Sharing Saliva: The One Clue Babies Use To Tell Who Has Close Relationships
Sharing food and kissing are among the signals babies use to interpret their social world, according to a new study. Learning to navigate social relationships…
Behavioral Science
Researchers Find the Best Way To Fix a Sad Mood: Whatever You Think Works Best
What’s the best way to improve a sad mood? It may be whatever skill you think you’re best at, a new study suggests. Think you’re…
The Great Reset: Support for Populist Politics “Collapsed” Globally During the COVID Pandemic
Support for populist parties and politicians, and agreement with populist sentiment, has diminished during the pandemic, according to a “mega-dataset” taking in attitudes of over…
Improving Reading Skills by Playing Action Video Games
An Italian-Swiss team demonstrates children reading skills can be improved through a novel child-friendly action video game. Decoding letters into sound is a key point…
Inciting Instead of Coercing: “Nudges” Prove Their Effectiveness in Changing People’s Behavior
A team from the UNIGE demonstrates that certain soft incentive techniques, known as “nudges,” are effective in getting people to change their behavior. Developed by…
Challenging “Rule Breakers” – Children Will Confront Their Peers, but How They Do So Varies Across Cultures
Led by the University of Plymouth, UK, and Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, the study analyzed the behavior of 376 children aged five to eight from…
The Science of Gift Wrapping Explains Why Sloppy Is Better Than Neat
They say appearances can be deceiving. In the case of gift giving, they might be right. Consumers in the U.S. spend billions of dollars a…
MIT Scientists Find Clues to Why Fake News Snowballs on Social Media
A new model shows that the more polarized and hyperconnected a social network is, the more likely misinformation will spread. The spread of misinformation on…
Testosterone Drives the Dark Side of Success: Meerkat Societies Fall Apart When Aggression Is Taken Away
Cooperation and aggression. Meerkats are showing us that one may not be possible without the other. In a study appearing this week in the journal…
New Research Reveals the Human and Economic Impacts of COVID-19
New research reveals the economic costs of behavioral responses to the pandemic in the U.S. Throughout its unsteady course, the COVID-19 pandemic has altered the…
Scientists Capture Earliest Emergence of Humor in Children
Young children’s ability to laugh and make jokes has been mapped by age for the first time using data from a new study involving nearly…
Steering Evolution in a Better Direction: Game Theory and Economics Show How
Human behavior drives the evolution of biological organisms in ways that can profoundly adversely impact human welfare. Understanding people’s incentives when they do so is…
Conspiracy Theorists Exploited COVID-19 Science – Here’s How
Conspiracists have used the provisional nature of science to paint scientists as malign actors. Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, conspiracy theorists have exploited the conditional nature…
Latest Research on Violent Video Games Finds No Link to Real-Life Violence
As the latest ‘Call of Duty’ video game is released today, research shows that violent video games do not lead to increased violence. Mass media…
Americans Love the Billionaire, but Hate the Billionaires’ Club
How inequality is expressed matters for policy views. Americans may respect and admire how individual billionaires – think Oprah Winfrey or Bill Gates – made…
How People Can End Up Living at Airports for Months – Even Years – at a Time
In January, local authorities arrested a 36-year-old man named Aditya Singh after he had spent three months living at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. Since October,…
Color-Coded Nutrition Labels and Warnings Linked to Healthier Food Purchases
New analysis of 118 studies conducted over 30 years could help refine, improve food labeling policies. A new analysis has integrated findings from 134 studies…
“Hands-On” Meets “Minds-On” – New Research Shows Learning Is More Effective When Active
Engaging students through interactive activities, discussions, feedback, and AI-enhanced technologies resulted in improved academic performance compared to traditional lectures, lessons, or readings, faculty from Carnegie…