This study explores how researchers’ analytical choices affect the reliability of scientific findings. Most discussions of reliability problems in science focus on systematic biases. We broaden the lens to emphasize the idiosyncrasy of conscious and unconscious decisions that researchers make during data analysis. We coordinated 161 researchers in 73 research teams and observed their research decisions as they used the same data to independently test the same prominent social science hypothesis: that greater immigration reduces support for social policies among the public. In this typical case of social science research, research teams reported both widely diverging numerical findings and substantive conclusions despite identical start conditions. Researchers’ expertise, prior beliefs, and expectations barely predict the wide variation in research outcomes. More than 95% of the total variance in numerical results remains unexplained even after qualitative coding of all identifiable decisions in each team’s workflow. This reveals a universe of uncertainty that remains hidden when considering a single study in isolation. The idiosyncratic nature of how researchers’ results and conclusions varied is a previously underappreciated explanation for why many scientific hypotheses remain contested. These results call for greater epistemic humility and clarity in reporting scientific findings.

The article focuses on the impact of religion and technological developments on the sharing of domestic work in European countries. Religious beliefs and practices have a significant impact on gender roles, as those who are more religious are more likely to support traditional gender work division. Some religions are more likely to encourage traditional family patterns, with the Christian Orthodox tradition having the most conservative views on gender roles, while Protestants are the most liberal. On the other hand, technological development has a direct impact on housework, by reducing the total amount of time dedicated to the domestic chores and by increasing the women's involvement in the formal labour market. Previous studies have provided explanations based either on relative resources theory, gender ideology or by combining them with some countries characteristics such as welfare regime or gender equality, when predicting a partner's contribution to chores. Using multi-level regression models, we will test the effect of country's level of technological development and of religious orientation on housework division in 24 European countries. The analysis reveals the importance of country's technological development, religious culture, and individual religious beliefs.

Resilience, exposure and transferability are the most common explanations of immigrant political mobilisation in the context of the host society. They are based on assumptions about socialisation and institutionalisation, which are common to native-born groups as well. They lead to hypotheses about the impact of ‘cultures of voting turnout.’ This paper tests these hypotheses through cross-classified multilevel logistic regression analysis of immigrants' voting intentions. The method is new to the analysis of voting behaviour, and allows the comparison of immigrants of multiple origin groups in multiple host countries. This paper provides support for exposure effects: living in a society where most people cast ballots in national elections increases the odds that immigrants are willing to vote. Transferability is not evident, as coming from a culture of high turnout actually lowers the probability of voting. Such impact is not mediated by the length of stay or by the political opportunity structure specific to immigrants, but is stronger in systems of compulsory voting.

This paper considers the case of the international migrants’ confidence in political institutions, from a social embeddedness perspective on political trust. We use country-level aggregates of confidence in institutions as indicators of specific cultures of trust, and by employing data from the European Values Study, we test two competing hypotheses. First, as confidence in institutions depends on the values formed during early childhood, the international migrant’s confidence in political institutions in the current country of residency will be influenced by the confidence context from the country of origin. Second, the host country may have different norms of trust in political institutions, and a process of re-socialization may occur. Therefore, the immigrants’ confidence in institutions is influenced by two confidence contexts: one from the origin country and one from the host country. The time spent in the two cultures, along with other characteristics from these contexts, shape the interaction effects we tested in multilevel cross-classified models.

This paper measures the impact of immigration on migrants' involvement in associations across Europe. Using multilevel analysis on European Social Survey (ESS) data, we address three questions: Are immigrants likely to become members in voluntary associations? Does this likelihood change with the length of stay in the host country? Does the type of the association make a difference? The findings show that the likelihood of migrants participating in associations increases with the length of stay, while second-generation migrant participation is similar to that of the host society. The relation is stronger for expressive associations and weaker for instrumental-utilitarian ones, while religious organisations are more likely to attract new immigrants.

Solidarity is core to Europe's societal organisation and was intensively addressed in recent research. Using data collected before and during the lockdown in spring 2020, we examine whether value orientations towards solidarity changed in three countries (Spain, Hungary, and Romania). Before the pandemic, people in Spain expressed higher solidarity than people in Hungary and Romania. Our argument claims that when facing uncertainty, people react negatively, and turn to egocentric values. However, successful state intervention decreases uncertainty and boosts solidarity. Personal experience of a crisis increases caring for others, at least in the short term. Our findings reveal increasing solidarity in Hungary and Romania and stagnant levels in Spain, thus decreasing the distance between these societies. Direct exposure to the virus and the negative experiences associated with it are related to higher solidarity but in different ways across countries. In Spain and Romania, personally knowing someone who is infected corresponds to higher levels of solidarity, while in Hungary being in confinement is associated with increased solidarity. The duration of the lockdown matters. In Romania and in Hungary, high levels of solidarity at the beginning of the lockdown decreased over time but started to increase again after several weeks into the lockdown.