Tag: research

Research Links Microaggressions With Racial Bias – They Aren’t Just Innocent Blunders
IN OTHER NEWS

Research Links Microaggressions With Racial Bias – They Aren’t Just Innocent Blunders

A white man shares publicly that a group of Black Harvard graduates “look like gang members to me” and claims he would have said the same of white people dressed similarly. A white physician mistakes a Black physician for a janitor and says it was an honest mistake. A white woman asks to touch a Black classmate’s hair, is scolded for doing so and sulks, “I was just curious.” It’s a pattern that recurs countless times, in myriad interactions and contexts, across American society. A white person says something that is experienced as racially biased, is called on it and reacts defensively. These comments and other such subtle snubs, insults and offenses are known as microaggressions. The concept, introduced in the 1970s by Black psychiatrist Chester Pierce, is now the focus of a fierce deba...
Research Shows Content Rules On Twitter Help Preserve Free Speech From Bots And Other Manipulation – Elon Musk Is Wrong
SOCIAL MEDIA

Research Shows Content Rules On Twitter Help Preserve Free Speech From Bots And Other Manipulation – Elon Musk Is Wrong

Elon Musk’s accepted bid to purchase Twitter has triggered a lot of debate about what it means for the future of the social media platform, which plays an important role in determining the news and information many people – especially Americans – are exposed to. Musk has said he wants to make Twitter an arena for free speech. It’s not clear what that will mean, and his statements have fueled speculation among both supporters and detractors. As a corporation, Twitter can regulate speech on its platform as it chooses. There are bills being considered in the U.S. Congress and by the European Union that address social media regulation, but these are about transparency, accountability, illegal harmful content and protecting users’ rights, rather than regulating speech. Musk’s calls for free s...
Research Shows Cyberbullying Among Teens And School Bullying Are Often Linked
IN OTHER NEWS

Research Shows Cyberbullying Among Teens And School Bullying Are Often Linked

Over recent years, England has faced a concerning rise in cyberbullying compared to other countries. This issue has been compounded by an increase in digital activity among teenagers during COVID-19 lockdowns. Cyberbullying, sometimes called online harassment or abuse, refers to behaviours where a person repeatedly causes harm to others using electronic devices and technologies. The modern abundance of devices with internet access makes it easier for cyberbullies to remain anonymous and create multiple accounts with different identities, giving them the freedom to attack multiple social media users simultaneously, often without obstruction. There are numerous means of victimisation. These include making posts on social media intended to threaten or humiliate someone, publishing videos or...
As Nations Pour Billions Into Autonomous Weapons Research – UN Fails To Agree On ‘Killer Robot’ Ban
POLITICS

As Nations Pour Billions Into Autonomous Weapons Research – UN Fails To Agree On ‘Killer Robot’ Ban

UN fails to agree on ‘killer robot’ ban as nations pour billions into autonomous weapons research. Autonomous weapon systems – commonly known as killer robots – may have killed human beings for the first time ever last year, according to a recent United Nations Security Council report on the Libyan civil war. History could well identify this as the starting point of the next major arms race, one that has the potential to be humanity’s final one. The United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons debated the question of banning autonomous weapons at its once-every-five-years review meeting in Geneva Dec. 13-17, 2021, but didn’t reach consensus on a ban. Established in 1983, the convention has been updated regularly to restrict some of the world’s cruelest conventional weapons, i...
Research Shows Family Rifts Affect Millions Of Americans – Here Are Possible Paths From Estrangement Toward Reconciliation
SOCIETY

Research Shows Family Rifts Affect Millions Of Americans – Here Are Possible Paths From Estrangement Toward Reconciliation

Family relationships are on many people’s minds during the holiday season as sounds and images of happy family celebrations dominate the media. Anyone whose experiences don’t live up to the holiday hype may find this difficult or disappointing, but those feelings may be felt even more acutely among those involved in family rifts. I have done a significant amount of research on ambivalence and conflict in families, which led to a five-year study of family estrangements. At the outset, I was surprised at how little evidence-based guidance exists on the frequency, causes and consequences of family estrangement, or how those involved cope with the stress of family rifts. There are few studies published in academic journals on the topic, as well as limited clinical literature. I sought to fil...
A Research Finding That Women Are More Competitive When They’re Given An Option To Share Winnings May Help Close The Gender Pay Gap
Journalism

A Research Finding That Women Are More Competitive When They’re Given An Option To Share Winnings May Help Close The Gender Pay Gap

Mary L. Rigdon, University of Arizona The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea Women are more likely to take risks and engage in competitive activities if they’re allowed to share their potential winnings with peers, according to new research I co-authored. Since one explanation of the gender pay gap is that women tend to be less competitive than men in workplace settings, this finding could lead to ways to narrow it. In a study published on Nov. 1, 2021, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Alessandra Cassar and I report an experiment in which we invited 238 undergraduate students – split almost evenly between men and women – into our labs to solve a simple numbers puzzle. We wanted to see how different types of financial incent...
New Research Shows Apple’s Child Safety Feature Warnings Can Increase Risky Sharing
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, VIDEO REELS

New Research Shows Apple’s Child Safety Feature Warnings Can Increase Risky Sharing

Bennett Bertenthal, Indiana University; Apu Kapadia, Indiana University, and Kurt Hugenberg, Indiana University Apple’s plan to roll out tools to limit the spread of child sexual abuse material has drawn praise from some privacy and security experts as well as by child protection advocacy groups. There has also been an outcry about invasions of privacy. These concerns have obscured another even more troublesome problem that has received very little attention: Apple’s new feature uses design elements shown by research to backfire. One of these new features adds a parental control option to Messages that blocks the viewing of sexually explicit pictures. The expectation is that parental surveillance of the child’s behavior will decrease the viewing or sending of sexually explicit photos, b...
How To Improve The Juvenile Justice System – Research And Ideas Shared By Formerly Incarcerated Teens
Journalism

How To Improve The Juvenile Justice System – Research And Ideas Shared By Formerly Incarcerated Teens

Shiv R. Desai, University of New Mexico “They treat us like animals.” “I was called a menace to society by two judges.” These are just two of the comments made by incarcerated teens during focus group interviews inside a juvenile detention center in New Mexico. Over the course of two hourlong sessions, detained youths shared their stories of how they ran afoul of the law and discussed key strategies for how they would improve the juvenile justice system. These sessions were conducted by members of Leaders Organizing 2 Unite and Decriminalize, a youth group comprising young people ages 15 to 19. While some members are formerly incarcerated, others are allies. I was a co-facilitator of LOUD and guided the group in its research. Our main focus was to conduct what’s called a Youth Partici...
Research Shows 63% Of Workers Who File An EEOC Discrimination Complaint Lose Their Jobs
LIFESTYLE

Research Shows 63% Of Workers Who File An EEOC Discrimination Complaint Lose Their Jobs

Donald T. Tomaskovic-Devey, University of Massachusetts Amherst; Carly McCann, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and J.D. Swerzenski, University of Massachusetts Amherst People who experience sex discrimination, race discrimination and other forms of discrimination at work aren’t getting much protection from the laws designed to shield them from it. That’s our main finding after analyzing the outcomes of 683,419 discrimination cases filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from 2012 to 2016 – the most recent data available. We focused on workplace complaints filed related to race, sex, disability, age and national origin. Those are the five most common categories. We found that at least 63% of workers who filed a complaint eventually lost their job. That number was...
Labor Unions Help Lower The Risk Of Poverty – Research Shows
LIFESTYLE

Labor Unions Help Lower The Risk Of Poverty – Research Shows

Tom VanHeuvelen, University of Minnesota and David Brady, University of California, Riverside The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea Belonging to a union or living in a U.S. state where organized labor is relatively strong helps lower the likelihood that you will fall into poverty, according to our new research. In a peer-reviewed study, we examined how unionization is correlated with poverty. So we analyzed data on poverty and unionization rates from 1975 through 2015 using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, which is widely considered to be the gold standard for tracking individuals over time. We used a variety of poverty measures in our analysis. We found that households in which there was at least one union member had an average poverty rate...