Over the past few weeks, as negotiations for a ceasefire in Ukraine drag on, I’ve thought back to Feb. 28, 2025: the day of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s heated visit to the Oval Office. Zelenskyy has called the tone of the meeting “regrettable” as he tries to salvage support for Ukraine. But in some ways, he has...
In our digital times as we are inundated with YouTube videos, memes and social media, satire is everywhere, but it can be more damaging to people’s reputations than direct criticism, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. Seemingly innocuous satire may be more harmful than direct criticism because it can dehumanize people and...
A choice was made to include each word in this sentence. Every message, even the most mundane, is crafted with a specific frame in mind that impacts how the message is perceived. The study of framing effects is a multidisciplinary line of research that investigates when, how, and why language influences those who receive a...
“I am definitely not following the news anymore,” one patient told me when I asked about her political news consumption in the weeks before the 2024 U.S. presidential election. This conversation happened around the time I talked with a local TV channel about why we saw fewer political yard signs during this year’s election season,...
Taxonomy is the science of describing, classifying and naming organisms. It organises the vast diversity of life on Earth. Species are grouped based on shared characteristics, providing a system that allows scientists to understand and communicate about the natural world. Naming species is no simple task: a scientist doesn’t just assign a name and call...
Home for the holidays? Cal State Fullerton educator William Toledo, who prepares future teachers to guide possibly controversial conversations about politics in middle and high school classrooms, says the same tools used in classrooms can apply to holiday gatherings. The process of listening to a person and trying to understand their way of thinking is still...
People’s preference for simple explanations of any situation is connected to their desire to execute tasks efficiently, finds a new study from the University of Waterloo. “These findings show that our preference for simpler explanations mirrors how we evaluate actions. Simplicity isn’t just valued in explanations—it’s part of how we think about achieving results efficiently,” said...
The first study of how Wikipedia represents Australian places has highlighted how aspects of the online encyclopedia and choices made by the volunteer editors who work on it can lead to absences, omissions and sanitised views in articles about Australia. As part of a 3-year Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project, the University of Technology...
Climate change has caused an increase in the semi-arid climate region in Brazil. Data from the National Center for Monitoring and Warning of Natural Disasters (CEMADEN) and the National Institute of Space Research (INPE) in the South American country indicate an expansion of 7,500 square kilometers per year since 1990, which is equivalent to five...
Magic tricks make the impossible seem possible. Magicians have long captivated audiences with visual tricks, such as pulling a bunny from a hat or sawing someone in half, but tricks that rely on sound are scarce. A new article published in the Cell Press journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences on October 4 explores why creating a magical...
