Society

Most of us like to believe we would have opposed the rise of Nazism in 1930s Germany. We may even like to imagine that we would have bravely fought for the resistance to Nazism in the 1940s. But would we? Our ability to take a stand may be put to... Read more

President Donald Trump unveiled a sweeping new tariff plan on April 2, 2025, to reshape U.S. trade and boost domestic industry.... Read more

Even before President Donald Trump took office, university presidents expressed concern about the impact of his agenda on higher education.... Read more

If someone picks up a newspaper in China, there's a good chance it contains some government propaganda masquerading as news, according to a new study co-led by a University of Oregon expert.... Read more

Refugees resettled in the U.S. often define success in ways that go far beyond economic self-sufficiency, according to a new study co-authored by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis. Published in Refugee Survey Quarterly, the study challenges long-held assumptions about what makes resettlement successful in the U.S.... Read more

I teach history in Connecticut, but I grew up in Oklahoma and Kansas, where my interest in the subject was sparked by visits to local museums.... Read more

Securing the future of local journalism is attracting attention from industry, policymakers and academics across the globe, at a time when the landscape is radically shifting. "News deserts" are emerging and, to fill them, community Facebook pages, local government newsletters and digital startups are springing up.... Read more

Elon Musk's support of President Donald Trump in the 2024 election and subsequent role in his administration has led to a flight of Democratic consumer support for Tesla that could be harming the company's bottom line, according to a new study co-authored by a Northeastern University faculty member.... Read more

A new study reveals that while high-quality, nonjudgmental listening improves how people feel about a conversation—reducing defensiveness and enhancing perceptions of the listener—it does not make persuasive messages more effective at changing attitudes.... Read more

A new study reveals that how your brain reacts to food purchasing decisions can be used to determine your political affiliation with almost 80% accuracy.... Read more

When we hear about immigration from politicians and media across Europe, the story is almost always negative. In some countries, this is old news. The UK tabloid press has printed thousands of anti-migrant articles over the last two decades. Anti-immigrant rhetoric has been a feature of Danish politics since the... Read more

Ever since the United States government's unfulfilled promise of giving every newly freed Black American "40 acres and a mule" after the Civil War, descendants of the enslaved have repeatedly proposed the idea of redistributing land to redress the nation's legacies of slavery.... Read more

A study of the use of AI by a Russian-backed propaganda outlet shows how AI allows propagandists to increase their production capacity without any loss in persuasive power. In December 2023, journalists at the BBC and Clemson University's Media Forensics Hub published an investigation revealing that the site DCWeekly.org was... Read more

Election interference is a much broader phenomenon than is often assumed. Once limited to intimidation, voter fraud or hacking, election interference includes more mundane, pervasive and ubiquitous interactions. A seemingly innocuous and casual chat with a neighbor or barista could now be considered part of a hostile influence campaign.... Read more

Police reports of hate crimes in 42 major U.S. cities declined 2.7% in 2024, hovering around modern records, according to preliminary data from a new multi-city survey by an emeritus researcher from California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB). But anti-Jewish hate crimes rose 12% and anti-Muslim hate crimes increased 18%,... Read more

Who are the alt-right, and what do they stand for? The term is broad—an alt-right supporter could be anyone from an armed insurrectionist to an armchair political pundit—but they tend to have one thing in common.... Read more

An authoritarian regime is a type of government system where power is restricted in the hands of a single leader or a group, limiting the participation of citizens in decision-making. As authoritarian states like China and Russia intensify their global information campaigns, a new study highlights Japan's vulnerability to illiberal... Read more

The 2011 Egyptian uprisings—part of what became known by many as the "Arab Spring"—were noted for their heavy social media use, with protesters often broadcasting demonstrations in real time. But a prominent Facebook group's posting style changed markedly in the subsequent period that brought new leadership to the country, according... Read more

A major new survey of young people's attitudes and priorities has found that while young people believe in democracy over dictatorship, they think that UK democracy is in trouble.... Read more

Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently boarded one of the UK's four nuclear-armed submarines for a photo call as part of his attempts to demonstrate the UK's defense capabilities as tensions with Russia continue.... Read more

People with strong political views about immigration can wield significant influence by crafting tweets laden with metaphors, shaping how others grasp this hotly contested issue.... Read more

Population surveillance. The carrying of identification while traveling. Add to that the public presence of diverse religions and it sounds like 2025, but this was life in the Ottoman Empire 200 years ago. Yet this seeming tolerance of non-Muslim faiths was in fact tied to the first two aspects, according... Read more

Since January, the Trump administration has imposed a host of new tariffs and restrictive trade measures, including tariffs on steel and aluminum and increased levies on imports from China. The administration also issued and then temporarily paused sweeping tariffs on Mexico and Canada. In response, the European Union, Canada and... Read more

A newly-published study in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin provides insight into how Democrats and Republicans viewed the 2018 Senate hearings on sexual assault allegations against then-Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh.... Read more

To encourage scientists to speak up when people misuse science to serve political agendas, biology professor Mark Peifer of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill argues that eugenics should be included in college genetics curriculums.... Read more

We live in a world where misinformation spreads easily, deepfakes blur reality and political spin reshapes narratives. So, our ability to verify accurate information has never been more critical.... Read more

Elon Musk's X is on pace for its first year of advertising revenue growth since the billionaire acquired the company in 2022, according to research firm Emarketer—in part because advertisers are reacting to Musk's power in the Donald Trump administration.... Read more

"Angry" citizens often experience a lack of trust in politics and democracy. Governments are doing everything they can to involve this group in democracy again with referendums and participatory budgets. Research by Rosa Kindt shows that this is having an effect: these meetings provide satisfaction and a feeling of being... Read more

As Canada moves toward stronger AI regulation with the proposed Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA), its southern neighbor appears to be taking the opposite approach.... Read more

Immigration has dominated recent election campaigns in countries that include the United Kingdom, France, Germany and the United States.... Read more

Until the 1990s, Venezuela was home to one of the most established democracies in Latin America. Today, however, it stands as one of the region's most firmly entrenched authoritarian regimes.... Read more

Since the UK Labor government took office in summer 2024, calls have intensified to scrap both the "two-child limit"—which restricts support for children through universal credit to two children—and the overall benefit cap. With Chancellor Rachel Reeves resisting this pressure as she tries to manage deteriorating public finances, ways of... Read more

Polarization in lower-income countries largely flows from economic and material issues, while social topics and identity-related debates are the most polarizing subjects in richer nations, new research reveals.... Read more

When I taught research methods to undergraduates, I would start by asking whether anyone in the class had $20. Though harder to come by thanks to digital payment options, inevitably someone would produce a $20 bill. I would then ask whether they knew how the bill came to look the... Read more

People convicted of federal white-collar crimes come from different social and demographic backgrounds compared to those convicted of other offenses. Typically older and from the middle class, white-collar offenders face unique challenges during reentry into society. Yet, research on how social class influences their reintegration remains scarce.... Read more

Polygamy—a legally or customarily recognized marriage involving three or more people—is currently illegal in Australia. However, new research suggests a way to legalize the practice without disrupting the foundations of Australian marriage law.... Read more

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being used in many countries worldwide to provide public social services, assisting in entitlement decisions to state-paid pensions and unemployment benefits, assessments of asylum applications, and assignments of places at kindergartens. AI technology is intended to help apply fairness criteria in the allocation of this... Read more

Researchers analyzed three decades of sanctions on foreign aid to assess their impact on health. They hope the work can help government officials better understand and address how foreign policy decisions affect the well-being of local populations.... Read more

Trying to persuade people with different political views can be fatiguing and frustrating, but it's not as pointless as we might think. New research shows that even on divisive issues, far more persuasion attempts succeeded than backfired.... Read more

The Trump administration's dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development is unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled on March 18, 2025. The court order to pause the agency's shuttering came days after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that 83% of its programs had been cut.... Read more

The global trade landscape is shifting, and not in the way free traders had hoped. For decades, the belief that economic openness could foster peace and stability reigned supreme. Trade, it was argued, could transform authoritarian regimes into more peaceful players.... Read more

When the New Scientist revealed that it had obtained a UK government minister's ChatGPT prompts through a freedom of information (FOI) request, many in journalism and politics did a double take. Science and technology minister Peter Kyle had apparently asked the AI chatbot to draft a speech, explain complex policy,... Read more

Protestors charged with non-violent offenses should be able to explain their motives in court as part of their legal defense, new research says.... Read more

Why do people living in democratic countries vote for political candidates who openly violate democratic standards? A new study by a University of Notre Dame researcher has found that diverse understandings of democracy among voters can lead to votes for authoritarian-leaning political leaders.... Read more

Internal displacement in Syria was used by the Assad regime to reshape the country's political and social landscape, a new study shows.... Read more

Freezes on funding committed to research and international aid. Mass firings of federal employees. Ending birthright citizenship. Threatened deportations of legal immigrants.... Read more

Three in 10 Generation Z (Gen-Z) Australians who did not register for the 2022 federal election said they either did not know they had to register to vote or did not know how to.... Read more

Governments, international bodies and researchers rely on global population data for resource allocation and infrastructure planning to disease epidemiology and disaster risk management. In a study published in Nature Communications, researchers from Aalto University in Finland show the profound and systematic extent to which these datasets underestimate rural population figures... Read more

From a very young age, we're socialized to view the world as being made up of "goodies" and "baddies." When you're a child fooling around with your friends in the playground, nobody ever wants to be the baddy. And when it comes to dressing up, everybody wants to be Luke... Read more

A state law signed Feb. 28, 2025, removes gender identity as a protected status from the Iowa Civil Rights Act, leaving transgender people vulnerable to discrimination. The rights of transgender people—those who present gender characteristics that differ from what has historically been expected of someone based on their biological sex... Read more