Political Science
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- Most Americans favor nonviolent measures, such as temporary barricades, over violent measures, like the use of rubber bullets, by border enforcement officers toward undocumented migrants on the southern border, a UCL-led study published in the journal Migration Studies has found.
- Climate change, land-use change and socioeconomic pressures are turning wildfires from a primarily ecological process into a complex, systemic risk that cuts across ecosystems, infrastructure, public health, water resources, cultural heritage and rural livelihoods. Despite substantial investments in firefighting capacity, wildfires are projected to become more frequent, extreme and devastating, underscoring the need for cross-cutting solutions.
- Just 34% of people arrested by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during President Donald Trump's second term have a criminal conviction, according to research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. That's a near-historic low, the authors note.
- A James Cook University study is challenging the belief that the greatest cost of going to court is losing a case, arguing the legal process itself can leave lasting psychological scars.
- Mathematicians have shown that completely fair elections are—in a sense—impossible. No electoral system can guarantee both that local votes translate directly into local seats and that total seat distribution matches overall vote shares—not without an indefinitely growing parliament.
- For years, social media companies have faced pressure from users and government watchdogs to stop misinformation from distorting elections, deepening political divisions and undermining Americans' trust in institutions. But what if dramatically reducing people's exposure to unreliable sources that frequently spread misinformation doesn't actually change what they believe?
- How much of what you see on social media comes from sources that repeatedly post falsehoods? And if that content quietly vanished from your feed, would you believe anything different months later?
- Corporate climate spending now steers trillions of dollars in transition finance worldwide. Does it drive genuine climate action? Research shows that accounting flexibility alone can make a company's reported emissions vary by roughly a factor of two—enough to appear either as a climate leader or a laggard. A new perspective in Nature Sustainability proposes developing industry-specific net-zero blueprints to close that gap.
- A lack of data on prisoner characteristics is providing an incomplete picture of who dies in prison and why, which may be contributing to preventable deaths in custody, according to a new report.
- He tramples things without intending to. He was created by us. He never permanently goes away. In recent years, metaphorical representations of Donald Trump as the Japanese kaiju Godzilla have become common. Now, a paper published in De Gruyter Brill's The Forum argues that the Showa period Godzilla films (1954–75) can be read as an allegory of Trump's political career from 2016–24.
- Shoppers would pay more for their weekly groceries if it meant improved welfare for farm animals, according to new research from the University of Reading.
- Why do some people who embrace conspiracy theories simply hold those beliefs, while others act on them? A new study published in the British Journal of Social Psychology identifies three characteristics that help determine when conspiracy beliefs are most likely to shape real-world behavior: how certain people are that the belief is true, how personally important they consider it, and whether they see it as "actionable"—useful for deciding what to do.
- Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is regaining prominence in climate policy debates in Germany. A study published in Environmental Politics examines the reasons behind this comeback and shows that the strict limits originally envisaged for CCS were progressively relaxed throughout the political process. This increases the risk that the lifespan of fossil fuel infrastructure will be prolonged, potentially sidelining other climate protection measures.
- Supporters of losing parties express more distrust of their fellow citizens after elections than do supporters of winning parties, a new study has found, with voters who more strongly disliked rival parties showing even greater distrust.
- Interviews with political activists in Southern California showed stark differences in how migrants are viewed: either "like us" and deserving of rights or lawbreakers undeserving of social belonging and benefits.
- An SKKU research team led by Professor Travers B. Child of the SKK Graduate School of Business (SKK GSB) has become the first in the world to use micro-level data to demonstrate that aid fragmentation—the phenomenon in which numerous international aid agencies operate simultaneously in a single region—can deepen administrative corruption in developing countries. The study was conducted jointly with Professor Austin L. Wright of the University of Chicago and Professor Yun Xiao of the University of Gothenburg.
- The actions of big business shape public health, so local authorities need to carefully consider how to govern their relationships with them.
- In the increasingly polarized political realm, moderates may be viewed as disloyal by both conservatives and liberals when the opposing side seems threatening, according to research published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.
- A new study has found that mass shootings and deaths by suicide in the United States share seasonal patterns, reaching their highest levels during summer months. Analyzing national data spanning 2014–2021, researchers observed consistent summertime peaks in both mass shootings and suicide deaths, suggesting that common environmental, behavioral or biological factors may contribute to seasonal fluctuations in these forms of violence.
- Puerto Ricans share deep skepticism toward elected officials and a widespread sense of limited self-governance, according to a new study from the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research and the University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras.
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