A space to explore, share and shape the issues facing social and behavioral scientists
With the spread of the novel coronavirus and its attendant COVID-19 outbreak, social and behavioral science is being deployed to assuage fears, understand risk, improve public health and implement social distancing strategies. These articles and resources seek to assist in that educational effort.
During the pandemic, a lot of assumptions were made about how people behave. Many of those assumptions were wrong, writes Stephen Reicher, and they led to disastrous policies.
When variant forms of COVID appear, argues Robert Dingwall, we must, then, learn not to jump at shadows. No-one can ever say there will never be a risk – but everyday life is full of much more common risks that we tolerate because of the benefits that they deliver.
Scientific research, innovation, and evidence have contributed to COVID-19 mitigation and response. As parts of the globe emerge from a […]
An anthropologist, a biologist and a historian at the University of Guelph jointly held a summer online course on all aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a hit
Back in the day, I attended one of those schools where male character was thought to be formed by endless […]
Lessons will be learned from this pandemic and it is right that there should be inquiries to spell them out. It will not, however, be helpful to see this as a partisan exercise in blaming individuals for acting within the limits of what was possible in systems that others had designed for very different purposes.
These are extraordinary times, and not just because we are coming through the greatest national trauma since the Second World […]
A psychiatrist’s recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal argues that long Covid is psychosomatic. Steve Lubet asks why the writer is dictating to patients rather than listening to them.
Death looms larger than usual during a global pandemic. An age-friendly community works to make sure people are connected, healthy and active […]
David Canter considers how it is that people judge vaccination related risks so bizarrely.
The mental health crisis triggered by COVID-19 is escalating rapidly. One example: When compared to a 2018 survey, U.S. adults are now eight times […]
It is the role of the social sciences and the humanities, on the basis of evidence, to affirm where official policy is in the public interest, but also to point to where it is not.
