news

Politics - 24.10.2018

Politics interferes with the ability to assess expertise
Learning about someone's political beliefs interferes with a person's ability to assess expertise, as people judge like-minded peers as being more expert in fields completely unrelated to politics, finds a new UCL-led study. In the paper, published in Cognition , the researchers found that people turned to peers with similar political views for help on a shape categorisation task that had nothing to do with politics, instead of seeking help from someone who was doing better at the shape categorisation task but didn't share their political leanings.

Politics - 21.10.2018

Refining the "science" of political science
Teppei Yamamoto examines the methods of his discipline, to help scholars nail down cause and effect. Political pundits are usually confident about their ability to identify why citizens think the way they do. Look at cable television or the internet, and you'll find someone attributing an election result to economic anxiety, or claiming the latest polling numbers reflect a recent news story.

Politics - 09.10.2018

Elections: Understanding democracy in a divided America
Elections are a pillar of American democracy. But for many Americans today, our democratic process feels under siege. A divided electorate and intense partisanship have led to a tense public mood where feelings of polarization run deep. People are now more attached to their party affiliation than any other social identifier - like race and religion - according to Stanford scholar Shanto Iyengar.

Life Sciences - Politics - 12.09.2018

Corruption is Hard to Hide if You’re a Politician Whose Face is Wide
An old joke says if you want to know if a politician is lying, see if their lips are moving. New research shows that people can predict something about a politician's honesty just by looking at them, but it's not the lips they're noticing. A series of studies conducted by Caltech researchers show that when people are shown photos of politicians they're not familiar with, they can make better-than-chance judgments about whether those politicians have been convicted of corruption.

Politics - 05.09.2018

Swedish election second only to US in proportion of ’junk news’ shared
Research from the Oxford Internet Institute has found that the proportion of 'junk news' shared on social media during the ongoing Swedish election campaign is higher than any other European country studied - and second only to the US in recent major elections.  With Sweden going to the polls on 9 September, the study shows that Swedish social media users have shared two links to professional news content for every one link to junk news, with junk sources accounting for 22% of all URLs shared with political hashtags.

Law - Politics - 23.08.2018

More work needed to make Irish abortion law fit-for-purpose
While Government-imposed restrictions on immigration can reduce overall migration, they can also be ineffective or even counterproductive, pushing more would-be migrants into unauthorised channels, finds new research carried out in collaboration with the University of Birmingham. The study, published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, investigated how individuals are likely to move from one country to another based on varying levels of restriction.

Politics - Law - 07.08.2018

Visa restrictions can lead to increase in illegal migration
While Government-imposed restrictions on immigration can reduce overall migration, they can also be ineffective or even counterproductive, pushing more would-be migrants into unauthorised channels, finds new UCL-led research in collaboration with Royal Holloway and University of Birmingham. The study, published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , investigated how individuals are likely to move from one country to another based on varying levels of restriction.

Social Sciences - Politics - 01.08.2018

Differences in social status and politics encourage paranoid thinking
Differences in social status and political belief increase paranoid interpretations of other people's actions, finds a new UCL experimental study. Paranoia is the tendency to assume other people are trying to harm you when their actual motivations are unclear, and this tendency is increased when interacting with someone of a higher social status or opposing political beliefs, according to the study published today in Royal Society Open Science .

Career - Politics - 30.07.2018

Decline in working class politicians, shifted Labour towards right wing policy
The decline in working-class MPs and rise of career politicians shifted the Labour Party towards a more right wing policy stance on welfare, according to a new study by UCL. The research, published in Comparative Political Studies , examined the policy preferences of working-class and career politicians within the Labour Party both pre and during Tony Blair's leadership of the Labour Party.  The study shows that working-class MPs were substantially more in favour of traditional welfare policies than their careerist colleagues.

Politics - Career - 05.07.2018

Barriers continue to prevent potential Assembly candidates from standing, report concludes
Action is needed to encourage a wider range of people from underrepresented groups to enter politics, academics say. The team from Cardiff University's Wales Governance Centre and London Metropolitan University studied what motivates and discourages people from considering running for election to the National Assembly.

Politics - Administration - 11.05.2018

People power
In politics, your voices make a difference. At least at the state level of U.S. politics, that is. A new study co-authored by an MIT political scientist shows that state policies in the U.S. from 1936 through 2014 have been responsive to public opinion - and have become even more aligned with it in recent decades.

Politics - 24.04.2018

Climate change not the key driver of human conflict and displacement in East Africa
Over the last 50 years climate change has not been the key driver of the human displacement or conflict in East Africa, rather it is politics and poverty, according to new research by UCL. Human displacement refers to the total number of forcibly displaced people, and includes internally displaced people - the largest group represented - and refugees, those forced to across international borders.  "Terms such as climate migrants and climate wars have increasingly been used to describe displacement and conflict, however these terms imply that climate change is the main cause.

Politics - Media - 17.04.2018

Study looks at social media humour during US election
New research from The Australian National University (ANU) has looked at the use of humour on Twitter during the 2016 US Presidential election. The study found that 35 per cent of election related posts used humour, and that Hillary Clinton supporters were almost three times more likely to use jokes than Donald Trump supporters.

Politics - Psychology - 12.04.2018

Superiority complex? People who claim superior beliefs exaggerate their own knowledge
ANN ARBOR-No one likes smug knowit-all friends, relatives or co-workers who believe their knowledge and beliefs are superior to others. But now these discussions at the dinner table, bar or office might be less annoying. A new University of Michigan study indicates what many people suspect: these know-it-all people are especially prone to overestimating what they actually know.

Politics - Social Sciences - 29.03.2018

Biracial youth’s political views, self-identification examined
With the mixed-race population rapidly increasing in the United States, Stanford political scientist Lauren Davenport says it's important to figure out what factors shape this group's political attitudes and self-identification. Biracial youth who identify with the races of both of their parents tend to be more socially progressive and liberal than their peers who are of a single racial background, according to new research from a Stanford political scientist.

Politics - 14.03.2018

Could anti-Trump sentiment mobilize African-American voters in 2018?
African-American voters who dislike and feel threatened by Donald Trump and his presidency are much more likely to vote and to engage with politics, according to new research from California State University, Sacramento, and the University of Washington. The findings, the researchers say, indicate sentiment against Trump and his policies creates an opportunity for African-American mobilization as the country heads toward the 2018 midterm elections.

Religions - Politics - 07.02.2018

Better Knowledge of Evolution Leads to Greater Acceptance of the Concept
Prevailing theories about evolution state that belief in the concept is tied only to a person's politics, religion or both. But according to new research out of the University of Pennsylvania published in BioScience , the journal of the American Institute of Biology, whether Americans accept or reject the subject also depends on how well they understand it.

Politics - Social Sciences - 29.01.2018

Sociologist’s research on Filipino leader reveals insights into populist politics
By many accounts, Joseph Estrada had a lackluster record of helping the poor in the Philippines. The former president was ousted in 2001 and later convicted of plunder for stealing $80 million from the government. Nevertheless, the urban poor in Manila have continued to support the former film actor, who ran for president in 2010 after being pardoned.

Politics - Health - 26.01.2018

Study hints magic mushrooms can alter how you feel about nature (and politics)
Long-held beliefs can become entrenched over time, making them hard to change. But psychedelics might provide a way to alter them, a study suggests. Researchers have been exploring psilocybin, the psychedelic compound found in magic mushrooms, as a potential therapeutic avenue for a small group of patients with depression who do not respond to mainstream treatments - with initial results suggesting a lasting reduction in symptoms.

Politics - 30.12.2017

Political scientist studies apocalyptic political rhetoric
Stanford political scientist Alison McQueen's research shows that apocalyptic rhetoric can make wars, natural disasters, economic collapse and even the possibility of nuclear war easier to understand. But although it can rouse people to action, apocalyptic rhetoric also carries great peril. Stanford political scientist Alison McQueen has studied the use of political rhetoric that evokes the end of the times, finding that it can comfort people during crises, making wars or economically troubled times, for instance, easier to understand.