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Social egg freezing has increasingly become a topic of public discussion in recent years. It means the cryopreservation (freezing) of human unfertilized egg cells, which enables women to postpone pregnancy to a later age. The discussion has often focused on the normative implications of this technological innovation in reproductive medicine and on the reasons that motivate women to use it. Our study analyzes the covariates of the desire to use social freezing. We model this desire based on a broad rational choice model of decision making. In this theoretical framework, we consider the specific constraints and costs that determine this consideration, but also the benefits that drive the desire to use social freezing in the future. We particularly focus on career ambitions, gender roles, specific benefits and constraints, as well as social norms concerning social freezing. We test this broad rational choice model based on a survey among university students ( = 805) at the University of Zurich conducted in 2023, focusing on a population segment that is especially inclined to consider the utilization of social freezing. Our empirical results show that the desire to use social freezing is driven by both tangible benefits, such as enhanced career prospects and more time to find a suitable partner, and normative benefits, like increased reproductive autonomy. However, the high financial costs of the procedure significantly inhibit potential uptake. Broader attitudes toward gender roles and career orientation also influence these desires, though more immediate cost–benefit considerations largely mediate their effects.

The article focusses on the generating mechanisms of residential segregation for the demand side of housing markets, i.e., discriminatory residential preferences of inhabitants regarding the composition of their neighborhood. The data stem from an online survey among a random sample of the population of a mid-sized German city. In a vignette experiment, respondents were asked to rate example residential settings with respect to their attractiveness. The settings varied regarding the ethnic and religious composition of the neighborhood and other neighborhood characteristics that are positively or negatively related to residential attractiveness.We find that respondents have discriminatory residential preferences toward migrants and the presence of a Muslim community in the neighborhood. One-half of the migrant effect is mitigated if other positively connoted residential characteristics exist. We take this as an indication for statistical discrimination. This does not hold for the “Muslim community” effect. Discrimination gets stronger with higher levels of perceived economic group-threat from migrants. We further find evidence for a cultural group-threat and for the contact hypothesis: religious people are more discriminatory than nonreligious people, and real-life contact with migrants entails less discrimination.