News by Subject Social & Behavior

Social and community disruptions caused by the COVID-19 restrictions could have a lasting effect on child wellbeing, Flinders University researchers warn. While health, safety and education responses are the focus of restrictions, the needs of childhood independence, self-determination and play are less acknowledged, Flinders University experts explain in a new publication.

Public health bodies should consider incentivizing social media influencers to encourage adolescents to follow social distancing guidelines, say researchers. Many adolescents are choosing to ignore the guidelines set out by governments during the COVID-19 pandemic, and peer-to-peer campaigns are likely to be more successful in changing attitudes.

Are today's children, who grew up with mobile technology from birth, worse at reading emotions and picking up cues from people's faces than children who didn't grow up with tablets and smartphones? A new UCLA psychology study suggests today's kids are all right.

New research to be published in the INFORMS journal Management Science has found popular rideshare platforms exhibit racial and other biases that penalize under-represented minorities and others seeking to use their services.

The public would comply with major changes to medical advice - but would then be less likely to follow other new guidelines in the future, research shows.

In general, workers in Switzerland and Germany are coping well with the COVID-19 crisis and the associated social disruption. They are feeling happier and finding it easier to unwind and balance work and private life. They are also more engaged at work than last year, a survey among 600 participants carried out by researchers of the University of Zurich shows.

Parents should not feel pressured to make their young children undertake structured learning or achieve specific tasks, particularly during lockdown. A new study of children under the age of two has found that parents who take a more flexible approach to their child's learning can - for children who were easy babies - minimise behavioural problems during toddlerhood.

A new study offers a rare look at how black and white people listen to each other during political discussions, including those that touch on controversial issues about race.

Girls and young women shouldn't spend a lot of time editing selfies for social media because it negatively influences their thoughts about their looks, according to a new Flinders University publication. In a study published in Body Image, Flinders University psychology researchers asked 130 women aged 18 to 30 to view Instagram snaps of thin and average sized women, before analysing their selfie habits.