News by Subject Social & Behavior

Tweets about Russia by Donald Trump during his presidency caused short but noticeable depreciations of the rouble. Meanwhile, the introduction of new sanctions, upon which the president did not comment, had no such effect. This was the finding of a group of researchers, which included Elena Fedorova, Professor of the Faculty of Economic Sciences of HSE University. The group published their findings in in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization.

Misinformation about COVID-19 is spreading from the United States into Canada, undermining efforts to mitigate the pandemic. A study led by McGill University shows that Canadians who use social media are more likely to consume this misinformation, embrace false beliefs about COVID-19, and subsequently spread them.

Online marketers have seen the pattern: 95%-98% of online visitors search for something, but the search never converts into a purchase and they leave the site without buying. For marketers, this results in speculation and assumptions that can lead to wasted time and investments in ineffective marketing programs.

The public could lose trust in science if scientific and medical researchers choose to bypass the traditional high standards of peer-reviewed medical journals in the rush to get research data released, particularly during crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

New research suggests that these increased hours spent online may be associated with cyberbullying behaviors. According to a study by the University of Georgia, higher social media addiction scores, more hours spent online, and identifying as male significantly predicted cyberbullying perpetration in adolescents.

Researchers in KU's School of Education and Human Sciences observed the use of critical race media literacy in a high school class, noted the high levels of critical thinking students used to address racism and sexism in super hero movies, and argue all manner of schools can and should use similar methods.

Listeners of high-energy music such as hard rock and hip-hop may be given less accurate music recommendations by music recommender systems than listeners of other non-mainstream music, according to research published in the open access journal EPJ Data Science.

News coverage of expert scientific evidence on vaccine safety increases public acceptance of vaccination, but the positive effect is diminished when the expert message is juxtaposed with a personal narrative about real side effects, new research has found.

Throughout the world, societies discriminate against and mistreat members of certain social groups. Young children may express intergroup biases that lead to such outcomes, demonstrating preferences for their own over other groups. A new longitudinal study mimicked a situation in which children might overhear derogatory messages about a new social group. The study revealed that overhearing a stranger's negative claims about a social group, even in a brief comment, can have a lasting influence on children's attitudes towards the group.