A recent study from North Carolina State University finds that people are likely to blame robots for workplace accidents, but only if they believe the robots are autonomous. “Robots are an increasingly common feature in the workplace, and it’s important for us to understand how people view robots in that context – including how people...
Author: sp (sp )
An Evolution in the Understanding of Evolution
Remember domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species and Darwin’s tree of life metaphor we learned about in high school biology? That way of describing living-things lineages is just science’s best guess about how genes have mutated and split over time to change things into what they are today. It’s not uncommon for living...
Self-Reported Suicide Attempts Rising in Black Teens as Other Groups Decline
Adding to what is known about the growing crisis of suicide among American teens, a team led by researchers at the McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research at New York University have uncovered several troubling trends during the period of 1991-2017, among Black high school students in particular. The findings are published in the...
What Is Pepper Spray?
Whether it’s walking down a dark street at night or fighting off grizzly bears on the trail, pepper spray is an effective tool to fend off an attacker and get safely away. But have you ever thought about what gives this personal-defense-in-a-can its bite – is it just weaponized hot sauce? The American Chemical Society...
New CEOs Can Raise Their Social Game to Keep Their Jobs
A new study shows that two key factors can make freshly appointed CEOs more vulnerable and raise the odds they’ll get fired. The job security of a new CEO tends to suffer when the stock market reacts badly or when the previous CEO stays on as board chair, according to the study by Rice University...
Cold Temperatures Linked to High Status
For decades, luxury retailers around the world have conveyed the message that cold temperatures are a sign of status with descriptions like “icy steel Swiss watches,” “cool silk scarves” and “icy bling.” But researchers have never studied whether people truly associate cold temperatures with status and luxury. To investigate whether this association could be substantiated...
Changes in Driver Shifts and Pick-Up Choices for Food Delivery Services Can Boost Profits
Optimizing delivery driver shifts can reduce pick-up time by 50%. Choosing restaurants closer to the drop-off location rather than where a meal was just delivered can reduce delivery time by 17%. Order bundling has an average cost improvement of less than half a percent. The food delivery business, popularized by mobile online services such as...
Promotional Games at Retail Stores Increase Consumer Spending
Shoppers who win retail discounts through scratch-off tickets or other games of chance are more likely to make a purchase, and spend more money, than customers offered standard discounts that apply to everyone, according to a new study led by the University of Connecticut. Games of chance are potential goldmines for both brick-and-mortar stores and...
New Ideal Housewife Image Being Created by Social Media Influencers and Bloggers
The new generation of successful female bloggers and influencers on social media are changing the identity of the stereotypical “ideal” housewife. This is according to a new study by Magdalena Petersson McIntyre, a researcher at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg. Published in the Journal of Cultural Economy, the study...
The Rise of Deal Collectives That Punish Profits
Researchers from the University of San Diego and University of Arizona published a new paper in the Journal of Marketing, which examines the rise of deal collectives that exploit ill-designed deals that give away more than companies intended. The study is titled “Let’s Make a “Deal”: How Deal Collectives Co-Produce Unintended Value from Sales Promotions” and...








