Phys.org-Social Sciences

In a new book, University of Mississippi sociologist Amy McDowell says small talk can be used as a tool to block meaningful conversation in the evangelical church, leaving some people feeling isolated in their beliefs […]

A new study from The University of New Mexico offers a nationwide look at how Americans discuss one of the most enduring forms of housing discrimination—redlining—using more than a decade of social media data. The […]

Commonly used self-report measures of romantic relationships may capture people’s overall appraisal of their relationship more than measuring distinct relationship facets such as communication, conflict and affection, according to a new study published in PLOS […]

Findings from the Systematizing Confidence in Open Research and Evidence (SCORE) program—a collaborative effort involving 865 researchers—have been published in Nature as a collection of three papers alongside a release of five additional preprints. The […]

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to influence all facets of our personal and professional lives, questions abound, like, “Can people have actual feelings for robots?” or “Can a chatbot comfort someone in distress?” Penn State […]

Women are missing out at work not just because of pay gaps or bias, but because they simply do not have the same time as men to compete. That is the conclusion of a new […]

Taylor Little became so badly addicted to her smartphone that she felt she had lost many of her teenage years. “I was literally trapped by addiction at age 12 and lost my teenage years because […]

In the medieval European imagination, racial difference was often highly polarized. Black people were perceived either as exotic status symbols—including saints and wealthy rulers such as the Queen of Sheba—or as subjugated figures, considered inferior […]

Anna spends most of her workday typing on her laptop. After a few hours, she starts rubbing her wrists as her pain sets in. A glance at her desk reveals the painkillers that she uses […]

An individual’s position in the income hierarchy is a stronger predictor of well-being than either how much they earn or how large the income gap is between them and others, finds new research from the […]