News by Subject Social & Behavior

If someone in the workplace is mistreated, their colleagues may respond with empathy -- or with schadenfreude. The latter emotion, according to a new study by the University of Zurich, occurs primarily in highly competitive working environments, when one person's misfortune facilitates another's goals. Even worse, schadenfreude can be contagious. For this reason, it is worth establishing an inclusive working climate and team-based incentives.

In the largest analysis to date of narrative medical school evaluations, researchers at UC San Francisco and Brown University have found significant differences in how female and underrepresented minority medical students are described.

Charitable and humanitarian organizations are increasingly tapping into a $30 billion crowdfunding market, not only to raise funds but to build donors' trust by being more transparent, according to research from Indiana University's Kelley School of Business.

Researchers from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University and at Goizueta Business School at Emory University published new research in the INFORMS journal Marketing Science which reveals that advertisers can see a boost in online shopping when television viewers multitask and engage in social media activity while watching certain programs.

Shift work and non-standard work schedules provide clear economic benefits in a 24/7 society, but also come with issues related to insufficient sleep, misalignment of the biological clock, and other factors that influence the safety, health and well-being of workers. Experts from around the world have published a special issue of the international scientific journal Industrial Health focused on shift work and working time arrangements.

The same data used by digital marketers to sell products can also help inspire conservation behaviors, according to new research from the University of Montana.

Researchers from the University of Connecticut and Free University of Berlin published new research in the INFORMS journal Management Science that provides companies with substantiated, actionable insights on strategies for effectively responding to situations where their highly compensated celebrity endorsers generate negative publicity.

A Washington State University researcher says attractive businesswomen are considered less trustworthy, less truthful and more worthy of being fired than less attractive women. This 'femme fatale effect,' as she and a University of Colorado colleague call it, goes beyond a commonly accepted explanation that attractive women simply aren't seen as fitting in traditionally masculine roles. Rather, the effect taps into more primal feelings of sexual insecurity, jealousy and fear among both men and women.

There are currently more than three million people in the US with hepatitis C, a condition that can lead to serious and even deadly liver complications. In the US prison system, the prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is currently 10 times higher than the national average. However, new research in the INFORMS journal Operations Research, has identified new protocols that could substantially decrease HCV infection in the US prison system.