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Marriage is a social institution that integrates individuals to form families. Yet, the social embeddedness of married couples is surprisingly rarely examined, particularly for remarriage. Drawing from multiple datasets, this chapter shows that before marriage, remarried dyads are socially less embedded than their continuously married counterparts; after marriage, their social relations rely more on the spouse. First, with the attrition of close associates over the life course and the disruption in social network due to divorce, individuals tend to look outside their networks and at less conventional venues, and to adopt dating strategies involving fewer contacts from existing network, resulting in greater socio-demographic heterophily in remarriage. Second, such dating strategies and the greater socio-demographic heterogamy imply socially invisible wedding ceremonies for remarried couples. Third, remarried individuals’ social networks, in the absence of spousal ties, remain as fragmented as those of the divorced in terms of network characteristics such as density, volume of contacts, and emotional closeness. A remarried individual’s network is akin to that of the divorced plus a spouse. Compared to first marriage, the spouse is much more prominent in the social relations of remarried individuals.

This chapter reviews research on the question–behavior effect, the phenomenon that asking questions influences respondents’ behavior. Two distinct research streams, the self-prophecy effect, concerned with socially normative behaviors, and the mere measurement effect, dealing with purchase behaviors without socially normative significance, are identified. Despite the recent attempt at integration, it is argued that there are fundamental differences between the two effects. Distinctions are also drawn between lab-based and field-based mere measurement effects, and between normatively consistent and implicit attitude-driven, normatively inconsistent self-prophecy effects. Key studies, theoretical explanations, and moderators of each effect are discussed, potential unanswered questions and research opportunities are identified, and significant managerial and policy implications are highlighted.

Purpose: As biomedicine grants technology and quantification privileged roles in our cultural constructions of health, media and technology play an increasingly important role in mediating our everyday experiences of our bodies and may contribute to the reproduction of gendered norms.

Design: This study draws from a broad variety of disciplines to contextualize and interpret contemporary trends in self-quantification, focusing on metrics for health and fitness. I will also draw from psychology and feminist scholarship on objectification and body-surveillance.

Findings: I interpret body-tracking tools as biomedical technologies of self-surveillance that facilitate and encourage control of human bodies, while solidifying demands for standardization around neoliberal values of enhancement and optimization. I also argue that body-tracking devices reinforce and normalize the scrutiny of human bodies in ways that may reproduce and advance longstanding gender disparities in detriment of women.

Implications: A responsible conceptualization, design, implementation, and usage of health-tracking technologies requires us to recognize and better understand how technologies with widely touted benefits also have the potential to reinforce and extend inequalities, alter subjective experiences and produce damaging outcomes, especially among certain groups. I conclude by proposing some alternatives for devising technologies or encouraging practices that are sensitive to these differences and acknowledge the validity of alternative values.