When Is Emotion “Real”? AI, Condolences, and the Social Rules of Caring

On By Karen SternheimerIn Monica Radu, Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change, Social Psychology, TheoryLeave a comment

By Monica Radu

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Imagine someone losing a loved one and you send them a message generated by AI. Even if the words are thoughtful and appropriate, something about it might feel… off. Maybe even a little cold. I think we would tend to read that act as impersonal, as if the emotion doesn’t fully “count.”

But many of us routinely send sympathy cards, often prewritten, mass-produced messages crafted by strangers. We buy them, sign our names, and send them as gestures of care. Socially, that feels completely acceptable. In fact, the greeting card industry is enormous. Americans purchase billions of greeting cards each year, and companies like Hallmark and American Greetings have built entire industries around helping people communicate emotions ranging from love and celebration to sympathy and grief.

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Be Selfish: Volunteer

On By Karen SternheimerIn Karen Sternheimer, Social Institutions: Work, Education, and Medicine, Social PsychologyLeave a comment

By Karen Sternheimer

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We all know that volunteering is good for the group or organization we are helping. They get our free labor, leaving more specialized tasks for paid employees.

But what if you could gain more from volunteering than you give? Would that make you more likely to share your limited amount of free time?

As a perpetually busy person, I have often shied away from volunteering my time. This year I have volunteered to be on two non-work-related committees and for a trail race organization. It helps to share your time for a cause or activity that you care about. I remember decades ago, my grandfather, an avid golfer, volunteered to be an usher at a PGA tournament in his area. He talked about meeting the pro-golfers at the tournament for years after. He saw a few hours of his time as a very small price to pay for an opportunity to be in the same place as famous golfers.

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Skating Past Midlife Career Failure: Taking Inspiration from Figure Skaters

On By Karen SternheimerIn Popular Culture and Consumption, Social Institutions: Work, Education, and Medicine, Stacy Torres, Theory1 Comment
author Stacy Torres

By Stacy Torres

As a sociology professor without an athletic bone in my body, I’d hardly compare myself to an Olympian, but recent professional hurdles have reminded me how much academics share with competitive athletes in our big-risk, big-reward striving.

Facing the prospect of my own epic failure to secure a spot on the podium in my career—achieving tenure—long after the winter games have concluded, I’m still drawing inspiration from the examples of two American figure skaters, Alysa Liu and Ilia Malinin, with wildly divergent medal outcomes.

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Social Comparison: It’s Not Just on Instagram

On By Karen SternheimerIn Behind the Headlines, Karen Sternheimer, Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change, Social Psychology1 Comment
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By Karen Sternheimer

There is no shortage of hand-wringing about social media sites like Instagram enabling people to compare themselves with others, presumably leading to outcomes like depression and other mental health challenges.

But social media did not start social comparison—it is woven into the fabric of many of our social institutions. As it is relatively new, social media gets the lion’s share of attention, focusing on how it operates and its constant accessibility. The algorithms, the devices, the newness drives attention and criticism.

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Driving While Human

On By Karen SternheimerIn Karen Sternheimer, Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change, Social PsychologyLeave a comment

By Karen Sternheimer

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When driving, we interact with other drivers in ways that are often distinct from our other interactions with strangers in public. For one, our language is more limited and less nuanced than in other interactions. We might use hand gestures (friendly and rude), flashing lights, or in extreme cases, aggressive maneuvers like tailgating, weaving, or slowing down to irritate the driver behind us. Whether we are aware or not, we are in constant communication.

Sociologists consider how our interactions produce meaning during social encounters. We often come to an agreement on these meanings, as our definition of the situation is rooted in social and cultural contexts. Driving necessitates social agreements—some mandated by law, others by custom. We need to agree what side of the road to drive on, when to proceed through an intersection, and how fast to drive. We need to communicate through our cars, which come equipped with turn signals, hazard lights, and horns. Newer vehicles tell us when a car is in our blind spots, when it is unsafe to change lanes, or show us what is behind us.

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Tell Me Lies: Power, Privilege, and What Goes Unsaid

On By Karen SternheimerIn Class and Stratification, Monica Radu, Popular Culture and Consumption, Race and Ethnicity, TheoryLeave a comment

By Monica Radu

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I have been waiting years to write this. Tell Me Lies has wrapped after three seasons; For those unfamiliar, the TV series follows a group of college students as they navigate relationships, friendships, and identity over several years, with a central focus on Lucy and Stephen’s complicated and increasingly destructive relationship.

The main timeline begins in 2007, when Lucy starts college, and unfolds through her college years, while a flash forward to 2015 shows how those earlier dynamics continue to affect their lives into adulthood. When people talk about Tell Me Lies, the conversation usually centers on how “toxic” the relationships are. And they are. The lies, the manipulation, the emotional push and pull, the way certain dynamics keep repeating even when they clearly are not healthy. It is hard to miss.

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The Collective Effervescence of a Marathon

On By Karen SternheimerIn Karen Sternheimer, Popular Culture and Consumption, TheoryLeave a comment
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By Karen Sternheimer

If you want to see the best humanity has to offer, run a marathon.

Emile Durkheim, one of sociology’s founders, coined the phrase “collective effervescence” in his 1912 book The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life to describe coming together to experience something outside of everyday life. These experiences take on a religious-like fervor, with rituals that heighten a community’s cohesion.

Durkheim probably wasn’t thinking about marathons when he wrote about collective effervescence. The revival of the classic Greek 26.2-mile race had just recently happened in 1896, a few years before Durkheim’s book was published. Based on my first marathon experience, it fits Durkheim’s concept very well.

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Not Always Relatable, But Still Meaningful: A Sociological Take on the Kardashians

On By Karen SternheimerIn Class and Stratification, Monica Radu, Popular Culture and Consumption1 Comment
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By Monica Radu

Whenever the Kardashians come up in conversation, a common reaction is that they are not “relatable.” While that is true, relatability is not necessarily the goal. Much of everyday life already reflects familiar struggles, including balancing work, family responsibilities, financial pressures, and exhaustion. Those experiences are well known and widely shared.

For anyone less familiar, The Kardashians follows the Kardashian-Jenner family, a group of celebrities and business owners whose fame began with reality television and expanded into fashion, beauty, social media, and brand entrepreneurship. Their lives are highly visible, carefully curated, and shaped by extraordinary economic privilege and public attention.

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Using Sociology to Imagine Alternative Paths: Abbi and Nathan in Liberty Lost

On By Karen SternheimerIn Class and Stratification, Marci Cottingham, Popular Culture and Consumption, Relationships, Marriage and Family, ReligionLeave a comment

By Alana Hogan, Student, Kenyon College, and Marci Cottingham, Associate Professor of Sociology, Kenyon College

The podcast, Liberty Lost, centers on the story of Abbi and Nathan—two teenagers whose lives are deeply shaped by the religious conservatism of their community. Abbi is home-schooled and close to her sisters and parents in a home run by her father as the traditional patriarch. Nathan is a public-school athlete raised in the same tight-knit community, where faith, reputation, and obedience are treated as non-negotiable. When she discovers that she is pregnant at sixteen, this triggers a chain of decisions that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.

Abbi and Nathan, surrounded by well-meaning but fearful family members, and experiencing feelings of shame for violating their religious beliefs, do not know how to navigate their new circumstances. Abbi’s parents, motivated by a desire to fulfill their duties to God and community, decide to send her to the Godparent Home.

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A Year of Living Minimally

On By Karen SternheimerIn Behind the Headlines, Karen Sternheimer, Popular Culture and Consumption2 Comments

By Karen Sternheimer

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It has been a year since losing my home in the Los Angeles firestorm of 2025. While others are reflecting on the anniversary with concerts, community events, and hand-wringing over the rebuilding process, I have been reflecting on my 12 months as a minimalist. It has been an enlightening, and yes, in an odd way a positive experience.

Of course, I wouldn’t have chosen this experience. Finding myself without most of the material possessions I had accumulated for decades was quite a jolt. The first few weeks left me shell shocked.  I was figuring out what I really needed for day-to-day living, while at the same time as managing insurance claims and other adventures with bureaucracy.

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