News by Subject Social & Behavior

The first academic research study to look specifically at how Facebook and Google deadlocked the Federal Election Commission's efforts to regulate digital political advertising.

According to a first-of-its-kind study, cities with a higher incidence of a certain kind of racist tweets reported more actual hate crimes related to race, ethnicity, and national origin. Using machine learning, the researchers analyzed the location and linguistic features of 532 million tweets published between 2011 and 2016. The team found that cities with more targeted racist tweets, espousing discriminatory views, also had more real-life hate crimes.

Parent-child discussions about sexual health are complicated, particularly with a male teen who identifies as gay, bisexual, or queer. Research from Dalmacio Dennis Flores of the University of Pennsylvania found that even when such conversations avoid heteronormative stereotypes, outside factors like mass media and religion -- those beyond the parents' control -- can reinforce them.

In two separate studies, researchers monitored more than 100 4-6-year-olds and found that they didn't understand messages about inclusiveness.

Contrary to current industry trends to develop more immersive virtual reality systems, a new study found that a more immersive environment or the presence of real-world distractions could have surprising effects on a participant's recall, description of the virtual encounter, and how positive they feel about the experience.

College students who viewed alcohol advertisements that included objectified images of women were less likely than others to report intentions to intervene in alcohol-facilitated sexual assault situations.

A new study in the Faculty of Public Health's Journal of Public Health, published by Oxford University Press, finds that tobacco and alcohol usage are extremely common in British reality television shows.