The pill could be blurring your social judgement – but perhaps not enough so you’d notice. By challenging women to identify complex emotional expressions like pride or contempt, rather than basic ones like happiness or fear, scientists have revealed subtle changes in emotion recognition associated with oral contraceptive pill (OCP) use. Published in Frontiers in Neuroscience,...
In 2005, the New York Times reported that high end retailer Bergdorf Goodman kept its stores chilled to 68.3 degrees, whereas Old Navy’s was kept at a balmy 80.3. Meanwhile, the swanky IFC mall in Hong Kong is kept at a frigid 59 degrees Fahrenheit. There may be a reason why luxury retailers keep their...
A Rutgers researcher has found that thymoquinone, an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compound of black seed oil, can effectively be delivered to the skin, which may offer a new option for skin care. Natural skin care products with botanical ingredients are a popular part of people’s daily skin regimen, providing relief for skin redness or irritation...
Ask any “Downton Abbey” fan about the wildly popular historical television drama and they will wistfully reminisce about being whisked away to a more gentile and elegant time in post-Edwardian England. With a majestic castle as the backdrop and actors adorned in lavish costumes, audiences were immersed into life as it was in the early...
Around the country, women physician researchers make 7 to 8 percent less per year than men. At the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, efforts to eliminate such a gender disparity have cut the difference in salaries from 2.6 percent in 2005 to a statistically insignificant 1.9 percent in 2016. But even with that improvement...
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals have a long history of discrimination in the United States. Studies show that they continue to be discriminated in employment, housing, and places of public accommodation, among others. Due to lack of comprehensive state and federal laws, it continues to be legal to fire gay, lesbian, and bisexual...
A new research model allows urban planners, policymakers and community leaders to better focus resources to limit gentrification in vulnerable neighborhoods throughout the U.S. By examining the “people, place and policy” factors that determine whether a neighborhood will gentrify or not, the model offers a better understanding of what fosters gentrification and what limits it....
Popular music has changed over the years, and the music of 2019 is noticeably different from the music of the 1960s or 1970s. But it is not just the music that changed, but also the lyrics. Data scientists at Lawrence Technological University in Michigan used quantitative analytics to study the change in lyrics of popular...
Academic literature recognizes innovation as one of the main drivers of a company’s stock value, but experience says that it’s not always the case and that, when it is, the magnitude of the effect can vary wildly. New research by Bocconi University and Texas A&M scholars proposes a finer-grained view asserting that: The reaction of large...
What happens when a strong advocate for one side of a controversial issue in science publicly announces that he or she now believes the opposite? Does the message affect the views of those who witness it — and if so, how? Although past research suggests that such “conversion messages” may be an effective persuasion technique,...
