https://phys.org/science-news/political-science/ en-us The latest news on political science From refusing to doff hats in court to resisting hat-snatching highway robbers, England's relationship with hats goes far deeper than fashion, new research shows. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-hat-wars-early-modern-england.html Social Sciences Thu, 09 Apr 2026 19:00:05 EDT news694950931 The brain? It has a flexible social perception. In interactions with people from different ethnic groups, it tends to respond more inclusively when a shared national identity is made salient. A study, by the University of Trento, Italy, and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore), published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, sheds light on the underlying neural mechanisms. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-cohesion-diverse-societies-brain-scans.html Social Sciences Tue, 31 Mar 2026 14:20:02 EDT news694174720 New research from the University of St Andrews has revealed that human readiness for intergroup violence is not a single or unified mindset. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the new study, spanning 58 countries and involving more than 100 researchers from various institutions around the world, demonstrates that violent extremist intentions are driven by two fundamentally different psychological motivations. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-violent-extremism-uncovered-global.html Social Sciences Wed, 25 Mar 2026 17:20:05 EDT news693663362 A new study, led by the University of Nottingham and conducted by a team of 72 economists and psychologists across the world, has identified a potential "private solution trap" in problems requiring international cooperation such as climate change. Dr. Eugene Malthouse, Research Fellow in the university's School of Economics, led the international team of researchers, who invited participants from 34 countries to play a climate change game in small groups. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-private-solution-richer-countries-favor.html Economics & Business Mon, 23 Mar 2026 14:00:01 EDT news693483062 Trying to persuade people to abandon deeply held views often backfires, leaving groups entrenched and unable to move forward. A new study by researchers at the University of Bath in the UK proposes a strategy that is both surprising and more effective: encourage neutrality. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-neutrality-stabilize-decisions.html Mathematics Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:01 EDT news693136514 A new University of Missouri study suggests mental health policies can play a significant role in how Americans choose political candidates. Past scholarly research has found that most Americans say they support mental health policies. Jake Haselswerdt, an associate professor of political science in Mizzou's College of Arts and Science, wanted to take the topic a step further by asking whether mental health policies actually matter when people choose to vote for a political candidate. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-mental-health-policy-emerging-key.html Political science Wed, 18 Mar 2026 14:00:06 EDT news693053641 A new study on ancient societies from around the world is rewriting what we thought we knew about democracy. A team of researchers analyzed archaeological and historical evidence from 31 ancient societies across Europe, Asia, and the Americas and found that shared, inclusive governance was far more common than was once believed. The findings are published in the journal Science Advances. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-democracy-deep-global-roots-greece.html Archaeology Wed, 18 Mar 2026 14:00:04 EDT news693053822 American politics is increasingly characterized by high levels of polarization and divisive rhetoric, despite stated preferences among voters for civility and substantive debate. Sean J. Westwood and colleagues sought to understand what might incentivize a politician to use divisive rhetoric by analyzing 2.2 million public statements from the 118th U.S. Congress. The study is published in PNAS Nexus. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-conflict-entrepreneurs-divisive-political-rhetoric.html Political science Tue, 17 Mar 2026 16:40:01 EDT news692970601 Why do widely supported solutions to major problems, such as climate change, so often struggle to gain real traction? A new study suggests that part of the answer lies in understanding why people resist change, and how the combination of their preferences and social networks can help overcome that resistance. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-personal-thresholds-popular-policies.html Social Sciences Mon, 16 Mar 2026 17:30:06 EDT news692899561 Social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram and X, are accessed daily by millions of people worldwide. In the weeks or months leading up to elections, many political parties use social media platforms as part of their campaigns to promote candidates, raise funds, or disseminate their proposed policies. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-political-social-media-ads-outcome.html Social Sciences Mon, 16 Mar 2026 16:20:06 EDT news692888916 In a new analysis, racial and ethnic disparities in fatal shootings of U.S. residents by police varied widely between states. Roland Neil of the RAND Corporation in California, U.S., and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-racialethnic-disparities-people-fatally-shot.html Social Sciences Wed, 11 Mar 2026 14:00:07 EDT news692354766 The news media is shaping reproductive narratives and stigma around childlessness, presenting it as a threat to national interests, a deviation from moral or cultural norms, as a risk and, sometimes, as a legitimate life path. In an article published in PLOS Global Public Health, Julia Schröders of Umeå University, Sweden, and colleagues, conclude that understanding these narratives will allow the development of media literacy initiatives to destigmatize and support more equitable health communication. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-news-media-representations-contribute-stigma.html Social Sciences Wed, 11 Mar 2026 14:00:06 EDT news692354764 The climate measures currently in place are unlikely to meet Paris Climate Agreement targets. Whether further political measures can move us closer to the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees and combating climate change depends heavily on public opinion and political support. Researchers at ETH Zurich led by Keith Smith, Senior Researcher in Professor Thomas Bernauer's research group, conducted a large-scale survey across 13 EU countries to find out which measures are publicly and politically acceptable, and why. Their findings are published in Nature Climate Change. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-climate-policies-voters-fate.html Political science Wed, 11 Mar 2026 11:20:03 EDT news692442241 Indigenous people in the United States are at higher risk of fatal police violence in and around American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) reservations, according to the first comprehensive national study on the subject from researchers at Drexel University's Dornsife School of Public Health and the University of Washington. The study, using data on the 203 AIAN people killed by police from 2013 through 2024, is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The authors hope this work will inform policy action to better protect these communities. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-indigenous-peoples-higher-fatal-police.html Social Sciences Mon, 09 Mar 2026 19:40:02 EDT news692291521 The growing use of AI-generated scientific and science-related content, especially on social media, raises important concerns: these texts may contain false or highly persuasive information that is difficult for users to detect, potentially shaping public opinion and decision-making. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-ai-disclosure-good.html Social Sciences Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:01 EDT news691929421 Polls consistently show overwhelming support for measures like universal background checks and raising the minimum age for gun purchases. But Congress rarely acts. A new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences helps explain why. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-pro-anti-gun-pac-contributions.html Political science Wed, 04 Mar 2026 16:00:03 EST news691856572 In recent years, studies and media reports have blamed growing partisan hostility in the U.S. for shattered marriages, broken families, ruined holiday dinners, and increased stress. New CU Boulder research suggests it may have an even broader impact, hindering democracies' capacity to address climate change around the world. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-political-polarization-spur-emissions-stymie.html Social Sciences Fri, 27 Feb 2026 12:40:01 EST news691409761 American reports of individual well-being have remained relatively stable over decades, but confidence in the nation has sharply declined. James N. Druckman and colleagues analyzed long-term survey data from two projects: the General Social Survey and the American National Election Studies. The findings are published in the journal PNAS Nexus. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-americans-reveal-deepening-country.html Social Sciences Tue, 24 Feb 2026 13:00:02 EST news691151129 When the federal government brings its toughest environmental enforcement actions against polluters, they tend to be in communities of greater wealth, not the most polluted places. That's the takeaway from a new paper co-authored by a Washington State University researcher that examined criminal prosecutions by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from 2011 to 2020 in every U.S. county. The findings are published in the journal Nature Sustainability. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-epa-criminal-sanctions-align-county.html Social Sciences Mon, 23 Feb 2026 16:20:01 EST news691082796 When lawmakers name bills after victims of tragedy—such as Megan's Law or the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993—public support surges, but this emotional boost may come at the expense of sound policymaking, according to research published in the journal Psychology, Public Policy, and Law. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-laws-tragedies.html Social Sciences Mon, 23 Feb 2026 09:00:01 EST news690799068 Messages intended to suppress votes can be precisely delivered to particularly vulnerable and consequential groups of people via social media and keep millions of them from casting ballots, according to a new study that is the first to quantify the effect of this kind of microtargeting on voter turnout. A team led by a researcher at the University of Wisconsin–Madison recruited more than 10,000 people across the United States—a group representative of the country's voting population—to install an app that captured every ad they viewed for the six weeks leading up to the November election in 2016. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-social-media-advertising-suppresses-voting.html Political science Fri, 20 Feb 2026 12:53:23 EST news690814381 A new study published in Nature has found that X's algorithm—the hidden system or "recipe" that governs which posts appear in your feed and in which order—shifts users' political opinions in a more conservative direction. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-weeks-algorithm-wing-doesnt-quickly.html Social Sciences Thu, 19 Feb 2026 18:20:01 EST news690728734 New research from The University of Manchester has shown that debates and resistance about wearing face masks go back a lot further than the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Meng Zhang, a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow at the University's Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, found that barbers went on strike against compulsory mask-wearing rules in 1930s China, arguing that they were unfair, uncomfortable, and discriminatory. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-mask-1930s-echoed-covid-protests.html Social Sciences Wed, 11 Feb 2026 12:22:21 EST news690034924 A century ago, the section of U.S. federal law governing public health and welfare was relatively small and loosely connected to the rest of the legal system. Today, it is one of the largest and most interconnected parts of the United States Code. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-dataset-reveals-law-grown-complex.html Political science Tue, 10 Feb 2026 16:54:16 EST news689964842 Scroll through social media long enough and a pattern emerges. Pause on a post questioning climate change or taking a hard line on a political issue, and the platform is quick to respond—serving up more of the same viewpoints, delivered with growing confidence and certainty. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-social-media-algorithm-redesign-echo.html Social Sciences Tue, 10 Feb 2026 15:40:03 EST news689957222 Around the world, millions of families have suffered forcible separation, through war, trafficking, natural disasters, or socioeconomic crises. In China, family separation is a particularly large-scale and far-reaching problem. Following the enactment of the country's One Child Policy in 1979, many children were abandoned or trafficked and then adopted either domestically or internationally. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-reuniting-forcibly-families-machine.html Social Sciences Wed, 04 Feb 2026 13:40:01 EST news689425827 Divisions within the US population on social and political issues have increased by 64% since 1988, with almost all this coming after 2008, according to a study tracking polarization from the end of the Reagan era to the dawn of Trump's second term. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-political-division-surged-onward.html Social Sciences Tue, 03 Feb 2026 19:10:01 EST news689318941 A new analysis of 471 U.S. counties has found that, for everyday travel, people from counties with particularly strong political leanings—whether liberal or conservative—are more likely to visit like-minded destinations. Zhengyi Liang and Jaeho Cho of the University of California, Davis, U.S., present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-residents-strongly-blue-red-counties.html Social Sciences Wed, 28 Jan 2026 14:00:09 EST news688733472 Generative deep learning models are artificial intelligence (AI) systems that can create texts, images, audio files, and videos for specific purposes, following instructions provided by human users. Over the past few years, the content generated by these models has become increasingly realistic and is often difficult to distinguish from real content. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-people-swayed-ai-generated-videos.html Social Sciences Tue, 27 Jan 2026 08:00:01 EST news688647591 Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing our society and economy. A new study shows that the majority of people believe that artificial intelligence is displacing more human labor than it is creating new opportunities. Scientists at the University of Vienna and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) demonstrated a causal link: the stronger this perception, the more dissatisfied people are with democracy—and the less they participate in political debates about future technological developments. These effects occur even though artificial intelligence has had only a limited impact on the labor market so far. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-ai-job-killer-negatively-attitudes.html Economics & Business Mon, 26 Jan 2026 14:18:37 EST news688659481