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

Social & Behavior

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 31-Dec-2025 21:11 ET (1-Jan-2026 02:11 GMT/UTC)

24-Oct-2025

A study involving UPF analyses explores how having a partner determines changes in fertility desires in Japan

Universitat Pompeu Fabra - Barcelona
Peer-Reviewed Publication

esearch involving Pompeu Fabra University studies the relationship between having or not having a romantic partner with changes in fertility desires in Japan. The study, which involved Ryohei Mogi, a researcher at the University’s Department of Political and Social Sciences, together with Ryota Mugiyama (Gakushuin University, Japan) and Alyce Raybould (University College London, UK), shows that people without a romantic partner are more likely to revise their fertility desires downwards, especially from “wanting children” to “unsure”. These findings underscore the importance of romantic relationships in shaping fertility desires and highlight that many people may remain unintentionally childless.

Journal: Social Forces
Funder: Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, FSE+, Generalitat de Catalunya, KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Specially Promoted Research, scientific research

24-Oct-2025

Changes in labor income share of China: A micro-level anatomy

KeAi Communications Co., Ltd.

Using comprehensive firm-level databases, this study presents the different trends in aggregate and individual labor shares in China's manufacturing sector during 1998-2016.The divergence is driven by firms gradually increasing market share and reducing labor share.

Journal: China Economic Quarterly International
Funder: Major Program of the National Social Science Foundation of China

24-Oct-2025

A food tax shift could save lives – without a price hike in the average shopping basket

Chalmers University of Technology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

More expensive steak, cheaper tomatoes, but the same total cost for the average basket of groceries at the supermarket. A comprehensive study, led by researchers from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden has analysed the potential effects of a food tax shift – where VAT is removed from healthy foods and levies are introduced on foods that have a negative impact on the climate. The study shows that a shift in taxes could have both environmental and human health benefits, and means that 700 fewer people in Sweden would die prematurely each year.

Journal: Ecological Economics

24-Oct-2025

How to retire coal, smarter and faster

University of California - Santa Barbara
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study led by environmental scientists Grace Wu and Sidney Gathrid offers data-driven strategies for shuttering America’s remaining coal plants, accelerating the clean energy transition.

Journal: Nature Energy

23-Oct-2025

Baltic countries lead the way in supporting media freedom internationally, according to new index

University of East Anglia
Reports and Proceedings

A new report shows that the Baltic countries are leading the way in supporting media freedom internationally.

Lithuania topped the Index, Estonia ranked 4^th, while Latvia came 9^th out of the countries measured.

However four G7 members - the United Kingdom, United States, Italy, and Japan - were placed in the lowest ‘bronze’ category, scoring 10 points or less in the Index.

And although the US ranked equal 12^th in the Index, a time lag in reporting means that this does not capture its significant cuts to aid spending in 2025 under the Trump administration, which have had a substantial impact on international media assistance.

The Index on International Media Freedom Support (IMFS) is the first index to evaluate countries' foreign policy support for media freedom.

23-Oct-2025

Bilingual teenagers in Montreal exhibit writing skills on par with their French unilingual peers’, new research shows

McGill University

McGill researchers who examined the writing skills of teenagers in Montreal found that the performance in French of English-French bilinguals was similar to that of near-monolingual francophones. Bilinguals were defined as teens raised in anglophone or bilingual (English-French) households and who had had significant exposure to French through attending French-language school. Further, the English writing skills of the bilingual participants were found to be on par with their French writing skills.

Funder: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

23-Oct-2025

Lack of childcare access limits Michigan’s labor force

Michigan State University

A lack of childcare access in Michigan has been found to dramatically inhibit labor participation, especially for women, single parents and young families. Researchers found that when families live further from a licensed childcare provider in Michigan, they are significantly less likely to participate in the workforce.

Journal: Social Sciences