Social Sciences

"Time Banking" Is Catching On In the Digital World

Apps that allow users to pay for services in redeemable credits instead of cash are helping to build communities

Study Looks at Why We All Spew So Much BS

The social pressure to have an opinion and a lack of accountability are what lead to the mix of truth, half-truth and outright falsehood known as bullshit

New Study Finds Fake News Spreads Faster and Deeper Than Verified Stories on Twitter

Looking at 126,000 stories sent by ~3 million people, researchers found that humans, not bots, were primarily responsible for the spread of disinformation

Quasi-catalogues like Comfort came with a surprising side effect: communication between women that otherwise would have been impossible.

From Helping Shut-Ins to Sisterly Advice, Mail-Order Magazines Did More Than Just Sell Things

The cheap monthly publications that flooded rural homes offered more than just advertising—they also provided companionship

In her second book, The Sexes Throughout Nature, Blackwell argued that while male lions are physically larger and stronger, female lions were “more complex in structure and in functions” through their ability to reproduce and feed their young.

The Woman Who Challenged Darwin's Sexism

How a preacher with no scientific training ended up writing the first feminist critique of <em>Origins</em>

Watch the Winners of the 2017 Dance Your Ph.D. Competition

From sea stars to mathematical braids, scientists translate their work into hot moves and killer choreography

In 2014, Americans Feared Walking Alone at Night. Now They’re Worried about Government Corruption

A survey on American fears by Chapman University sociologists has produced some surprisingly frightful results

Some parents cut a cake, while others release pink or blue balloons from a box.

What Does the Gender Reveal Fad Say About Modern Pregnancy?

A new ritual speaks to anxieties surrounding the medicalization of childbearing

Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel

Survey Finds Most People Are Biased Against Atheists, Including Atheists

The findings revealed that the bias was strongest in more religious countries including the United States, United Arab Emirates and India

"Space Archaeologists" to Examine the International Space Station

Using millions of photos and documents, researchers will reconstruct life on the ISS to see how visitors interact with their tools and each other

Naomi Weisstein was a feminist activist, a neuropsychologist and, for a brief time, a rock 'n roll musician.

This Feminist Psychologist-Turned-Rock-Star Led a Full Life of Resistance

Naomi Weisstein fought against the idea of women as objects in both the fields of psychology and rock 'n roll

Former U.S. president Barack Obama goes book-shopping with his daughters in Washington, DC in 2015.

Liberals and Conservatives Read Totally Different Books About Science

The good news: Everyone likes dinosaurs

Norway: The happiest place on earth

Norwegians Are Named 2017's Happiest People

Scandanavian countries take the top spots in the annual World Happiness Report

ASMRtists, as they are called, type on keyboards, tap on brushes and whisper gently to induce "the tingles." But is there any whisper of scientific truth to the trend?

How Researchers Are Beginning to Gently Probe the Science Behind ASMR

Once a mysterious Internet phenomenon, "tingleheads" are starting to get real scientific attention

Researchers have found that when our minds wander, our moods tend to suffer.

Why Mind Wandering Can Be So Miserable, According to Happiness Experts

We still don’t know why our minds seem so determined to exit the present moment, but researchers have a few ideas

Are "Education Genes" on the Decline?

People in Iceland with genes associated with educational attainment are having fewer children, which may be affecting the population's smarts

Who in society gets to be viewed as "brilliant"?

By Age Six, Girls Have Already Stopped Thinking of Their Gender as 'Brilliant'

The're more likely to assume that someone who is 'very, very smart' is male, new research finds

Being stuck in a crowd can be an overwhelming experience. Physicists and computer scientists bring some order to the chaos.

How Fluid Dynamics Can Help You Navigate Crowds

If you plan to be in a seething mass of humans at some point—whether it’s an inauguration or protest thereof—here's how to keep yourself safe

For 2,000 Finns, free money is now a thing.

Finland Has a New Social Experiment: Giving People Free Money

Two thousand unemployed Finns will now get around $594 a month—whether they get jobs or not

Violence can spread like an epidemic among impressionable teenagers, according to new research.

Violence Among Teens Can Spread Like a Disease, Study Finds

Surveys of thousands of American teens add evidence to the theory that violence spreads in communities like a contagion

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