Could Distributed Peer Review Better Decide Grant Funding?
The landscape of academic grant funding is notoriously competitive and plagued by lengthy, bureaucratic processes, exacerbated by difficulties in finding willing reviewers. Distributed […]
D.C. Event Helps Policymakers See Past the Abstract
Several recent reports from members of Congress that take potshots at what a quick look suggests is silly scientific research has led a pair of coalitions to explain just how important it is to look at whole story before rushing to judgment.
Measuring the Damage Surveillance Does to Democracy
Even if you say you don’t mind the government knowing what you do on social media, recent research suggests you tamp down your own opinions when reminded of the possibility of being found out.
Social Science’s Mythbusters Look at Diversity
There are some cherished myths about diversity that aren’t supported by the research evidence. While these myths are appealing on a societal level, says Alice H, Eagly, it’s a mistake to allow distortions to remain unchallenged.
Scared Straight: Evidence Makes for Better Biosecurity Rules
After a breakthough at a poster session for a discipline not her own, a senior academic offered the evidence that led President Obama to loosen up the regulatory yoke that was scaring researchers into the scariest life forms on Earth.
Behavioral Science May Hold Some Keys to Climate Change
As we are often reminded, we urgently and drastically need to limit our use of one shared resource – fossil fuels – and its effect on another – the climate. But how realistic is this goal, both for national leaders and for us? Well, psychology may hold some answers.
What Britain’s A-Level Psych Exam Tells Us About Current Behavioral Science
The current A-Level exams in psychology taken by British teens reflect a curriculum focusing on ‘problems’ within individuals, argue two UK psychologists, rather than taking into account the influence of society on people’s actions and behavior.
Zika – What Are the Real Lessons from Ebola?
Another disease in the tropics has the World Health Organisation in a lather, and again biomedicine’s response will not be all that useful in the short term. Social science can help now to address the underlying problems that help the Zika virus to spread — if policymakers will listen.
What Social Science Tells Us About the Inevitability of the Filthy Rich
A new report from Oxfam about the astounding concentration of wealth among tiny subset of the 1 percent raises the question, ‘Is inequality inevitable in human society?’
