Society

Psychologists have intensively studied the factors that make both eyewitnesses and victims more or less susceptible to memory distortion. But to date there has been no experimental evidence comparing memory suggestibility between the complainants and accused in sexual assault cases.... Read more

With control of Congress and a check on the Trump administration at issue in the 2026 midterm elections, the upcoming election cycle may again see claims of voter fraud. But warning voters beforehand that there may be false claims about the election, and providing them with information on election security... Read more

The Christchurch terrorist's so-called manifesto wasn't an honest account of his motives, but a calculated piece of propaganda designed to mislead the public, manipulate emotions and inspire further violence.... Read more

The fears are familiar: Artificial intelligence is going to eat our jobs, make our students weak and lazy and possibly destroy democracy for good measure.... Read more

Humor has become one of the most potent weapons in the populist politician's playbook. Comedic populists like Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Argentinian president Javier Milei use ridicule, absurdity and sarcasm not just to entertain, but to deflect criticism, confuse opponents and present themselves as relatable outsiders. Their... Read more

In World War II, Britain was fighting for its survival against German aerial bombardment. Yet Britain was importing dyes from Germany at the same time. This sounds curious, to put it mildly. How can two countries at war with each other also be trading goods?... Read more

The brains of politically extreme individuals, whether left- or right-leaning, appear to respond to and process political information in surprisingly similar ways, according to research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The paper is titled "Politically extreme individuals exhibit similar neural processing despite ideological differences."... Read more

AI is already changing the way many of us work, but in the delicate art of diplomatic relations between nations, a former diplomat has warned colleagues to be careful using the tool.... Read more

Growing dissatisfaction among the population, loss of trust in politics, increase in crime and violence: Economic inequality leads to a variety of social consequences. Nevertheless, the issue plays a much smaller role in the election manifestos of political parties both in Germany and in other countries than researchers had previously... Read more

University of Texas at Arlington researcher Kathleen Preble is expanding her human trafficking research from Missouri to Texas, aiming to create a blueprint other states can use to address this growing problem.... Read more

While previous research shows outrage and division drive engagement on social media, a new study of digital behavior during the 2024 US election finds that this effect flips during a major crisis—when "ingroup solidarity" becomes the engine of online virality.... Read more

More than 70% of voters in Colorado's Douglas County, conservative and progressive alike, voted "no" on home rule in June 2025. The ballot measure would have granted the county increased control over certain local matters such as building zoning, parking rules and sewer maintenance.... Read more

The 1953 Alfred Hitchcock film "I Confess," based on an earlier play, features a priest suspected of murder. He's innocent, and has even heard the murderer's confession—but cannot clear his own name.... Read more

Women face an uphill battle to political election, and they continue to confront barriers to success afterward. But the type of legislature in their states can make a difference.... Read more

Millions of U.S. students are returning this month to schools that are struggling with strained resources, immigration crackdowns and divisive culture war fights. Teachers are under intense pressure—and UC Berkeley scholar Travis J. Bristol says that stress often falls most heavily on Black teachers.... Read more

The Australian legal system is grappling with a disruptive new movement that is not only tying up the courts, councils and police, but also posing an unprecedented threat to democracy.... Read more

Psychologists have long considered how a tendency towards irrational thinking or particular personality traits might predict people's interest in conspiracies. Yet these individual factors do not explain the group processes through which conspiracy theorists are extending their influence and impact.... Read more

Since 1990, more than 2.5 million people have died as a direct or indirect result of civil conflict in Africa. One of the causes of conflict, which increasingly involves clashes between predominantly Muslim herding and Christian farming communities, may well have been competition over agricultural resources, brought on by the... Read more

Many things account for Haiti's modern troubles. A good perspective on them comes from going back in time to 1715 or so—and grappling with a far-flung narrative involving the French monarchy, a financial speculator named John Law, and a stock-market crash called the "Mississippi Bubble."... Read more

There were tens of thousands of human victims of coerced medical research under the German National Socialist regime. An important approach to processing these crimes involves raising awareness of the individual fates of those affected and thus giving them back their names and histories.... Read more

U.S. states are increasingly adopting legislation to address substance use among pregnant and postpartum individuals. But a new study from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health finds that punitive laws are largely ineffective and may actually harm those they aim to protect. These laws can undermine trust between patients... Read more

Australia has recently rolled out some of the world's toughest laws aimed at curbing the youth vaping epidemic. But new research published in Tobacco Control demonstrates these crucial public health measures could be vulnerable unless policymakers prepare to defend them on the world stage.... Read more

UC San Diego researchers show that paying enforcers to punish makes people less likely to cooperate with others, which has major implications for law-enforcement quotas, asset forfeiture, and for-profit prisons.... Read more

Several pieces of legislation across the world are coming into effect this year to tackle harms experienced online, such as the UK's Online Safety Act and Australia's Online Safety Act. There are also new standards, regulations, acts and laws related to digital products (including smart devices such as voice assistants,... Read more

Cop30, the UN climate summit scheduled to take place this November in the Brazilian city of Belém, is embroiled in a controversy that has nothing to do with solving the planet's environmental problems. Currently occupying debate about the conference is what Brazil's press is calling the "hosting crisis."... Read more

California Jews are reporting significantly greater symptoms of depression and anxiety since the Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians in October 2023, according to a University of California, Davis, study.... Read more

A new study highlights how disruptions in classifieds impacted political coverage, creating opportunities for more extreme candidates.... Read more

We live in an age of declining trust in public institutions: parliament, the health and education systems, courts and police have all suffered over the past decade, both in New Zealand and internationally.... Read more

Eighty years ago this week, Japan surrendered after nearly four years of war in the Asia-Pacific. For Australia, this meant the end of not only the war in the Pacific, but also the Second World War that had begun six years earlier, in September 1939.... Read more

Fear of deportation among people in the United States without permanent legal status declines with age, according to a study recently published by a University of Oregon researcher.... Read more

The Trump administration and Harvard University are reportedly close to reaching a settlement that would require Harvard to pay US$500 million in exchange for the government releasing frozen federal funding and ending an investigation into antisemitism on campus.... Read more

When people trust science, they can make better decisions, follow helpful rules and work together on big problems like health, climate change and new technology. But if people stop trusting science, it's easier for false information to spread, and harder to solve those problems.... Read more

Online political debates are often characterized by sharp divisions, personal attacks and a low level of information. But a new study from the University of Copenhagen and King's College London shows that this does not have to be the case. By adjusting just a few elements in the way we... Read more

A CU Boulder-led initiative to reduce youth violence in hard-hit Denver neighborhoods was associated with a 75% decline in arrests for murder, assault, robbery and other youth crimes in recent years, new research shows.... Read more

Researchers at the King Center on Global Development are addressing challenges such as gender-based violence and low labor participation, with the aim to inform supportive policy interventions.... Read more

With his Aug. 11, 2025, announcement that he was sending the National Guard—along with federal law enforcement—into Washington, D.C. to fight crime, President Donald Trump edged U.S. troops closer to the kind of military-civilian confrontations that can cross ethical and legal lines.... Read more

In 2013, a wave of protests began in Turkey in opposition to the planned demolition of Gezi Park in Istanbul. The protests soon evolved into mass anti-government demonstrations, and a landmark moment in the country's history of resistance.... Read more

When politicians redraw congressional district maps to favor their party, they may secure short-term victories. But those wins can come at a steep price—a loss of public faith in elections and, ultimately, in democracy itself.... Read more

Half of U.S. adults report using at least one "major AI tool," but public attitudes about artificial intelligence regulation remain divided nationwide, according to a new survey.... Read more

In the spring of 2020, everything changed. Many people's lives moved online. Court trials were no exception.... Read more

By the time the next US election takes place in 2028, millennial and gen Z voters—who already watch over six hours of media content a day—will make up the majority of the electorate. As gen alpha (people born between 2010 and 2024) also comes of voting age, social media platforms... Read more

A study of the Liverpool boycott of The Sun newspaper following the Hillsborough disaster has found that the boycott shaped people's perceptions of political parties and made people more left wing.... Read more

As climate hazards escalate, communities facing repetitive disasters in high-risk areas must weigh the economic and social trade-offs of rebuilding versus relocating. A Risk Analysis study has found that residents and government officials may have different ideas about how public funds should be spent to adapt to extreme weather events... Read more

The international community must reverse cuts to humanitarian aid for the Rohingya and work with Dhaka authorities to improve conditions in refugee camps, a new study says. The work is published in the journal Third World Quarterly.... Read more

The United States could achieve modest economic benefits by applying uniform tariffs on all trade partners, according to new research led by a University of California, Davis, economist. However, the complicated realities of supply chains, global trade and its downstream effects on people and businesses could offset economic gains and... Read more

Reducing the rising tide of political extremism—and violence—in the United States and beyond may require a rethinking of how we understand the forces that drive polarization, according to a study from the University of Toronto.... Read more

When the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's urban search and rescue team resigned after the deadly July 4, 2025, Texas floods, he told colleagues he was frustrated with bureaucratic hurdles that had delayed the team's response to the disaster, according to media reports. The move highlighted an ongoing... Read more

Whether in Belgium, Poland, or Ukraine, when asked about their nation's role under Nazi occupation, many Europeans today primarily see their own population as victims—or as heroes. This is the key finding of a cross-national study led by Dr. Fiona Kazarovytska from the Department of Social and Legal Psychology at... Read more

If you've interacted with an artificial intelligence chatbot, you've likely realized that all AI models are biased. They were trained on enormous corpuses of unruly data and refined through human instructions and testing. Bias can seep in anywhere. Yet how a system's biases can affect users is less clear.... Read more

What turns a democratically elected leader into an authoritarian? The process is rarely abrupt. It unfolds gradually and is often justified as a necessary reform. It is framed as what the people wanted. All this makes it difficult for citizens to recognize what is happening until it's too late.... Read more