social

Russia Is Having Less Success at Spreading Social Media Disinformation

by

Days after Russia invaded Ukraine, multiple social media platforms—including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube—announced they had dismantled coordinated networks of accounts spreading disinformation. These networks, which were comprised of fabricated accounts disguised with fake names and AI-generated profile images or hacked accounts, were sharing suspiciously similar anti-Ukraine talking points, suggesting they were being controlled by centralized … Read more

Bonobo infants find the arrival of a new sibling stressful

by

Cortisol levels in bonobo infants jumped fivefold when they got a younger sibling and stayed high for 7 months, suggesting they found it extremely stressful Life 4 March 2022 By Alice Klein A young bonobo and her mother Sean M. Lee/George Washington University Bonobo infants become highly stressed when they get a younger sibling and … Read more

Scientists Attached Tracking Devices to Magpies. But Nobody Asked The Magpies

by

When we attached tiny, backpack-like tracking devices to five Australian magpies for a pilot study, we didn’t expect to discover an entirely new social behavior rarely seen in birds.   Our goal was to learn more about the movement and social dynamics of these highly intelligent birds, and to test these new, durable and reusable … Read more

The World’s ‘Happiest’ Countries Harbor a Dark Side, Wellbeing Study Reveals

by

Have you looked at the international rankings of the world’s happiest countries lately? Measuring a country’s subjective levels of happiness has become something of an international sport. People look with interest (and a little jealousy) to nations such as Denmark, which consistently tops the world’s happiness rankings.   It has also led to Danish practices … Read more

Scientists Simulated 100,000 Different Futures. Which One We Get Depends Only on Us

by

Most of us have at least one moment in our lives when we wish we’d made a different choice. It’s easy to recognize what went wrong in hindsight, but key factors that could have made all the difference at the time are often easily missed as we experience them.   Understanding those pivot points becomes … Read more

Yoga: At least one session a week may help to lower blood pressure

by

A large real-world study adds to clinical trial evidence that people who do yoga tend to have lower blood pressure, which may prevent heart attacks and strokes Health 9 February 2022 By Alice Klein Regular yoga may lead to health benefits Boston Globe Copyright: Aram Boghosian/Boston Globe/Getty Images Practising yoga one or more times per … Read more

Baboons: A tough infancy leaves females less sociable as adults

by

Baboons are sociable primates, but females that had a tough early life – because of the loss of their mother or a lack of food – find socialising harder Life 2 February 2022 By Christa Lesté-Lasserre Olive baboons (Papio anubis) Alexa Duchesnneau and Sam Patterson Female baboons that had a harder life as youngsters tend … Read more

Being a Super-Friendly Dog Has One Potential Drawback, Study Finds

by

The friendliness of your dog could have serious implications for its social standing with other canines, new research suggests. In a questionnaire designed to measure the personality traits of companion dogs and compare them against their social ranking with other canines in multi-dog families, researchers found that dogs who scored highly for agreeableness and affection … Read more

Social connection: People feel like they “click” more in conversations with rapid responses

by

The more quickly people respond to each other during a conversation, the more likely they are to feel in sync Mind 28 January 2022 By Richard Sima Speedy responses in a conversation make people feel connected Justin Lambert/Getty Images The connection we feel to others when we have a good conversation isn’t based solely on … Read more