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Ferguson et al. test the effectiveness of messages designed to increase rates of repeat blood donation and find that warm-glow feelings as a motivation for cooperation cool over time but can be reactivated.
Lackner et al. show that individuals with an intermediate level of science knowledge tend to have overconfidence in their own knowledge and negative attitudes to science.
We trained an artificial intelligence (AI) system to recommend different interactions and connections between humans playing a group game together. Through trial and error, the AI system learned to take an encouraging approach to uncooperative individuals, keeping them engaged with the group and boosting cooperation levels for everyone.
In this study of bird biodiversity data from across 195 US cities, Ellis-Soto et al. show that historical redlining is associated with increasing inequality in sampling. Historically redlined neighbourhoods remain the most undersampled areas.
McKee et al. show that deep reinforcement learning can be used to learn a new and effective strategy for encouraging mutually beneficial cooperation in a network game.
Hopp et al. probe the neural (dis)unity of moral foundations theory and report that each moral foundation recruits domain-general mechanisms of social cognition but also has a dissociable neural signature malleable by sociomoral experience.
Producing a high-resolution global net migration dataset for 2000–2019, Niva et al. analyse how migration affects urban and rural population growth and show that socioeconomic factors are more strongly associated with migration than climatic ones.
In a study of 28 European Union member states, Wolfowicz et al. found that increased levels of terrorism-related arrests and convictions are associated with decreases in terrorism. However, evidence concerning the role of more severe punishment was mixed.
Zero-COVID-19 strategies used hard lockdown to save human lives. Our study used modern policy evaluation tools and high-quality longitudinal, nationally representative data and found that the lives saved during Melbourne’s hard 111-day lockdown came at a high cost to parents of young dependent children, and in particular mothers, as the lockdown continued.
People tend to form partnerships with others who are similar to themselves. A new meta-analysis examines correlations between human mating partners, and finds correlations across nearly every trait studied. Education, social attitudes and substance use showed the highest correlations. Effect sizes differed between studies, suggesting potential cultural contingency.
This study of monthly mortality records in the United States during 2001–2016 shows that Black people shouldered a higher mortality burden from PM2.5-related heart disease than non-Hispanic white people despite overall reductions in pollution levels.
Schurer et al. investigate the impact of Melbourne’s 111-day hard lockdown on different domains of adult human life. Results show that there were some significant but small impacts on human life, with greater adverse effects for parents.
Meta-analyses of 22 traits and analyses of 133 traits from UK Biobank find widespread evidence of mate similarity, particularly for social attitudes, education and substance use traits.
The authors use a series of self-finding games—wherein players must identify themselves when there are multiple potential candidates—to show that humans are near optimal at self-orienting, whereas popular reinforcement learning algorithms are not.
Bullying comes in many forms, including when subordinates bully a manager. Sara Branch argues that workplaces should implement policies to combat all types of bullying.
Anglo-Saxon conventions in handling author names in the academy negatively affect scholars around the world. Academia can and must take steps to change this, writes Victoria Guazzelli Williamson.
Climate change and rising temperatures are expected to increase food insecurity globally. An analysis of 150 countries shows that heat increases food insecurity within days of exposure. Mediation analyses indicate this may be linked to heat-related effects on the capability to earn income and afford food. Low-income areas and areas with prevalent agricultural or vulnerable employment are most affected.
Despite widespread concerns that social media exacerbate incivility and partisan polarization, few solutions to address this issue have been identified. We developed a mobile chat platform to study how varying levels of anonymity shape conversations about politics. In contrast to the popular wisdom, we find that carefully structured anonymous online conversations can reduce polarization.
Heat is associated with higher household food insecurity within days of exposure across 150 countries as households. This is mediated by income. Regions with lower incomes and more agricultural or precarious employment are most affected.
Despite widespread concern that social media exacerbates incivility and partisan polarization, few solutions have been identified. In contrast to the popular wisdom, Combs et al. find that anonymous online conversations can reduce polarization.