Ostensibly non-political objects and activities are becoming “partisan”; there is accordingly talk of a cultural divide between latte-drinking, Volvo-driving liberals & NASCAR-watching, truck-driving conservatives

Cued by Culture: Political Imagery and Partisan Evaluations. Dan Hiaeshutter-Rice, Fabian G. Neuner & Stuart Soroka. Political Behavior, Jun 26 2021. https://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11109-021-09726-6

Abstract: There is a popular perception that politics is increasingly permeating the everyday lives of Americans. Ostensibly non-political objects and activities are becoming “partisan,” and there is accordingly talk of a cultural divide between Latte-drinking, Volvo-driving Liberals and NASCAR-watching, truck-driving Conservatives. This study examines the extent to which this perception is accurate. We first find that survey respondents have no trouble assigning partisan leaning to non-political activities and objects. We then explore whether voters use such non-political objects as heuristics in candidate evaluations. We show that exposure to images of candidates featuring such objects can affect perceptions of candidates’ partisanship, but that these cues only very rarely shift perceptions in the face of clear policy information. These findings have important implications for understanding the way that citizens evaluate politics in changing political and media environments.

People rely on photos as memory cues as a means to mitigate the cognitive limitations in encoding, storing, and retrieving experiences, & sometimes treat cameras as an external memory device, offloading their memories onto the camera

Henkel, L. A., Nash, R. A., & Paton, J. A. (2021). “Say cheese!”: How taking and viewing photos can shape memory and cognition. In S. M. Lane & P. Atchley (Eds.), Human capacity in the attention economy (pp. 103–133). American Psychological Association, Jun 2021. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000208-006

Abstract: This chapter explores attention economics in the context of how taking and viewing photos impacts memory and cognition. It explores the interplay between attention and memory in the context of taking and viewing photos. People rely on photos as memory cues as a means to mitigate the cognitive limitations in encoding, storing, and retrieving their experiences. The chapter discusses research that suggests that because of these limitations in attentional and cognitive resources, people sometimes treat cameras as an external memory device—in essence, offloading their memories onto the camera. It explores both the positive and negative consequences for memory of taking and viewing photos by outlining studies of what happens when we divide our attention between experiencing events and documenting them with a camera, and outlining studies on the attentional and memory demands created by the ensuing accumulation of photos.

From 2018... Adult entertainment establishments in NY City decrease daily sex crime between 7% & 13% with no effect on other types of crimes or in other precints; potential sex offenders become customers of the entertainment establishments

The Effects of Adult Entertainment Establishments on Sex Crime: Evidence from New York City. Riccardo Ciacci, Maria Micaela Sviatschi. Princeton Univ, Jun 2018. https://economics.princeton.edu/working-papers/the-effects-of-adult-entertainment-establishments-on-sex-crime-evidence-from-new-york-city/

Abstract: This paper studies how adult entertainment establishments affect sex crime. We build a daily panel that combines the exact location of non-reported sex crimes with the day of opening and exact location of adult entertainment establishments in New York City. We find that these businesses decrease daily sex crime between 7% and 13% in the precinct with no effect on other types of crimes. The results imply that the reduction is mostly driven by potential sex offenders that are now customers of the adult entertainment establishments. We also rule out other mechanisms such as an increase in the number of police officers; a reduction on the number of street prostitution and a possible reduction of potential victims in areas where these businesses opened. The effects are robust to using alternative measures of sex crimes.

Keywords: Sex crimes, rape, adult entertainment establishments, substitute services

JEL codes: I18, J16, J47, K14, K42

From 2018... The Effects of Adult Entertainment Establishments on Sex Crime