Latest science news in Psychology & Sociology
"Struggling" octuplets mom looks to God for help
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The California mother of newborn octuplets said on Monday she was counting on God to help provide for her family but acknowledged that she already was...
Education, daytime hours, and job flexibility most help single moms of preschoolers
What contributes most to a nurturing home environment for three- to five-year-old children of single working mothers? A new University of Illinois study reports that the mother's education is the...
For Children, Talking and Walking May Be Dangerous
In an interactive simulation, children crossing streets were more likely to suffer a virtual accident if they were gabbing on a cellphone.
Readers build vivid mental simulations of narrative situations, brain scans suggest
A new brain-imaging study is shedding light on what it means to 'get lost' in a good book - suggesting that readers create vivid mental simulations of the sounds, sights,...
Shaken Self-confidence? Certain Products And Activities Can Fix It
Someone who has momentarily lost confidence in her intelligence is more likely to purchase a pen than a candy bar, according to a new study. The pen helps restore her...
Steven Pinker on Roberts-speak
If you haven't yet seen it, check out this New York Times editorial by Harvard Professor of Psychology, Steven Pinker. It is an analysis of (perhaps) why Chief Justice Roberts...
'Happiness gap' in the US narrows
Happiness inequality in the U.S. has decreased since the 1970s, according to research published this month in the Journal of Legal Studies. read more
Preferential Treatment: How What We Like Defines What We Know
Preference by itself can influence categorization, according to a new study in Psychological Science. The participants in the positive group sorted the symbols into finer, more specific categories compared to...
Daily School Recess Improves Classroom Behavior
All work and no play may impede learning, health and social development. A large study of shows that school children who receive more recess behave better and are likely to...
Rape in war demands more attention from medical editors and health professionals
Rape in war is common, devastating, and too often ignored, says a new editorial in the open-access journal PLoS Medicine. The staggering toll of the conflict in the Democratic Republic...
Early Childhood Stress Has Lingering Effects On Health
Stressful experiences in early childhood can have long-lasting impacts on kids' health that persist well beyond the resolution of the situation.
Remember That Time? New Study Demystifies Consumer Memory
If a vacation starts out bad and gets better, you'll have a more positive memory than if it starts out good and gets worse -- if you're asked about it...
Newborn infants detect the beat in music
Researchers at the Institute for Psychology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation of the University of Amsterdam demonstrated that two to three...
Martin Delaney, 63, AIDS Activist, Dies
Mr. Delaney was a prominent advocate for AIDS patients who challenged the government and drug companies to expedite access to experimental treatments in the early days of the epidemic.
'Abusive Behavior' Towards People With Dementia By Family Carers Is Common
Half of family carers of people with dementia report some abusive behavior towards the person they are caring for and one third report 'significant' levels of abuse, according to new...
Genetics Of Popularity: Genetic Influence In Social Networks Identified
Our genes partly influence our place within our social network, according to new research. The researchers found that both popularity and the likelihood of friends to know one another were...
Risk Factors That Affected World Trade Center Evacuation Identified
Researchers have identified factors that affected evacuation from the World Trade Center Towers on Sep. 11, 2001. A research methodology known as participatory action research (PAR) was used to identify...
Well: The Myth of Rampant Teenage Promiscuity
The reality is that in many ways, today’s teenagers are more conservative about sex than previous generations.
After a Troubled Start, a Child Blossoms
Cornell Wright was exposed to alcohol and cocaine while in the womb and now attends a special school at the Kennedy Krieger Institute.
The Epidemic That Wasn’t
Scientists are systematically following children exposed to cocaine before birth and the findings suggest that the long-term effects may be relatively small.
Essay: Elevating Science, Elevating Democracy
Science is not a monument of received Truth but something that people do to look for truth.
New "test tube" technique offers pregnancy hopes
LONDON (Reuters) - A British team has for the first time successfully used a new "test tube" fertilization technique that better predicts which of a woman's eggs will most likely...
Miss Congeniality? Thank your genes
Advertisers would like you to believe the right jeans can make you the life of the party, but scientists say it may be the right genes instead.
Five Years of the Worst Jobs in Science
Think your job’s bad? Try dragging a bedspread around tick-ridden thickets, pausing regularly in the 100-degree heat not to squeegee the sweat from your brow but to tweeze dozens of...
Preferential treatment: How what we like defines what we know
It is no secret that you know more (that is, have expertise) about things you are interested in. If you hate baseball, you are not going to spend your spare...
Many Americans Much Happier Now
Key groups of people in the United States have grown happier over the past few decades, while other have become less so.
British manners doomed Titanic passengers
British passengers on board the sinking Titanic died while politely queuing to get their place on a lifeboat, while Americans pushed their way on, according to new analysis of passenger...
Brothers in Arms: Civil War Laboratory
No experiment can ethically test how humans behave in life-or-death situations. But two UCLA economists dug up the records of 41,000 Union soldiers from the American Civil War to see...