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Social & Behavior

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 26-Oct-2026 16:16 ET (26-Oct-2026 20:16 GMT/UTC)

Fear silences women politicians in public debate

Uppsala University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In the study, the researchers drew on six surveys sent out between 2012 and 2022. They analysed a total of 43,000 responses from Swedish politicians at both national and local level. The researchers were then able to see that:

Among MPs, 36 per cent of the women avoided making public statements, compared with 20 per cent of the men.

36 per cent of MPs with immigrant backgrounds stated that they avoided speaking out in public, as against 26 per cent of those without immigrant backgrounds.

Among local politicians, 18 per cent of the women stated that they avoided speaking out in public, compared with 13 per cent of the men.

18 per cent of the local politicians from immigrant backgrounds stated that they avoided speaking out in public, as against 14 per cent of those without immigrant backgrounds.

Journal: British Journal of Political Science
Funder: Vetenskapsrådet, Knut och Alice Wallenbergs Stiftelse

How AI is quietly restructuring society

University of Virginia School of Data Science
Book Announcement

Mona Sloane’s debut book, “Predicted: How AI Is Restructuring Social Life,” examines how artificial intelligence is quietly reshaping society through what she calls the “prediction paradigm.” The University of Virginia sociologist argues that AI should be understood not as an inevitable technological force, but as social infrastructure that people can collectively govern and reshape. Published by University of California Press, the book explores AI’s influence on everyday social relations, policy, and public life.

Busseiron and the formation of a discipline in Japanese physics

University of Chicago Press Journals
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The middle of the twentieth century was a period of significant scientific advancement, particularly in the realm of physics. Within this rapidly changing landscape, academic disciplines emerged and evolved to keep pace with scientific discoveries. The new subdiscipline of solid-state physics gained prominence in the United States, but it was later subsumed by the broader category of condensed matter physics. In Japan, however, physics research since the 1940s has included a unique branch called Busseiron—a discipline concerning the study of matter that has no direct English equivalent but that has remained in use nonetheless. A new article by Hiroto Kono in Isis: A Journal of the History of Science Society explores the historical formation of Busseiron and how it was shaped by its specific national context.

Journal: Isis

How location sharing apps change the ways we communicate

College of ACES at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Mobile apps that allow people to share their location with others have become increasingly popular. But how and why do we use these apps, and what are the implications for interpersonal communication? That’s the topic of a new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Journal: Journal of Social and Personal Relationships
Funder: National Institute of Food and Agriculture

Neanderthals gathered shellfish using the same strategies as modern humans

Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Neanderthal populations in southern Europe collected shellfish throughout the year, with a marked preference for the colder months, according to a new international study led by researchers from the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB), the IsoTOPIK Lab at the University of Burgos (UBU), and the Instituto Internacional de Investigaciones Prehistóricas de Cantabria at the University of Cantabria (UC).

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

New economics study finds ICE activity upended the US childcare workforce

University of Vermont
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new economics study shows that when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations come to town it influences the childcare workforce, shifting workers towards private employment and potentially raising costs.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Loneliness increased over 40 years in Japan

Chuo University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Despite widespread claims that social changes have intensified loneliness, no study has yet examined how loneliness has changed over time in Japan. To address this gap, graduate student Momo Homma from the Department of Psychology at Chuo University, Japan and Professor Kenkichi Takase from the same institution conducted a cross-temporal meta-analysis to investigate how loneliness has changed over time in Japan and identify the factors contributing to this change. The results indicated that loneliness increased in Japan from 1983 to 2023. Furthermore, the increase was particularly pronounced among adolescents and women, and social indicators such as marriage rates were found to covary with loneliness. These findings provide a foundation for future research on loneliness and help identify target populations for interventions aimed at reducing loneliness.

Journal: Frontiers in Psychology
Funder: Japan Science and Technology Agency