News by Subject Social & Behavior

The federal government, in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, could learn from how the nation responded to Hurricane Katrina, 9/11 and the H1N1 swine flu, a new study found.

According to new research, when people are explicitly told that they are free to accept or reject propagandistic claims, the likelihood of choosing a moderate view increases. This was a result of a survey of attitudes that tested counter-propaganda strategies, which stressed a person's autonomy, and then measured sentiments after exposure.

The social science literature has long viewed homophily and network-based job recruitment as crucial drivers of segregation. Researchers at Linköping University and ESADE, Ramon Llull University now show that this view must be revised. In their Science Advances article, they call attention to a previously unidentified factor, the Trojan-horse mechanism, which shows that network-based recruitment can reduce rather than increase segregation levels.

New research by the University of Kent and the SWPS University has discovered that national narcissists are more likely to support greenwashing (misleading information about the environmental benefits of a product, a company or a policy) in order to improve their nation's public image.

Digitalization can support transitions towards a more sustainable society if technologies and processes are designed in line with suitable criteria. This requires a systemic focus on risks and benefits of digital technologies across the dimensions of sustainable development: environment, society, and economy. This is the conclusion of a study prepared by a team of researchers at the IASS in Potsdam. Applying this precautionary approach to digitalization requires the active involvement of developers, users, and regulators.

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.

Spain is among the five countries in the world with the highest levels of social acceptance of LGBTIQ+ people and rights, and was the third country in the world to legalize same-sex marriages, in 2005. In 2019, 3.1% of marriages were between same-sex couples (INE 2020). In this context, it would seem consistent that sexual orientation should not determine wage inequalities. But is this really so? What is the relationship between sexual orientation and wages?

A new study based on the personal accounts of former white supremacists and Islamic extremists describes what leads people to join extremist groups and, at least in some cases, leave these groups and their radical ideologies. Findings include the observation that people who radicalize often are triggered by negative life events, and those who escape from extreme groups frequently are aided by an individual or group that intervenes to help them reject the philosophy.

EU imports of products contribute significantly to deforestation in other parts of the world. In a new study, published in One Earth, researchers from University of Louvain and Chalmers University of Technology, evaluated thousands of policy proposals for how the EU could reduce this impact, to assess which would have the largest potential to reduce deforestation.

Nearly 20% of Americans, or more than 46 million adults, say they did not seek treatment for a health problem in the last year due to cost, and an equal number say that if they needed some form of healthcare today they would not be able to afford it, according to a new West Health-Gallup survey.