Social sciences, psychology, economics and the humanities.
A quasi-experimental study of 24 European Union member states found that adopting carbon taxes was associated with lower energy intensity, greater renewable energy use and higher Human Development Index scores. The gains were strongest in countries that had maintained the policies for more than two decades.
A study of Freedom of Information Act requests to the Securities and Exchange Commission finds that the type of requester is linked to different signals about a public company’s future stock returns. The analysis also finds evidence that institutional investors and short sellers trade on information obtained through these requests.
Gond painting has moved from household walls and floors into exhibitions, digital marketplaces and online platforms. Based on 96 interviews and qualitative fieldwork, researchers found that technology expands markets and strengthens the art form’s public status, but unequal access to digital resources continues to exclude some artists.
A study of 147 federally incarcerated people in Western Canada examines how they picture life after release. Many described work, health care, technology and housing as sources of uncertainty, making prison seem more predictable than life outside it.
In a study of 219 people, human authors were judged more competent than AI authors when presenting technical information about large language models. Attitudes toward AI shaped those judgments and were also linked to differences in how credible participants found texts attributed to male and female authors.
Online retailers often face a choice between ranking products to increase revenue, transactions or consumer welfare. A study found that alternative rankings designed around each goal all improved shopper welfare, transactions and platform revenue relative to neutral and existing rankings, with limited differences between the approaches.
This narrative review examines radium from its discovery through its current, limited medical uses. It describes human health risks linked with exposure, while noting that some radium isotopes are used in selected cancer treatments. The review is not a new study of patients and does not establish the effectiveness of any treatment.
Women’s empowerment in Nigeria varied with region of residence and migration status, alongside education and ethnicity, a study of national survey data found. The analysis examined household and financial decisions, sexual rights and attitudes toward or experiences of wife beating.
A new article argues that migration management is entering a phase in which state action and profit-making are closely connected across public, private and nonprofit sectors. It examines how systems for managing migrants can also support the accumulation of capital, within what the authors describe as a politics of dehumanization.
A systematic review finds that digital exclusion among older adults is associated with poorer quality of life and adverse health outcomes. The review identifies socioeconomic disadvantage, health-related vulnerabilities and barriers in the design and delivery of services as connected parts of the problem.
Adults in one study believed transgender youth develop their gender identity later than cisgender youth, and this belief was linked to less support for their autonomy. Across three studies, learning about similarities in gender development was associated with greater support for transgender youths’ autonomy and, in one study, more donations to a rights organization.
People judged AI-generated food images similarly to real food for healthiness and calorie content, but found them less realistic and were less willing to eat them. The results suggest AI images may be useful for controlled food-perception studies, but they are not interchangeable with images of real food.
A preprint reports measurable patterns for how capabilities emerge and are forgotten during language-model training. The study says emergence depends on several model parts becoming useful together, while forgetting depends on how widely and strongly a capability is stored.
A study in nursing mice identified hypothalamic nerve cells that linked prolactin signaling with bone and fat metabolism, food demand and pain sensitivity. Reducing parts of this pathway lowered food demand and pain sensitivity, but the findings have not been established in humans.
A study of U.S. households found that credit-card debt rose 11.9% after states legalized online gambling. The increase was larger among households seen as more likely to gamble online, including households with no college-educated head and households with a Black head.
