Perspectives

Over the last 50 years, income inequality between households increased significantly, but not because people changed who they marry. According to new research led by University of Wisconsin­–Madison professor of sociology Christine Schwartz, the tendency of people to marry those with similar jobs has not changed much. But the changing availability of spouses with particular jobs...

Three decades ago, child development researchers found that low-income children heard tens of millions fewer words in their homes than their more affluent peers by the time they reached kindergarten. This “word gap” was and continues to be linked to a socioeconomic disparity in academic achievement. While parenting deficiencies have long been blamed for the...

What does it take for people to commit to take action to promote social equality? And how might this differ for people from advantaged and disadvantaged groups? An international team, including Linda Tropp at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and researchers in 23 countries, finds more mutual support for social change among advantaged and disadvantaged...

When it comes to career aspirations for teenagers, a University of Houston psychology researcher believes it’s best to shoot for the moon, so you can at least land in the stars. The truth is the moon may sometimes be unreachable. In the Journal of Career Assessment, Kevin Hoff, assistant professor of psychology, reports the existence of...

Americans consistently believe that poor African Americans are more likely to move up the economic ladder than they actually are, a new study shows. People also overestimate how likely poor white people are to get ahead economically, but to a much lesser extent than they do for Black people. “It’s no surprise that most people...

A study led by Fernando Colchero, University of Southern Denmark and Susan Alberts, Duke University, North Carolina, that included researchers from 42 institutions across 14 countries, provides new insights into the aging theory “the invariant rate of ageing hypothesis”, which states that every species has a relatively fixed rate of aging. – Human death is...

Not least because of the COVID-19 pandemic, conspiracy theories are more topical than ever. They are reported and discussed in almost all media and communication channels. But what influence do they have on our behavior? Scientists led by behavioral economist Loukas Balafoutas investigated this question in a recently published study. The result: We don’t need...