News by Subject Social & Behavior

'When it comes to predicting the performance of Czech MMA fighters, you shouldn't judge a book by its cover,' says Dr Vit Trebicky, lead author of a new study published in Frontiers in Psychology.

A recent study finds that experiencing racial discrimination makes black teens and young adults more likely to engage in social and political activism on issues that are important to black communities.

People with schizophrenia have a hard time integrating information about a reward -- the size of the reward and the probability of receiving it -- when assessing its value, according to a study in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging.

With the help of a multidisciplinary register and questionnaire study, Finnish researchers showed that both the educational level and its occupational orientation predict the mother's smoking during early pregnancy.

In Europe, people are more reserved regarding robots than they were five years ago. This is shown in a new study published by scientists from Linz and Würzburg.

Before the feminist revolution, men built their masculinity on traits that opposed those assigned to women. Since then, men can no longer rely on this anti-feminine norm. What are the effects of this shift on masculinity affirmation? Researchers (UNIGE) have revealed that some men assert their manhood by stressing their heterosexuality, in order to compensate for this feminisation of men. This move marks a rejection of homosexuality, seen as the personification of the feminine man.

New research has revealed that people's behavior is predictable from the social media data of as few as eight or nine of their friends.

When an advocate for one side of an issue announces that he or she now believes the opposite, can that message affect others' views? Research from the Annenberg Public Policy Center shows that such a conversion message can influence public attitudes. Using video of environmentalist Mark Lynas speaking about his change from an opponent of genetically modified crops to an advocate, researchers found that message had a greater impact than his direct advocacy message.

Nudging, the concept of influencing people's behavior without imposing rules, bans or coercion, is an idea that government officials and marketing specialists alike are keen to harness, and itis often viewed as a one-size-fits-all solution. Now, a study by researchers from the University of Zurich puts things into perspective: Whether a nudge really does improve decisions depends on a person's underlying decision-making process.