https://phys.org/science-news/social-sciences/ en-us The latest news on social sciences, history, political science, psychology and sociology Improved methods for social and behavioral sciences research could help enhance public trust in science, says a new study that investigated the robustness of data analysis to understand whether it reliably stood the test of time. It did. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-science.html Social Sciences Thu, 16 Apr 2026 18:40:01 EDT news695570281 A major new U.K. study of 12- to 17-year-olds finds that, while most adolescents say they would vote and are interested in politics, their willingness to engage is linked to their anxiety about the future, low trust in political parties, and limited confidence that political institutions will listen to them. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-year-olds-engage-democracy-anxious.html Social Sciences Thu, 16 Apr 2026 14:20:01 EDT news695557861 Individuals with high intellectual ability frequently occupy leadership roles across business, science, and politics. To date, it has not been definitively established whether a high intelligence quotient correlates with specific political orientations. However, recent research reveals a significant gender-specific distinction: Intellectually gifted men tend to be less conservative than men of average intellectual ability. The study, authored by Maximilian Krolo and Jörn Sparfeldt, is published in the journal Intelligence. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-gifted-men-conservatism-average-intelligence.html Social Sciences Thu, 16 Apr 2026 14:00:02 EDT news695557382 Next week, Sara Perlstein will defend her Ph.D. on risk talk: the everyday conversations we have about risks with people close to us. From eating sushi to climbing or smoking, these informal talks shape how we deal with danger in other ways than official health advice does. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-sushi-climbing-common.html Social Sciences Thu, 16 Apr 2026 13:20:05 EDT news695557141 Taking part in activities can make you less lonely, because you meet people, and because social gatherings are a positive thing. But can the mere fact of being active, especially in natural surroundings, help prevent loneliness? https://phys.org/news/2026-04-lonely-great-outdoors.html Social Sciences Thu, 16 Apr 2026 12:40:06 EDT news695556601 For many couples, few conversations feel more uncomfortable than talking about money. But new research suggests financial discussions tend to go better than partners anticipate. In a study published in Social Psychological and Personality Science, researchers found that people consistently underestimate how enjoyable, productive and relationship-building financial conversations with their romantic partners will be. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-couples-wrong-dread-money.html Social Sciences Thu, 16 Apr 2026 12:20:05 EDT news695556541 Welsh local authorities will have new guidance to help make walking, wheeling and cycling safer and more accessible for women and girls, thanks to work led by an Aberystwyth University academic. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-everyday-journeys-women-girls.html Social Sciences Thu, 16 Apr 2026 12:00:01 EDT news695554502 As extreme heat intensifies across the United States, it's widely assumed that rising temperatures will push people to pack up and leave. But new research from Florida Atlantic University challenges that narrative, showing that heat alone isn't driving Americans away—at least not yet. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-hot-reshaping-population-shifts.html Social Sciences Thu, 16 Apr 2026 10:40:01 EDT news695552083 Economic instability—including job loss, food insecurity, eviction and homelessness—is strongly associated with higher rates of violence among California adults, according to a new statewide survey led by the University of California San Diego. The findings come from the 2025 California Violence Experiences Survey (CalVEX). The new report provides a comprehensive picture of how violence is experienced across the state, including forms of violence that often go unreported in official data. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-economic-hardship-violence-california.html Social Sciences Wed, 15 Apr 2026 20:40:04 EDT news695488681 How can public spaces remain safe when large crowds move through them? Engineers and researchers who study these environments often rely on physical models borrowed from fluid dynamics—a branch of physics that describes the collective motion of fluids, whose behavior emerges from the interactions of many particles. But a new study published in the Journal of Statistical Physics: Theory and Experiment highlights a crucial issue: The way data are collected and measured within these models lacks standardization and may overlook important features of human collective behavior. Unlike particles, people are living agents with individual decisions and complex interactions, making their movement harder to capture with traditional approaches. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-crowd-reveal-hidden-slowdowns-standstills.html Mathematics Wed, 15 Apr 2026 19:40:01 EDT news695488142 The exact location of William Shakespeare's only London property can now be pinpointed to a quiet Blackfriars street, thanks to the discovery of a previously unknown floorplan. The discovery, made by Shakespeare expert Professor Lucy Munro from King's College London, not only identifies the exact place of the property Shakespeare bought in 1613 but also the layout and size. It also paints a different picture of where Shakespeare may have spent some of his time in his later years. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-shakespeare-london-house-discovery.html Archaeology Wed, 15 Apr 2026 19:10:07 EDT news695462461 Why do some gay men feel more attractive or noticed when they travel, especially on apps like Grindr? New research suggests it is not just confidence or a change of scenery; it is about how being in a new place changes how others see you. A study led by Dr. Oliver Qiu of the University of East London finds that desirability can shift from place to place and across digital platforms, with men who feel overlooked at home sometimes receiving more attention abroad simply because they are new, unfamiliar, or read differently in that setting. The paper is published in the journal Annals of Tourism Research. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-gay-men.html Social Sciences Wed, 15 Apr 2026 17:40:07 EDT news695481122 New research published in Computers in Human Behavior has revealed people trying to resist their food cravings use social media content featuring indulgent treats as a substitute for eating the real thing. The study, led by the University of Bristol in the U.K., challenges the belief that being shown visuals of tempting unhealthy foods encourages people to indulge in eating them. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-junk-food-videos-dieters-resist.html Social Sciences Wed, 15 Apr 2026 17:00:04 EDT news695467857 Differences in how often older people use the internet are less driven by a person's age and more by cognitive ability and socioeconomic factors such as education and employment status, a new study reveals. Led by computing academics at Lancaster University in collaboration with researchers from University College London, the study examined how frequently adults aged 50 and over use the internet, and why some use it less than others. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-internet-stays-high-skills-gap.html Social Sciences Wed, 15 Apr 2026 15:40:06 EDT news695476806 If you can't get no satisfaction, then maybe it's because happiness does not only stem from pleasure or a meaningful existence. Instead, a new Simon Fraser University study suggests that freedom is the key to happiness. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-autonomy-key-happiness.html Social Sciences Wed, 15 Apr 2026 15:20:02 EDT news695474282 In an analysis of a video-assisted, pitch-side review of soccer (UK football) referee calls in the English Premier League, referees overturned their original call 95% of the time. However, these decisions had no statistical link to crowd size, the score or quarter when the call was made, or whether the call was regarding the home versus away team. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-referee-decisions-soccer-frequently-overturned.html Other Wed, 15 Apr 2026 14:00:08 EDT news695464857 Have you ever been stuck in a traffic jam with music blasting through the radio, and found your mind drifting off in a daydream? There might be a reason. A new study from Murdoch University, in collaboration with The Sydney Music, Mind, and Body Lab, at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music at The University of Sydney, has found that both music and traffic noise can make people's imagination more vivid. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-music-traffic-noise-vivid.html Social Sciences Wed, 15 Apr 2026 11:40:06 EDT news695469782 A new study led by Dr. Andrea Nini at The University of Manchester has found that a grammar-based approach to language analysis can match or outperform advanced AI systems in identifying who wrote a text. The method, called LambdaG, uses patterns in grammar and sentence construction rather than large-scale AI models, offering comparable accuracy with greater transparency and lower computational cost. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-basics-approach-outperform-ai-language.html Social Sciences Wed, 15 Apr 2026 11:40:05 EDT news695465206 A study published in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology combined zooarchaeology with multi-isotopic analysis to reveal the diverse life histories of ancient dogs in the Wari Empire (ca. 600–1050 CE). Not only has this study broadened our understanding of the role of dogs during the Wari Empire, but it has also identified the first empirical evidence of Peruvian Hairless Dogs from that period, which were likely treated differently from other dogs. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-physical-evidence-peruvian-hairless-dogs.html Archaeology Wed, 15 Apr 2026 10:00:03 EDT news695463715 Aided by the Trump administration, debate over gender identity has gone from being a touchstone of domestic culture wars to infiltrating the work of international groups—including those designed to protect vulnerable communities. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-debate-gender-identity-undermine-global.html Social Sciences Tue, 14 Apr 2026 14:00:01 EDT news695388122 When the movie "Her" debuted in 2013, its plot felt like science fiction. The protagonist, Theodore, is a jaded man with no vigor for life. He comes alive after talking daily with his artificial intelligence chatbot, Samantha, with whom he eventually falls in love. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-ai-companions-constant-distort-ideas.html Social Sciences Tue, 14 Apr 2026 13:40:05 EDT news695388062 Online sexism is often dismissed as random—just a few bad comments or offensive jokes. But what appears scattered and spontaneous is increasingly structured, repeated, and amplified in ways that make it far more influential. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-everyday-sexist-online-language-random.html Social Sciences Tue, 14 Apr 2026 13:20:03 EDT news695388002 Imagine a stark choice. You can save one person who is likely to live another 30 years. Or you can save several people who may each live another 10 years. Should we prioritize saving more lives—or more years of life? This kind of trade-off sits at the heart of how health systems make decisions. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-years-life-global-reveals-people.html Social Sciences Tue, 14 Apr 2026 13:00:06 EDT news695387881 In a new paper published in the British Journal of Sociology of Education, University of Sheffield researchers argue that the modern university experience is increasingly defined by stifling targets and material pressures. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-pedagogy-joy-higher.html Social Sciences Tue, 14 Apr 2026 12:40:02 EDT news695387041 Being a single woman isn't the social taboo it once was. Singlehood seems to be on the rise, with more single-person households, and more women choosing to marry later in life, or not at all. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-women.html Social Sciences Tue, 14 Apr 2026 11:20:05 EDT news695380981 In a new study, researchers introduce the dual threat model of antisemitism, which highlights the central role of perceived Jewish power in fueling antisemitism, and they discuss its implications for interventions aimed at curbing antisemitism. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-antisemitism-framework-interventions.html Social Sciences Tue, 14 Apr 2026 07:20:01 EDT news695366402 A multidisciplinary archaeological team has examined plague burials from a 17th-century monastery turned hospital in Basel, Switzerland, shedding light on how social status impacted plague mortality in Early Modern Europe. Their study, "All equal in the face of death? Life histories of confirmed victims of the last plague epidemic in Basel," is published in the journal Antiquity. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-great-equalizer-young-laborers-hardest.html Archaeology Tue, 14 Apr 2026 05:00:05 EDT news694964942 Isolated on a Taiwanese fishing vessel, eight days from the nearest landmass, 22-year-old Indonesian fisherman Sugiama was found dead in his bunk in 2019. His death followed an 18-hour shift and an assault the night before, when he was hit across the head for not working fast enough. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-exposes-deadly-exploitation-migrant-fishers.html Social Sciences Mon, 13 Apr 2026 20:40:03 EDT news695288282 Social media is where teenagers spend most of their time, either scrolling and sharing, or sometimes falling into the traps of fake news, toxic content and online drama. But what if we could equip our young people to challenge harmful narratives and protect themselves from the darker side of the internet? https://phys.org/news/2026-04-critical-teens-resist-fake-news.html Social Sciences Mon, 13 Apr 2026 17:00:05 EDT news695295504 Psychologists have long known that social situations profoundly influence human behavior, yet have lacked a unified, empirically grounded way to describe them. A new study addresses this problem by using generative AI to systematically classify thousands of everyday social interactions. In a new study, researchers analyzed thousands of textual descriptions of two-person social interactions, then used generative artificial intelligence (AI) to code the exchanges by features, resulting in a taxonomy of categories of social interactions. Then they related these groups to variables like conflict, power, and duty to provide a comprehensive, data-driven framework for quantifying the structure of interactions. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-ai-everyday-interactions-reveal-social.html Social Sciences Mon, 13 Apr 2026 14:10:02 EDT news695306693