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 less than accurate:
… Read the rest “Flattening the curve of misinformation.”In times of
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 – and… Read the rest “Christmas music and your brain.”
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 strategically placed bots on a social media… Read the rest “How a social network can be gerrymandered – and how that can affect our decision-making (and real-life voting).”
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 who don’t realize it –… Read the rest “Disinformation is not false information, and it’s not manufactured. And it doesn’t want you to believe anything.”
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 what… Read the rest “Fishermen who communicate make the environment healthier.”
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 effects of fake news:
… Read the rest “An inoculation against fake news: a video game in which you create propaganda.”Players
The (not generally scientific, but…) Washington Post shares an elegantly constructed social science experiment that measures a person’s likelihood to bluff their way … Read the rest “A study of BS-ing finds the greatest exaggerators: boys from wealthy backgrounds.”
UC Santa Cruz – or at least one of its professors – has raised an ominous warning of “robot gridlock,” caused when self-driving car algorithms realize it’s… Read the rest “Planner’s hellish prediction: Self-driving cars will circle, not park.”
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 heck of a lot better if you just let them stay up late and… Read the rest “Seattle schools prove later waking makes students more productive.”
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 spread by bots – by acting super fast,… Read the rest “Bots and fake news: how it works”
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 be happier than… Read the rest “Countries in the Eurovision contest are happier overall.”
The American Council on Health and Social Science looks at the epidemiology of human behavior – and things we want to believe – by finding what riots, flu and “fake news”… Read the rest “Riots spread like viruses spread like “fake news.””
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 total would be a pay increase, not a … Read the rest “The government is already paying less for science than you think (probably).”
Science Daily finds that those who give back also seem to be getting back – because people who volunteer for causes are in better health than the rest of us:
… Read the rest “Volunteers are healthier. (They also tend to be richer.)”Researchers of Ghent University
Washington Post checks the results from a NYU researcher’s experiment using bots to prevent racial harassment on Twitter – and what automated anti-racism says about how … Read the rest “How a Twitter-bot can stop harassment: a study in social programming”
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