Not everyone reads the room the same. A new study examines why.
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Updates every hour. Last Updated: 2-Jun-2026 00:16 ET (2-Jun-2026 04:16 GMT/UTC)
Researchers Rachel Ruttan and Katherine DeCelles of the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management are anything but neutral on neutrality. The next time you're tempted to play it safe on a hot-button topic, their evidence-based advice is to consider saying what you really think.
That's because their recent research, based on more than a dozen experiments with thousands of participants, reveals that people take a dim view of others' professed neutrality on controversial issues, rating them just as morally suspect as those expressing an opposing viewpoint, if not worse.
A risk evaluation aimed at helping protect women from domestic violence is working but could be improved to help more victims, say researchers.
The Domestic Abuse, Stalking, Harassment and Honour-Based Violence (DASH) tool is used by police forces throughout the UK to assess risk of future domestic abuse.
But now research involving Cardiff and Swansea universities along with Dyfed-Powys police has been able to demonstrate that the DASH is an effective predictor of deadly domestic abuse although it could be improved to help victims and the frontline staff who use it.