EurekAlert! News by Subject: Social & Behavior - News by Subject: Social & Behavior

Social & Behavior

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 9-Jul-2025 06:11 ET (9-Jul-2025 10:11 GMT/UTC)

Study: Social media doesn't always bring people together, even when they have shared goals for democracy

University of Kansas
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers from the University of Kansas interviewed women who took part in Algeria's 2019 "Hirak" protests. They reported experiencing misogyny and intimidation on social media from groups who were protesting the same cause. The findings suggest social media's touted ability to bring disparate groups together around a common cause may not be as powerful as commonly thought.

Journal: Social Media + Society

USPSTF statement on screening for food insecurity

JAMA Network
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Bottom Line: The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) concludes that the current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of screening for food insecurity on health outcomes in the primary care setting. According to survey data, 12.8% of households experienced food insecurity in 2022, with 7.7% of households experiencing low food security and 5.1% experiencing very low food security. Nearly one-third of households with incomes below the federal poverty threshold are food insecure. Food insecurity is one among a multitude of medical, psychological, and social conditions common among economically disadvantaged households. The USPSTF routinely makes recommendations about the effectiveness of preventive care services. This is a new USPSTF topic.

Journal: JAMA

Good parenting helps, but has limits under major deprivation

Washington University in St. Louis
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Parenting skills can make a big difference in fostering a newborn’s language acquisition and cognition, but there may be a limit to how far parenting can go to make up the challenges to developing this skill in those born in highly disadvantaged backgrounds.

The Frontiers of Knowledge Award goes to Ajzen, Albarracín, Banaji, Greenwald and Petty for contributions that have revolutionized attitude theory and its practical applications

BBVA Foundation
Grant and Award Announcement

The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Social Sciences has gone in this seventeenth edition to social psychologists Icek Ajzen (University of Massachusetts Amherst), Dolores Albarracín (University of Pennsylvania), Mahzarin Banaji (Harvard University), Anthony Greenwald (University of Washington), and Richard Petty (Ohio State University) for “revolutionizing the way we understand and measure attitudes” with an influence that extends to “psychology, sociology, political science, education, health, economics and other areas.”

CUNY research team unlocks secrets of mysterious 62-million-year-old mammal

Advanced Science Research Center, GC/CUNY
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Brooklyn College/CUNY Graduate Center Associate Professor of Anthropology Stephen Chester and a team of researchers have uncovered fascinating new details about Mixodectes pungens, a long-mysterious mammal that roamed North America in the early Paleocene—just after the extinction of the dinosaurs.

Journal: Scientific Reports

Microplastics could be fueling antibiotic resistance, Boston University study finds

Boston University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Boston University researchers shocked to see that bacteria’s antimicrobial resistance is strengthened when exposed to plastic particles and point to a potential outsized impact on refugees

Journal: Applied and Environmental Microbiology
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

First burials: Neanderthal and Homo sapiens interactions in the Mid-Middle Palaeolithic Levant

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The first-ever published research on Tinshemet Cave reveals that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens in the mid-Middle Paleolithic Levant not only coexisted but actively interacted, sharing technology, lifestyles, and burial customs. These interactions fostered cultural exchange, social complexity, and behavioral innovations, such as formal burial practices and the symbolic use of ochre for decoration. The findings suggest that human connections, rather than isolation, were key drivers of technological and cultural advancements, highlighting the Levant as a crucial crossroads in early human history.

Journal: Nature Human Behaviour