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Social & Behavior

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 21-Jun-2026 08:16 ET (21-Jun-2026 12:16 GMT/UTC)

Limited jobs block social mobility opportunities for young people in coastal and rural areas, study shows

University of Exeter
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Social mobility opportunities for young people in coastal and rural areas are constrained by the lack of jobs available, a new study shows.

Journal: Journal of Youth Studies

The brain region associated with moral inconsistency

Cell Press
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Why don’t some people practice what they preach? Researchers reveal that a brain region called the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is involved. Publishing March 19 in the Cell Press journal Cell Reports, the researchers used fMRI imaging to identify brain activity patterns associated with moral behavior and judgement. People who behaved dishonestly despite judging the same behavior as immoral in others had less activity in the vmPFC, and when the researchers stimulated participants’ vmPFCs, they became more morally inconsistent.

Journal: Cell Reports
Funder: National Key Research and Development Program of China, The Chinese National Programs for Brain Science and Brain-like Intelligence Technology, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Project of Guizhou Key Laboratory of Artificial Intelligence and Brain-inspired Computing QianKeHe Platform, Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province, Humanities and Social Science Fund of the Ministry of Education of China, Anhui Provincial Health Scientific Research Project, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Brain-Machine Intelligence for Information Behavior

New Themed Issue calls for urgent shift away from “Leaky Pipeline” metaphor as studies reveal systemic exclusion of women in Archaeology

Cambridge University Press
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new themed issue of Advances in Archaeological Practice, published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for American Archaeology (SAA), argues that the long‑standing “leaky pipeline” metaphor obscures the real and active barriers faced by women, minority scholars, and LGBTQIA+ communities in archaeology.

Journal: Advances in Archaeological Practice

Post-game depression: Polish scientists first to create tool to measure this phenomenon

SWPS University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Experiencing a sense of loss and sadness after dozens of hours spent on a video game? Researchers from SWPS University and the Stefan Batory Academy of Applied Sciences examined the feeling of emptiness that accompanies completing an engaging computer game. They created the world's first scale for measuring post-game depression, and published their research results in the international journal Current Psychology.

Journal: Current Psychology

Hefei Botanical Garden: A model for biodiversity conservation, resource utilization and public education in urban areas

South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A recent commentary in Biological Diversity highlights the Hefei Botanical Garden's innovative and comprehensive efforts in plant germplasm conservation, sustainable resource utilization, and public education, establishing it as a vital benchmark for regional biodiversity protection and urban ecological development in East China.

Journal: Biological Diversity

Stories, not shopping lists: Narrative dating profiles draw more interest

American Psychological Association
Peer-Reviewed Publication

If you want to attract more interest on dating apps, don’t just list your best qualities in your profile – instead, tell a story about your life. Dating profiles that tell a story create empathy and connection and attract more interest from potential dates, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

Journal: Psychology of Popular Media

Uncovering structural cue use in second-language sentence processing

Waseda University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Second-language sentence processing raises fundamental questions about whether learners rely on native-like structural mechanisms or alternative strategies. In a new study, researchers compared native English speakers and native Japanese speakers learning English as a second language using eye-tracking during comprehension of ambiguous filler-gap sentences. Results revealed that learners with higher structural computation ability showed native-like, structure-based prediction, whereas lower-accuracy learners relied more on lexical cues, supporting a gradient view of predictive processing.

Journal: Frontiers in Language Sciences