Human Behavior, features and articles | Educational Science

Sep 29, 2016

Life's Extremes: Democrat vs. Republican

The presidential race is really heating up, and some voters are already casting their ballots for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton or Republican Donald Trump. Given the United States' starkly divided political climate, one might think it obvious that fundamental, built-in differences exist between Democrats and Republicans. Science has suggested that...

Oct 3, 2016

Death Penalty Opposition Hits New Peak

The percentage of Americans who oppose the death penalty is the highest it's been in decades, according to a new poll. The poll, from Pew Research Center, found that 42 percent of Americans said they oppose the death penalty for people convicted of murder, while 49 percent of Americans said...

Oct 7, 2016

Do Interruptions Hurt Presidential Candidates? What the Science Says

With the second presidential debate coming up this Sunday, one particular statistic from the first debate stands out: the number of times Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton interrupted each other. The counts from that Sept. 26 debate varied, depending on how the listener classified interruptions. Vox...

Oct 10, 2016

Locker-Room Talk & Alternate Realities: Scientists Dissect Presidential Debate

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton took the debate stage Sunday evening. We asked three scholars from the Washington University in St. Louis, where the debate was held, to pick a key quote from the evening and tell us why it was important. Rebecca Wanzo This was locker room talk. -...

Oct 13, 2016

Half of Americans Believe in 9/11 Conspiracy Theories

A majority of Americans believe that the government is concealing information about the 9/11 attacks, one new survey suggests. And that's not the only conspiracy theory believed by a wide swath of Americans: Around 40 percent believe the government is hiding information about aliens, the John F. Kennedy assassination and...

Oct 14, 2016

Future of Health Care: Data Can Empower Patients, Obama Says

To really improve health care for Americans in the future, people must be given more power over their own health data, President Barack Obama said Thursday (Oct. 13). Speaking at the White House Frontiers Conference, an event that focuses on how the U.S. can harness science and technology to improve...

Oct 21, 2016

Nasty Elections: 5 Times Presidential Candidates Went Low

How low can they go? Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump (L) speaks as Democratic presidential nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton looks on during the third U.S. presidential debate at the Thomas & Mack Center on October 19, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada (Image credit: Ethan Miller / Getty...

Nov 1, 2016

How to Argue Politics Without Losing Friends

The 2016 election has been an intensely personal race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Experts say the mudslinging between candidates is trickling down to the general public. What's an avowed Hillary-hater to do when she finds out her best friend has an I'm With Her sticker on her car?...

Nov 1, 2016

Polarizing Politics: 5 Reasons the 2016 Election Feels So Personal

This year's presidential campaign has been rough. At rallies for Republican candidate Donald Trump, crowds chant, Lock her up! in reference to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Trump, meanwhile, has been accused of groping and sexually harassing multiple women. Clinton has called some of his supporters deplorable, while Trump has called...

Nov 2, 2016

Rigging an Election: How Difficult Is It?

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump claims our system of elections are rigged. He has asserted widespread voter impersonation exists. He has claimed that large numbers of dead people vote....

Nov 7, 2016

Election Day 2016: A Guide to the When, Why, What and How

Americans will head to the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 8, to decide whether Republican candidate Donald Trump or Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton will become the next president of the United States. (Of course, there are third-party candidates as well: Jill Stein and Gary Johnson). But how exactly did the world's...

Nov 7, 2016

Clinton or Trump for President: What Happens If the Election Is a Tie?

What could possibly make this election season worse? If it didn't end on Election Day. Although most people, regardless of their side of the aisle, are hoping that the presidential race will be over by Nov. 9, there is a rare chance that the election could drag on. That could...

Nov 7, 2016

The Electoral College: Why 270 Is the Magic Number for Clinton and Trump

On Tuesday (Nov. 8), the 2016 presidential election votes will be tallied and the winner announced — barring any vote count snafus or an Electoral College tie. As the election of 2000 proved, the Electoral College can make all the difference in the outcome of a presidential race. So how...

Nov 8, 2016

Election Day 2016: How Are Votes Counted?

The candidates have been chosen, you've filled in the circles and dropped the envelope in the mailbox or ballot box, and you are now one of the millions of Americans who have cast a vote for president. But from those millions of single votes, how do election officials determine who...

Nov 8, 2016

Why Not Paper Ballots? America's Weird History of Voting Machines

Americans heading to the polls today (Nov. 8) might vote using punch-card ballots, optically scanned paper ballots (which are generally handwritten) or computerized systems that record votes. In a few districts (mostly small and rural), voters might fill out an old-fashioned paper ballot and put it in a box. Those...