Society

A new global study shows that people in societies characterized by corruption, inequality, poverty, and violence are more likely to develop aversive, "dark" personality characteristics such as selfishness or spitefulness.... Read more

What makes a person willing to use violence?... Read more

NPR recently reported that the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Futures Lab is experimenting with tools such as DeepSeek and ChatGPT to explore how artificial intelligence could change—and improve—how foreign policy decisions are made.... Read more

"China virus," the Chinese virus—at the start of the 2020 pandemic, this epithet was often encountered in the media. The use of geographically based labels to define the disease (COVID-19) and the virus causing it (SARS-CoV-2) had significant consequences on public opinion, fueling and amplifying—sometimes with very serious outcomes—prejudices against... Read more

Populist parties have long ceased to be a marginal phenomenon. They are now an established political force in many European countries and are fundamentally challenging the democratic system. These parties use harsh rhetoric against the "elite" and present themselves as the sole representatives of the "true will of the people."... Read more

Households affected by high electricity prices during the energy crisis tend to be more negative toward climate policy. Research from the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg shows that perceived unfairness reinforces misconceptions about fuel taxes.... Read more

Large cuts to government-funded research and development can endanger American innovation—and the vital productivity gains it supports.... Read more

An international research collaboration used AI as research participants and discovered that knowledge-enhanced large language models are able to critically assess forensic expert testimonies.... Read more

Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway and the UK this week announced sanctions against two members of the Israeli cabinet: National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.... Read more

There was a time when corporate America was not very online. Most companies used social media for promoting products and services or engaging with consumers in a friendly fashion. Political posts on a company Twitter account were rare.... Read more

Nearly 40% of U.S. cities analyzed in a study in NPJ Complexity diverge from the common narrative that Republican-dominated areas have high levels of implicit racial bias while Democratic strongholds are more tolerant.... Read more

People with higher levels of trust—in both others and institutions—report higher levels of subjective well-being, an important indicator of quality of life and predictor of health and longevity, than those with lower levels of trust, according to research published in Psychological Bulletin.... Read more

The COVID-19 pandemic, Russia's war on Ukraine, geopolitical tensions, climate change and other events highlight our growing exposure to complex, interconnected, and intertwining risks. In view of this development, the focus of risk research has shifted towards the comprehensive analysis of interconnected and mutually interactive risk sources and crises.... Read more

Over the past two decades, conflicts in more than 40 countries, including El Salvador, Northern Ireland, Senegal and the Philippines, have ended in comprehensive peace agreements. But these broader accords don't happen all at once.... Read more

A recent study by researchers at the University of Padua and the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) has revealed that political differences between partners can significantly increase the risk of separation. Using long-term data from UK couples, the researchers found that those with different party preferences were substantially... Read more

A new study by Northwestern University asks whether voters approve of politicians who use the power of their office to retaliate against corporate political speech criticizing the politician's actions.... Read more

Since becoming president, Donald Trump has aggressively sought to fulfill his campaign promise to reverse the Biden administration's protection of transgender Americans.... Read more

The number of armed conflicts in the world reached a historic high in 2024. This is shown by new data from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) at Uppsala University. Despite a marginal decrease in total fatalities, targeted violence against civilians increased significantly.... Read more

Walter Cronkite was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" as he delivered the news on CBS in the 1960s and '70s—a time when fewer news options created a "shared reality" that scholars argue fostered civic engagement, empathy, and shared national identity. The situation looks quite different in... Read more

The Dutch Golden Age, beginning in 1588, is known for the art of Rembrandt, the invention of the microscope, and the spice trade of the Dutch East India Company. It ended a little under a century later in a frenzy of body parts and mob justice.... Read more

US states that loosened their gun laws following a landmark court ruling saw thousands more childhood firearm deaths than they otherwise would have—the vast majority homicides and suicides—according to a study published Monday.... Read more

A University of the Sunshine Coast study has found most young people charged with assaulting police had experienced childhood abuse, poverty, unstable housing and institutional failures.... Read more

Russian leaders have increasingly used museums and their digital collections to show propaganda about Slavic unity and deny Ukrainian identity since the 2022 invasion, analysis shows.... Read more

Twelve people in Boulder, Colorado, were injured by a man wielding a makeshift flamethrower and Molotov cocktails on June 1, 2025. Those burned in the attack were taking part in a peaceful, silent walk on Pearl Street, a pedestrian mall, with the aim of raising awareness about Israeli hostages held... Read more

Many Americans say they have lost trust in national news—but most still believe they can rely on the accuracy of local news.... Read more

A new study by The University of New Mexico identifies two different Instagram profiles and how they are associated with using Instagram to stay informed about political and social issues.... Read more

When US President Donald Trump introduced sweeping new tariffs on Chinese imports the goal was to bring manufacturing back to American soil and protect local jobs.... Read more

The internet might seem like a convenient culprit driving recent attention and concerns about misinformation, but pointing fingers exclusively at the digital age is narrow and limiting.... Read more

Amid intensifying trade wars, geopolitical tensions, and surging demand for AI and clean energy technologies, United Nations scientists and global experts have unveiled a bold proposal for a "Global Minerals Trust"—a cooperative, multilateral governance mechanism to ensure fair, sustainable, and conflict-free access to critical minerals.... Read more

On May 9, Lourdia Jean-Pierre, a 32-year-old Haitian migrant woman, died after giving birth in her rural home in El Ceibo, Dominican Republic. The cause of death was a postpartum hemorrhage, according to a news report in The Haitian Times.... Read more

A new study examining conflicting trends in official violent crime statistics reveals that the leading measure in England and Wales underestimates the level of violent crime—and the findings challenge official confidence in a downward trend.... Read more

In our national discussions on domestic and family violence, much of the focus is rightly on the women experiencing the violence and how best to help them.... Read more

Bills related to adolescent social media regulation have been adopted in more than half of all U.S. states. Research in The Milbank Quarterly finds that these state policies—such as school cell phone bans and anti-cyberbullying laws—have significant limitations. The study identifies research priorities that will help inform more effective interventions.... Read more

Amid global rollbacks of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives—from the United States to parts of Europe—a new study has found that US state-level protections for LGBTQIA+ employees are not only helping to curb workplace discrimination, but are also driving greater gender diversity in corporate boardrooms.... Read more

Brazil's Quilombola people, the descendants of Africans who escaped slavery, have lived in the nation's vast Amazon and Atlantic rainforests for centuries. Today, the Quilombolas number about 1.3 million people in the country and have cultivated deep ties to their ancestral territories, where they raise their families and steward the... Read more

President Donald Trump's critics often accuse him of harboring authoritarian ambitions. Journalists and scholars have drawn parallels between his leadership style and that of strongmen abroad. Some Democrats warn that the U.S. is sliding toward autocracy—a system in which one leader holds unchecked power.... Read more

Modern Britain is plagued by a sense of disempowerment and political exclusion—a feeling that is, somewhat ironically, shared between groups of people who otherwise feel divided from one another.... Read more

Mexico's drug cartels are often described as powerful rivals to the state, with their influence measured in weapons, money and murdered officials. But this framing misses a fundamental truth. Organized crime in Mexico is also a system of gendered governance—one that disciplines, controls and sometimes eliminates women to consolidate power.... Read more

Algorithmically-driven social media has split red and blue America into separate information environments. But a new online tool, developed at Harvard, can bring citizens back together.... Read more

Framing is a powerful tool in communications: It can help people grasp complex ideas, but it can also distort or mislead. A recent sociological study suggests that framing social issues as "civil rights" can sometimes have surprising and even negative consequences.... Read more

When most people think of how governments stifle free speech, they think of censorship. That's when a government directly blocks or suppresses speech. In the past, the federal government has censored speech in various ways. It has tried to block news outlets from publishing certain stories. It has punished political... Read more

The European Union has just imposed a new package of sanctions against Russia—now the seventeenth. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the U.S. and EU had already imposed extensive economic sanctions, combined with far-reaching export bans.... Read more

Veterans across the United States will gather on June 6, 2025, to protest the Trump administration's cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as the slashing of staff and programs throughout the government. Veteran-led protests will be held at the National Mall, 16 state capitol buildings and over... Read more

Community policies, such as those for zoning or parking, are typically made at the top, which can leave community members feeling frustrated or left out of the process. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science (SCS) developed the web-based tool PolicyCraft to help community members use concrete cases... Read more

During his first few months in office, President Donald Trump has been establishing a framework for deporting undocumented immigrants en masse. It's something he has previously vowed will be "the largest deportation operation in the history of our country."... Read more

A major Australian study tracking more than 80,000 Queenslanders from birth to adulthood reveals stark differences between men and women in patterns of criminal behavior.... Read more

Drones have become a game-changer in the Russia-Ukraine War—so much so that they could potentially transform Ukraine into a defense powerhouse in Europe, according to one Northeastern University observer.... Read more

Complaint lines such as New York City's 311 let people report quality-of-life problems in their building or neighborhood, from excessive noise to illegal parking. But resident-generated data typically suffers from reporting bias, with some neighborhoods and addresses calling attention to problems at lower rates than others.... Read more

On the campaign trail last year, then-candidate Donald Trump proposed handing US residency cards automatically to international students when they earn diplomas, bemoaning that they were leaving to form successful companies in China and India.... Read more

An intense argument is raging over whether what has been happening in Gaza since October 2023 is an act of genocide. It is the subject of a case being heard in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in which South Africa has accused Israel of committing acts of genocide. The... Read more