Politics, features and articles | Educational Science

Jan 31, 2011

Could You Become a Dictator?

Famously sadistic dictators like Saddam Hussein and Joseph Stalin share a personality profile marked by narcissism and paranoia, political psychologists say. But what of authoritarian-style dictators like Hosni Mubarak? Could an ordinary, well-meaning person turn into a repressive despot? Perhaps not overnight, but power does have an effect on the...

Apr 30, 2012

Political Polarization 'Dangerous,' Psychologist Says

CHICAGO - For the first time in American political history, Democrats and Republicans have sorted themselves into a perfect left-right split, a prominent political psychologist said this week, calling the result a dangerous era in U.S. politics. Traditionally, political parties have been coalitions of broad groups of people, based more...

Dec 31, 2011

What 'American Values' Really Means

American values. President Barack Obama wants to reclaim them. Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul wants to restore them. Newt Gingrich says he articulates them. Other presidential candidates, politicians and commentators have plenty to say about them as well. But what exactly are they talking about? What are American values? The...

Dec 31, 2011

Americans' Political Views Not So Far Apart

SAN DIEGO — In an election year, it's hard to turn on the television or read a newspaper without getting the sense that Americans are becoming ever more divided into red versus blue. But a new study finds that perception may be downright wrong. In fact, political polarization among the...

Nov 30, 2013

Anti-Science Riders Lurk in Pending Farm Bill (Op-Ed)

Celia Wexler is a senior Washington representative for the Scientific Integrity Initiative at UCS. An award-winning journalist, Wexler authored Out of the News: Former Journalists Discuss a Profession in Crisis (McFarland, 2012). This article is adapted from a post on the UCS blog The Equation. There's an old and well...

Sep 30, 2013

Government Shutdown Delivers Blow to BRAIN Initiative

In another casualty of the government shutdown, activities related to Obama's $100 million BRAIN initiative, due to launch in 2014, have ground to a halt. The Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) initiative is an ambitious plan to map the human brain, from the level of individual cells up...

Jul 31, 2013

Senator's Policies Leave People and the Planet in Bad Health (Op-Ed)

Elliott Negin is the director of news and commentary at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). This article is adapted from one that appeared on the Huffington Post on Aug. 22, 2012. Negin contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Virtually all U.S. medical-school students swear fealty...

Apr 30, 2013

Privacy Fail: House Passes Cyber Intelligence Law: Op-Ed

Jeff Nesbit was the director of public affairs for two prominent federal science agencies and is a regular contributor to U.S. News & World Report, where this article first ran before appearing in LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Anonymous has had an extraordinary run of successes lately. It somehow...

Aug 31, 2016

Does IQ Determine If You're Prejudiced? It's Complicated

There's a long-standing and somewhat uncomfortable finding in psychology: that low IQ, conservative social beliefs and prejudice — including anti-gay attitudes and racism — are all linked. Many studies have found this relationship — so much so that a 2015 meta-analysis of the research suggested that researchers who conduct studies...

Sep 22, 2016

In Shift, Most Americans Now Say President Should Release All Medical Records

A majority of Americans now say that a U.S. president should release all of his or her medical information. In earlier years, those who held this opinion were in the minority, according to a new poll. The poll, which was conducted by Gallup last week, found that a slim majority...

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...