Explore the vast range of titles available.

Social science research argues that differences in individuals’ literary and cultural tastes originate in social environments. Yet, it might be that these differences are partly associated with genetic differences between individuals. To address this possibility, we use nation-scale registry data on library borrowing among Danish twins ( N = 67,900) to assess the heritability of literary tastes. We measure literary tastes via borrowing of books of different genres (e.g., crime and biographical novels) and formats (physical, digital, and audio) and decompose the total variance in literary tastes into components attributable to shared genes (heritability), shared environments (social environment shared by siblings), and unique environments (social environments not shared by siblings). We find that genetic differences account for 45–70 percent of the total variance in literary tastes, shared environments account for almost none of the variance, and unique environments account for a moderate share. These results suggest that literary tastes are approximately as heritable as other human phenotypes (e.g., physical traits, cognition, and health). Moreover, heritability is higher for socioeconomically disadvantaged groups than for advantaged groups. Overall, our results suggest that research should consider the role of genetic differences in accounting for individual differences in literary and broader cultural tastes.

Attractive people enjoy many social and economic advantages. Most studies find effects of attractiveness on happiness or life satisfaction, but based on traditional cross-sectional approaches. We use a large longitudinal survey consisting of a sample of male and female high school graduates from Wisconsin followed from their late teens to their mid-1960s. The panel construction of the data and the fact that interviews of the siblings of the respondents are available allow us to analyze the effects of physical appearance on psychological well-being (human flourishing) and ill-being (distress and depression) conditioning on unobserved individual heterogeneity via random effects. We find a significant positive relationship between measures of physical attractiveness (greater facial attractiveness at high school, and lower BMI and greater height in middle age) and a measure of psychological well-being, and a significant negative relationship between measures of physical attractiveness and distress/depression. These effects are slightly smaller when we adjust for demographics and mental ability but, with the exception of height, remain significant. Our results suggest that attractiveness impacts psychological well-being and depression directly as well as through its effects on other life outcomes.

Previous studies find little evidence that welfare regimes affect public support for welfare state principles, policies, and programmes in any systematic way. This article argues that limitations in operational definitions of welfare regimes might explain why previous studies do not find any link between regimes and attitudes. Furthermore, the article suggests that welfare regimes should affect both mean levels of support for the welfare state and the variance in attitudes. The article develops a new conceptualization of welfare regimes based on a set of regime-type indicators measured at the country-level and latent variables models. My empirical analysis of support for redistribution across 15 countries suggests that the regime rank order (low to high) with respect to support for redistribution is Liberal, Social Democratic, and Conservative. The regime rank order with respect to the variance in support for redistribution is Liberal, Conservative, and Social Democratic. My findings give rise to a simple two-dimensional typology of regime differences in support for redistribution.

This article analyzes the effect of three aspects of physical attractiveness (facial attractiveness, Body Mass Index and height) on socio-economic and marital success over the life course. In a sample of high school graduates from Wisconsin followed from their late teens and until their mid-60s, I find that (1. taller men have higher earnings than shorter men throughout their careers, (2. women with more attractive faces and women with lower Body Mass Index have higher socio-economic status late in their careers, (3. men and women with more attractive faces are more likely to be married in youth, and (4. men and women's physical attractiveness is unrelated to the income and socio-economic status of their spouses. These results suggest that, first, physical attractiveness matters throughout the life course, second, attractiveness does not have a large quantitative effect on socio-economic and marital outcomes and third, different aspects of physical attractiveness matter differently for men and women.

We develop a rational choice model of educational decision-making in which the utility of educational choices depends on students' risk aversion and their time discounting preferences. We argue for the role of risk aversion and time discounting preferences in the choice of different tracks in secondary education and in mediating the impact of socioeconomic background on such choices. Enrolment decisions in Danish secondary education provide our empirical example, and the results are generally in line with the proposed theory in that (i) risk aversion deters students from choosing the academically challenging but economically rewarding academic track in secondary education, (ii) students with a low time discount rate are particularly likely to enter the academic track, and (iii) students from advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds are not affected by risk aversion when making educational decisions.

This article presents a new approach to modelling change over time in cultural consumption practices, which jointly models qualitative heterogeneity in cultural consumption clusters, measured via latent classes, and quantitative heterogeneity in total cultural participation level within each latent class. We analyse cultural consumption practices in Denmark over the period 1975–2004 and identify four cultural consumption clusters. We document the relative size of each cluster over time, the profile of socioeconomic gradients across clusters, and the total cultural participation level within each cluster. We find that (i) the 'couch potato, limited participation cluster in which members engage in only few cultural activities becomes less prevalent and less active over time, (ii) the 'popular' cluster in which members engage in lowbrow, popular activities replaces the couch potatoes over time, (iii) the 'omnivore' cluster in which members engage in both highbrow and lowbrow activities becomes slightly more prevalent and culturally active, and finally (iv) the middle class 'middlebrow' cluster does not change much over time.

This paper addresses the issue of why comparative research on welfare state attitudes has failed to establish a link between welfare regimes and popular support for redistribution. Several limitations in the existing literature regarding the dependent variable, the operationalisation of welfare regimes, how the relationship between regimes and attitudes is identified, and the methods used are proposed as reasons why no link between regimes and attitudes has been found. An alternative approach is developed in which welfare regimes are operationalised using a range of theoretically defining characteristics, e.g. total public social spending, benefit generosity, and the weight of social services relative to total public social expenditure. Using data on 13 Western European countries from the first two waves of the European Social Survey, the empirical analysis provides mixed support for the hypothesized relationship between welfare regimes and support for redistribution. Several suggestions for future research are also discussed.

This article argues that existing studies on cultural capital and educational success fail to distinguish the different channels through which cultural capital promotes educational success. Following Bourdieu, the article proposes that for cultural capital to promote educational success three conditions must hold: (1. parents must possess cultural capital, (2. they must transfer their cultural capital to children, and (3. children must absorb cultural capital and convert it into educational success. This research develops an empirical model that analyzes the significance of the three effects with respect to Danish children's choice of secondary education. Denmark is well-suited for this study because access to secondary education is particularly meritocratic. The empirical analysis shows that all three channels through which cultural capital affects educational success are important.

The definition and role of bulky disease in young patients (ie, aged 18–60 years) with good-prognosis diffuse large-B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), who have been treated with CHOP (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisolone)-like chemotherapy with or without rituximab, remain controversial. We aimed to assess the effect of maximum tumour diameter (MTD) in these patients. Patients from the MInT (Mabthera International Trial Group) study were eligible. We analysed event-free (EFS) and overall survival (OS) after CHOP-like chemotherapy with or without rituximab, according to MTD, by Martingale residual analyses and Cox regression models. Radiotherapy was given to sites of primary bulky disease according to national standards, and to primary extranodal disease at physician discretion. The primary endpoint was EFS and the secondary endpoint was OS. Analyses were by intention to treat. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT 00064116. Of the 824 patients enrolled in the MInT study, the informed-consent form of one patient was missing, leaving 823 patients evaluable for intention-to-treat analysis. Data on MTD of involved sites were available for 802 patients. Martingale residual analysis showed an adverse prognostic effect of MTD on EFS and OS, which increased linearly. In a multivariable analysis with MTD as a linear regression variable, the effect of MTD was significant after CHOP-like treatment alone for EFS (hazard ratio 1·090 [95% CI 1·051–1·130], p<0·0001) and OS (1·119 [1·057–1·184], p=0·0001), and after CHOP-like treatment and rituximab for OS (1·089 [1·003–1·183], p=0·043), but not for EFS (1·044 [0·991–1·099], p=0·103). For CHOP-like treatment alone, 3-year EFS ranged from 78·2% (MTD <5·0 cm, 95% CI 68·3–85·4) to 41·3% (MTD ≥10·0 cm, 31·8–50·4). For CHOP-like treatment and rituximab, 3-year EFS ranged from 83·2% (MTD <5·0 cm, 72·8–89·9) to 72·7% (MTD ≥10·0 cm, 63·8–79·7). With CHOP-like treatment alone, 3-year OS decreased from 92·9% (MTD <5·0 cm, 84·9–96·8) to 73·5% (MTD ≥10·0 cm, 63·9–81·0); for CHOP-like treatment and rituximab, 3-year OS decreased from 98·0% (MTD <5·0 cm, 92·2–99·5) to 85·2% (MTD ≥10·0 cm, 77·0–90·6). For CHOP-like treatment, any cut-off point between 5·0 cm and 10·0 cm separated two populations with a significant EFS difference (p<0·0001 for all log-rank tests) and OS difference (p≤0·003 for all log-rank tests). For CHOP-like treatment and rituximab, only a cut-off point of 10·0 cm separated two populations with a significant EFS difference (log-rank p=0·047), but any cut-off point of 6·0 cm or more separated two populations with a significant OS difference (log-rank p values 0·0009–0·037). Rituximab decreased, but did not eliminate the adverse prognostic effect of MTD in young patients with good-prognosis DLBCL. Due to the linear prognostic effect of MTD on outcome, arbitrary cut-off points for bulky disease can be set between 5·0 cm and 10·0 cm, depending on clinical considerations. Based on this study, a cut-off point of 10·0 cm might be a suitable margin in the rituximab era to delineate those patients with bulky disease. Roche, Basel, Switzerland (M39045).

The role of rituximab in combination with different CHOP (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone)-like chemotherapy regimens in young patients with good-prognosis diffuse large-B-cell lymphoma remains to be defined. We aimed to compare CHOP-like chemotherapy and rituximab with CHOP-like chemotherapy alone in these patients. 824 patients who were from 18 countries; aged 18–60 years; and who had no risk factors or one risk factor according to age-adjusted International Prognostic Index (IPI), stage II–IV disease, or stage I disease with bulk were enrolled. These patients were randomly assigned to six cycles of CHOP-like chemotherapy and rituximab (n=413) or to six cycles of CHOP-like chemotherapy alone (n=411). Bulky and extranodal sites received additional radiotherapy. The primary endpoint was event-free survival; secondary endpoints were response, progression under therapy, progression-free survival, overall survival, and frequency of toxic effects. Analyses were done by intention to treat and per protocol. This trial is registered at http://www.clinicaltrials.gov, NCT 00064116. After a median follow-up of 34 months (range 0·03–61), patients assigned chemotherapy and rituximab had increased 3-year event-free survival compared with those assigned chemotherapy alone (79% [95% CI 75–83] vs 59% [54–64]; difference between groups 20% [13–27], log-rank p<0·0001), and had increased 3-year overall survival (93% [90–95] vs 84% [80–88]; difference between groups 9% [3–13], log-rank p=0·0001). Event-free survival was affected by treatment group, presence of bulky disease, and age-adjusted IPI: after chemotherapy and rituximab, a favourable subgroup (ie, IPI=0, no bulk) could be defined from a less-favourable subgroup (ie, IPI=1 or bulk, or both). Groups did not differ in the frequency of adverse events. Rituximab added to six cycles of CHOP is an effective treatment for young patients with good-prognosis diffuse large-B-cell lymphoma. The definition of two prognostic subgroups allows for a more refined therapeutic approach for these patients.