Research Briefing |
Featured
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Editorial |
Rwanda 30 years on: understanding the horror of genocide
Researchers must support and elevate the voices of Rwanda’s scholars and survivors.
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News Feature |
After the genocide: what scientists are learning from Rwanda
Thirty years after the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, Nature met with researchers who are gaining insights that could help to prevent other atrocities and enable healing.
- Nisha Gaind
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News |
Right- or left-handed? Protein in embryo cells might help decide
Gene that codes for structural protein could determine the dominant side of the human brain.
- Sumeet Kulkarni
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Arts Review |
159 days of solitude: how loneliness haunts astronauts
The psychological pressures of going into space might be as hard as the physical feat, a documentary reveals.
- Alexandra Witze
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Perspective |
Artificial intelligence and illusions of understanding in scientific research
The proliferation of artificial intelligence tools in scientific research risks creating illusions of understanding, where scientists believe they understand more about the world than they actually do.
- Lisa Messeri
- & M. J. Crockett
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Nature Podcast |
Why are we nice? Altruism’s origins are put to the test
Research suggests a combination of behaviours underlie the evolution of human cooperation, and researchers make an optical disc with enormous storage capacity.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Nick Petrić Howe
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Article
| Open Access
Online images amplify gender bias
We find that gender bias is more prevalent in images than text, that the underrepresentation of women online is substantially worse in images and that googling for images amplifies gender bias in a person’s beliefs.
- Douglas Guilbeault
- , Solène Delecourt
- & Ethan Nadler
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Comment |
No ‘easy’ weight loss: don’t overlook the social cost of anti-obesity drugs
Ideas of diet and exercise as the ‘best’ way to lose weight could stigmatize people taking Ozempic, WeGovy and other blockbuster drugs that affect appetite. Lessons from weight-loss surgery reveal ways to help.
- Alexandra Brewis
- & Sarah Trainer
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Career News |
Economists count the cost of ‘risky’ science
A survey seeks to define risk in research and how academics approach it in their work.
- Chris Woolston
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Editorial |
How online misinformation exploits ‘information voids’ — and what to do about it
In 2024’s super election year, providers of online search engines and their users need to be especially aware of how online misinformation can seem all too credible.
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Analysis
| Open Access
A synthesis of evidence for policy from behavioural science during COVID-19
Evaluation of evidence generated to test 19 proposed policy recommendations and guidance for the future.
- Kai Ruggeri
- , Friederike Stock
- & Robb Willer
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Research Briefing |
The myth of cosmopolitan cities: why large urban areas are more segregated
There is a long-standing assumption that large, densely populated cities inherently foster interactions between a diverse range of people. Analysis of 1.6 billion person-to-person encounters in the United States reveals that big cities are actually pockets of extreme segregation, highlighting a need for strategic urban design that fosters more integrated environments.
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News |
‘Disruptive’ science: in-person teams make more breakthroughs than remote groups
Analysis of millions of papers shows that farflung collaborators produce fewer foundational discoveries than groups working together in person.
- David Adam
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News & Views |
People go the extra mile for food
GPS data reveal that people travel far from home to buy food in the United States, challenging ideas about how access to food relates to unhealthy eating habits.
- Abigail Klopper
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Book Review |
Migration isn’t increasing, border restrictions don’t reduce crossings — and other home truths
Prejudice, rather than facts, colours our views about human mobility, argues a new book. But the global shock of the COVID-19 pandemic means that the world is changing in front of our eyes.
- Alan Gamlen
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Article
| Open Access
Human-like systematic generalization through a meta-learning neural network
The meta-learning for compositionality approach achieves the systematicity and flexibility needed for human-like generalization.
- Brenden M. Lake
- & Marco Baroni
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Book Review |
The plant poisons that shape our daily lives
An exploration of nature’s toxins reveals complex relationships between humans and the plant chemicals we use as foods, medicines and mind-altering drugs.
- Emily Monosson
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News |
Milkshake neuroscience: how the brain nudges us toward fatty foods
Brain imaging shows how high-fat foods exert their powerful pull.
- Max Kozlov
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Nature Podcast |
Gene edits move pig organs closer to human transplantation
Monkeys with CRISPR-edited pig kidneys survive for more than a year, and why our brains struggle to count more than four objects.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Shamini Bundell
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Correspondence |
Sustainability: draw on decades of social-science research
- Paul C. Stern
- , Thomas Dietz
- & Kimberly S. Wolske
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Editorial |
The disinformation sleuths: a key role for scientists in impending elections
Researchers in Europe have a golden opportunity to help defend democratic principles and bring science to bear against online disinformation.
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Correspondence |
Control side effects of the psychedelic renaissance
- Christoph Bublitz
- , Nicolas Langlitz
- & Dimitris Repantis
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Correspondence |
Autism: don’t negate the value of applied behaviour analysis
- Gina Green
- , Russell Lang
- & Jason Travers
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Correspondence |
Germany: luring drivers onto public transport
- Mark A. Andor
- , Fabian T. Dehos
- & Lukas Tomberg
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News |
Did our human ancestors eat each other? Carved-up bone offers clues
A fossilized hominin leg shows gashes that were probably made by stone tools.
- Lilly Tozer
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News |
Morality is declining, right? Scientists say that idea is an illusion
Surveys show people around the world have believed for decades that morals are decaying — but other survey data contradict that perception.
- Mariana Lenharo
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Article
| Open Access
The illusion of moral decline
We show that the perception of moral decline is pervasive, perdurable, unfounded and easily produced, and suggest that this illusion has implications for research on the misallocation of scarce resources, the underuse of social support and social influence.
- Adam M. Mastroianni
- & Daniel T. Gilbert
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Article |
Expertise increases planning depth in human gameplay
A computational model based on a heuristic value function and forward search algorithm predicts human choices, response times and eye movements in games of games of four-in-a-row, and shows evidence for increased planning and improved attention with increased expertise.
- Bas van Opheusden
- , Ionatan Kuperwajs
- & Wei Ji Ma
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Article |
Users choose to engage with more partisan news than they are exposed to on Google Search
Ecologically valid data collected during the 2018 and 2020 US elections show that exposure to and engagement with partisan or unreliable news on Google Search are driven not primarily by algorithmic curation but by users’ own choices.
- Ronald E. Robertson
- , Jon Green
- & David Lazer
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Correspondence |
Social media: generative AI could harm mental health
- David Greenfield
- & Shivan Bhavnani
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News |
Do scientific meetings matter? Turning up for talks brings surprise benefits
Talks that conference attendees could see in person are more likely to be cited than talks they most likely missed.
- Katharine Sanderson
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Comment |
Humans and algorithms work together — so study them together
Adaptive algorithms have been linked to terrorist attacks and beneficial social movements. Governing them requires new science on collective human–algorithm behaviour.
- J. Nathan Matias
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Research Highlight |
Refugee kids find more friends in diverse classrooms
Children living in Germany who had fled their home countries faced less rejection if their classes were ethnically mixed.
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News & Views |
From the archive: socially responsible physicists, and aimless wandering in circles
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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Editorial |
Should Nature endorse political candidates? Yes — when the occasion demands it
Political endorsements might not always win hearts and minds, but when candidates threaten a retreat from reason, science must speak out.
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Research Highlight |
It’s bad! Awful! Negative headlines draw more readers
People scrolling online news are 1% less likely to click on an article for each positive word in its title.
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News Explainer |
AI chatbots are coming to search engines — can you trust the results?
Google, Microsoft and Baidu are using tools similar to ChatGPT to turn Internet search into a conversation. How will this change humanity’s relationship with machines?
- Chris Stokel-Walker
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Research Highlight |
Who wastes more time waiting? Income plays a part
The difference between wait times for higher- and lower-income people in the United States is subtle, but it adds up.
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News |
Ancient stone tools suggest early humans dined on hippo
Fossils and artefacts unearthed in Kenya suggest our ancestors used stone stools to feed on large animals in the distant past.
- Freda Kreier
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Career Column |
Fieldwork: how to gain access to research participants
It took experience and emotional investment to improve my ability to get close to research participants. Here’s how I did it, says Anna Lena Bercht.
- Anna Lena Bercht
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Career Q&A |
How a grisly historical accident set one neuroscientist on the road to writing a book
A psychology class about railway engineer Phineas Gage’s behaviour change after a metal rod speared his brain in 1848 led Chantel Prat, author of The Neuroscience of You, switching disciplines.
- Emily Cooke
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Research Highlight |
How your brain stays on task when sizing someone up
Two brain regions help humans to filter out irrelevant information and concentrate on the right stuff in social situations.
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Comment |
How games can make behavioural science better
Wordle, Minecraft and Scrabble are played online by millions. Gamifying experiments can make behavioural research more inclusive, rigorous and reproducible — if it’s done right.
- Bria Long
- , Jan Simson
- & Samuel A. Mehr
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Article
| Open Access
Financial incentives for vaccination do not have negative unintended consequences
Findings from large-scale studies in Sweden and the USA indicate that providing financial incentives for vaccination and informing about state incentive programmes do not have any negative unintended consequences.
- Florian H. Schneider
- , Pol Campos-Mercade
- & Armando N. Meier
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Correspondence |
Treating behavioural addictions that lack diagnostic criteria
- Steve Sussman
- & Deborah Louise Sinclair
Long online discussions are consistently the most toxic
From the archive: Halloween horrors