https://phys.org/science-news/ en-us The latest science news on archaeology, fossils, mathematics, and science technology from Phys.org If there's one thing most office workers can agree on, it's that they tend to feel less productive toward the end of the day and the end of each work week. Now, a team of researchers at Texas A&M University has found objective evidence of this phenomenon in action. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-workers-productive-typos-afternoonespecially-fridays.html Social Sciences Economics & Business Thu, 03 Aug 2023 03:56:43 EDT news610253796 The education of care-experienced children should be redefined to include a much broader range of activities to better support their development and success, a new study says. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-broaden-definition-children-urges.html Social Sciences Education Wed, 02 Aug 2023 16:11:18 EDT news610211475 A new study by an interdisciplinary team of researchers across six different countries has found that affective polarization, or the tendency to dislike people who belong to opposing political parties while favoring people from their own political party, is a global bias—not just an American one. The research further indicates that the dislike grows stronger when two people think about political issues the same way but come away with different beliefs about those issues. The work is published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-political-animosity-global.html Political science Wed, 02 Aug 2023 14:35:56 EDT news610205752 A single accessory—an ornate necklace from a child's grave in ancient Jordan—provides new insights into social complexity of Neolithic culture, according to a study published August 2, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Hala Alarashi of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Spain, and the Université Côte d'Azur, France and colleagues. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-neolithic-necklace-child-grave-reveals.html Archaeology Social Sciences Wed, 02 Aug 2023 14:00:01 EDT news610189573 In an analysis of more than 5,000 people, frequently working in teams was associated with a greater tendency for women and white men to put in extra effort at work, while other links between job conditions and effort varied between genders and ethnoracial groups. Wei-hsin Yu of the University of California, Los Angeles, U.S, and Janet Chen-Lan Kuo of National Taiwan University, Taiwan, present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on August 2, 2023. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-teamwork-environments-linked-white-employees.html Social Sciences Economics & Business Wed, 02 Aug 2023 14:00:01 EDT news610189589 In a study involving more than 500 people, participants correctly identified speech deepfakes only 73% of the time, and efforts to train participants to detect deepfakes had minimal effects. Kimberly Mai and colleagues at University College London, UK, presented these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on August 2, 2023. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-speech-deepfakes-frequently-people.html Social Sciences Wed, 02 Aug 2023 14:00:01 EDT news610189556 Jesus has been portrayed in many different ways: from a prophet who alerts his audience to the world's imminent end to a philosopher who reflects on the nature of life. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-chatbot-kinds-latest-representation-jesus.html Social Sciences Wed, 02 Aug 2023 11:40:01 EDT news610193323 The power given to Donald Trump is a result of America's racial divide rather than because he is a "cult" leader, a new study says. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-trump-power-resulted-america-racial.html Social Sciences Political science Wed, 02 Aug 2023 11:33:14 EDT news610194792 The global refugee population is more than 26 million people, according to some estimates. Such largescale movements of people affect many countries and have created significant interest among business and management researchers in recent years as companies try to work out how to successfully integrate refugees into their workforces. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-hiring-refugees-good-businesses.html Social Sciences Economics & Business Wed, 02 Aug 2023 11:30:02 EDT news610193301 Modern American politics has been plagued by scandals from Watergate to Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, to Donald Trump's Access Hollywood tapes and impeachments. More recently, President Joe Biden's son Hunter faces tax and gun possession charges, casting a shadow over his father's re-election bid. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-scandals-impact-politicians.html Social Sciences Political science Wed, 02 Aug 2023 11:10:28 EDT news610193425 Despite progress towards greater gender equality, many people remain stubbornly attached to old-fashioned gender roles in romantic relationships between women and men. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-traditional-heterosexual-romance-sexist.html Social Sciences Wed, 02 Aug 2023 11:10:01 EDT news610192937 In the digital age, a new Twitter strategy can have implications for a healthy bottom line. How companies handle customer complaints on social media plays a critical role in their customer-focused performance management systems. However, there has been a notable lack of descriptive information related to assessing managerial performance based on the handling of online complaints. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-brands-twitter-affects-bottom-line.html Economics & Business Wed, 02 Aug 2023 11:09:38 EDT news610193374 Twitter has long been known for its iconic Blue Bird. On July 23, Elon Musk announced that this famed logo was going to be replaced with an "X." After a series of Musk-driven blunders, the disappearance of the Blue Bird has been seen by some as the final straw in the erasure of Twitter as we know it. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-reaction-elon-musk-rebrand-twitter.html Social Sciences Wed, 02 Aug 2023 11:07:56 EDT news610193269 Conspiracy theory beliefs and (more generally) misinformation may be groundless, but they can have a range of harmful real-world consequences, including spreading lies, undermining trust in media and government institutions and inciting violent or even extremist behaviors. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-social-media-conspiracy-theories-violence.html Social Sciences Political science Wed, 02 Aug 2023 11:02:45 EDT news610192960 Every day of the northern hemisphere's summer in 2023 seems to bring a calamitous headline about the climate: heat waves, wildfires, massive hailstorms. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-climate-contributes-violence-children.html Social Sciences Wed, 02 Aug 2023 11:00:24 EDT news610192818 Researchers are more likely to pen scientific papers with co-authors of the same gender, a pattern that cannot be simply explained by the varying gender representation across scientific disciplines and time, according to joint research from Cornell and the University of Washington. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-same-gender-co-authors.html Social Sciences Education Wed, 02 Aug 2023 10:59:58 EDT news610192796 For several years now, women have been voting more left-wing than men. This trend first appeared in the 2017 German general election and intensified in 2021. This has been shown by a study carried out by sociologist Dr. Ansgar Hudde from the Institute of Sociology and Social Psychology at the University of Cologne (UoC). https://phys.org/news/2023-08-germany-women-vote-left-wing-case.html Social Sciences Political science Wed, 02 Aug 2023 10:32:42 EDT news610191158 A new statistical tool can help researchers get meaningful results when a randomized experiment, considered the gold standard, is not possible. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-statistical-tool-causal-effects.html Economics & Business Wed, 02 Aug 2023 10:32:05 EDT news610191121 Early colonial settlers likely survived the harsh frontier conditions of 17th-century Delaware because they banded as family units to work alongside enslaved African descendants and European indentured servants, according to a new study published this summer in Current Biology. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-dna-delaware-site-kinship-european.html Archaeology Wed, 02 Aug 2023 10:23:48 EDT news610190623 Research from Monash University shows that young people's career indecision and uncertainty can lead to helplessness, depression, stress, lack of purpose and despair. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-harnessing-power-career-conversations-combating.html Social Sciences Education Wed, 02 Aug 2023 08:49:13 EDT news610184949 How emotion contributes to the plight of temporary migrants on study and work visas in Aotearoa New Zealand is the focus of a publication by Professor Francis Collins and Associate Professor Christina Stringer from the University of Auckland. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-exploitation-migrant-workers-emotional-issue.html Social Sciences Economics & Business Wed, 02 Aug 2023 08:42:14 EDT news610184530 A team of researchers with a wide variety of backgrounds from institutions in Poland, Sweden, the U.K., Czech Republic and Ukraine has learned more about the demographic history of people living in East-Central Europe during the Bronze Age by studying the genes of people living during that time. For their paper published in the journal Nature Communications, the group conducted genetic analyses of temporal bones and/or tooth remains of 91 people. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-dna-reveals-shift-bronze-age.html Archaeology Wed, 02 Aug 2023 08:41:26 EDT news610184482 The Department of Didactics of Mathematics, Experimental and Social Sciences has analyzed the knowledge of birds of secondary school students, and their attitude towards conservation. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-analysis-secondary-school-students-difficulty.html Education Wed, 02 Aug 2023 08:13:14 EDT news610182791 The theory that many people feel the work they do is pointless because their jobs are "bullshit" has been confirmed by a new study. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-people-pointless-meaningless-jobs.html Social Sciences Economics & Business Tue, 01 Aug 2023 19:00:01 EDT news610100777 Youth involved in community-based activism over time become better critical thinkers and more politically active, according to a new University of Michigan study. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-teens-engaged-critical-thinkers.html Social Sciences Education Tue, 01 Aug 2023 17:00:33 EDT news610128028 The public funding of science is responsible for many of the biomedical and other scientific breakthroughs on which our lives depend. However, the process through which funding decisions are made, the peer review of grant proposals, has been historically understudied, and current approaches can lead to undesirable outcomes. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-score-approach-grant.html Economics & Business Education Tue, 01 Aug 2023 16:55:03 EDT news610127702 Tourism researchers could learn from spirit mediums to develop a better way of researching by embracing "nothingness" and opening themselves up to the mysterious and unseen "atmospheres" that surround us, a new study reveals. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-spirit-mediums-tourism-secrets.html Social Sciences Economics & Business Tue, 01 Aug 2023 16:28:03 EDT news610126081 How much time bargainers take deciding whether to accept or reject an offer can reveal how much they think an item is worth—a discovery which may help online bargain hunters get the best deal. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-reveals-insights-online-buyers-sellers.html Social Sciences Economics & Business Tue, 01 Aug 2023 16:26:03 EDT news610125961 A short walk down Melbourne's Lygon Street will take you past around 30 Italian restaurants, cafes and pizzerias. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-creative-geography-australia-digital-technology.html Economics & Business Tue, 01 Aug 2023 13:40:04 EDT news610116001 Charities that provide social services such as medical care or after-school programs should consider emphasizing how their efforts can help their clients become more self-sufficient, my research findings suggest. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-donors-people-feet.html Social Sciences Economics & Business Tue, 01 Aug 2023 13:30:01 EDT news610114464