People get more done working a four-day week.
An Icelandic thinktank, Alda, has published a report on two multiyear studies that indicate it really is better to work smarter, not harder – or […]
sociology
Social media a threat to humanity, warn biologists, ecologists, and other unlikely experts.
Recode echoes a warning published in PNAS and signed by 17 researchers in fields as disparate as climate science, biology, and philosophy. They’re convinced that […]
Flattening the curve of misinformation.
Nature takes time out from COVID-19 news to inveigh against another kind of epidemic – of online viral content that’s, shall we say, too often […]
Christmas music and your brain.
The holiday spirit (or something) descended on The Washington Post, who have shared (non-paywalled, apparently) a statistical and neurological look at why Christmas music – […]
How a social network can be gerrymandered – and how that can affect our decision-making (and real-life voting).
Nature has a fascinating piece of research (with great graphics, so please click through) on how exactly public opinions can be molded by a few […]
Disinformation is not false information, and it’s not manufactured. And it doesn’t want you to believe anything.
Nature has an essay up by a disinformation researcher, who wants us to know that disinformation is usually partially true, and mostly spread by people […]
Fishermen who communicate make the environment healthier.
Hakai takes a sociological look at an ecological problem, with research that shows marine environments are measurably healthier in areas where fishermen communicate openly about […]
An inoculation against fake news: a video game in which you create propaganda.
The University of Cambridge has studied 15,000 people and determined that playing a quick browser game is effective in getting folks to resist the seductive […]
A study of BS-ing finds the greatest exaggerators: boys from wealthy backgrounds.
The (not generally scientific, but…) Washington Post shares an elegantly constructed social science experiment that measures a person’s likelihood to bluff their way to success […]
Planner’s hellish prediction: Self-driving cars will circle, not park.
UC Santa Cruz – or at least one of its professors – has raised an ominous warning of “robot gridlock,” caused when self-driving car algorithms […]
Seattle schools prove later waking makes students more productive.
NPR reports on a year-long, city-wide study that proved one of those obvious things that for some reason we never act on: Teenagers do a […]
Bots and fake news: how it works
Science News is a leetle late to the game, but that’s the new reality. Researchers have completed some early studies on how fake news gets […]
Countries in the Eurovision contest are happier overall.
Science Daily finds a correlation between national satisfaction and participation in the Eurovision song contest. Even if your country loses, you and your neighbors will […]
The government is already paying less for science than you think (probably).
Science News looks at how much Americans *think* the government is paying to fund research. If scientists got what people thought they should get, the […]
Volunteers are healthier. (They also tend to be richer.)
Science Daily finds that those who give back also seem to be getting back – because people who volunteer for causes are in better health […]