News by Subject Social & Behavior

Top U.S. health agencies retain the trust of the vast majority of the American public, as does Dr. Anthony Fauci, according to a new survey from the Annenberg Public Policy Center. Public confidence has grown in the safety and effectiveness of vaccines to prevent Covid-19. But people who say they rely on conservative media have less confidence in Fauci and are more likely to accept misinformation and conspiracy theories.

New research from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania found that social influencers are unlikely to change a person's behavior by example. To stimulate a shift in people's thinking, target small groups of people in the outer edge or fringe of a network.

Researchers in Colorado State University's Department of Psychology are working on an easily understood, science-backed way to visually represent hurricane danger to the general public. They contend that the cone of uncertainty creates a false sense of security for people who live outside the boundary of the cone and that there are better ways to signal likely impacts.

New research from Megan Gandy in West Virginia University's School of Social Work suggests that faith communities can benefit LGBTQ+ individuals.

When people see a toothbrush, a car, a tree -- any individual object -- their brain automatically associates it with other things it naturally occurs with, allowing humans to build context for their surroundings and set expectations for the world. By using machine-learning and brain imaging, researchers measured the extent of the "co-occurrence" phenomenon and identified the brain region involved. The findings appear in Nature Communications.