An international research team, including a member of the Complexity Science Hub Vienna, investigated the role of “big gods” in the rise of complex large-scale societies. Big gods are defined as moralizing deities who punish ethical transgressions. Contrary to prevailing theories, the team found that beliefs in big gods are a consequence, not a cause, …
A new study in the Review of Economic Studies finds that U.S. counties with more historical immigration have higher incomes, less poverty, and lower unemployment today. An important issue in current American political discourse is the effect that immigrants have on the communities in which they settle. While this topic has received significant attention, the focus has …
It’s not difficult to verify whether a new piece of information is accurate; however, most people don’t take that step before sharing it on social media, regardless of age, social class or gender, a new Ohio University study has found. A new study conducted by Ohio University professor Dr. M. Laeeq Khan found that several …
High IQs aren’t going to be enough to stop an ecological disaster. It’s going to take social intelligence, too. That’s the conclusion of a new study co-authored by a University of Central Florida researcher and published Wednesday in the journal Nature Communications. The findings could help identify why some groups better manage shared resources, such …
In a major analysis of university faculty and students in science, technology, engineering and math, Indiana University social psychologists found that professors’ beliefs about intelligence play a measurable role in the success of all students—with the strongest effects for underrepresented students taking their first college-level STEM courses. The results of the study, published in the …
Anthropologists at the University of Oxford have discovered what they believe to be seven universal moral rules. The rules: help your family, help your group, return favours, be brave, defer to superiors, divide resources fairly, and respect others’ property. These were found in a survey of 60 cultures from all around the world. Previous studies …
A research team led by scientists at the Complexity Science Hub Vienna (CSH) reports that fashion cycles in music are driven by outsider groups. Outsiders challenge the dominant music style by strongly contrasting the preferences of the current elite, for instance, by using different instrumentation or new rhythms. “They use counter-signaling,” explains Stefan Thurner, one …
Millennials’ recognition of songs from the 1960s through the 1990s is relatively stable over this 40-year period, a team of researchers has found. By contrast, their recognition of musical hits from 2000 to 2015, while higher overall than the previous era, diminishes rapidly over time. “The 1960s to 1990s was a special time in music, …
Researchers are urging universities across the United States to find a new way to identify the next generation of scientists. A new study discovered that traditional admissions metrics for physics Ph.D. programs such as the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) do not predict completion and hurt the growth of diversity in physics, which is already the …
Childcare can be expensive, stressful, and annoying to organise, but a University of Otago-led study has found it may also be behind religion’s resilience. Scholars have predicted the demise of religion for a long time, but it is not disappearing as quickly as anticipated. Following the collaborative study, lead author Dr. John Shaver, of Otago’s …
