Why are some societies more successful than others at promoting individual and collective well-being? This book integrates recent research in social epidemiology with broader perspectives in social ...science to explore why some societies are more successful than others at securing population health. It explores the social roots of health inequalities, arguing that inequalities in health are based not only on economic inequalities, but on the structure of social relations. It develops sophisticated perspectives on social relations, which emphasize the ways in which cultural frameworks as well as institutions condition people's health. It reports on research into health inequalities in the developed and developing worlds, covering a wide range of national case studies, and into the ways in which social relations condition the effectiveness of public policies aimed at improving health.
This paper explores the factors that have recently increased support for candidates and causes of the populist right across the developed democracies, especially among a core group of working‐class ...men. In the context of debates about whether the key causal factors are economic or cultural, we contend that an effective analysis must rest on understanding how economic and cultural developments interact to generate support for populism. We suggest that one way to do so is to see status anxiety as a proximate factor inducing support for populism, and economic and cultural developments as factors that combine to precipitate such anxiety. Using cross‐national survey data from 20 developed democracies, we assess the viability of this approach. We show that lower levels of subjective social status are associated with support for right populist parties, identify a set of economic and cultural developments likely to have depressed the social status of men without a college education, and show that the relative social status of those men has declined since 1987 in many of the developed democracies. We conclude that status effects provide one pathway through which economic and cultural developments may combine to increase support for the populist right.
We argue that support for parties of the radical right and left can usefully be understood as a problem of social integration—an approach that brings together economic and cultural explanations for ...populism. With comparative survey data, we assess whether support for parties of the radical right and left is associated with feelings of social marginalization. We find that people who feel more socially marginal—because they lack strong attachment to the normative order, social engagement, or a sense of social respect—are more likely to be alienated from mainstream politics and to support radical parties. We also find an association between indicators for recent economic and cultural developments often said to affect social status and feelings of social marginalization, especially among people with low incomes or educational attainment. We conclude that problems of social integration and subjective social status deserve more attention from scholars of comparative political behavior.
This article examines the implications of the euro crisis for theories of political economy associated with 'varieties of capitalism', considering how those theories help explain the origins of the ...crisis and how developments during it mandate revisions in such theories. Efforts to understand the crisis have extended these theories in four directions. They have inspired an emerging literature on growth models that integrates the demand side of the economy into theories once oriented to its supply side. They have led to more intensive investigation of the political economies of East Central Europe and Southern Europe. The crisis has drawn attention to the international dimensions of varieties of capitalism and to problems of adjustment, injecting an element of dynamism into varieties of capitalism analyses and underlining that adjustment is a political as well as an economic problem.
This article examines the role played by varieties of capitalism in the euro crisis, considering the origins of the crisis, its progression, and the response to it. Deficiencies in the institutional ...arrangements governing the single currency are linked to economic doctrines of the 1990s. The roots of the crisis are linked to institutional asymmetries between political economies. Northern European economies equipped to operate export-led growth models suitable for success within a monetary union are joined to southern economies whose demand-led growth models were difficult to operate successfully without the capacity to devalue. The response to a tripartite crisis of confidence, debt, and growth is explained in terms of the interaction of institutions, interests, and ideas, and its importance for the future of European integration is explored.
•Sleep deprivation is pervasive in most societies.•Experimentally manipulated sleep deprivation impairs neurocognitive functioning.•Sleep restriction selectively impairs sustained attention, ...executive function, and long-term memory.•The magnitude of the effect increases with age.
The current meta-analytic review evaluated the effects of experimentally manipulated sleep restriction on neurocognitive functioning. Random-effects models were employed to estimate the overall effect size and the differential effect size across cognitive domains. Age, time of day, age-adjusted sleep deficit, cumulative days of restricted sleep, sleep latency, subjective sleepiness, and biological sex were examined as potential moderators of the effect. Based on a sample of 61 studies, from 71 different populations, findings revealed a significant negative effect of sleep restriction on cognitive processing across cognitive domains (g=−0.383, p<0.001). This effect held for executive functioning (g=−0.324, p<0.001), sustained attention (g=−0.409, p<0.001), and long-term memory (g=−0.192, p=0.002). There was insufficient evidence to detect an effect within the domains of attention, multitask, impulsive decision-making or intelligence. Age group, time of day, cumulative days of restricted sleep, sleep latency, subjective sleepiness, and biological sex were all significant moderators of the overall effect. In conclusion, the current meta-analysis is the first comprehensive review to provide evidence that short-term sleep restriction significantly impairs waking neurocognitive functioning.
In the modern obesogenic environment, limiting calorie-dense food consumption is partially dependent on the capacity of individuals to override visceral reactions to hyperpalatable and rewarding food ...cues. In the current review, we employ a health neuroscience framework to outline: (i) how individual variations in prefrontal cortical structure and functionality, and by extension, executive functions, may predispose an individual to the overconsumption of appetitive calorie-dense foods via differences in dietary self-regulation; (ii) how obesity may result in changes to cortical structure and functionality; and (iii) how the relationship between the structure and function of the prefrontal cortex and obesity may be best described as reciprocal in nature.
In this review, we use a health neuroscience framework to highlight the potential reciprocal relationship between obesity and the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Specifically, we outline how the PFC can be viewed as a predictor, a mediator or causal agent, moderator, or outcome of obesity.
In the modern environment, dietary self-regulation is especially dependent on the capacity of the PFC to exert modulatory control over food choices. Weaker modulation increases the likelihood that individuals will overconsume appetitive calorie-dense foods.
Over time, the persistent and sustained overconsumption of calorie-dense foods can lead to weight gain and, subsequently, obesity.
Diet-evoked obesity can lead to marked and enduring changes in cognitive control and PFC functionality, which, in turn, drives the maintenance of unhealthy eating behaviours.
Human beings have reliable preferences for energy-rich foods; these preferences are present at birth and possibly innate. Relatively recent changes in our day-to-day living context have rendered such ...foods commonly encountered, nearly effortless to procure, and frequently brought to mind. Theoretical, conceptual, and empirical perspectives from the field of social neuroscience support the hypothesis that the increase in the prevalence of overweight and obesity in first- and second-world countries may be a function of these dynamics coupled with our highly evolved but ultimately imperfect capacities for self-control. This review describes the significance of executive-control systems for explaining the occurrence of nonhomeostatic forms of dietary behavior—that is, those aspects of calorie ingestion that are not for the purpose of replacing calories burned. I focus specifically on experimental findings—including those from cortical-stimulation studies—that collectively support a causal role for executive-control systems in modulating cravings for and consumption of high-calorie foods.
Fatty foods are regarded as highly appetitive, and self-control is often required to resist consumption. Executive control resources (ECRs) are potentially facilitative of self-control efforts, and ...therefore could predict success in the domain of dietary self-restraint. It is not currently known whether stronger ECRs facilitate resistance to fatty food consumption, and moreover, it is unknown whether such an effect would be stronger in some age groups than others. The purpose of the present study was to examine the association between ECRs and consumption of fatty foods among healthy community-dwelling adults across the adult life span.
An age-stratified sample of individuals between 18 and 89 years of age attended two laboratory sessions. During the first session they completed two computer-administered tests of ECRs (Stroop and Go-NoGo) and a test of general cognitive function (Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence); participants completed two consecutive 1-week recall measures to assess frequency of fatty and nonfatty food consumption.
Regression analyses revealed that stronger ECRs were associated with lower frequency of fatty food consumption over the 2-week interval. This association was observed for both measures of ECR and a composite measure. The effect remained significant after adjustment for demographic variables (age, gender, socioeconomic status), general cognitive function, and body mass index. The observed effect of ECRs on fatty food consumption frequency was invariant across age group, and did not generalize to nonfatty food consumption.
ECRs may be potentially important, though understudied, determinants of dietary behavior in adults across the life span.
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