Political Science
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- Partisan animosity is a powerful driver of protest participation—sometimes nearly matching or even exceeding concern about the actual issues, according to a new study published in the journal Social Forces.
- Geopolitical shocks are much more likely to trigger price bubbles in the British and European electricity markets than extreme weather events—and they are predictable, new academic research concludes.
- A recent sociological study indicates that, despite increasing polarization and partisan animosity in the United States over recent decades, employers are not hiring based on political affiliation. The study "Partisan Affiliation and Hiring in Public Education: The Selection of School District Superintendents" appears by Greer Mellon (Brown University) in the American Sociological Review. The author explores the role of partisan biases in one of today's hotbeds of political division—public schools.
- Female candidates in recent UK General Elections were less likely to be retweeted than male candidates and less likely to receive media coverage, research shows.
- Why do images of Donald Trump as a galactic emperor or Luigi Mangione as a Catholic saint resonate so deeply with some people? Memes don't just entertain—they shape how we identify with power, grievance and justice in the digital age.
- A law intended to stamp out child marriage may have had the opposite effect and lead to an increase, new research by King's College London shows. The study is published in The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization.
- Cyberstalking is increasing at a faster rate than traditional stalking and is disproportionately affecting young people, women, and members of the lesbian, gay and bisexual community, according to a new study led by researchers from UCL.
- In the face of a growing migration crisis in 2021, the Polish government declared a state of emergency along its border with Belarus, suspending basic civil liberties for citizens in the affected areas. A new study in The Journal of Politics investigates whether these restrictions sparked a political backlash at the ballot box—and finds surprisingly little evidence that they did.
- A new study of Instagram posts has uncovered strong statistical correlations suggesting that social media images may play a key role in shaping public opinion towards events, with notable social and political effects.
- A new study suggests both defendants and complainants are equally prone to memory distortions in sexual assault cases.
- Anthony Albanese's recent visit to Chengdu's panda breeding base showed the enduring power of China's panda diplomacy.
- Women politicians in Europe receive uncivil tweets regardless of how known they are—and women also receive more identity-based attacks than other politicians, reveals a new study in Politics & Gender.
- A new analysis suggests that posts in hate speech communities on the social media website Reddit share speech-pattern similarities with posts in Reddit communities for certain psychiatric disorders. Dr. Andrew William Alexander and Dr. Hongbin Wang of Texas A&M University, U.S., present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS Digital Health.
- A mobile phone, a computer with an internet connection and a platform for video calls can be used in many ways inside a prison. Prisoners can use them to stay in contact with illegal activities outside the prison, or they can create stress and tension among the inmates. However, they can also reinforce prisoners' contact with their families, improve their mental health and give them the digital skills they need to re-enter society and the labor market after they leave prison.
- A five-year study dispels the stereotype of conspiracy theorists as angry loners or keyboard warriors. Rather, social and emotional connections provided by conspiracy theorists are recruiting diverse participants on a growing scale.
- The ideological divide between opposing political groups has been drastically increasing in various countries worldwide. This phenomenon, known as political polarization, can lead to greater social division, extremism and political violence.
- The IRS will offer religious congregations more freedom to endorse political candidates without jeopardizing their tax-exempt status, the agency said in a July 2025 court filing. President Donald Trump has previously vowed to abolish the Johnson Amendment, which bars charitable nonprofits from taking part in political campaigns—although the latest move simply reinterprets the rule.
- "We're actually facing, in many parts of our country, nothing short of societal collapse." This was the dire warning from Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, in setting out his party's goal of halving crime.
- A decade after the government raised the participation age in England to 18, a new study from the Institute for Policy Research at the University of Bath finds the policy has had limited impact—with only modest gains in education and training, and persistent gaps in support for the most vulnerable 16–18-year-olds.
- There is a heightened concern about the current state of democracy around the globe. These include worries about a decrease in freedom, the growing number of autocracies around the world and citizens' dissatisfaction with democracy or government.
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