Social and Behavioural
Explore Social and Behavioural
Dr Susanna Bairoh | Equal Degrees, Unequal Incomes: New Evidence from Finland’s STEM Workforce
Even in countries celebrated for gender equality, women still earn less than men – and moving into science and technology does not magically solve the problem. New research by Susanna Bairoh, Satu Pyöriä and Niklas Mäkinen takes a close look at this puzzle by following the incomes of women and men working in STEM fields in Finland, a Nordic welfare state often seen as a global role model for equality. Drawing on exceptionally rich national register data, the study asks a deceptively simple question: if women and men have the same level of education, work in the same broad fields, and live in a country with strong family policies, do their incomes finally converge?
Dr Sriram Iyengar | Resilience Informatics
Pandemics! Heatwaves! Floods! Droughts! We live in an age of overlapping crises. Climate change is intensifying. Acute, short-term stressors and chronic, long-term stressors damage physical and mental health. Such stressors are not going away. We need to develop resilience to these stressors. But what IS resilience?
Dr Aminath Sudha | Beyond the Pay Rise: Rethinking Motivation in Public Service
When governments want public services to run better, one common solution is simple: pay people more. But new research led by Dr Aminath Sudha suggests the reality is far more complicated. Her study of civil servants in the Maldives offers a timely reminder that motivation in public service doesn’t always follow private-sector logic.
Professor Magnus S. Magnusson | The Surprising Similarities Between Human Cells and Societies
For most of history, humans lived in small groups. Then, almost overnight in evolutionary terms, billions of us began cooperating in vast, complex societies, something unmatched in the animal kingdom. How did this happen? Professor Magnus S. Magnusson of the University of Iceland believes the answer lies in an unexpected place: inside our cells. His research shows striking parallels between the way that DNA segments (called genes), form specialized proteins, and the way that text segments, called curricula, form specialized individuals.
Dr Charlotte Parham – Dr Louis Nadelson | Lessons in Connection: What School Desegregation Meant for Black Students in the American South
The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision is often remembered as a cornerstone of American progress, a ruling that outlawed racial segregation in public schools and redefined the nation’s educational landscape. But how did this historic shift feel to the students who lived through it? Charlotte Parham and Louis Nadelson at the University of Central Arkansas set out to answer that question through in-depth interviews with African Americans who attended segregated schools and later integrated ones. Their findings offer a nuanced look at the transition – one that highlights both the aspirations of desegregation and the challenges that followed.
Dr Ori Soltes | The War Within: How Our Search for Meaning Can Unite or Divide Us
Religion has long helped people make sense of the world, but as Dr Ori Soltes argues in a recent paper, this guidance comes with deep complications. Even the word religion contains a puzzle. It stems from the Latin religio, meaning ‘to bind back’, which immediately raises the question of what we are trying to reconnect with in the first place. That act of binding back is ultimately tied to a search for meaning – a deep human need to understand our place in the world and how we relate to everything around us. Across history, people have turned to religion to navigate existence, mortality, and uncertainty. But trying to understand that source of meaning, and then expressing it through the limitations of human language, is where the real trouble begins.
Dr Luca Nitschke | A Social-Ecological Model of How Daily Routines Intertwine with Nature
Everyday activities such as gardening or commuting might not seem like they have much to do with global environmental crises – but a new study led by Luca Nitschke argues otherwise. He and his colleagues, Lukas Sattlegger and Immanuel Stieß at the Institute for Social-Ecological Research (ISOE), introduced the idea of ‘social-ecological practices’ to show how our daily routines are deeply connected to the integrity of the natural world.
Dr Sunny Sui-Kwong Lam | Running Together Apart: How a Runners’ Group Stayed Connected During Lockdown
When Hong Kong went into pandemic lockdown, the city’s bustling harbourfront became relatively quiet, with only lone runners wearing masks. However, one local running group refused to let social isolation stop them. The Hong Kong Harbour Runners – a community of recreational joggers who met weekly for “harbour runs” – found creative ways to stay active and connected, even as restrictions shut down public gatherings. In a new study, Dr Sunny Sui-Kwong Lam of Hong Kong Metropolitan University explored how this community-led recreational running group kept its members motivated and emotionally supported.
How Chinese Words Transform When They Enter Mongolic Languages
When languages come into contact, they often borrow words from each other. But what happens if the donor-recipient language pairs are similar but set in different sociolinguistic contexts? Do they develop the same strategies, or do they find their own unique paths? Dr Julie Lefort of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice examines how Chinese adjectives are integrated into two Mongolic languages spoken in China: the Dörbed Mongolian Community Language (or ‘DMCL’ for short), spoken in Heilongjiang, and the Dongxiang language, spoken in Gansu.
Dr Tim Wharton | Understanding the Role of Emotions in Human Communication
Emotional communication is fundamental to human interaction, and plays a key role in the way humans connect with each another. However, precisely what emotions communicate and how they do so remains little understood. Dr Tim Wharton, a linguist based at the University of Brighton, is leading an ambitious research project that aims to change that. Drawing together insights from pragmatics – the study of utterance interpretation – linguistics, psychology, and neuroscience, his team’s work seeks to better understand the role of emotions in human communication.
Dr Johanna Lynch | Promoting Patients’ Sensations of Safety Can Transform Healthcare
What if the key to better healthcare wasn’t just treating symptoms, but helping people feel fundamentally safe? Dr Johanna Lynch at the University of Queensland, alongside her international research team, has developed what is now called the ‘Sense of Safety Theoretical Framework’ – a comprehensive approach that recognises feeling safe as a fundamental prerequisite for health. Their project involved transdisciplinary research into the neuroendocrinology, psychophysiology, and population impacts of threat, and extensive conversations with healthcare practitioners, mental health clinicians, and people with lived experience of illness across Australia and beyond.
Dr Cees Hamelink | Conflict is Inherent to Humanity, But How Can We Stop It Escalating into Violence?
Humans have a great capacity to care for the needs of others. Despite this, disagreements and disputes are an inherent part of human existence. So, what if the key to preventing conflicts from spiralling into mass violence isn’t avoiding disagreement altogether, but learning to communicate with compassion? New research from Dr Cees Hamelink at the University of Amsterdam suggests that, while we cannot eliminate human conflict, we can learn to tame its most destructive potential. His research challenges the widespread belief that conflicts can and should always be prevented, arguing instead that conflict often serves positive purposes in science, democracy, and personal development.
This video provides information to help you navigate emergency department visits to ensure your loved one receives effective care. The focus will be on how to manage seizure emergencies – either seizures arising for the first time or those caused by epilepsy.
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