Volume 5 Issue 8, August 2021

Fieldwork-based research by non-local scholars is valued in social science, but the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the exclusionary mechanisms and power differentials that sustain such research. This must change, writes Adriana Rudling.

At the time that COVID-19 began to take hold in India, a group of Indian scientists came together to combat what Reeteka Sud describes as one of the most potent threats: the spread of misinformation fueling the pandemic.

Automation can depress wages even without eliminating jobs. Ashley Nunes explains this risk and argues that universal basic income offers a solution.

The world’s population does not split neatly into two groups, WEIRD and non-WEIRD people, argues Sakshi Ghai. Because the non-WEIRD brush does not do justice to the complexity of human lives, she calls upon behavioural science to ensure that samples represent human diversity.

What is the long-term impact of technological advances on cognitive abilities? We critically examine relevant findings and argue that there is no clear evidence for detrimental lasting effects of digital technology on cognitive abilities. But we also suggest how digital technology may be changing predominant ways of cognition.

Figuring out the referent of a new word is a hard problem, yet children solve it early and often. A new model by Bohn et al. proposes that young children rationally combine different sources of information when learning language. This account precisely predicts and explains novel developmental findings, above and beyond competing proposals.

Can a publication format shape qualities of published research? Higgs and Gelman discuss a new study comparing peer-reviewers’ perceptions of Registered Reports to those of standard research articles. The authors conclude the registered publications were at least as good on the qualities measured, and they discuss challenges of doing research on research.

Behavioural science increasingly informs policy, but findings are not always replicated. Bryan et al. describe an emerging heterogeneity revolution. They recommend that researchers use heterogeneity in treatment effects to develop more robust theories of causality and strengthen the field.

Soderberg et al. asked scientists to peer review registered reports and standard articles post-publication, after information explicitly identifying the article type had been removed. Registered reports scored higher on some dimensions, including quality and rigour.

Enos and Brown find that voters in US are highly spatially segregated by party. Republicans and Democrats tend to segregate even when living in the same neighbourhoods, and this segregation persists in both urban and rural areas.

Using data-driven epidemiological modelling, Yu et al. estimate that, even with increasing vaccine availability, China will have to maintain stringent non-pharmaceutical interventions for at least a year to prevent new widespread outbreaks of COVID-19.

Anderson shows how legal systems and equitable marital property rights affect women’s vulnerability to intimate partner violence and their own condemnation of the violence in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Bhattacharjee and Schaeffer et al. map exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) in 94 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), finding increased EBF practice and reduced subnational variation across the majority of LMICs from 2000 to 2018. However, only six LMICs will meet WHO’s target of ≥70% EBF by 2030 nationally, and only three will achieve this in all districts.

Bohn et al. present and test a model to explain how children combine information during word learning. They conclude that children become more sensitive to individual information sources with age, but the way they integrate information remains stable.

Why are some more resilient than others? Using functional MRI, Kaldewaij et al. show that prefrontal cortex activation during an emotion control task predicts severity of PTSD symptoms following a subsequent traumatic event.

Marees et al. show changes in patterns of heritability and genetic overlap between mental health problems after removing genetic variation associated with socio-economic status.

During a pandemic, trust in leaders is affected by how they resolve moral dilemmas. Across 22 countries, leaders’ endorsement of instrumental harm reduced public trust, while endorsement of impartial beneficence increased trust.

This Registered Report presents evidence from 87 countries and regions showing that brief emotion-regulation interventions consistently reduced negative emotions and increased positive emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic.