To create a safer learning environment for Black students, schools should turn to culturally relevant and Afrocentric policies and practices that better incorporate their identity in the school culture, according to a new University at Buffalo-led study. The research, published earlier this year in School Psychology International, suggested that practices such as allowing Black students and their...
New research published this week by University of New Mexico archaeologist Keith Prufer shows that a site in Belize was critical in studying the origins of the ancient Maya people and the spread of maize as a staple food. According to the paper South-to-north migration preceded the advent of intensive farming in the Maya region, published...
This part of Maceio, the capital of Brazil’s northeastern Alagoas state, used to buzz with the sounds of cars, commerce and children playing. It went silent as residents evacuated en masse, eager to escape the looming destruction of their homes, which were cracking and crumbling. Beneath their floors, the subsurface was riddled with dozens of...
If you’re reaching for the last piece of pizza at a party and see another hand going for it at the same time, your next move probably depends both on how you feel and whom the hand belongs to. Your little sister—you might go ahead and grab the pizza. Your boss—you’re probably more likely to...
Faced by one too many obstacles on the way to achieving their personal goals – be it an important, valuable or fun one – people may experience an action crisis where they start questioning their pursuit and even feel like giving up. With their experiment, reported in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Social Psychological Bulletin, a research team at...
Despite wide variety amongst hunger-gatherer cultures, a new analysis finds that a ‘small world’ network configuration is common to the social structures of all such groups. These network structures are constrained by the flows of energy and information through them and operate as ‘collective computers’ optimized for the solving of complex problems. The research was...
People without jobs or with less secure housing have poorer outcomes when treated for depression with talking therapy or antidepressants, compared to more socially advantaged peers, finds a study led by UCL researchers. The authors of the new study published in JAMA Psychiatry say that addressing employment and housing needs may be helpful alongside depression treatments to...
A team of communication experts calls for researchers and organizations to take a global view when assessing how to use social media for crisis communication efforts, particularly in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. The call stems from a detailed assessment of almost 200 studies spanning 15 years, which found large swathes of the social media...
Legal documents, such as contracts or deeds, are notoriously difficult for nonlawyers to understand. A new study from MIT cognitive scientists has determined just why these documents are often so impenetrable. After analyzing thousands of legal contracts and comparing them to other types of texts, the researchers found that lawyers have a habit of frequently...
Whether they’re getting a new shirt, a new computer, or taking a trip, people derive less “purchase happiness” from buying things when they feel financial stress, research from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business shows. “That feeling of financial constraint leads people to revisit their purchase and think about what else they could have done with that...
