Organisations aren’t moving quickly enough on cyber security threats linked to the drive toward using personal mobile devices in the workplace, warns a QUT privacy researcher. Dr. Kenan Degirmenci from QUT’s Science and Engineering Faculty’s School of Information Systems said workers worldwide expected to take their work with them whenever and wherever. But he warned...
Studying #BlackLivesMatter made Charlton McIlwain’s wonder about that movement’s digital predecessors. Did those 21st-century activists who turned to social media to bring attention to police brutality draw from an earlier playbook? And if so, who was the first to leverage the power of the internet in the pursuit of racial justice? The questions led McIlwain,...
A new report analyzing decades of public opinion surveys reveals that the public’s trust in scientists has remained stable and high over decades. By various measures, Americans reported that they trusted scientists more than they trusted many other institutions and professions, including journalists, judges and Congress. That trust can affect how people interpret scientific information...
Trash talking has a long and colorful history of flustering game opponents, and now researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have demonstrated that discouraging words can be perturbing even when uttered by a robot. The trash talk in the study was decidedly mild, with utterances such as “I have to say you are a terrible player,”...
Over the years, scientists have recorded same-sex sexual behavior in more than 1,500 animal species, from snow geese to common toads. And for just as long evolutionary biologists studying these behaviors have grappled with what has come to be known as a “Darwinian paradox”: How can these behaviors be so persistent when they offer no...
Recent technological breakthroughs in artificial intelligence have made it possible for machines, or bots, to pass as humans. A team of researchers led by Talal Rahwan, associate professor of Computer Science at NYU Abu Dhabi, conducted an experiment to study how people interact with bots whom they believe to be human, and how such interactions...
Scientists from the University of Helsinki have figured out how to mine people’s online reactions to endangered animals and plants, so that they can reduce the chance of pushing species toward extinction. When the last male northern white rhinoceros died in March 2018, online news printed obituaries, and millions of people grieved on social media....
In research that validates what many parents and educators suspect, students whose grades are below average could boost their results if they devoted less time to Facebook and other social networking sites. The study, led by Dr. James Wakefield from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), looked at the amount of time first-year university students...
Free internet access must be considered as a human right, as people unable to get online – particularly in developing countries – lack meaningful ways to influence the global players shaping their everyday lives, according to a new study. As political engagement increasingly takes place online, basic freedoms that many take for granted including free...
With the presidential election season moving into high gear, campaign messaging will soon begin increasing dramatically. But for those of us who get our news from social media, a new study from the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin offers a strong warning: You can’t trust yourself to discern what’s...
