http://www.physorg.com/science-news/social-sciences/ en-us PhysOrg.com provides the latest news on social sciences, history, political science, psychology and sociology A new study published by The University of Western Ontario reveals that couples who share the responsibility for paid and unpaid work report higher average measures of happiness and life satisfaction than those in other family models. http://www.physorg.com/news180096693.html Other Sciences - Social Sciences Tue, 15 Dec 2009 11:40:02 EST news180096693 (PhysOrg.com) -- U.S. households consumed approximately 3.6 zettabytes of information in 2008, according to the "How Much Information? 2009 Report on American Consumers," released today by the University of California, San Diego. One zettabyte is 1,000,000,000 trillion bytes, and total bytes consumed last year were the equivalent of the information in thick paperback novels stacked seven feet high over the entire United States, including Alaska. http://www.physorg.com/news180028010.html Other Sciences - Social Sciences Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:48:16 EST news180028010 (PhysOrg.com) -- In real estate, it's location, location, location. And when it comes to why girls and women shy away from careers in computer science, a key reason is environment, environment, environment. http://www.physorg.com/news180024084.html Other Sciences - Social Sciences Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:20:01 EST news180024084 Picture the following hypothetical scenario: A trolley is headed toward five helpless victims. The trolley can be redirected so that only one person's life is at stake. Psychologists and philosophers have been using moral dilemmas like this for years asking, would you redirect the train? Is it morally acceptable to do this? Experts usually switch up the details to see how different sub-scenarios affect moral judgment. Many researchers have come to the conclusion that an individual's moral judgment in this type of scenario is strongly guided by abstract moral principles. http://www.physorg.com/news180015364.html Other Sciences - Social Sciences Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:17:04 EST news180015364 (PhysOrg.com) -- There are an estimated 6,500 languages in the world, with around fifty percent of them endangered and likely to cease to exist by 2100, but efforts are now being made to save them from extinction. http://www.physorg.com/news179999981.html Other Sciences - Social Sciences Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:10:01 EST news179999981 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, are challenging long-held beliefs that human beings are wired to be selfish. In a wide range of studies, social scientists are amassing a growing body of evidence to show we are evolving to become more compassionate and collaborative in our quest to survive and thrive. http://www.physorg.com/news179512429.html Other Sciences - Social Sciences Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:34:54 EST news179512429 Although politicians are often criticized for making empty promises, when it comes to their voting records, their words may carry more weight than previously thought, according to findings by two Penn State information technology scientists. http://www.physorg.com/news179500357.html Other Sciences - Social Sciences Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:30:20 EST news179500357 (PhysOrg.com) -- Middle-aged parents are more involved in their grown children's lives than ever, according to new research from Purdue University. http://www.physorg.com/news179415794.html Other Sciences - Social Sciences Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:44:48 EST news179415794 Male and female shopping styles are in our genes---and we can look to evolution for the reason. Daniel Kruger, research faculty at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, says it's perfectly natural that men often can't distinguish a sage sock from a beige sock or that sometimes women can't tell if the shoe department is due north or west from the escalator. http://www.physorg.com/news178997182.html Other Sciences - Social Sciences Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:00:01 EST news178997182 A Université de Montréal researcher, funded by the Interdisciplinary Research Center on Family Violence and Violence Against Women, has launched a new study to examine the effects of pornography on men. "We started our research seeking men in their twenties who had never consumed pornography. We couldn't find any," says Simon Louis Lajeunesse, a postdoctoral student and professor at the School of Social Work. http://www.physorg.com/news178892132.html Other Sciences - Social Sciences Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:16:49 EST news178892132 (PhysOrg.com) -- `There`s no crying in baseball!` So said Jimmy Dugan, the manager portrayed by Tom Hanks in the movie `A League of Their Own.` Not so fast, says Vince Waldron, an Arizona State University professor of communication studies who has spent years examining how people express emotions in the workplace. http://www.physorg.com/news178822776.html Other Sciences - Social Sciences Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:50:01 EST news178822776 A pet owner knows the enormous joy and comfort that an animal can provide, especially in troubled times. Most pets are considered important members of the family and irreplaceable companions. A growing body of research now documents the value of the human-animal bond in child development, elderly care, mental illness, physical impairment, dementia, abuse and trauma recovery, and the rehabilitation of incarcerated youth and adults. http://www.physorg.com/news178812795.html Other Sciences - Social Sciences Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:30:02 EST news178812795 (PhysOrg.com) -- Political affinity could influence how some people view the skin tone of biracial political candidates, according to a new study from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, New York University and Tilburg University in The Netherlands. http://www.physorg.com/news178307486.html Other Sciences - Social Sciences Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:51:55 EST news178307486 (PhysOrg.com) -- They already detect and defuse bombs, control traffic patterns and do some basic household chores. And scientists predict that pretty soon, robots will be using artificial intelligence to play a larger role on the battlefield, operate our vehicles and take care of us in old age. http://www.physorg.com/news178220683.html Other Sciences - Social Sciences Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:45:27 EST news178220683 Climate change could increase the likelihood of civil war in sub-Saharan Africa by over 50 percent within the next two decades, according to a new study led by a team of researchers at University of California, Berkeley, and published in today's online issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). http://www.physorg.com/news178212673.html Other Sciences - Social Sciences Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:33:03 EST news178212673 (PhysOrg.com) -- On the surface, English, Japanese, and Kinande, a member of the Bantu family of languages spoken in the Democratic Republic of Congo, have little in common. It is not just that the vocabularies of these three languages are vastly different; many of their rules of grammar diverge too. http://www.physorg.com/news177940651.html Other Sciences - Social Sciences Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:58:56 EST news177940651 Merely observing someone publicly blame an individual in an organization for a problem - even when the target is innocent - greatly increases the odds that the practice of blaming others will spread with the tenacity of the H1N1 flu, according to new research from the USC Marshall School of Business and Stanford University. http://www.physorg.com/news177874820.html Other Sciences - Social Sciences Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:41:03 EST news177874820 William Shakespeare, who knew a thing or two about words, advised that "An honest tale speeds best, being plainly told." But the exact meaning of plain language isn't always easy to find. Even simple words like "most" and "least" can vary greatly in definition and interpretation, and are difficult to put into precise numbers. http://www.physorg.com/news177852815.html Other Sciences - Social Sciences Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:00:02 EST news177852815 Consumers will work harder on a task if they're expecting to have to do something difficult at a later time, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. http://www.physorg.com/news177703849.html Other Sciences - Social Sciences Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:10:01 EST news177703849 There is a tendency to think that only men treat women in a sexist way, but a new study by a University of Miami researcher and his daughter shows that both men and women participate in maintaining a gender hierarchy in our society. The study, titled "Social Dominance and Sexual Self-Schema as Moderators of Sexist Reactions to Female Subtypes," was recently published by the journal of Sex Roles. http://www.physorg.com/news177260107.html Other Sciences - Social Sciences Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:55:49 EST news177260107 (PhysOrg.com) -- Although often seen as an inconsequential feature of digital technologies, one's self-representation, or avatar, in a virtual environment can affect the user's thoughts, according to research by a University of Texas at Austin communication professor. http://www.physorg.com/news177100524.html Other Sciences - Social Sciences Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:36:03 EST news177100524 (AP) -- A new study confirms what your 130 Facebook friends and scores of Twitter followers may have already told you: The Internet and mobile phones are not linked to social isolation. http://www.physorg.com/news176566373.html Other Sciences - Social Sciences Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:40:01 EST news176566373 A new study reveals the important role inherited wealth plays in sustaining economic inequality in small scale societies. A team of 26 anthropologists, statisticians, and economists based at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico amassed an unprecedented data set allowing 43 estimates of a family's wealth inheritance and found that financial inequality among populations largely depends on the "technologies" that produce a people's livelihood. http://www.physorg.com/news176120588.html Other Sciences - Social Sciences Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:24:03 EST news176120588 The so-called "silver spoon" effect -- in which wealth is passed down from one generation to another -- is well established in some of the world's most ancient economies, according to an international study coordinated by a UC Davis anthropologist. http://www.physorg.com/news176046539.html Other Sciences - Social Sciences Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:50:54 EST news176046539 (PhysOrg.com) -- If your best friend is a guy from "The Office" or a young doctor on "Grey's Anatomy," you may be relying too much on TV shows to fill a social void in your life. http://www.physorg.com/news175970817.html Other Sciences - Social Sciences Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:48:06 EST news175970817 People who watch forensic and crime dramas on TV are more likely than non-viewers to have a distorted perception of America's criminal justice system, according to new research from Purdue University. http://www.physorg.com/news175957269.html Other Sciences - Social Sciences Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:04:17 EST news175957269 (PhysOrg.com) -- Caspar Hare would like you to try a thought experiment. Consider that 100,000 people around the world tomorrow will suffer epileptic seizures. "That probably doesn't trouble you tremendously," says Hare, an associate professor in MIT's Department of Linguistics and Philosophy. http://www.physorg.com/news175767654.html Other Sciences - Social Sciences Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:22:07 EST news175767654 (PhysOrg.com) -- The origins of altruism, the willingness to make personal sacrifices for the benefit of others often unknown to us, has perplexed evolutionary social scientists and biologists for years. http://www.physorg.com/news175522198.html Other Sciences - Social Sciences Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:10:33 EST news175522198 (PhysOrg.com) -- Why did Barack Obama win the US election and did the fact he is over six feet tall influence the voters? The authors of a paper published in Current Biology this month argue that due to 'a hangover from our evolutionary past' factors like age, sex, height and weight play a major part in the determining our choice of leaders. http://www.physorg.com/news175360092.html Other Sciences - Social Sciences Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:08:50 EST news175360092 A new study from Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business finds that Americans who believe in equality are more-impulsive shoppers. And it has implications for how to market products differently in countries where shoppers are more likely to buy on impulse. http://www.physorg.com/news175257550.html Other Sciences - Social Sciences Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:40:02 EST news175257550