https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. New research from the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford, and the University of Kentucky, finds that ChatGPT systematically favors wealthier, Western regions in response to questions ranging from "Where are people more beautiful?" to "Which country is safer?"—mirroring long-standing biases in the data they ingest. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-chatgpt-amplifies-global-inequalities.html Social Sciences Tue, 20 Jan 2026 13:50:02 EST news688138758 Researchers who examined Canadian child welfare data found that Black children were not only investigated at a higher rate than their white peers but were also more likely to be taken from their homes, even when the only difference between cases was the child's race. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-racial-bias-play-overrepresentation-black.html Economics & Business Mon, 12 Jan 2026 22:00:01 EST news687433942 According to a new study led by Prof. Anat Perry and her Ph.D. student, Shir Genzer, of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, together with Prof. Noga Cohen from the University of Haifa, chances are you're overestimating just how strongly the other person feels. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-people-tend-overestimate-emotions-boost.html Social Sciences Tue, 16 Dec 2025 18:20:01 EST news685114052 The evolution of the so-called dread risk response has been explained by new research. People often respond to low-probability, high-consequence events like terror attacks or nuclear accidents with a dread risk response. This intense fear of the perceived sources of dread leads to extreme avoidance behavior, which often means that people expose themselves to higher risk of dying in more common incidents like traffic accidents. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-scientists-evolutionary-explanation-irrational-dread.html Mathematics Tue, 11 Nov 2025 13:00:04 EST news682087871 An organization drafts a job listing with artificial intelligence. Droves of applicants conjure résumés and cover letters with chatbots. Another AI system sifts through those applications, passing recommendations to hiring managers. Perhaps AI avatars conduct screening interviews. This is increasingly the state of hiring, as people seek to streamline the stressful, tedious process with AI. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-people-mirror-ai-hiring-biases.html Social Sciences Mon, 10 Nov 2025 12:25:05 EST news681999902 In a new paper, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign psychology professor Benedek Kurdi proposes a fresh approach to confronting implicit, or unintentional, bias in diverse organizations. He spoke with News Bureau life sciences editor Diana Yates about the problems associated with efforts to "train" the bias out of people and offers practical guidelines for those hoping to establish a more inclusive, welcoming atmosphere in their organizations. His report appears in the journal Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-qa-expert-discusses-unintentional-bias.html Social Sciences Wed, 22 Oct 2025 13:27:43 EDT news680358455 When recognizing faces and emotions, artificial intelligence (AI) can be biased, like classifying white people as happier than people from other racial backgrounds. This happens because the data used to train the AI contained a disproportionate number of happy white faces, leading it to correlate race with emotional expression. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-users-ai-racial-bias.html Social Sciences Thu, 16 Oct 2025 11:59:04 EDT news679834742 National security officials are "overwhelmingly overconfident," which hinders their ability to accurately assess uncertainty, according to new research by a Dartmouth government professor. When they thought statements had a 90% chance of being true, the statements were only true about 60% of the time, according to the study. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-overconfidence-national.html Political science Tue, 07 Oct 2025 17:11:04 EDT news679075861 When parents separate in Australia, their futures—and their children's—often rely on the words chosen by judges in the Family Court. But those words aren't always neutral along gender lines, say a team of UNSW researchers. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-ai-reveals-gender-bias-family.html Social Sciences Wed, 17 Sep 2025 08:59:05 EDT news677318341 If you've interacted with an artificial intelligence chatbot, you've likely realized that all AI models are biased. They were trained on enormous corpuses of unruly data and refined through human instructions and testing. Bias can seep in anywhere. Yet how a system's biases can affect users is less clear. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-messages-biased-ai-chatbots-swayed.html Social Sciences Wed, 06 Aug 2025 13:30:02 EDT news673705637 Are professional economists truly objective when forecasting economic projections? New research from Wake Forest University suggests otherwise, revealing a subtle yet powerful influence of political affiliation on predictions of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-professional-economists-gdp.html Economics & Business Tue, 05 Aug 2025 12:40:03 EDT news673616401 Trigger warnings may not help students feel more supported, but safe space messages do. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-trigger-fall-flat-safe-spaces.html Education Fri, 01 Aug 2025 04:55:03 EDT news673242902 America has a misinformation problem. It's in our news feeds, on our social media timelines, and at our kitchen tables. It's driving wedges between friends and family—and sharp political divides. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-smart-people-fall-false.html Social Sciences Wed, 30 Jul 2025 10:23:04 EDT news673089781 President Donald Trump intends to unveil an Artificial Intelligence Action Plan aimed at keeping the United States at the forefront of AI development. Toward that end, the president is expected to sign three new executive orders addressing data center development, financial resources, and perceived political bias. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-qa-expert-discusses-implications-administration.html Political science Wed, 23 Jul 2025 10:30:01 EDT news672482571 A comprehensive study from NYU Abu Dhabi's Science Division analyzed scripts from nearly 7,000 episodes of children's TV shows in the United States spanning 1960 to 2018. It uncovered enduring biased patterns in how male and female characters are portrayed through language. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-reveals-gendered-language-patterns-children.html Social Sciences Wed, 16 Jul 2025 07:10:04 EDT news671868030 An in-depth exploration of the psychology of sports fandom has revealed striking similarities between the neurological and psychological patterns of devoted sports fans and religious dedication. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-psychological-neurological-parallels-sports-fandom.html Social Sciences Wed, 09 Jul 2025 19:00:05 EDT news671194442 Over the last few centuries, the scientific method has established itself as a pretty useful tool. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-fascinating-replicate-crisis-undermining-scientific.html Other Wed, 09 Jul 2025 12:48:48 EDT news671284125 Artificial intelligence may be marketed as society's great equalizer—transforming businesses, streamlining work and making life easier for all—but for many marginalized Americans, AI doesn't feel like a promise. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-marginalized-americans-highly-skeptical-artificial.html Social Sciences Wed, 02 Jul 2025 17:14:04 EDT news670695242 Behavioral scientists have been trying to uncover the patterns that humans follow when making decisions for decades. The insights gathered as part of their studies can help shape public policies and interventions aimed at prompting people to make better decisions, both for society and for their own well-being. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-humans-tend-familiar-actions-sequential.html Social Sciences Wed, 02 Jul 2025 06:30:02 EDT news670593426 The cloud fraction diurnal variation (CDV) regulates the Earth system's radiative budget and balance, influencing atmospheric variables such as temperature and humidity, as well as physical processes like precipitation and tropical cyclones. However, significant simulation biases of CDV exist in climate models. To date, most model evaluations have focused on the daily mean cloud fraction (CFR), while the CDV has received less attention. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-revealing-bias-characteristics-cloud-diurnal.html Earth Sciences Tue, 17 Jun 2025 16:50:03 EDT news669397802 New research from the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University, in partnership with researchers at Panthéon-Sorbonne and the MIT Sloan School of Management, reveals partisan differences in which posts get flagged as misleading by the social media platform X's Community Notes program. The study's findings show that misinformation is shared disproportionately across political divides, but this imbalance isn't a result of biases among the users rating the Community Notes on X. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-republicans-flagged-tweets-democrats-community.html Social Sciences Tue, 17 Jun 2025 13:40:03 EDT news669386264 Coming-of-age novels can give readers young and old insight into their own evolving identity and how to navigate a confusing, messy world. But there is another feature of the genre that isn't so positive. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-gender-bias-age-novels-rife.html Social Sciences Tue, 17 Jun 2025 13:20:05 EDT news669384208 Nearly 40% of U.S. cities analyzed in a study in NPJ Complexity diverge from the common narrative that Republican-dominated areas have high levels of implicit racial bias while Democratic strongholds are more tolerant. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-assumptions-linking-racial-attitudes-political.html Social Sciences Thu, 12 Jun 2025 10:31:04 EDT news668943062 Teachers' perceptions and judgments of student skills are key to measuring children's academic progress. But educators' own biases can distort these perceptions and judgments. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-biases-affect-kindergarten-discuss-strategies.html Education Wed, 28 May 2025 15:30:01 EDT news667657289 The plumber has just left after fixing that leaky basement pipe. Ping—a phone alert asks you to rate their service. Hmm—if it wasn't an outright terrible job, do you give them three, four or five stars? New research from the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management shows that a multi-point system like that is prone to subtle, often unconscious, racial bias—yet with significant financial consequences for non-white workers. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-scales-racism.html Social Sciences Sat, 10 May 2025 12:30:03 EDT news666012097 From the moment we are born (and even before that, in utero), we tune into the languages around us. This includes the accents they are spoken in. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-children-link-accents-intelligence-age.html Social Sciences Tue, 29 Apr 2025 13:11:03 EDT news665151061 As a professor and cognitive scientist at the University of Melbourne and Director of the Complex Human Data Hub, much of my research focuses on the study of misinformation: false ideas spread because of ignorance, error or mistake. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-anti-trans-attitudes-years-disinformation.html Social Sciences Tue, 29 Apr 2025 08:09:07 EDT news665132942 Have you ever thrown something in the recycling bin, hoping it's recyclable? Maybe a toothpaste tube, bubble wrap or plastic toy labeled "eco-friendly"? https://phys.org/news/2025-04-wishcycling-eco-friendly-shoppers-recycling.html Environment Thu, 24 Apr 2025 13:35:03 EDT news664720501 President Donald Trump and members of his administration have long used allegations of anti-Christian discrimination as a rallying cry for supporters, arguing that policies and laws on issues like school prayer and LGBTQ+ rights threaten Christians' right to express their beliefs. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-anti-christian-bias-voters-message.html Social Sciences Mon, 21 Apr 2025 09:37:04 EDT news664447022 In a study that tracked explicit and implicit bias against stigmatized groups in 33 countries between 2009 and 2019, researchers found substantial reductions in explicit, self-reported bias against all categories of stigma they examined: age, race, body weight, skin tone, and sexual orientation. The picture for implicit bias, which is sometimes described as "hidden" or "automatically revealed" bias, was more varied, however. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-global-downturn-bias-stigmatized-groups.html Social Sciences Mon, 07 Apr 2025 09:23:04 EDT news663236581