Highlighting female achievements in the workplace makes capable women significantly more likely to want to be the boss, a study shows. Public feedback about a woman’s performance can significantly increase her willingness to lead, even in male-dominated environments, according to the research. The teams led by these women are subsequently more likely to perform well....
With the 2020 elections looming and amid continuing concerns over social media’s role in U.S. politics, four top universities have published a comprehensive new report recommending how candidates, tech platforms and regulators can ensure that digital political campaigns promote and protect fair elections. The report, Digital Political Ethics: Aligning Principles with Practice, was developed by Johns Hopkins,...
When protesters use social media to attract attention and unify, people in power may respond with tweeting tactics designed to distract and confuse, according to a team of political scientists. In a study of Twitter interactions during Venezuela’s 2014 protests, in which citizens voiced opposition to government leaders and called for improvements to their standard...
A new poll shows that Democrats and Republicans do not see eye to eye on the US economy or the state of its government—nor do young adults and seniors. According to the results, which come from 1,000 responses to a 24-question survey conducted online on October 10 and 11, 77% of self-identified Republicans in the US...
In the autumn of 2017, hurricanes Irma and Maria destroyed Puerto Rico causing thousands of deaths, illnesses and suffering, which brought about a situation of serious economic, political and public health crisis, and widespread death and destruction. However, neither the US nor the Puerto Rican government reacted adequately to such a grave situation. A scientific...
The Golden State is on fire, which means that an idea of American utopia is on fire, too. Utopias are the good places of our imagination, while dystopias are the places where everything goes terribly wrong, where evil triumphs and nature destroys her own. Frequently utopias and dystopias are the same place, because perfection may...
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will donate to charity the US$1 million Berggruen Prize for Culture and Philosophy she recently won. The prize is given annually to a “thinker whose ideas are shaping human self-understanding to advance humankind.” The recipient of the award was decided by a five-member jury that chose among over 500 nominees and...
Many nonprofits, including top universities and museums are confronting serious ethical dilemmas regarding accepting tainted money. The MIT Media Lab, an interdisciplinary research lab, has been widely criticized for taking money from late billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, who was convicted in 2008 for sexual exploitation of minor girls. Harvard University has now promised to give away...
The linguistic and discursive style of Donald Trump’s tweets varied systematically before, during, and after the 2016 presidential campaign, depending on the communicative goals of Trump and his team, according to a study published September 25 in PLOS ONE by Isobelle Clarke and Jack Grieve at University of Birmingham. While many journalists and academics have analysed the...
All 10 Democratic candidates in the Houston debate Sept. 13 spoke about investing public money – taxpayer dollars – in education, health care and economic opportunity for Americans. Those ideas depend on an underlying point none of them came out and said directly: Government can help citizens live better lives and achieve their dreams. Why...
