When disaster strikes, people often turn to religion for comfort and support. A powerful recent example of this comes from a study called “Faith after an Earthquake,” by prominent New Zealand religion and society researchers Chris Sibley and Joseph Bulbulia. They document an uptick in religious service attendance in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand,...
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I Visited the Rohingya Camps in Myanmar and Here Is What I Saw
Myanmar recently claimed to have repatriated its first Rohingya refugee family. But, as an official from the United Nations noted, the country is still not safe for the return of its estimated 700,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees, who fled to Bangladesh in 2017 to escape an ongoing state-sponsored military campaign and persecution from Buddhist neighbors. Indeed,...
Trump’s Presidency Marks the First Time in 24 Years That the Federal Bench Is Becoming Less Diverse
President Donald Trump and his Republican allies in the Senate are pushing through nominations for federal judges at an unusually fast pace ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. That’s when the GOP could lose its majority and end the easy path to confirmation for Trump’s nominees. As political scientists who study diversity and the federal...
Trump Could Be Using Advanced Game Theory Negotiating Techniques – or He’s Hopelessly Adrift
The latest G-7 summit, held June 8 to 9 in Quebec, was one of the most contentious in years. That’s because Donald Trump and his counterparts from six other industrialized countries have been at loggerheads over the president’s aggressive but unstable trade policy. Trump’s renunciation of the Iran nuclear deal, his efforts to renegotiate NAFTA...
Do Bouncers at Clubs Enforce Dress Codes Equally Across Races?
When videotape surfaced of two men being arrested at a Philadelphia Starbucks for loitering, some criticized the store manager, questioning whether she wrongly evaluated the men as criminal because of both their race and the way they were dressed. While Starbucks managers may be called upon sometimes to evaluate their customers’ appearance, bouncers at urban...
How the Ford F-150 Became King of Cars
Ford has doubled down on its best-selling pickup trucks. In April, Ford announced that it will be phasing out nearly all of its passenger cars in the United States. If all goes according to plan, 90 percent of Ford’s portfolio in North America will be trucks, SUVs and commercial vehicles. Its F-150 – the most...
Will Silicon Valley’s New Company Towns End Up as Failed Utopias
Willow Village is a community planned for a 59-acre site in California’s Silicon Valley, between Menlo Park and East Palo Alto. It will have housing, offices, a grocery store, a pharmacy, and its developers say, maybe even its own cultural center. There’s one notable thing about Willow Village that makes it different from other new...
Under Age 13, Suicide Rates Are Roughly Double for Black Children Vs. White Children
Suicide rates in the United States have traditionally been higher among whites than blacks across all age groups. However, a new study published in JAMA Pediatrics shows that racial disparities in suicide rates are age-related. Specifically, suicide rates for black children aged 5-12 were roughly two times higher than those of similarly aged white children. “Our findings...
The Case for Not Taxing Multinationals
The habit of taxing Multinational Enterprises (MNEs)’ profits is the legacy of a time when “GM had to make cars in Detroit and Hollywood had to make movies in L.A.”, but is now inefficient and detrimental to global welfare, a new study by Nicolai Foss, Rodolfo Debenedetti Chair of Entrepreneurship at Bocconi University, and colleagues...
Americans Are Becoming More Socially Isolated, but They’re Not Feeling Lonelier
Are Americans becoming lonelier? On May 1, NPR reported on a survey about loneliness conducted by Cigna, a large health insurance company. Cigna asked over 20,000 American adults if they agreed with statements like “People are around me but not with me” and “No one really knows me well.” The survey found that younger Americans...