A Van De Rijt
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 11861 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | A Van De Rijt |
| NOMBRES | A |
| APELLIDO | Van De Rijt |
| FIRMA | VAN DE RIJT A |
| AFILIACIONES | Utrecht University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4208-3452 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 48 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 304 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 48 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2006 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 8 |
Luck and Predictability in the Life Course
There is an emerging recognition among sociological theorists that luck may play a substantial role in life course achievement. There is also a nascent empirical literature that finds life outcomes to be unpredictable and unexpected life events to be a likely cause. A third literature of causal event studies provides thousands of point estimates of the life course consequences of random events. This review brings these literatures together under …
Self-organized social distancing
Published online: 09 February 2026
Is winning the first primaries of primary importance? A regression-discontinuity approach
The literature on American politics widely agrees that early victories in U.S. presidential primaries are pivotal for securing the nomination, a belief that underpins the front-loading behavior of states. However, demonstrating this success-breeds-success effect is challenging because unobserved candidate qualities could independently link early victories to later success. To address this, we used a regression-discontinuity design, focusing on va…
The relevance of meritocratic beliefs for redistributive preferences increases with income
Choice homophily on social origin and race
Do grant proposal texts matter for funding decisions? A field experiment
Scientists and funding agencies invest considerable resources in writing and evaluating grant proposals. But do grant proposal texts noticeably change panel decisions in single blind review? We report on a field experiment conducted by The Dutch Research Council (NWO) in collaboration with the authors in an early-career competition for awards of 800,000 euros of research funding. A random half of panelists were shown a CV and only a one-paragraph…
Racial bias in media coverage
Is media coverage racially biased? Past studies documenting differences in the quantity of coverage are small scale or anecdotal. In this article, we investigate whether Blacks receive less coverage than Whites who have reached similarly prominent positions and enjoy similar public interest. We analysed 200 million newspaper references in English-language media to about 32,000 prominent Black and White individuals, predominantly US born. The resu…
Women Who Break the Glass Ceiling Get a 'Paper Cut
Past quantitative studies have shown that most media coverage is of men. Here we ask if the scarce coverage that women get is qualitatively different from that of men. We use computer-coded sentiment scores for 14 million person names covered in 1,323 newspapers to investigate the three-way relationship between gender, fame, and sentiment. Additional large-scale data on occupational categories allow us to compare women and men within the same pro…
Social proof is ineffective at spurring costly pro-environmental household investments
One of the most popular techniques of persuasion in online marketing is social proof, also referred to as social validation. It takes advantage of the fact that when other individuals have decided in favor of a particular behavior people are more likely to follow that behavior as it is perceived as more valid. Yet there is a theoretical reason to be skeptical about the effectiveness of this persuasion technique for the encouragement of more costl…
Limited evidence for structural balance in the family
Previous studies have shown that relationship sentiments in families follow a pattern wherein either all maintain positive relationships or there are two antagonistic factions. This result is consistent with the network theory of structural balance that individuals befriend their friends’ friend and become enemies with their friends’ enemies. Fault lines in families would then endogenously emerge through the same kinds of interactional processes …
Trust, reputation, and the value of promises in online auctions of used goods
Buyers in online markets pay higher prices to sellers who promise a high-quality product in auctions of used goods, even though they cannot assess quality until after the sale. The principal argument offered in prior work is that reputation systems render sellers' 'cheap talk' credible by allowing buyers to publicly rate sellers' past honesty and sellers to build a reputation for being honest. We test this argument using both observational data f…
The plateauing of cognitive ability among top earners
Are the best-paying jobs with the highest prestige done by individuals of great intelligence? Past studies find job success to increase with cognitive ability, but do not examine how, conversely, ability varies with job success. Stratification theories suggest that social background and cumulative advantage dominate cognitive ability as determinants of high occupational success. This leads us to hypothesize that among the relatively successful, a…
The role of reputation systems in digital discrimination
Reputation systems are commonplace in online markets, such as on peer-to-peer sharing platforms. These systems have been argued to be a solution to (ethnic) discrimination on such platforms. This argument is based on empirical studies showing that ethnic disadvantages are smaller for users with ratings than for users without ratings. We argue that this conclusion may be premature, because minorities have a harder time accumulating ratings. The gr…
Vertrouwen krijgen door vertrouwen te schenken
Amsterdam University Press is a leading publisher of academic books, journals and textbooks in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Our aim is to make current research available to scholars, students, innovators, and the general public. AUP stands for scholarly excellence, global presence, and engagement with the international academic community
Covid-19 vulnerability and perceived norm violations predict loss of social trust
How Rich is Too Rich? Measuring the Riches Line
Is it possible to identify a 'riches line', distinguishing the 'rich' from the 'super-rich'? Recent work in political philosophy suggests that this istheoreticallypossible. This study examines for the first time theempiricalplausibility of a riches line, based on novel data collected from a representative sample of the Dutch population. The data reveal that the Dutch indeed draw such a line, namely between 1 and 3 million euros. Strikingly, respo…
Halting Sars-CoV-2 by Targeting High-Contact Individuals
Network scientists have proposed that infectious diseases involving person-to-person transmission could be e ectively halted by interventions targeting a minority of highly connected individuals. Could this strategy be e ective in combating a virus partly transmitted in close-range contact, as many believe SARS-CoV-to be? E ectiveness critically depends on high between-person variability in the number of close-range contacts. We analyzed populati…
No integration paradox among adolescents
Previous studies have discovered a somewhat paradoxical empirical pattern whereby members of some higher educated first- and second-generation migrant groups in the Netherlands, who are structurally better integrated, harbour more negative attitudes toward natives than their lower educated counterparts, a.k.a. ‘the integration paradox’. This finding goes against intergroup contact theory which predicts that the greater contact with natives among …
Reputations in mixed-role markets
De mobiliseerbaarheid van huurflatbewoners voor de energietransitie
Now that durable alternatives to energy from fossil sources have become technologically and economically feasible, the challenge of the energy transition is primarily one of mobilizing populations to act. Here we study the mobilizability of Dutch rental flat residents for sustainable energy alterations to their homes. We argue that the structure of the social network among residents will greatly affect its ability to spread information on energy …
A Large-Scale Test of Gender Bias in the Media
A large body of studies demonstrates that women continue to receive less media coverage than men do. Some attribute this difference to gender bias in media reporting—a systematic inclination toward male subjects. We propose that in order to establish the presence of media bias, one has to demonstrate that the news coverage of men is disproportional even after accounting for occupational inequalities and differences in public interest. We examine …
How behavior spreads
How behavior spreads: the science of complex contagions." The Journal of Mathematical Sociology, 43(4), pp. 231–232
Self-Correcting Dynamics in Social Influence Processes
Social influence may lead individuals to choose what is popular over what is best. Whenever this happens, it further increases the popularity advantage of the inferior choice, compelling subsequent decision makers to follow suit. The author argues that despite this positive feedback effect, discordances between popularity and quality will usually self-correct. Reanalyzing past experimental studies in which social information initially heavily fav…
The Matthew effect in science funding
Significance Why do scientists with similar backgrounds and abilities often end up achieving very different degrees of success? A classic explanation is that academic achievement exhibits a “Matthew effect”: Early successes increase future success chances. We analyze data from a large academic funding program that present a unique opportunity to quantify the Matthew effect and identify generative mechanisms. Our results show that winners just abo…
Do Women in the Newsroom Make a Difference? Coverage Sentiment toward Women and Men as a Function of Newsroom Composition
A Paper Ceiling
In the early twenty-first century, women continue to receive substantially less media coverage than men, despite women's much increased participation in public life. Media scholars argue that actors in news organizations skew news coverage in favor of men and male-related topics. However, no previous study has systematically examined whether such media bias exists beyond gender ratio imbalances in coverage that merely mirror societal-level struct…
Only 15 Minutes? The Social Stratification of Fame in Printed Media
Contemporary scholarship has conceptualized modern fame as an open system in which people continually move in and out of celebrity status. This model stands in stark contrast to the traditional notion in the sociology of stratification that depicts stable hierarchies sustained through classic forces such as social structure and cumulative advantage. We investigate the mobility of fame using a unique data source containing daily records of referen…
Dynamics of Networks if Everyone Strives for Structural Holes
When entrepreneurs enter structural holes in networks, they can exploit the related benefits. Evidence for these benefits has steadily accumulated. The authors ask whether those who strive for such structural advantages can maintain them if others follow their example. Burt speculates that they cannot, but a formal demonstration of this speculation is lacking. Using a game theoretic model of network formation, the authors characterize the network…
Choosing your network
The Micro-Macro Link for the Theory of Structural Balance
I consider the principle of structural balance that is commonly characterized with the aphorisms: “The friend of a friend is a friend, the friend of an enemy is an enemy, the enemy of a friend is an enemy, and the enemy of an enemy is a friend.” I study what patterns of friendship and hostility emerge at the macro-level when actors at the micro-level make friends and enemies in accordance with this principle. Recent studies have drawn attention t…
Self-Correcting Dynamics in Social Influence Processes
Social influence may lead individuals to choose what is popular over what is best. Whenever this happens, it further increases the popularity advantage of the inferior choice, compelling subsequent decision makers to follow suit. The author argues that despite this positive feedback effect, discordances between popularity and quality will usually self-correct. Reanalyzing past experimental studies in which social information initially heavily fav…
How Rich is Too Rich? Measuring the Riches Line
Is it possible to identify a 'riches line', distinguishing the 'rich' from the 'super-rich'? Recent work in political philosophy suggests that this istheoreticallypossible. This study examines for the first time theempiricalplausibility of a riches line, based on novel data collected from a representative sample of the Dutch population. The data reveal that the Dutch indeed draw such a line, namely between 1 and 3 million euros. Strikingly, respo…
Neighborhood Chance and Neighborhood Change
Do Women in the Newsroom Make a Difference? Coverage Sentiment toward Women and Men as a Function of Newsroom Composition
Is There a Political Bias? A Computational Analysis of Female Subjects' Coverage in Liberal and Conservative Newspapers
Objectives One possible source for the gap in media coverage between female and male subjects is the political affiliation of the media source. The objective of this present study was to test whether there is a difference between more liberal and more conservative newspapers in coverage rates of female subjects. Methods We used computational methods to analyze a unique large‐scale data set (complied by the Lydia Text Analysis System) and compared…
Time Trends in Printed News Coverage of Female Subjects, 1880–2008
Former studies have suggested that female subjects are substantially underrepresented in most media. However, no study has systematically investigated historical trends in women's coverage over the last century. We use data collected by the Lydia text analysis system to assess the development in the coverage of female subjects in 13 daily newspapers, dating back to 1880. Our trend analysis shows that female subjects' representation has remained r…
Power and Dependence in Intimate Exchange
A division of labor is mediated by exchange of valued goods and services. We use social exchange theory to extend this principal to “labors of love.” Sexual activity in a close personal relationship seems outside the domain of bargaining and exchange. Nevertheless, we explore the possibility that this most intimate of human relations is influenced by exchange mechanisms. We derive exchange-theoretic predictions about the level of sexual effort an…
No integration paradox among adolescents
Previous studies have discovered a somewhat paradoxical empirical pattern whereby members of some higher educated first- and second-generation migrant groups in the Netherlands, who are structurally better integrated, harbour more negative attitudes toward natives than their lower educated counterparts, a.k.a. ‘the integration paradox’. This finding goes against intergroup contact theory which predicts that the greater contact with natives among …
A Large-Scale Test of Gender Bias in the Media
A large body of studies demonstrates that women continue to receive less media coverage than men do. Some attribute this difference to gender bias in media reporting—a systematic inclination toward male subjects. We propose that in order to establish the presence of media bias, one has to demonstrate that the news coverage of men is disproportional even after accounting for occupational inequalities and differences in public interest. We examine …
A Field-Experimental Study of Emergent Mobilization in Online Collective Action
We ask why most online signature campaigns attract only a handful of supporters while a few are backed by millions. Using a field-experimental design on the popular petitioning website Change.org, we investigate the role of emergent phenomena during the mobilization process in determining levels of collective action. We demonstrate the significance of these emergent processes while controlling the structural profiles, organizing strategies, and i…
Covid-19 vulnerability and perceived norm violations predict loss of social trust
Ethnic Preferences and Residential Segregation
We are strongly supportive of Fossett's theoretical approach and modeling methodology, which uses computational methods to perform thought experiments that generate compelling insights into the enigma of persistent residential segregation in the U.S. We also agree with his theoretical results, which challenge the prevailing view among demographers that institutional discrimination is the essential cause. However, we think he did not go far enough…
The role of reputation systems in digital discrimination
Reputation systems are commonplace in online markets, such as on peer-to-peer sharing platforms. These systems have been argued to be a solution to (ethnic) discrimination on such platforms. This argument is based on empirical studies showing that ethnic disadvantages are smaller for users with ratings than for users without ratings. We argue that this conclusion may be premature, because minorities have a harder time accumulating ratings. The gr…
Sequential Power-Dependence Theory
Existing methods for predicting resource divisions in laboratory exchange networks do not take into account the sequential nature of the experimental setting. We extend network exchange theory by considering sequential exchange. We prove that Sequential Power-Dependence Theory—unlike Power-Dependence Theory and most other exchange theories—has a unique point prediction for resource divisions in every network, and we show that these point predicti…
Success-Breeds-Success in Collective Political Behavior
Scholars have proposed that the emergence of political movements is highly pathdependent, such that early mobilization successes may lead to disproportionately greater eventual success. This article replicates a unique field experiment testing for positive feedback in internet petition signing (van de Rijt et al. 2014). The prior study found no significant effect of signatures bestowed by the experimenters on the signing rate of 200 online petiti…
Tea and Sympathy
We examine an increasingly common political tactic: the self-binding pledge whereby lawmakers assure a constituency, social movement, or interest group that they will take a particular position on an upcoming vote or policy issue. An empirical analysis of novel data on the 2011 debt-limit crisis shows that pre-commitment by legislators to the Tea Party's "Cut, Cap, and Balance Pledge" was the joint product of grassroots pressure and ideological s…
Trust in Intimate Relationships
Due to the rise of a market for casual relationships, investing in a serious relationship now requires more trust than it did four decades ago. We develop a theory of trust and embeddedness in intimate relationships. One implication of the theory is that given the increased importance of trust, the effects of embeddedness on marriage chances should have increased. Analyses were performed on data from the Chicago Health and Social Life Survey. Var…
Why They Juice
Why do some athletes use performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs), while others opt not to use? Past research has focused on individual player attributes associated with PED use, but has left social factors unstudied. Utilizing novel datasets on PED use in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and Major League Baseball (MLB), we explore the role that social forces play in PED use in pro sports. We find that PED use is concentrated in certain teams, that teams exper…
The relevance of meritocratic beliefs for redistributive preferences increases with income
Racial bias in media coverage
Is media coverage racially biased? Past studies documenting differences in the quantity of coverage are small scale or anecdotal. In this article, we investigate whether Blacks receive less coverage than Whites who have reached similarly prominent positions and enjoy similar public interest. We analysed 200 million newspaper references in English-language media to about 32,000 prominent Black and White individuals, predominantly US born. The resu…
Ethnic Preferences and Residential Segregation
We are strongly supportive of Fossett's theoretical approach and modeling methodology, which uses computational methods to perform thought experiments that generate compelling insights into the enigma of persistent residential segregation in the U.S. We also agree with his theoretical results, which challenge the prevailing view among demographers that institutional discrimination is the essential cause. However, we think he did not go far enough…
Trust in Intimate Relationships
Due to the rise of a market for casual relationships, investing in a serious relationship now requires more trust than it did four decades ago. We develop a theory of trust and embeddedness in intimate relationships. One implication of the theory is that given the increased importance of trust, the effects of embeddedness on marriage chances should have increased. Analyses were performed on data from the Chicago Health and Social Life Survey. Var…
Power and Dependence in Intimate Exchange
A division of labor is mediated by exchange of valued goods and services. We use social exchange theory to extend this principal to “labors of love.” Sexual activity in a close personal relationship seems outside the domain of bargaining and exchange. Nevertheless, we explore the possibility that this most intimate of human relations is influenced by exchange mechanisms. We derive exchange-theoretic predictions about the level of sexual effort an…
Dynamic exchange networks
Game Theory
Game theory is a powerful mathematical tool for modeling conflict and cooperation that originated with von Neumann and Morgenstern's (1944) seminal work. A game consists of two or more players , each with a set of strategies and a utility function that assigns an individual payoff to each combination of strategies, such that payoffs for a given strategy depend in part on the strategies of other players. This strategic interdependence can be repre…
Effective networking when connections are invisible
A common task in everyday life is ensuring that sufficient structural distance exists between two individuals. As Reagans and Zuckerman point out in this volume, brokers may want to hold a monopoly on mediation between their brokees. The extra surplus earned from providing knowledge on monopoly terms stimulates a broker to bring together parties who are not yet mediated by anyone else. The parties would be more inclined to reward the broker for h…
Theories of network exchange
Sequential Power-Dependence Theory
Existing methods for predicting resource divisions in laboratory exchange networks do not take into account the sequential nature of the experimental setting. We extend network exchange theory by considering sequential exchange. We prove that Sequential Power-Dependence Theory—unlike Power-Dependence Theory and most other exchange theories—has a unique point prediction for resource divisions in every network, and we show that these point predicti…
Dynamics of Networks if Everyone Strives for Structural Holes
When entrepreneurs enter structural holes in networks, they can exploit the related benefits. Evidence for these benefits has steadily accumulated. The authors ask whether those who strive for such structural advantages can maintain them if others follow their example. Burt speculates that they cannot, but a formal demonstration of this speculation is lacking. Using a game theoretic model of network formation, the authors characterize the network…
The stability of exchange networks
Neighborhood Chance and Neighborhood Change
The Micro-Macro Link for the Theory of Structural Balance
I consider the principle of structural balance that is commonly characterized with the aphorisms: “The friend of a friend is a friend, the friend of an enemy is an enemy, the enemy of a friend is an enemy, and the enemy of an enemy is a friend.” I study what patterns of friendship and hostility emerge at the macro-level when actors at the micro-level make friends and enemies in accordance with this principle. Recent studies have drawn attention t…
Time Trends in Printed News Coverage of Female Subjects, 1880–2008
Former studies have suggested that female subjects are substantially underrepresented in most media. However, no study has systematically investigated historical trends in women's coverage over the last century. We use data collected by the Lydia text analysis system to assess the development in the coverage of female subjects in 13 daily newspapers, dating back to 1880. Our trend analysis shows that female subjects' representation has remained r…
Why They Juice
Why do some athletes use performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs), while others opt not to use? Past research has focused on individual player attributes associated with PED use, but has left social factors unstudied. Utilizing novel datasets on PED use in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and Major League Baseball (MLB), we explore the role that social forces play in PED use in pro sports. We find that PED use is concentrated in certain teams, that teams exper…
Only 15 Minutes? The Social Stratification of Fame in Printed Media
Contemporary scholarship has conceptualized modern fame as an open system in which people continually move in and out of celebrity status. This model stands in stark contrast to the traditional notion in the sociology of stratification that depicts stable hierarchies sustained through classic forces such as social structure and cumulative advantage. We investigate the mobility of fame using a unique data source containing daily records of referen…
Is There a Political Bias? A Computational Analysis of Female Subjects' Coverage in Liberal and Conservative Newspapers
Objectives One possible source for the gap in media coverage between female and male subjects is the political affiliation of the media source. The objective of this present study was to test whether there is a difference between more liberal and more conservative newspapers in coverage rates of female subjects. Methods We used computational methods to analyze a unique large‐scale data set (complied by the Lydia Text Analysis System) and compared…
Tea and Sympathy
We examine an increasingly common political tactic: the self-binding pledge whereby lawmakers assure a constituency, social movement, or interest group that they will take a particular position on an upcoming vote or policy issue. An empirical analysis of novel data on the 2011 debt-limit crisis shows that pre-commitment by legislators to the Tea Party's "Cut, Cap, and Balance Pledge" was the joint product of grassroots pressure and ideological s…
A Field-Experimental Study of Emergent Mobilization in Online Collective Action
We ask why most online signature campaigns attract only a handful of supporters while a few are backed by millions. Using a field-experimental design on the popular petitioning website Change.org, we investigate the role of emergent phenomena during the mobilization process in determining levels of collective action. We demonstrate the significance of these emergent processes while controlling the structural profiles, organizing strategies, and i…
Choosing your network
A Paper Ceiling
In the early twenty-first century, women continue to receive substantially less media coverage than men, despite women's much increased participation in public life. Media scholars argue that actors in news organizations skew news coverage in favor of men and male-related topics. However, no previous study has systematically examined whether such media bias exists beyond gender ratio imbalances in coverage that merely mirror societal-level struct…
Success-Breeds-Success in Collective Political Behavior
Scholars have proposed that the emergence of political movements is highly pathdependent, such that early mobilization successes may lead to disproportionately greater eventual success. This article replicates a unique field experiment testing for positive feedback in internet petition signing (van de Rijt et al. 2014). The prior study found no significant effect of signatures bestowed by the experimenters on the signing rate of 200 online petiti…
Zelfversterkende processen in de samenleving
Amsterdam University Press is a leading publisher of academic books, journals and textbooks in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Our aim is to make current research available to scholars, students, innovators, and the general public. AUP stands for scholarly excellence, global presence, and engagement with the international academic community
Microfoundations of institutional change
The Matthew effect in science funding
Significance Why do scientists with similar backgrounds and abilities often end up achieving very different degrees of success? A classic explanation is that academic achievement exhibits a “Matthew effect”: Early successes increase future success chances. We analyze data from a large academic funding program that present a unique opportunity to quantify the Matthew effect and identify generative mechanisms. Our results show that winners just abo…
Do Women in the Newsroom Make a Difference? Coverage Sentiment toward Women and Men as a Function of Newsroom Composition
Economics (26 obras) · Political science (24 obras) · Sociology (22 obras) · Computer Science (21 obras) · Psychology (21 obras) · Law (16 obras) · Social Psychology (14 obras) · Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence (11 obras) · Business (10 obras) · Demographic economics (10 obras)