Human Behavior, features and articles | Educational Science

Jan 8, 2021

What is a coup?

When armed supporters of President Donald Trump broke into and vandalized the United States Capitol on Jan. 6 in Washington, D.C., many were chanting Stop the steal, referring to President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the recent election. Some wore sweatshirts reading Civil War with the date January 6, 2021. Their...

Jan 13, 2021

How does impeachment work?

On Jan. 13, 2021, President Trump became the first president to face impeachment twice. Impeachment is the leveling of charges against an elected official by a legislative body. It's a fairly rare event in U.S. politics, particularly at the presidential level. But when impeachment proceedings do happen, they are guided...

Jan 15, 2021

Inauguration day: Why presidents must wait 2 months to start

More than two months after he was elected to be the 46th president of the United States, Joseph Biden will be officially sworn in to office on Wednesday Jan. 20, 2021. But if votes are cast in November, why does so much time elapse between the election and the inauguration...

Jan 25, 2021

Facts don't convince people in political arguments. Here's what does.

In his inaugural address last week, President Joe Biden called for unity. But how can Americans come together, given what seems to be growing political contention and deep divides? New research suggests the answer can be found in stories, not statistics. People respect those they disagree with more when their...

Feb 23, 2021

Extremists struggle with certain kinds of brain processing, research shows

Scientists have found the psychological signature of people who are likely to hold dogmatic or extremist views. It makes sense, the researchers said, as people who are dogmatic tend to be impulsive but also slow to process perceptual information. Extremists — regardless of whether they are right-wing or left-wing —...

Feb 24, 2021

Conservatives aren't more fearful than liberals, study finds

Are conservatives more afraid of threats than liberals? Political psychologists have long found evidence that people on the right are more sensitive to scary stuff, on average, than people on the left, a basic psychological difference thought to drive some political disagreements between the two groups. But new research suggests...

Jul 15, 2021

Who was Karl Marx?

Karl Marx was a German philosopher, economist, historian and journalist who is best known for his work as a radical political theorist and socialist revolutionary. In collaboration with fellow theorist and benefactor Friedrich Engels, Marx published The Communist Manifesto in 1848, which became the basis for communism. His writings remain...

Nov 7, 2021

What does the president do all day?

Presidents are seemingly everywhere: campaigning for themselves and like-minded politicians, promoting their agenda among the public and Congress, and even hosting winning sports teams at the White House. But what, exactly, does the U.S. president do all day? Being a president isn't only about the public speeches and ceremonial meetings...

Nov 29, 2021

What is fascism?

Fascism is a complex and mutable political ideology, which came to prominence in the 1920s and 1930s in Europe. The most notorious examples of fascist governments have been Bennito Mussolini’s National Fascist Party in Italy from 1922 to 1943 and Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazi Party) from...

Jan 11, 2022

The 'Gates of Hell' may finally be closed, Turkmenistan's president announces

The leader of Turkmenistan would like to finally close the Gates of Hell that have burned continuously in the nation's Karakum desert for five decades, according to recent televised remarks. In a Jan. 8 appearance on Turkmenistan's state TV channel, President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov urged officials to find a solution to...

Mar 10, 2022

10 biggest protests in history

Some of the biggest protests in history have been decisive in changing unjust laws, holding governments to account and more. Some protests have attracted so many people to the streets they’ve become turning points in world history. While many major protests don’t always achieve their aims, they leave a mark...

Aug 12, 2022

What are the nuclear codes?

An FBI raid on former President Donald Trump's home was motivated in part by a hunt for documents related to nuclear weapons, The Washington Post reported Thursday (Aug. 11), spurring chatter from media commentators and on social media that Trump may have inappropriately held on to the nuclear codes. The...

Oct 17, 2022

When did Democrats and Republicans switch platforms?

The Republican and Democratic political parties of the United States didn't always stand for what they do today. The more liberal Democrats and the right-wing Republicans each have a defined set of belief systems, but these were once very different. So when did Democrats and Republicans switch platforms? And why?...

Sep 10, 2012

Berlin Twinkles in Highest-Res Image of City at Night

Researchers have stitched together a nighttime image of Berlin from above, which they say is the highest-resolution picture of a city at night. Ecologists have used the image to measure light pollution in the German capital. The 878-megapixel picture, with one pixel per square meter, combines 2,647 aerial photographs taken...

Sep 13, 2012

SAT Not Biased Against Low-Status Students, Study Finds

Researchers have debated what SAT scores really reveal about a person, and, perhaps most importantly, whether the test actually predicts how well a student will do in college. A new study suggests the SAT is effective at this task and isn't biased against students from low-socioeconomic backgrounds. Researchers at the...