Joseph Berger (sociologist)

{{Short description|American sociologist (1924–2023)}}

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| name = Joseph Berger

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| birth_date = {{Birth date|1924|4|3}}

| birth_place = New York City, New York, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2023|12|24|1924|4|3}}

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| spouse = Margeret Berger

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| alma_mater = {{ubl | Brooklyn College | Harvard University}}

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| discipline = Sociology

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| workplaces = Stanford University

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| notable_ideas = Expectation states theory

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Joseph Berger (April 3, 1924 – December 24, 2023) was an American sociologist and social psychologist best known for co-founding expectation states theory.{{cite web|last1=Stanford University News Service|title=Joseph Berger wins Cooley-Mead Award for distinguished contributions to social psychology|url=https://web.stanford.edu/dept/news/pr/91/910423Arc1423.html|website=Stanford News Service|accessdate=3 August 2017|url-status=bot: unknown|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170803172140/https://web.stanford.edu/dept/news/pr/91/910423Arc1423.html|archivedate=3 August 2017}} Expectation states theory explains how individuals use social information about one another (such as race, gender, or specific skills) to create informal status hierarchies in small groups. Researchers have used this program to develop interventions that counteract the disadvantages faced most notably by black students in the classroom{{cite journal|last1=Cohen|first1=Elizabeth G.|last2=Lotan|first2=Rachel A.|title=Producing Equal-Status Interaction in the Heterogeneous Classroom|journal=American Educational Research Journal|date=1995|volume=32|issue=1|pages=99–120|jstor=1163215|doi=10.3102/00028312032001099|s2cid=96477955}} and women leaders in the workplace.{{cite journal|last1=Lucas|first1=Jeffrey W.|title=Status Processes and the Institutionalization of Women as Leaders|journal=American Sociological Review|date=2003|volume=68|issue=3|pages=464–480|jstor=1519733|doi=10.2307/1519733}} Social scientists have also applied this work to study hiring bias against mothers{{cite journal|last1=Correll|first1=Shelley J.|last2=Benard|first2=Stephen|last3=Paik|first3=In|title=Getting a Job: Is There a Motherhood Penalty?|journal=American Journal of Sociology|date=2007|volume=112|issue=2|pages=1297–1338|doi=10.1086/511799|citeseerx=10.1.1.417.6347|s2cid=7816230}} and discrimination against loan applicants{{cite journal|last1=Harkness|first1=Sarah K.|title=Discrimination in Lending Markets: Status and the Intersections of Gender and Race|journal=Social Psychology Quarterly|date=2016|volume=79|issue=1|pages=81–93|doi=10.1177/0190272515623459|s2cid=146460967}} among other topics.{{cite book |editor1-last=Armstrong |editor1-first=Alice Catt |title=Who's who in California - Volume 12 |date=1979 |publisher=Who's Who Historical Society |page=34 }}

Berger used expectation states theory as an exemplar of formal (or axiomatic) theory construction, for whose wider adoption among sociologists he advocated. Formal theories are logically related sets of statements from which a scientist can logically deduce hypotheses (e.g., if A → B and B → C, then A → C). Formal theorists then lay out the precise conditions under which their predictions do and do not apply. This contrasts with the norm in sociological theorizing, which is less explicit in its definitions, predictions, and scope.{{cite journal|last1=Wagner|first1=David G.|last2=Berger|first2=Joseph|title=Do Sociological Theories Grow|journal=American Journal of Sociology|date=1985|volume=90|issue=4|pages=697–728|jstor=2779516|doi=10.1086/228142|s2cid=144409480|hdl=1969.1/154817|hdl-access=free}}

Berger was later a professor emeritus at Stanford University and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.