Pat Hastings

Front cover of The Division of Rationalized Labor. The cover includes four pictures: pen and paper, microscope, factory tower, police badge. Modern-looking yellow lines and graphs are superimposed.

My new book, The Division of Rationalized Labor, is now shipping! A brief summary of the argument to follow…

If you want to channel your frustration with bad excess mortality modelling into some productive science, come join our "One Epidemic, Many Estimates" (1EME) project! Sign-ups are welcome through January/February!

www.lse.ac.uk/Economic-His...

I'm facilitating a causal inference reading group next semester for Sociology PhD students. (I will also be learning!) If there are (1) pedagogical articles or (2) empirical examples in soc that you ❤️, will you share in the comments? [And please RT to help me crowd-source!]

Title: Explaining the Extracurricular Investment Gap for School-age Children between Married and Cohabiting Families. Abstract: Existing research finds that differences in economic resources explain a much larger share of the spending gap between married and single parents than between married and cohabiting parents. This study focuses on extracurricular spending and considers three non-economic explanations for why children in cohabiting families receive less than those in married households: the greater prevalence of non-biological parents in cohabiting households, the relatively shorter duration of cohabiting relationships, and potentially lower levels of relational commitment. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and its 2014 and 2019 Child Development Supplement, I first reproduce established differences in parental spending by family structure. Accounting for biological parent status and relationship duration does little to further reduce the gap between married and cohabiting parents. These findings suggest that unmeasured aspects of commitment may shape family-structure differences in extracurricular investments, but they also highlight the need for continued research given the growing complexity of U.S. family living arrangements and the importance of parental financial investments for children’s development and long-term outcomes.

New working paper on family structure & parental investment in extracurriculars. Economic resources explain much of the spending gap between married & cohabiting families. What remains isn't explained by biological relatedness or relationship duration. Feedback welcome!
doi.org/10.31235/osf...

Over the moon to announce OVERINVESTED, my new book baby due January 20, 2026, with a starred Publishers Weekly review. “Overinvested: The Emotional Economy of Modern Parenting” press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

Title: Explaining the Extracurricular Investment Gap for School-age Children between Married and Cohabiting Families. Abstract: Existing research finds that differences in economic resources explain a much larger share of the spending gap between married and single parents than between married and cohabiting parents. This study focuses on extracurricular spending and considers three non-economic explanations for why children in cohabiting families receive less than those in married households: the greater prevalence of non-biological parents in cohabiting households, the relatively shorter duration of cohabiting relationships, and potentially lower levels of relational commitment. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and its 2014 and 2019 Child Development Supplement, I first reproduce established differences in parental spending by family structure. Accounting for biological parent status and relationship duration does little to further reduce the gap between married and cohabiting parents. These findings suggest that unmeasured aspects of commitment may shape family-structure differences in extracurricular investments, but they also highlight the need for continued research given the growing complexity of U.S. family living arrangements and the importance of parental financial investments for children’s development and long-term outcomes.

New working paper on family structure & parental investment in extracurriculars. Economic resources explain much of the spending gap between married & cohabiting families. What remains isn't explained by biological relatedness or relationship duration. Feedback welcome!
doi.org/10.31235/osf...

Open Science Training

www.opensciencetraining.org

Check out this free #openscience workshop @cos.io

a man wearing sunglasses and a leather jacket is talking about scientists . ALT: a man wearing sunglasses and a leather jacket is talking about scientists .

Sounds familiar…

Just sayin' 😉

This is why I am a little concerned everytime a paper finds that old age outcomes are associated with (concurrently assessed) childhood experiences...

Neat paper on status ladders (or ladder-type things), wobbly childhood recall and the underlying sources of wobble bsky.app/profile/opha...

“I grew up poor,” as a social identity, subject to change based on current circumstances. Very cool!

Ah, yes, the early days of @sociologicalsci.bsky.social!

Thanks! @mikehoutnyu.bsky.social and I estimated the reliability of all "can't actually change" questions. Parental occupation was more reliable than childhood income, but much less than parental edu. Could be driven by coding (as you mentioned), hard to categorize jobs, career changes, and more!

Growing up Different(ly than Last Time We Asked): Social Status and Changing Reports of Childhood Income Rank - Social Indicators Research How we remember our past can be shaped by the realities of our present. This study examines how changes to present circumstances influence retrospective reports of family income rank at age 16. While retrospective survey data can be used to assess the long-term effects of childhood conditions, present-day circumstances may “anchor” memories, causing shifts in how individuals recall and report past experiences. Using panel data from the 2006–2014 General Social Surveys (8,602 observations from 2,883 individuals in the United States), we analyze how changes in objective and subjective indicators of current social status—income, financial satisfaction, and perceived income relative to others—are associated with changes in reports of childhood income rank, and how this varies by sex and race/ethnicity. Fixed-effects models reveal no significant association between changes in income and in childhood income rank. However, changes in subjective measures of social status show contrasting effects, as increases in current financial satisfaction are associated with decreases in childhood income rank, but increases in current perceived relative income are associated with increases in childhood income rank. We argue these opposing effects follow from theories of anchoring in recall bias. We further find these effects are stronger among males but are consistent across racial/ethnic groups. This demographic heterogeneity suggests that recall bias is not evenly distributed across the population and has important implications for how different groups perceive their own pasts. Our findings further highlight the malleability of retrospective perceptions and their sensitivity to current social conditions, offering methodological insights into survey reliability and recall bias.

The GSS asked the same people about their childhood income rank three different times. 56% changed their answer, even though what was trying to be measured couldn’t change! We dig into this in a new article at @socialindicators.bsky.social. 



doi.org/10.1007/s112...

🧵👇 (1/5)

Inequality Readers. Generally, My Best Guess IBE, in y.

At the blog, I wrote about two very interesting recent methods articles - Inference to the Best Explanation and External/Construct Validity.

Very thoughtful pushback against the ascendancy of the credibility revolution.

asocial.substack.com/p/inequality...

Hope you enjoy!

OA Preprint for “Growing up Different(ly than Last Time We Asked): Social Status and Changing Reports of Childhood Income Rank” on @socarxiv.bsky.social: osf.io/preprints/so...

Replication package: github.com/ophastings/c... (data via @kjhealy.co's incredibly convenient gssr package)

(5/5)

So what? Retrospective reports are useful to measure intergenerational mobility and childhood effects. But that's a problem if current circumstances shape reports of the past. Here we don’t have “true” childhood measures, so we can only examine patterns of instability in repeated measurements. (4/5)

Coefficient plot from separate fixed effects models by respondent sex shows all effects are more pronounced for males than for females.

We also found these patterns were much stronger for males than females, suggesting recall bias of childhood income rank may be larger for men and more anchored by present-day experiences. (3/5)

Coefficient plot from fixed effects models shows childhood income rank is not associated with income, negatively associated with financial satisfaction, and positively associated with perceived relative income.

Surprisingly (to us, anyway) these changes were *not* associated with corresponding changes in one’s current income. Instead, they were associated with shifts in *subjective* indicators of current social status. (2/5)

Growing up Different(ly than Last Time We Asked): Social Status and Changing Reports of Childhood Income Rank - Social Indicators Research How we remember our past can be shaped by the realities of our present. This study examines how changes to present circumstances influence retrospective reports of family income rank at age 16. While retrospective survey data can be used to assess the long-term effects of childhood conditions, present-day circumstances may “anchor” memories, causing shifts in how individuals recall and report past experiences. Using panel data from the 2006–2014 General Social Surveys (8,602 observations from 2,883 individuals in the United States), we analyze how changes in objective and subjective indicators of current social status—income, financial satisfaction, and perceived income relative to others—are associated with changes in reports of childhood income rank, and how this varies by sex and race/ethnicity. Fixed-effects models reveal no significant association between changes in income and in childhood income rank. However, changes in subjective measures of social status show contrasting effects, as increases in current financial satisfaction are associated with decreases in childhood income rank, but increases in current perceived relative income are associated with increases in childhood income rank. We argue these opposing effects follow from theories of anchoring in recall bias. We further find these effects are stronger among males but are consistent across racial/ethnic groups. This demographic heterogeneity suggests that recall bias is not evenly distributed across the population and has important implications for how different groups perceive their own pasts. Our findings further highlight the malleability of retrospective perceptions and their sensitivity to current social conditions, offering methodological insights into survey reliability and recall bias.

The GSS asked the same people about their childhood income rank three different times. 56% changed their answer, even though what was trying to be measured couldn’t change! We dig into this in a new article at @socialindicators.bsky.social. 



doi.org/10.1007/s112...

🧵👇 (1/5)

Reviewer 1
Reviewer 2
Reviewer 3

Two astronauts looking at earth. One: wait it's all just weird weighted averages? The other, pointing a gun: always has been.

This is a paper I really care about. I feel the core message is very important for social scientists in general, and political scientists in particular.

"Quantitative Research in Political Science is Greatly Underpowered."

(with A+ co-authors)

Assistant Professor of Sociology Assistant Professor of Sociology with an expertise in Criminology, tenure track, nine-month position beginning August 16, 2026. Competitive salary for an entry-level position. The Department offers un...

We're hiring an Assistant Professor in Criminology (in our Sociology department)! Tenure track. 2/2 teaching load. Great colleagues. Fantastic location.

jobs.colostate.edu/postings/165...

I only tested your Bluesky-registered hypothesis. 😉 But agree if there's indeed a null effect (or even if there is something) to publish, would want to try some other religion measures and some subgroup analyses (class, age, race...).

Figure showing no relationship between religious service attendance and physical attractiveness.

Here's attendance vs looks by gender with all three years. Not a lot of action...

Forthcoming!🍾

If you want to tag I think you have to write it all out: @socarxiv.bsky.social

Thank you, Herman. It was fun to put it together and I find the contributions impressive. The last few will be coming online shortly and then the full special issue will be out soon. Complete line-up below, quick summaries here: doi.org/10.1177/0049...