Sociology versus Commonsense

1. Most people on welfare don't want to work and looking for a handout. True or False?

2. Most Roman Catholics oppose birth control. True or False?

3. Compared with men, women touch each other more while they are conversing. True or False?

4. Because of the rapid rise in the divorce rate in the United States, U.S. Children are much more likely to live in single-parent households now than they were a century ago. True or False?

5. The higher the percentage of people in a population who drink alcohol, the higher the percentage of alcoholics there will be in the population. True or False?

6. The civil rights laws of the 1960's have considerably narrowed the gap between black and white family incomes in the United States. True or False.

1. False. Most people remain on welfare for less than two years, using it to get through a crisis. And for those on the welfare rolls, most are children, elderly, sick or disabled, or single mothers with infant children. Less than 2% are "able-bodied" males- and many of them are looking for work.

2. False. About 80% of U.S. Roman Catholics favor birth control.

3. False. It is men who touch each other more during conversations.

4. False. Actually it is roughly the same. The rate of marital dissolution has remained fairly constant. 100 years ago, however, the cause was the premature death of the parents.

5. False. Some groups- such as, Jews and Italians have very high rates of consumption and low rates of alcoholism. Other groups- such as, fundamentalist Protestants have very low rates of alcohol consumption, but for those who do drink- rates of problematic drinking are very high. In fact, the more available and approved alcohol is, the lower the rate of alcohol related problems appears to be.

6. False. The ratio of black to white family income has consistently been around 55-60% since the 1960's. In fact, some reports indicate a widening of the gap. The processes of discrimination that produce and/or perpetuate such inequalities are apparently more subtle than those addressed by the laws.

Taken from: Sociology, 3rd ed., John Farley, Prentice-Hall, 1994.