News by Subject Social & Behavior

A new UW-led study reveals people's perceptions that sexual harassment primarily affects young, feminine and conventionally attractive women. Women who fall outside that prototype not only are perceived as unharmed by harassment, but also have a harder time convincing others that they have been harassed.

Could the merging of humor and news actually help inform the public? New research from the Annenberg School at the University of Pennsylvania and the School of Communication at Ohio State University found that young people were more likely to remember information about politics and government policy when it was conveyed in a humorous rather than non-humorous manner. They were also more willing to share the information online.

Why do people fiddle with their smartphones when they're with other people? Researchers have identified three main reasons.

A new SFU-led study finds that about half of media stories in early 2020 featuring COVID-19 "preprint" research--research that has not yet been peer-reviewed--accurately framed the studies as being preprints or unverified research.

The first known study to describe physician experiences with online harassment found one in four physicians report being personally attacked on social media, including being barraged by negative reviews, receiving coordinated harassment and threats at work, and having their personal information shared publicly. Some attacks were particularly disturbing, such as threats of rape and death. Although the data were collected before the COVID-19 outbreak, the findings highlight the intensity of online harassment before the pandemic, which has only intensified since the spring.

The rapid spread of scientific misinformation on social media platforms throughout the COVID-19 pandemic is discussed in this Viewpoint, which also proposes strategies to counteract its adverse effects including surveillance of digital data and partnering with trusted messengers to engage the public and advance scientifically sound public health measures.

Denmark was one of the first countries to enforce lockdown to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and subsequent gradual reopening, whereas Sweden has had few restrictions, largely limited to public recommendations. Researchers assessed public mobility and social media attention associated with COVID-19 spread and societal interventions from February to June in Denmark and Sweden.