Society & Politics

As governments worldwide explore how artificial intelligence can transform decision-making, a recent study from Sultan Qaboos University demonstrates how AI can uncover hidden connections within legal systems—offering a powerful tool to support smarter lawmaking. Published in The Journal of Engineering Research, the study applies natural language processing (NLP) and network... Read more

A major new study suggests people's direct experience with artificial intelligence has little impact on their views about its role in government decision-making—while factual information about the technology can significantly shift public opinion. Professor Yotam Margalit (King's College London) and Dr. Shir Raviv (Tel Aviv University) tracked the attitudes of... Read more

A new Rice University study offers one of the first national measures of a viewpoint called "racial realism" and considers how it fits into the broader spectrum of perspectives Black Americans hold about race relations.... Read more

Conventional weapons are generally presented as controllable, proportionate and morally acceptable, unlike weapons of mass destruction. It is this assumption that is challenged by research conducted by Julien Pomarède at the Centre for the Study of War and Violence at the University of Liège, based on American and French military... Read more

Governments cutting hundreds of millions of euros in pandemic funding, just a few years after a pandemic. Billions spent on compensation after a flood, rather than on prevention beforehand. Governments find it difficult to deal effectively with major, but not acute, risks. Why is this such a challenge? This was... Read more

Politics are rife with emotions. But new research from the University of Georgia suggests emotions alone may not determine whether people are satisfied with democracy.... Read more

It is widely accepted that learning English is essential for many adult migrants who move to the UK. Yet in the last census, over 1 million residents in England and Wales reported not speaking English well or at all.... Read more

The practice of states revising standards for how their schools teach history is developing a storied and often contentious history of its own. A University of Kansas scholar has published new research arguing that history standards are prone to overt politicization, and that the best examples of how to handle... Read more

Foreign direct investment (FDI) has long been seen as a reliable engine of economic growth, bringing jobs, productivity gains and new technologies into host economies. But new research suggests the reality is far more complex, and far less predictable.... Read more

Since the United States and Israel launched their war against Iran in late February, Iran has retaliated by targeting commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, effectively shutting down the narrow channel of water.... Read more

A study published in Contemporary Economic Policy investigated the extent to which a company's political investments influence their success in the competition for federal contracts.... Read more

In an era of nonstop headlines and growing political division, many workplaces still follow a familiar rule of thumb: Don't talk politics at work. New research from Washington State University suggests the issue is more nuanced, and talking about politicized news at work may help employees better manage stress and... Read more

For decades, scholars have estimated the ideology of members of Congress by analyzing roll-call votes, recorded tallies of each member's "yea-or-nay" on legislation. But a new study from the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy finds this method is likely skewed by "protest voting"—suggesting that polarization in Congress... Read more

A new study, led by the University of Nottingham and conducted by a team of 72 economists and psychologists across the world, has identified a potential "private solution trap" in problems requiring international cooperation such as climate change. Dr. Eugene Malthouse, Research Fellow in the university's School of Economics, led... Read more

Trying to persuade people to abandon deeply held views often backfires, leaving groups entrenched and unable to move forward. A new study by researchers at the University of Bath in the UK proposes a strategy that is both surprising and more effective: encourage neutrality.... Read more