News by Subject Social & Behavior

Researchers now have a better idea of why people who rely on partisan news outlets are more likely to believe falsehoods about political opponents.

Consumers have been relying on opinion leader recommendations to make choices about product quality and purchases for a long time. It is even more prominent now with the prevalence of influencers on social media platforms. The problem is, when there is a wide variety of the same product, consumers question if a positive recommendation is based on quality or personal preferences.

'Fake news' stories targeting corporations may be obnoxious, but a new study finds that they likely pose little threat to well-established brands.

Women who are health policy or health services researchers face a significant disparity in social media influence compared to their male peers, according to a new study. Although the average number of tweets among all researchers tend to be consistent, women trail behind men in follower counts, regardless of how active they are on Twitter.

Researchers have discovered that people associate cold temperatures with luxury items, which is important for companies that are trying to promote products that convey high status.

If you want to convince people not to trust an inaccurate political post on Facebook, labeling it as satire can help, a new study finds. Researchers at The Ohio State University found that flagging inaccurate political posts because they had been disputed by fact-checkers or fellow Facebook users was not as good at reducing belief in the falsehoods or stopping people from sharing them.

Research from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, in collaboration with Northwestern and University of Granada, found that a simple intervention can reduce anti-Muslim hostility by calling out the hypocrisy of blaming an entire group -- but not your own -- for the act of a single person. The effects remained even a full year later.

Weight stigma is an issue for queer men using dating apps, says a new University of Waterloo study. The study found that Grindr, the most popular dating app for gay, bisexual, two-spirit and queer men, had a negative effect on men's body image, especially when it came to weight. Three out of four gay men are reported to have used Grindr.