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Social & Behavior

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 21-Jun-2026 04:15 ET (21-Jun-2026 08:15 GMT/UTC)

Are you addicted to your AI chatbot? It might be by design

University of British Columbia
Peer-Reviewed Publication

AI chatbots can grant almost any request—a celebrity in love with you, a research assistant, a book character sprung to life—instantly and with little effort. New research presented at the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems suggests that this genie-like quality is fuelling AI addiction, and that chatbot design could be partly to blame.

Medical scientists apply the strictest ethics – at least in theory

Linköping University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Medical scientists are stricter while natural, social and humanities scientists are more permissive. The attitude to ethically problematic ways of conducting research differs clearly between disciplines, according to a study from Linköping University, Sweden.

Journal: Research Policy

Medicaid expansion helped enrollees’ long-term financial health, study finds

Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A study shows that enrollees in Michigan's Medicaid expansion program had large drops in medical debt in collections and in rates of sub-prime credit scores

Journal: JAMA Network Open
Funder: Michigan Department of Health and Human Services

Scientists esteemed by public, with vaccine scientists seen as similar to scientists in general

Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania
Reports and Proceedings

An Annenberg Public Policy Center survey finds that nearly 7 in 10 Americans trust vaccine scientists a moderate or greater amount to act in the best interests of “people like you."

Scrapped inheritance tax linked to stronger growth in private firms with heirs, Swedish study shows

Stockholm School of Economics
Reports and Proceedings

After Sweden removed inheritance and gift taxes in 2005, private firms with potential family successors grew faster, invested more, and paid higher corporate taxes than firms without natural heirs, according to a new white paper from the Stockholm School of Economics. The study adds empirical evidence in a policy debate often dominated by ideology and comes as several European countries debate inheritance tax reforms.

Firehorse superstition shows women’s education doesn’t affect family formation in Japan

Waseda University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The decline in marriage and fertility rates has emerged as a prominent demographic trend in recent decades, with women’s education being identified as a critical factor. In an insightful study, researchers investigated the causal relationship between women’s education and family formation in Japan and found that education only modestly delays family formation. These findings suggest that other institutional factors deserve greater attention in understanding the demographic trends in East Asia.

Journal: Demography

Who do tipsters really work for?

Universidad Miguel Hernandez de Elche
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Adolescents who follow betting tipsters show higher gambling intention, lower perceived risk, and stronger gambling motives, highlighting early vulnerability linked to digital marketing exposure.

Journal: Journal of Gambling Studies

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