Social networks outsmart cognitive biases
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 20-Jun-2026 12:15 ET (20-Jun-2026 16:15 GMT/UTC)
A new book titled SocialsVoice shines a light on the relationship between social media content and mental health from the perspective of Latino youth—a group that engages with social media across multiple languages and cultural perspectives. Through concrete examples, the book presents a complex portrait of their experiences online, including both the mental health risks posed by certain content and the presence of supportive, anti-stigmatizing voices.
A new sociological study shows that party affiliation matters when it comes to dating in the U.S. – but not just for political reasons / publication in the European Sociological Review
Researchers from the University of Missouri found that “puffery” — subjective marketing language such as “charming” or “cozy” — actually influences consumer decisions more than courts have traditionally assumed.
Using over 219,000 Airbnb listings, the study isolated how wording changes affect bookings. It showed that adding positive, subjective descriptors increased booking rates by about 0.2%, similar to adding factual details. This demonstrates that people do respond to puffery, even when it comes from unknown sellers. Importantly, the study found no evidence that these descriptions lead to buyer regret, based on customer reviews.
By using AI to analyze large amounts of text, the research also highlights how modern tools can better measure the real-world impact of language in marketing. Overall, the study challenges the long-held belief that puffery is meaningless, showing it can subtly but meaningfully boost demand.
The ranking, compiled by Isidro F. Aguillo at the Cybermetrics Lab of the Institute of Public Goods and Policies of the Spanish National Research Council (IPP-CSIC), aims to increase the visibility of women researchers through open-access platforms such as Google Scholar, ORCID and OpenAlex, which provide broader coverage than other bibliometric sources, including subscription-based databases. It also seeks to promote open infrastructures through the wider use of personal ORCID identifiers and institutional ROR identifiers.
The 2026 edition of the ranking includes a total of 12,110 researchers ranked according to the global impact of their research, 122 of whom belong to the public university of Castelló. The full ranking can be consulted in the author’s publication.
A common explanation for why waste management sometimes fails is that carelessness breeds more carelessness. Now, research from the University of Gothenburg shows that dirty waste disposal rooms can evoke feelings of disgust that increase the risk of people disposing of their waste incorrectly.