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Articles on Human behavior

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Some researchers predict social robots will become common in K-12 classrooms. selimaksan/E+ Collection/Getty Images

What social robots can teach America’s students

Social robots can be useful tools to help students learn about programming, but here’s why they won’t be replacing classroom teachers anytime soon.
Changes in behavior can lead to significant emission reductions. Getty Images

Persuading businesses and people to reduce climate emissions is key to slowing climate change – research-based techniques and new approaches from the behavioral sciences can show how to do it

How much does human behavior influence climate change? Can it be changed, and how? In June, climate change experts and behavioral scientists came together to answer these important questions.
Together with artifacts from the past, ancient DNA can fill in details about our ancient ancestors. Nina R/Wikimedia Commons

Ancient DNA helps reveal social changes in Africa 50,000 years ago that shaped the human story

A new study doubles the age of ancient DNA in sub-Saharan Africa, revealing how people moved, mingled and had children together over the last 50,000 years.
Prominently placing fresh produce can encourage healthier choices. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images

Giving food pantry clients choices – and gently nudging them toward nutritious foods – can lead to healthier diets

Behavioral economics, long employed in grocery stores to guide customers to certain products, could be employed by food banks and pantries to encourage healthier choices.
Footprints, preserved in solidified ash, hint at human behavior from as long as 19,000 years ago. Cynthia Liutkus-Pierce

Prehistoric human footprints reveal a rare snapshot of ancient human group behavior

The footprints of over 20 different prehistoric people, pressed into volcanic ash thousands of years ago in Tanzania, show possible evidence for sexual division of labor in this ancient community.
Behavior is changing because of the coronavirus. Is perceived risk the reason why? AP Photo/Steven Senne

Americans disagree on how risky the coronavirus is, but most are changing their behavior anyway

Using a survey taken from March 10 – March 16, social scientists tried to untangle the complicated connection between feelings of vulnerability and behavior change in response to the coronavirus.
Governments can use nudges to influence our choices. Shutterstock

Speaking with: law professor Cass Sunstein, on why behavioural science is always nudging us

Law professor Cass Sunstein, on why behavioural science is always nudging us The Conversation20.5 MB (download)
Governments and businesses are using "nudges" to influence our choices, but how? On this podcast episode, Cass Sunstein, a Harvard professor who wrote the book on nudges, unpacks behavioural science.
What happens when an entire society succumbs to childlike behavior and discourse? Elantseva Marina

The infantilization of Western culture

Our social institutions and politics suffer from a collective arrested development – and our relationship to technology has only exacerbated this trend.
We’ll say someone’s brainwashed only when we disagree with their beliefs or actions. lolloj/Shutterstock.com

The brainwashing myth

Forty years ago, Rebecca Moore’s two sisters helped plan the Jonestown massacre. But she refuses to say they were brainwashed, arguing that it prevents us from truly understanding their behavior.
The universal sign for ‘Look over there!’ isn’t so common in some cultures. Helena Ohman/Shutterstock.com

The way humans point isn’t as universal as you might think

It was long thought that humans everywhere favor pointing with the index finger. But some fieldwork out of Papua New Guinea identified a group of people who prefer to scrunch their noses.

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