Social science
05 Dec 2024
At Frontiers, we bring some of the world’s best research to a global audience. But with tens of thousands of articles published each year, it’s impossible to cover all of them. Here are just five amazing papers you may have missed.
Social science
02 Oct 2024
Researchers conducted a term-long experiment that showed that allowing college students to use their phones for just one minute could result in less phone use during class and higher test scores
Social science
28 Aug 2024
Researchers found that students who struggle with skills essential for academic success thought that using AI tools is particularly helpful for schoolwork
Social science
28 Jun 2024
Researchers found that when children are given digital devices to calm their tantrums, they don’t learn how to regulate their emotions, which could lead to severe problems later in life
Social science
21 May 2024
Researchers investigated if ‘technoference’ has worse effects on parent-child interactions than non-digital distractions and found that distraction itself – not its source – may be to blame
Social science
01 May 2024
Scientists found that popular teenagers sleep less than their peers, and that popular girls experience more insomnia symptoms than popular boys
Social science
15 Dec 2023
Researchers surveyed the views of 1,172 parents across the US about the relative educational value of free play, guided play, and games. The results showed that parents tend to rate free play as most educational, but work needs to be done in educating US parents about the difference between free and guided play.
Social science
26 Jan 2022
By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer Roof truss of the Chapelle Saint-Denis in Marmoutier in Alsace, France, from the 16th century. Credit: Willy Tegel Scientists have reconstructed European socio-economic cycles between 1250 and 1699 in unprecedented detail, by using the power of tree rings to reveal the exact age of more than 54,000 pieces of timber from historical buildings. Tracking building activity across the years, estimated from felling year of timber from historical buildings, can yield an unrivaled economic record for premodern Europe. That is the conclusion from a vast study by a consortium of scientists across Europe, published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. By dating timber from tree rings – to the exact year of felling – from historical buildings, and statistically analyzing the distribution of building years, the authors deduce multiple periods of socio-economic prosperity and downturn between 1250 and 1699, independent from other historical data. Crucially, they show how different European regions were differentially affected, and at different times. When historical records are too scant to reconstruct large-scale demographic and societal changes, environmental measures can be used. For example, numbers of shipwrecks have been used in past research to chart trade intensity, pollen to reconstruct agricultural […]
Social science
09 Dec 2021
The holidays are often a time spent with family, but how exactly do family dynamics work? Explore collections spanning from the impact of contemporary family configurations on relational patterns to post-traumatic stress in the family and parenting burnout to understanding young individuals’ autonomy.
Social science
24 Nov 2021
By Peter Rejcek, science writer Image credit: Diego Cervo / Shutterstock.com Binge-watching is a modern phenomenon where TV viewers sit through two or more episodes of a series at one time. A growing body of research suggests there may be negative consequences to this behavior, similar to other addictive activities such as online gaming. Now, a new study has identified what personality traits and motivations may predict problematic binge-watching. Impulsivity and the motivation to escape are among the most significant factors that drive marathon viewing. Once upon a time, TV viewers had to wait patiently each week for a new episode of their favorite series to drop. Streaming services have upended that model, allowing unfettered access to an entire season-worth of episodes – unleashing the phenomenon known as binge-watching. Recent research into the behavior suggests it may be similar to other addictive activities, for example online gaming. A new study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry identified what factors may help predict unhealthy binge-watching. While marathon viewing of multiple TV episodes has been around for decades, binge watching burst onto the scene with the popular streaming service Netflix. Since then, it has become a popular way to spend free […]
Social science
22 Nov 2021
Does wealth always lead to a good education? New study in Frontiers in Education proposes new model for predicting student success globally
Social science
06 Sep 2021
Explore the first Editor’s Choice articles from the Neuropsychology specialty section on Autistic Inertia, Adolescent Brain Development and Social Anxiety Disorder.
Social science
20 May 2021
Image: Hyejin Kang/Shutterstock.com To mark the launch of the new research topic entitled Dismantling racial inequalities in higher education, Prof Marcia Wilson of The Open University discusses how she fell in love with data and its ability to show racial injustice in higher education. Recent research has shown that, despite claims to the contrary, academia is not a meritocracy for black and minority ethnic (BME) students. Despite various efforts to tackle racial inequality in higher education across the globe, academics have shone a bright spotlight on the obvious disparity between grades received by people of color and white students. Now, in an effort to catalogue this inequality, Frontiers has launched a new Research Topic called ‘Dismantling racial inequalities in higher education’ led by topic editors Prof Marcia Wilson and Dr Jenny Douglas of The Open University in the UK. It is based on a series of group seminars held by the university for black and minority ethnic (BME) researchers at the university over the course of May. In relation to racial inequalities in higher education, a plethora of reports have identified the BME awarding gap and the experience of BME students in higher education; the lack of BME academics, particularly […]
Social science
24 Mar 2021
The Organizational Psychology specialty section of Frontiers in Psychology is proud to launch the Most Impactful Article Award.
Social science
19 Mar 2021
By Dr Yossi Maaravi, Adelson School of Entrepreneurship at IDC, Herzliya John David Photography / Shutterstock.com Dr Yossi Maaravi of the Adelson School of Entrepreneurship at IDC, Herzliya asks whether the phenomenon of social dilemmas and individualism resulted in worse outcomes for the Covid-19 pandemic? Covid-19 is a real tragedy. But why did this tragedy hit some countries harder than others? While this question has recently been answered based on population age or health policy, a few months ago, my thoughts drifted to another possible explanation: ‘The tragedy of the commons’. A few months later, these thoughts led to research that has been recently published in Frontiers in Public Health. But the story of the inspiration for this research begins many years back. 16 years ago, when I was still a PhD student, I came across Garrett Hardin’s classic article, The Tragedy of the Commons. I was fascinated by the simple yet powerful phenomenon of social dilemmas described in this article. Social dilemmas are circumstances in which certain behaviors that serve the self-interest of every individual member of society might be harmful to the common good. YESSS!!! My new @FrontiersIn article is OUT!We rely on the "The Tragedy of […]
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