Research Briefs

Study Shows How a Lack of Community Support Caused by Inequality Exacerbates Cycles of PovertyWhile some are relying on friends and neighbors to help them get groceries, the poor may need to put themselves at risk for COVID-19 by venturing out on public transportation to get supplies. Depending on where they live, they may…

Many case studies suggest that low income and racial minority groups face disproportionately high exposures to environmental pollution. But the existing evidence is piecemeal and indirect due to the patchy nature of the available environmental data. Existing studies of racial disparities in air pollution exposure, for example,…

Five social scientists holed up in an Amsterdam hotel for a week with the goal of reaching a scientific consensus on how people form stereotypes. Remarkably, they were encouraged by the fact that none of them actually agreed with each other.At a conference in Europe the year before, they had presented their conflicting theories…

Since the 2016 U.S. presidential election, debates have raged about the reach of so-called “fake news” websites and the role they played during the campaign. A study published in Nature Human Behaviour finds that the reach of these untrustworthy websites has been overstated.To assess the audience for “fake news,” researchers at…

Racial bias and policing made headlines last year after a study examining records of fatal police shootings claimed white officers were no more likely to shoot racial minorities than nonwhite officers. There was one problem: The study was based on a logical fallacy.The original research counted the numbers of fatal shootings,…

Younger siblings may indeed look up to their older kin — to the point that it influences where they go to college.Using data from centralized school systems in three countries, a team of researchers that includes Princeton University economist Christopher Neilson finds causal evidence that social interactions greatly influence…