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Trust in politicians is at a low ebb and the health of the UK democracy matters as much to voters as issues such as crime and immigration, according to a new report by the UCL Constitution Unit. Published today, the report found that most voters believe stronger mechanisms are needed to ensure politicians follow the rules, with four out of five saying the current system needs reform so that politicians who do not act with integrity can be punished.

Researchers argue that the findings hold lessons for social media companies and the -perverse incentives- driving political polarisation online. Shifting the motivations to post on social media could help rebuild some of the shared reality lost to political polarisation Sander van der Linden Offering a tiny cash reward for accuracy, or even briefly appealing to personal integrity, can increase people's ability to tell the difference between misinformation and the truth, according to a new study.

Study reveals how people resolve dilemmas in online content moderation Online content moderation is a moral minefield, especially when freedom of expression clashes with preventing harm caused by misinformation. A study by a team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, University of Exeter, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and University of Bristol examined how the public would deal with such moral dilemmas.

Scientists from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) have designed a new methodology to analyse political polarisation through the Facebook posts of European parties. They have also created a website openly displaying these results, where it is possible to make comparisons by country at different times.

marks the anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Historians Harm Kaal and Jelle van Lottum are presenting a 180-page edition of the Journal of Applied History devoted in its entirety to the Russio-Ukrainian war and how history is being used as a weapon in this conflict.

Study on the 2016 US presidential election Russian Twitter campaigns during the 2016 US presidential race primarily reached a small subset of users, most of whom were highly partisan Republicans, shows a new study. In addition, the international research team found that despite Russia's influence operations on the platform, there were no measurable changes in attitudes or voting behavior among those exposed to this foreign influence campaign.

New report reveals that in the past 10 years, public opinion has warmed to immigration which could lead to changes in immigration policy in the UK. A new report published by Professor Robert Ford from the University of Manchester and Marley Morris written for the Institute of Public Policy Research reveals that public attitudes towards immigration have warmed in recent years.

The introduction of the general right to vote for women in Switzerland contributed significantly to their emancipation. Researchers at the University of Basel have now retrospectively statistically evaluated and quantified the effects on employment, education and the family model. The anonymous petition by women in Zurich demanding women's suffrage in 1868 as part of the constitutional reform had no chance of success, as did many other initiatives to this end.

New systematic review in Nature Human Behaviour summarizes studies conducted worldwide   One of the most contentious questions of our time is whether the rapid global uptake of digital media is contributing to a decline in democracy. While discussions on the risks of social media have recently received a great deal of media coverage, tech companies argue that findings are not conclusive.

The path to peace usually leads through a ceasefire. In an international project, researchers have shown the conditions under which parties to civil wars are willing to stop fighting - and why they decide to do so. Abstract Between 1989 and 2020, a total of 2202 ceasefires resulted from 109 civil wars in 66 countries.

It is primarily the inhabitants of economically isolated places and regions who vote for right-wing populist parties - this is a common thesis explaining the electoral successes of AfD & Co. in Europe. A research team at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena has now found that high AfD vote shares in the last two federal elections can apparently be explained by a long-term decline in a region's relative prosperity.

When groups of people need to reach a decision, they will often take a straw poll to test opinions before the official vote. New research from the University of Washington shows that one specific voting method proved more effective than others in identifying the best choice. In a study published Sept.

Historian Lorena De Vita unravels impact of local and global security issues of 1952 In 1952, now 70 years ago, Wassenaar was the scene of a historic breakthrough.

With flags hanging upside down all over the country, trust in politics seems to have reached an all-time low. The nitrogen crisis, along with the housing crisis, problems around asylum housing, the settlement of the benefits affair, the Covid-19 crisis and the Groningen earthquake damage, are all major challenges for the government's reputation.

It seems like reports on followers of conspiracy theories are a constant feature in the news. The latest one: Alex Jones, a radio host and conspiracy theorist-who said that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting of 26 people, including 20 schoolchildren, was a hoax and carried out by actors-was ordered by a Texas jury to pay $45.2 million in punitive damages to the parents of a child who was killed in the massacre.

In disinformation campaigns, like the long-standing pro-Kremlin campaign targeted at Ukraine by the Russian government, who is most at risk of believing false information? A study led by McGill University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found that Ukrainians who engaged in more analytic thinking were less likely to believe the pro-Kremlin disinformation, even if they were generally pro-Russia.

Liberals and conservatives can have positive experiences when they talk politics together over Zoom, a UCLA study shows Liberals and conservatives can have positive experiences when they talk politics together over Zoom, a UCLA study shows Conservatives and liberals who spoke one-on-one over Zoom enjoyed the experience and had greater respect for each other's views than they anticipated.

The United States and other wealthy democracies during the past century have rarely responded to rising economic inequality by enacting more progressive tax policies, according to a new study co-authored by Yale political scientist Kenneth Scheve. The study, published in the journal Comparative Political Studies , provides evidence that a widespread belief among voters that government should treat all citizens equally regardless of economic advantage or disadvantage helps explain why countries often do not raise tax rates on the rich in response to rising inequality.

Writing in The Conversation, Dr Vageesh Jain (UCL Institute for Global Health) looks at the connection between a country's democratic strength and the success of it's response to Covid-19. Through the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become clear that an effective response to an emergency of this nature goes beyond the health system.

Scott Morrison and Barnaby Joyce were the most unpopular leaders of any party since 1987, new analysis of the 2022 federal election from The Australian National University (ANU) shows. The findings come from the joint ANUpoll/Comparative Study of Electoral Systems survey of more than 3,500 voters, which examined Australians' political attitudes before and after the 21 May vote.