Latest science news in Psychology & Sociology
Feature: Understanding emotional responses to climate change
People’s emotions, values and beliefs are keys to how they perceive climate change, Anne Leitch writes.
The influence of neighbors: Where we live and who we know can affect voting patterns
Ryan Enos is out to prove that how people naturally organize themselves in the space they live in can have huge political significance.
Social learning
Online social networking sites, such as Facebook, can help students become academically and socially integrated as well as improving learning outcomes, according to a study by researchers in China...
Hide files within files for better data security
Steganography is a form of security through obscurity in which information is hidden within an unusual medium. An artist might paint a coded message into a portrait, for instance, or...
What If's, Defining And Redefining Disability: The Magic Pill Question
It's a natural proclivity to play the what-if game. What if we could go back and change things? What if we could alter some particular trait about ourselves or an...
Twitter user claims to name UK stars who gag press
A Twitter account had more than 35,000 followers by Monday after claiming to have revealed the names of British celebrities who have taken out gagging orders to prevent reporting about...
Do pink toys turn girls into passive princesses?
The colour-coding of toys – pink for girls and blue for boys – reinforces pernicious gender stereotypes, says Kat Arney• Kat Arney presents her investigation of colour preferences in Fighting the Power of...
Neuro-tweets: #hashtagging the brain (w/ video)
(Medical Xpress) -- We like to think the human brain is special, something different from other brains and information processing systems, but a Cambridge professor set out to test that...
Heard the one about David Cameron? He just doesn't get it | Mind your language
That joke isn't funny any more, prime minister. Here are a few others you might wish to tryIt is perhaps fitting that a blog entitled Mind Your Language should offer David Cameron...
Stressed bowerbirds become mimics
Stress prompts spotted bowerbirds to mimic alarming sounds, according to scientists.
In The World: Cultivating creativity
When it comes to really improving the lives of some of the world’s poorest people, the first step can be as simple as handing them sheets of paper. That was the first...
State to double crime searches using family DNA
California's success in using 'familial searching' spurs Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris to increase funding for the controversial genetic sleuthing technique in rape, murder and cold cases.A young man followed a...
Brain performs near optimal visual search
Visual search is an important task for the brain. Surprisingly, even in a complex task like detecting an object in a scene with distractions, we find that people's performance is...
Challenging the Second ‘A’ in A.A.
Anonymous no more: A generation of alcoholics in recovery is speaking out and rejecting a tenet once considered central to the process.
Singing to children may help development of language skills
New book claims that 'signature' melodies and inflections of traditional rhymes prepare children's brains for languageParents should sing to their children every day to avoid language problems developing in later life, according to...
Why Mother's Day Horrified, Ruined Its Own Mother
Born of war, Mother's Day grew to horrify its own mother, whose fight to fix the holiday "cost her everything, financially and physically."
Music helps families bond
Music therapy can benefit family bonding between children with disability and their parents, a new study shows.
‘Motherese’ helps kids speak
How parents speak to their kids has a big influence on the child’s language development, a new study shows.
Celebrity New York hawk amazes with baby
Message to New York's most-watched -- and feathered -- mom to be: happy Mother's Day!
Understanding Christianese, Lesson 1
Because speaking with Christians often requires a special dictionaryIn their quest to set themselves apart from the rest of the world, Christians indulge in a form of communicable doublespeak, which is often referred...
Mental health experts caution against retribution
After Osama bin Laden's death, many may feel a sense of triumph, but that doesn't necessarily mean closure for the wounds of Sept. 11, experts say.Do we feel better now...
New Federal Crackdown Confounds States That Allow Medical Marijuana
As some states seek to institutionalize medical marijuana, federal prosecutors are suddenly asserting themselves, casting new uncertainty on an issue.
The uses of semen? One: reproduction. Two: best not mentioned, really…
As American surgeon Lazar Greenfield discovered, there are some subjects that simply cannot be taken lightlyThere are certain subjects – GM, nuclear power, climate change – that cause aeration in scientific circles. And,...
Baby boomers need their own online voice to fight prejudice as they get old
Gransnet, a social networking site for Britain's 14m grandparents, aims to counter deeply ingrained ageismBack in 1965, the chief executive of Elizabeth Arden wrote in Forbes magazine: "We don't want to be connected...
How to stop cats pissing on your car
In this unusual Caturday video special: this clever man took action against hormonal cats that were pissing on everything in his possession, from his front door to his car windscreenFor some inexplicable reason,...
My Turn: Her war on belly fat
A diet of vegetables and whole grains plus a dog-walking regimen help a woman reach her goal."Nobody in our family has a flat stomach, Carolyn," my dad stated authoritatively. A...
The Healthy Skeptic: Can smartphone apps really help you lose weight?
Lose It! and Thin-Cam claim to help manage diets and lead to weight loss.When it comes to mealtime, I usually don't pay much attention to calories. I eat until I'm...
Link found between spending on libraries and student learning
It is an article of faith among many critics of public schools that there is no correlation between spending and learning outcomes. But it's not so -- at least...