Social Sciences

Society recognizes that many politicians lie. In five new studies, researchers have examined how conservative and liberal Americans responded to media reports of politicians' falsehoods. Even accounting for partisan biases in how much people dismissed the reports as fake news and assumed the lies were unintentional, the studies consistently identified... Read more

Some Americans still say no to getting any COVID-19 vaccination even as others are currently committing to their fourth shot. What accounts for differences in attitude between the fully vaccinated and those who opt out? The biggest factor could be political ideology, a new survey from the University of Houston... Read more

The "anomie" concept—that the society is disintegrating and losing moral standards—explains why people with low socioeconomic status trust politics less than those with a higher one, concludes a new study published in the scientific journal Social Psychological Bulletin.... Read more

A new Concordia study of early childhood bilingualism in Canada reveals a portrait of language acquisition in the home that reflects the country's diversity. Immigration patterns, urban–rural demography and Indigenous populations are some of the main contributing factors to this varied picture.... Read more

Most teachers focus on academic considerations when assigning seats. A new study by Florida Atlantic University psychology researchers is the first to show that these classroom seat assignments also have important implications for children's friendships.... Read more

Experts and campaigners working to prevent cruel and inaccurate representation of self-harm have created new resources to encourage better portrayal of those in mental distress.... Read more

An estimated 83% of the 20 million LGBTQ+ people in the United States have experienced abuse or significant adverse childhood experiences (ACE) that have significantly impacted their mental health as adults compared to their heteronormative peers. This is associated with significantly higher rates of depression, anxiety, substance abuse and suicidal... Read more

The Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade last week could have devastating economic effects for women—especially low-income women of color—that will have both short- and long-term impacts, Alicia Modestino, associate professor of public policy and urban affairs and economics, said.... Read more

Census data to be released Tuesday shows Australia changing rapidly before COVID, gaining an extra one million residents from overseas in the past five years, almost all of them in the three years before borders were closed.... Read more

The latest census results are out and the number of Australians who selected "no religion" has risen again to 38.9%, up from 30.1% in 2016.... Read more

White supremacists are using the debate around women's reproductive rights to promote racist and extremist agendas, finds a new study released today, following news on Friday that millions of women in the US will lose the constitutional right to abortion.... Read more

When the COVID pandemic broke out and Italy experienced a strict lockdown, news stories started reporting anecdotal evidence about women forced to live under the same roof with abusive partners. However, scholars such as Selin Koksal, a Ph.D. Candidate in Public Policy at Bocconi University in Milan specializing in population... Read more

People who become wealthy in the United States may tend to boast of their humble beginnings, but new research finds that they may, in fact, be less sympathetic to the difficulties of being poor than those who were born rich.... Read more

People are less morally outraged when gender discrimination occurs because of an algorithm rather than direct human involvement, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.... Read more

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision Friday striking down the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade and 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey rulings, foreshadowed in a rare leak last month, is likely to have wide, but varying, effects nationally, several UO experts said.... Read more