News by Subject Social & Behavior

The distance between the product and the consumer, whether in real life or in ads, can have a profound influence on how consumers evaluate the product and make purchase decisions.

A new study has demonstrated how video games can be used as a citizen science approach to train artificial intelligence tools, with data contributing towards coral reef conservation efforts. The NeMO-Net video game, designed by researchers at NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley and led by principal investigator Dr Ved Chirayath, provides an educational and intuitive tool for players to learn about and explore coral reef ecosystems, whilst also bringing marine conservation research to wider audiences.

A new machine-learning program accurately identifies COVID-19-related conspiracy theories on social media and models how they evolved over time--a tool that could someday help public health officials combat misinformation online.

The leading newspapers in two nuclear waste management forerunner countries, Finland and France, fulfil their "watchdog" roles in highly distinct ways. The Finnish Helsingin Sanomat (HS) tends to reproduce government and industry framings, whereas Le Monde cherishes its role as an independent critic of the powers that be. These differences reflect distinct cultural, political and media traditions in the two countries.

According to new research, when people are explicitly told that they are free to accept or reject propagandistic claims, the likelihood of choosing a moderate view increases. This was a result of a survey of attitudes that tested counter-propaganda strategies, which stressed a person's autonomy, and then measured sentiments after exposure.

A new paper in the Review of Economic Studies finds that diseases can change the social networks and affect the economic growth of countries for generations.

The corona pandemic has had a major impact on the Nordic news media. At the same time as advertising revenues have fallen drastically, interest among the audience for professional news coverage has increased, according to a new report from Nordicom at the University of Gothenburg. Several Nordic media companies have also reported record sales of digital subscriptions as a result of the pandemic.

Community newspapers often serve as the public's main source of accurate, local news. They also can be an important way to share the impact of major national events, such as a global pandemic. As the COVID-19 pandemic began spreading throughout the United States, journalism scholars at the University of Missouri and the University of Kansas found that community newspapers across the country began to reevaluate the way they had been doing business for decades.

Sara K. Yeo, associate professor of communication at the University of Utah, examines why it's so difficult to detect science misinformation and suggests that using humor may help combat the issue.

People who trust television and Facebook to provide them with accurate news about the coronavirus pandemic are less knowledgeable about COVID-19, according to a new study, which assessed people's knowledge of the virus in the earliest stages of the pandemic.