https://phys.org/science-news/social-sciences en-us The latest news on social sciences, history, political science, psychology and sociology A series of 'bone biographies' created by a major research project tell the stories of medieval Cambridge residents as recorded on their skeletons, illuminating everyday lives during the era of Black Death and its aftermath. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-bone-biographies-reveal-medieval-england.html Archaeology Social Sciences Thu, 30 Nov 2023 19:00:01 EST news620582536 A new study, published in PLOS ONE, has uncovered a remarkable connection between individuals' musical preferences and their moral values, shedding new light on the profound influence that music can have on our moral compass. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-uncovers-link-musical-moral-compass.html Social Sciences Thu, 30 Nov 2023 11:23:03 EST news620565781 We tend to think of large cities as melting pots—places where people from all sorts of backgrounds can mingle and interact. But according to new research, people in big cities tend to primarily interact with other individuals in the same socioeconomic bracket, whereas people in small cities and rural areas are much more likely to have diverse interactions. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-big-cities-foster-socioeconomic-segregation.html Social Sciences Economics & Business Wed, 29 Nov 2023 15:10:09 EST news620493001 About 350 million people across Africa speak one or more of the 500 Bantu languages. New genetic analysis of modern and ancient individuals suggests that these populations probably originated in western Africa and then moved south and east in several waves. The study has been published in Nature. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-bantu-speaking-populations-expansion-africa.html Archaeology Social Sciences Wed, 29 Nov 2023 12:20:03 EST news620482801 These days, "Star Wars" is everywhere. There are numerous films and all kinds of merchandise. But is "Star Wars" also an integral part of the English language? That is the question Prof Dr. Christina Sanchez-Stockhammer, chair of English and Digital Linguistics at Chemnitz University of Technology, set out to investigate. "I wanted to find out whether words from the 'Star Wars' universe have already become part of our own universe," notes the linguist. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-star-wars-vocabulary.html Social Sciences Mon, 27 Nov 2023 13:35:44 EST news620314542 Recommender systems are machine learning applications in online platforms that automate tasks historically done by people. In the news industry, recommender algorithms can assume the tasks of editors who select which news stories people see online, with the goal of increasing the number of clicks by users, but few studies have examined how the two compare. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-algorithmic-technology-human-curation-online.html Social Sciences Mon, 27 Nov 2023 13:00:28 EST news620312423 Researchers from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) and Loyola University have discovered that personality does not seem to have much influence when it comes to choosing social friendships at school, which are based more on the closeness of our contacts, according to a study recently published in the journal PNAS. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-people-friendships-school.html Social Sciences Education Mon, 27 Nov 2023 12:44:00 EST news620311437 Research led by Nathan Nakatsuka of the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, Boston, has found evidence supporting migrations into California from Mexico and the presence of Mexican-related ancestry in Central and Southern California starting around 5,200 years ago. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-years-migrations-mexico-california-mystery.html Archaeology Social Sciences Mon, 27 Nov 2023 09:29:25 EST news620299762 A behavioral economist at the University of Bath in the U.K. has found evidence linking higher levels of unwarranted financial optimism with lower levels of cognitive ability. In his study, published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Chris Dawson surveyed thousands of people in the U.K. about their economic outlook and compared their responses with their true financial outlook. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-higher-financial-optimism-cognitive-ability.html Social Sciences Economics & Business Thu, 23 Nov 2023 10:00:01 EST news619782783 A new analysis suggests that a person with higher cognitive ability may have been more likely to vote "Remain" in the 2016 Brexit referendum, and that a spouse's cognitive skills may also be linked to Brexit voting decisions. Chris Dawson and Paul Baker of the University of Bath, U.K., present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on November 22, 2023. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-higher-cognitive-ability-linked-chance.html Social Sciences Political science Wed, 22 Nov 2023 14:00:01 EST news619867735 New research findings reveal that some children in early medieval Bavaria were breastfed for much longer periods than today. Also, many early Bavarians buried around 500 AD originate from other geographical regions where feeding practices apparently differed. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-childhood-medieval-bavaria-teeth-reveal.html Archaeology Social Sciences Wed, 22 Nov 2023 10:51:04 EST news619872662 A pair of sociologists, one with the University of Oslo, the other with the Polish Academy of Sciences has found that men benefit more in the workplace from being attractive than women do. In their study, reported in the journal Social Science Quarterly, Alexi Gugushvili and Grzegorz Bulczak describe analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (NLSAH). https://phys.org/news/2023-11-men-benefit-workplace-women.html Social Sciences Economics & Business Wed, 22 Nov 2023 10:10:05 EST news619869742 People who speak two languages may be better at shifting their attention from one thing to another compared to those who speak one, according to a study published this month in the journal Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-bilingual-brain-irrelevant.html Social Sciences Tue, 21 Nov 2023 16:26:44 EST news619806402 A new study shows that female academics are significantly underrepresented in winning academic prizes and having awards named after them. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-female-academics-prizes-award-woman.html Social Sciences Education Tue, 21 Nov 2023 16:26:31 EST news619806390 An analysis of 5.8 million authors across all scientific disciplines shows that the gender gap is closing, but there is still a long distance to go. The new research by John Ioannidis of the Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICs) at Stanford University, US, and colleagues, was published Nov. 21 in the journal PLOS Biology. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-most-cited-scientists-men-gender-gap.html Social Sciences Education Tue, 21 Nov 2023 14:00:02 EST news619778116 A team of psychologists and social scientists from Maynooth University, in Ireland, Ulster University, in Northern Ireland and Napier University, in Scotland, has found via questionnaire that traditional Irish wakes may help people deal better with the death of a loved one than somber funerals such as those conducted in the U.K. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-grief-questionnaire-results-irish-loss.html Social Sciences Tue, 21 Nov 2023 10:00:01 EST news619782722 Around the world, research agencies are struggling to achieve gender parity. A paper published in Nature Astronomy reports how a national Australian astronomy center achieved equal numbers of women and men using science. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-australian-astronomy-center-gender-parity.html Social Sciences Economics & Business Thu, 16 Nov 2023 11:00:01 EST news619347409 Using generic terms in politics may be exacerbating political division, a new study suggests. Statements such as "Democrats want to have tougher gun laws" and "Republicans want to ban abortion," can heighten perceived differences between the two political parties, the study says. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-generic-statements-widen-political-parties.html Social Sciences Political science Thu, 16 Nov 2023 09:54:03 EST news619350841 What influences the choices we make, and what role does the behavior of others have on these choices? These questions underlie many aspects of human behavior, including the products we buy, fashion trends, and even the breed of pet we choose as our companion. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-master-chess-players-gambits.html Mathematics Social Sciences Thu, 16 Nov 2023 09:49:05 EST news619350541 Twitter users in areas affected by major hurricanes discussed climate change much more frequently right after the hurricane, according to a study published November 23, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS Climate by Maddalena Torricelli from the City University of London, UK, and colleagues. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-twitter-users-states-affected-hurricanes.html Social Sciences Tue, 14 Nov 2023 14:00:03 EST news619178404 One Amazon review is written in the past tense: "I was thrilled when I put on this shirt!" Another reads, "I will definitely wear this shirt a lot." Yet another says, "I love wearing this shirt." https://phys.org/news/2023-11-persuasive-online-tense.html Social Sciences Tue, 14 Nov 2023 13:27:11 EST news619190828 By analyzing the results of many prior studies on the use of screen-based technologies by children, an international team of psychologists and human biomechanics researchers has found mixed outcomes. In their study, reported in the journal Nature Human Behavior, the group obtained and filtered data from previous research results to draw conclusions about the impact of screen time on children's health and well-being. The editors at Nature have also published a Research Briefing outlining the work. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-analysis-children-screen-positive-negative.html Social Sciences Tue, 14 Nov 2023 11:21:43 EST news619183300 Language has the power to shape our perceptions and interactions with the world. Different languages can coexist, but their dynamics are shaped by the communities that speak them—and how those communities interact with each other. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-languages-collide-survives.html Social Sciences Tue, 14 Nov 2023 11:00:01 EST news619178274 Banding together to sell fishing rights could generate economic benefits for African countries, which receive far less from access to their fisheries on the global market than other countries do from theirs. By joining forces, UC Santa Barbara researchers say in a paper published in Nature Communications, African fisheries would not just secure more competitive access fees, they could also protect their seas' biodiversity. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-fish-cartel-africa-benefit-countries.html Social Sciences Economics & Business Mon, 13 Nov 2023 16:02:37 EST news619113754 Though people often want to share good news as soon as they learn it, a study published by the American Psychological Association has found that keeping good news a secret before telling someone else could make people feel more energized and alive. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-secrets-brighten-day.html Social Sciences Mon, 13 Nov 2023 11:45:44 EST news619098339 Infants and toddlers may be psychologically wired to thrive with high levels of "sensitive care" and personal attention, according to a study conducted with contemporary hunter-gatherer societies. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-hunter-gatherer-approach-childcare-key-mother.html Archaeology Social Sciences Mon, 13 Nov 2023 11:45:05 EST news619098300 People in many parts of the United States possess few chances for the robust community engagement that underpins healthy democracies, according to a new report that for the first time maps civic opportunity across the country. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-unequal-civic-opportunity.html Social Sciences Political science Mon, 13 Nov 2023 11:00:02 EST news619090219 For the first time, scientists have used the concept of evolutionary traps on human societies at large. They find that humankind risks getting stuck in 14 evolutionary dead ends, ranging from global climate tipping points to misaligned artificial intelligence, chemical pollution, and accelerating infectious diseases. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-potential-evolutionary-dead-humanity-ways.html Social Sciences Economics & Business Mon, 13 Nov 2023 10:33:34 EST news619094010 Research led by Western Sydney University, Australia, has found that boys singing in a choir engage in simultaneous group cohesion and sexually motivated competition exhibited through voice modulation in the presence of a female audience. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-boys-choir-sexually-female-audiences.html Social Sciences Fri, 10 Nov 2023 08:58:32 EST news618829093 People are beginning to reconsider their reproductive decisions due to complex concerns about climate change, with many choosing to forego childbearing, or reduce the number of children they have as a result, finds a new study by UCL researchers. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-ethical-environmental-political-climate-affect.html Social Sciences Thu, 09 Nov 2023 14:00:01 EST news618747989