Hacker News with Generative AI: Social Science

Emergence of collective oscillations in human crowds (nature.com)
Dense crowds form some of the most dangerous environments in modern society1. Dangers arise from uncontrolled collective motions, leading to compression against walls, suffocation and fatalities2,3,4.

Crowd Dynamics, Safety, Physics, Social Science, Human Behavior

95 points by shalg 12 days ago | 40 comments

A hexagonal-tiled cartogram for U.S. counties (jordanroga.com)
Mapping data isn’t just about geography - it’s about telling stories hidden in numbers. Recently, I created a cartogram that tiles all U.S. counties into a uniform grid of hexagons. This approach transforms our traditional view of the nation, offering fresh insights into population, density, and other socio-economic variables that are often obscured on conventional maps.

Mapping, Data Visualization, United States, Geography, Social Science

63 points by jordanhroga 16 days ago | 20 comments

Brits still associate working-class accents with criminals – study warns of bias (cam.ac.uk)
People who speak with accents perceived as ‘working-class’ including those from Liverpool, Newcastle, Bradford and London risk being stereotyped as more likely to have committed a crime, and becoming victims of injustice, a new study suggests.

Social Science, Linguistics, Stereotypes, Bias, Criminology

10 points by gnabgib 34 days ago | 3 comments

The Typical Man Disgusts the Typical Woman (betonit.ai)
Ever seen this famous OkCupid graph? The quick summary is just: “Men rate women more highly than women rate men.”

Dating, Gender, Social Science, Psychology, Relationships

36 points by jger15 38 days ago | 44 comments

Human Civilization at critical junction:authoritarian collapse or superabundance (eurekalert.org)
A new scientific study published in the journal Foresight concludes that human civilisation is on the brink of the next ‘giant leap’ in evolution. However, progress could be thwarted by centralised far-right political projects such as the incoming Donald Trump administration.

Politics, Civilization, Social Science, Technology, Future

31 points by clumsysmurf 52 days ago | 23 comments

The Global Loss of the U-Shaped Curve of Happiness (afterbabel.com)
There is a literature of at least 600 published papers suggesting that happiness is U-shaped in age and, conversely, that unhappiness is hump-shaped in age.

Happiness, Social Science, Aging

27 points by nsoonhui 54 days ago | 3 comments

Revisiting Stereotype Threat (michaelinzlicht.com)
Another day, another idol falls.

Psychology, Social Science, Stereotypes

101 points by systemstops 63 days ago | 110 comments

Santa Prefers Wealthy Sick Children (2023) (taylor.town)
It has long been thought that Santa Claus gives presents to nice but not naughty children. This is the first study, to our knowledge, to dispel the myth that Santa visits children based on behaviour and suggests socioeconomic deprivation plays a greater role in determining a visit. It raises important ethical dilemmas, such as whether children should be told and what should be done about Santa.

Social Science, Christmas, Research

66 points by surprisetalk 63 days ago | 27 comments

The Anti-Autism Manifesto (woodfromeden.substack.com)
I have always been skeptical of the high-functioning autism label. “Autism” was originally a very severe disability. Then all other psychiatric diagnoses for children with social difficulties were removed, so quite suddenly, also otherwise normal people with some social quirks are said to be autistic.

Autism, Psychology, Social Science

13 points by paulpauper 89 days ago | 7 comments

Revisting the Stanford Prison Experiment 50 years later (arstechnica.com)
In 1971, Stanford University psychologist Philip Zimbardo conducted a notorious experiment in which he randomly divided college students into two groups, guards and prisoners, and set them loose in a simulated prison environment for six days, documenting the guards' descent into brutality.

Psychology, Social Science, Experiments, Ethics

7 points by pseudolus 99 days ago | 0 comments

Bribery is largely subject to circumstance: study (elpais.com)
A year-long experiment was conducted at the self-service checkouts of a supermarket chain in Modena and Ferrara in Italy to test whether there was any link between corruption scandals and how honest consumers were with their shopping.

Ethics, Social Science, Italy, Consumer Behavior, Experiments

74 points by cainxinth 100 days ago | 138 comments

The Median Researcher Problem (lesswrong.com)
Claim: memeticity in a scientific field is mostly determined, not by the most competent researchers in the field, but instead by roughly-median researchers. We’ll call this the “median researcher problem”.

Science, Research, Social Science, Psychology, Academia

30 points by surprisetalk 104 days ago | 20 comments

The Obvious-Once-You-Think-About-It Reason Why Education Cuts Fertility (betonit.ai)
As education goes up, fertility goes down. This rule works within countries: High-education individuals have fewer kids than low-education individuals. This rule works across countries: High-education nations have fewer kids than low-education nations.

Education, Fertility, Demographics, Social Science

13 points by jger15 115 days ago | 20 comments

The Rise and Fall of IQ: The Cognitive Divide (onepercentrule.substack.com)
For most of the 20th century, IQ scores steadily climbed, a phenomenon so consistent it was named the “Flynn effect” after the psychologist James Flynn, who first documented it.

Intelligence, Psychology, Social Science

27 points by drcwpl 119 days ago | 63 comments

Philip Zimbardo, psychologist behind the 'Stanford Prison Experiment' dies at 91 (news.stanford.edu)
Philip G. Zimbardo, one of the world’s most renowned psychologists, died Oct. 14 in his home in San Francisco. He was 91.

Psychology, Stanford University, Obituary, Social Science

29 points by Jerry2 122 days ago | 16 comments

'Stanford Prison Experiment' Psychologist Zimbardo Dies at 91 – AP News (apnews.com)
Stanford psychologist behind the controversial “Stanford Prison Experiment” dies at 91

Psychology, Social Science, Stanford University, Research Ethics, News

10 points by Anon84 124 days ago | 1 comments

The illusion of moral decline (2023) (nature.com)
Anecdotal evidence indicates that people believe that morality is declining1,2.

Morality, Social Science, Psychology, Sociology

14 points by therabbithole 132 days ago | 10 comments

"Switzerland is as deeply polarized as the USA" (news.uzh.ch)
In many democracies, those on the left and right of the political divide are drifting further apart. Political discourse is increasingly spiteful and hostile. Silja Häusermann and Simon Bornschier from the Department of Political Science at UZH explain why this is the case and whether it poses a threat to democracy.

Politics, Polarization, Democracy, Social Science

15 points by sharpshadow 142 days ago | 16 comments

The Atlantic: Studies Show Short People Are Dumb, Poor, Criminals (theatlantic.com)
There are plenty of studies that claim it pays to be tall. A 2004 report found that each inch of height amounts to a salary increase of about $789 per year (controlling for gender, weight and age). Another concluded that taller people are flat out smarter. Indeed, no American president has been below average height since 1888.

Height, Social Science, Salary, Intelligence

5 points by popcalc 145 days ago | 0 comments

What the World Is Like: Who Knows It – and Why (1983) (chomsky.info)
You’ve written about the way that professional ideologists and the mandarins obfuscate reality. And you have spoken — in some places you call it a “Cartesian common sense” — of the commonsense capacities of people. Indeed, you place a significant emphasis on this common sense when you reveal the ideological aspects of arguments, especially in contemporary social science. What do you mean by common sense? What does it mean in a society like ours?

Philosophy, Ideology, Social Science, Common Sense, Noam Chomsky

8 points by yamrzou 146 days ago | 0 comments

Can Generative Multi-Agents Spontaneously Form a Society? (arxiv.org)
Generative agents have demonstrated impressive capabilities in specific tasks, but most of these frameworks focus on independent tasks and lack attention to social interactions.

Generative AI, Artificial Intelligence, Social Science, Research

48 points by geuds 156 days ago | 5 comments

New Data Shows Women Are More Negatively Stereotyped at Work Than Men (forbes.com)

Gender Bias, Workplace, Stereotypes, Social Science, Research

4 points by mooreds 170 days ago | 0 comments

Andrew Gelman: Is marriage associated with happiness for men or for women? (stat.columbia.edu)

Marriage, Happiness, Gender, Social Science, Statistics

52 points by paulpauper 171 days ago | 40 comments

Is marriage associated with happiness for men or for women? Or both? Or neither? (stat.columbia.edu)

Marriage, Gender, Happiness, Research, Social Science

8 points by goldfishgold 176 days ago | 5 comments

Changes in Need for Uniqueness From 2000 Until 2020 (online.ucpress.edu)