within but not between social groups within a population (Cerulo 2018; Schaap, van der Waal, and de Koster 2019). For example, food ideals and practices vary based on class status and maintain symbolic boundaries through implicitly held associations about (un)healthy foods that are not evenly distributed across social hierarchies (Johnston, Rodney, and Szabo 2012:1094; Schaap, van der Waal, and de Koster 2019).…”

“…In contrast to computer‐assisted methods of measuring implicit associations, resonance provides a means of operationalizing automatic cognition from the vantage point of a participant observer or interviewer. When a cultural object or cultural association resonates with an individual or with a group, “raised voices, rapid speech, and other displays of excitement” often follow (McDonnell 2014:261). Thus, by paying attention to how symbols or cultural objects incite such heightened emotions and quickly unfolding discourse, sociologists can use resonance to identify implicit associations and instances of automatic cognition in contrived research situations (such as focus groups and interviews) as well as naturally occurring social situations.…”

Fast or Slow: Sociological Implications of Measuring Dual-Process Cognition

“…I will refer to this combination of theorizing that System 1 takes precedence in nearly all decision making and effectively positing that only one system at a time determines an outcome (i.e., that System 2 processing determines in-depth interview answers, while System 1 processing determines survey responses) as the "either/or" model. 4 The either/or model and its implications for interview data has engendered significant critique, even by supporters of a cognitive sociology more generally (Leschziner and Green 2013;McDonnell 2014;Mische 2014;Shepherd 2011;Vaisey 2014;Vila-Henninger 2015). Several sociologists have consistently argued for the value of supposed System 2 settings, such as in-depth interviews, to provide access to motivational issues (Edgell 2012;McDonnell 2014;Mische 2014;Pugh 2013).…”

“…4 The either/or model and its implications for interview data has engendered significant critique, even by supporters of a cognitive sociology more generally (Leschziner and Green 2013;McDonnell 2014;Mische 2014;Shepherd 2011;Vaisey 2014;Vila-Henninger 2015). Several sociologists have consistently argued for the value of supposed System 2 settings, such as in-depth interviews, to provide access to motivational issues (Edgell 2012;McDonnell 2014;Mische 2014;Pugh 2013). Vaisey also later moved towards this camp, writing in a response to Pugh (2013) that the relationship between the processing systems is likely more complex than he originally presented (Vaisey 2014).…”