Social Issues News

January 26, 2025

Top Headlines

Jan. 20, 2025 — A global survey spanning 68 countries reveals that public trust in scientists is still high. A team of 241 researchers conducted the largest post-pandemic study of trust in science, societal expectations and public views on research ...

How Improving Education Could Close Maternal Heart Health Gaps

Jan. 15, 2025 — Research has established a clear link between racial and ethnic disparities in maternal heart health and higher risks of preterm birth, preeclampsia and cardiovascular issues for Black and Hispanic mothers and their ...

Modeling Tool Affirms Critical Role of Testing in Pandemic Response

Jan. 3, 2025 — A study found public-private partnerships to develop, produce and distribute COVID-19 diagnostic tests saved approximately 1.4 million lives and prevented an estimated 7 million patient hospitalizations in the U.S. during the ...

Cosmetic Dermatology in the Digital Age

Dec. 2, 2024 — Driven by rapid advances in technology and the ever-growing influence of the digital landscape, the art of caring for the physical body and the digital world are becoming increasingly intertwined. The field of cosmetic dermatology is no ...

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updated 10:58pm EST

Expanding the Agenda for More Just Genomics

Jan. 2, 2025 — A special report outlines opportunities to enhance justice in genomics, toward a world in which genomic medicine promotes health equity, protects privacy, and respects the rights and values of ...

Regional, Racial, and Economic Disparities in Cancer Risk from Air Pollution Exposure Persist, but Improving, New Research Suggests

Dec. 3, 2024 — A nationwide U.S. assessment of estimated cancer risk from airborne toxics shows that risk is concentrated in urban communities, those with lower ...

Better Environmental Performance Boosts Profits and Cuts Costs

Dec. 10, 2024 — Using a new calculation method, researchers found in an international comparative study that investors value corporate environmental performance more than mere information disclosure. In some ...

Study Raises Concerns About the Climate Change and Global Conflict Crises

Nov. 20, 2024 — Researchers are looking at the impact of climate change in communities affected by conflict and have found that many countries most impacted by these crises are being ...

How Flood Risk Affects Home Values

Nov. 19, 2024 — Houses for sale in a flood zone are around 10% cheaper than surrounding areas, according to new research. However, the reduced price tag is not worth the extra risk and can burden buyers with ...

A 'Worrying Confluence' of Flood Risk, Social Vulnerability and Climate Change Denial

Oct. 23, 2024 — In certain parts of the United States, especially Appalachia, New England and the Northwest, the ability of residents to prepare for and respond to ...

Experts Call for Clear and Concise Regulation of Exosome-Based Treatments

Oct. 24, 2024 — Clinics that offer exosome therapies claim they have the ability to repair and regenerate tissues and treat inflammatory and other immune-related conditions in a noninvasive way. Now, a team of ...

Geography: Improving Our Understanding of Complex Crises

Oct. 23, 2024 — Researcher presents a new model for risk research which takes interactions into account and brings together various ...

When Hurricanes Hit, Online Chatter Drowns out Safety Messaging

Oct. 17, 2024 — Research shows, during four recent major hurricanes, important public safety messaging was drowned out by more trivial social content--including people tweeting about pets, sharing human-interest ...

One-Time Cooperation Decisions Unaffected by Increased Benefits to Society

Oct. 8, 2024 — Until now, it was considered certain that people are more likely to cooperate if the benefits from cooperation are higher. A recently published, large-scale study has now called this finding into ...

More People Living Without Running Water in U.S. Cities Since the Global Financial Crisis, Study Reveals

Dec. 19, 2024 — More American cities -- even those seen as affluent -- are home to people living without running water as people are being 'squeezed' by unaffordable housing and the cost-of-living crisis, ...

Young Children Less Likely Than Adults to See Discrimination as Harmful, Researchers Find

Dec. 10, 2024 — A study by a team of psychology researchers shows that young children in the United States are less likely than adults to see discrimination as harmful, indicating these beliefs begin at an early ...

Experiences of Discrimination Linked to Postpartum Weight Retention

Nov. 11, 2024 — Researchers have been unable to explain why after giving birth, Black patients are two to three times as likely to retain or gain additional weight compared to their white counterparts, even when ...

How Prisons Fall Short in Protecting the Incarcerated from Climate Disasters

Nov. 8, 2024 — A new study paints a grim picture of how blistering heat, wildfire smoke and other extreme weather events impact Colorado's jail and prison ...

From Compliance to Conversation: New Guidelines Push for Ethical Reflection in Research Reporting

Nov. 4, 2024 — A new study highlights key challenges and tensions in research ethics, particularly in light of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, and calls for the adoption of new research ...

Dramatic Drop in Marijuana Use Among U.S. Youth Over a Decade (2011 to 2021)

Oct. 28, 2024 — Using a national survey of 88,183 adolescents in grades nine to 12, findings show marijuana use declined from 23.1% in 2011 to 15.8% in 2021, with first-time use before age 13 dropping from 8.1% to ...

Bystanders in a Combat Zone Are Treated as Guilty Until Proven Innocent

Oct. 23, 2024 — People's bias toward sacrificing unknown bystanders appears to stem from assuming the unidentified person is an enemy, according to a new ...

Hurricanes Linked to Higher Death Rates for 15 Years After Storms Pass

Oct. 2, 2024 — U.S. tropical cyclones, including hurricanes, indirectly cause thousands of deaths for nearly 15 years after a storm. Researchers estimate an average U.S. tropical cyclone indirectly causes 7,000 to ...

How Social Structure Influences the Way People Share Money

Sep. 26, 2024 — A study of informal finance finds that in East Africa, money moves in very different patterns depending on whether societies are structured around family units or age-based ...

Lower Neighborhood Opportunity May Increase Risk for Preterm Birth

Sep. 16, 2024 — A new study has found that more than half of Black and Hispanic infants were born into very low-opportunity neighborhoods, and that babies born into these neighborhoods had a 16-percent greater risk ...

Geographic Differences in U.S. Homicide Rates Have Decreased Since the 1970s

Aug. 28, 2024 — A new study finds that, counter to expectations, geographic disparities in rates of homicides in the US have decreased in recent ...

Nighttime Light Data Shows Inequities in Restoring Power After Hurricane Michael

Aug. 14, 2024 — Using nighttime lightdata from NASA, remote sensing, official outage records and census information, a study reveals notable differences in power-restoration rates between urbanized and rural areas ...

Nature at Risk in the Hunt for the Perfect Selfie

Aug. 9, 2024 — The need for a dramatic selfie or the perfect landscape photo is proving detrimental to nature, a new research collaboration has ...

Development of 'Living Robots' Needs Regulation and Public Debate

July 22, 2024 — Researchers are calling for regulation to guide the responsible and ethical development of bio-hybrid robotics -- a ground-breaking science which fuses artificial components with living tissue and ...

Perceived Warmth, Competence Predict Callback Decisions in Meta-Analysis of Hiring Experiments

July 10, 2024 — Perceived warmth and competence predict the influence of race, gender and age on callback decisions, suggesting social perceptions might underlie such hiring bias, according to a new ...

New, Holistic Way to Teach Synthetic Biology

June 27, 2024 — Synthetic biology combines principles from science, engineering and social science, creating emerging technologies such as alternative meats and mRNA vaccines; Deconstructing synthetic biology across ...

Effective Hurricane Risk Messaging

June 17, 2024 — Forecasters can use images in social media to better communicate weather related hazards of hurricanes, according to a pair of new ...

Basic Income Can Double Global GDP While Reducing Carbon Emissions

June 7, 2024 — Giving a regular cash payment to the entire world population has the potential to increase global gross domestic product (GDP) by 130%, according to a new analysis. Researchers suggest that charging ...

Secure Access to Food and Water Decreasing for US Children

June 7, 2024 — The number of children in the U.S. facing simultaneous water and food insecurity more than doubled between 2005 and 2020. Additionally, Black children were 3.5 times more likely than white children ...

Climate Policy: Competing Crises

June 6, 2024 — Current crises are distracting from the climate crisis and weakening support for climate action, a Europe-wide survey ...