Social Norms

Social Norms

A stay-at-home dad cooking with his son
Too many people still view stay-at-home dads as feckless deadbeats, but their acceptance is an important step toward gender equality.
Two men holding hands on a grassy cliff.
Men with one older brother are 12% more likely to enter a same-sex union than those with a sister.
Extreme North
After it became clear that the world wasn't 6,000 years old, some proposed that northern peoples had emerged independently from others.
A man studies in a library.
Religion fosters traits that are helpful in a school system that relies on authority figures and rewards people who follow the rules.
A happy girl celebrates Christmas in Finland
Finland reveals that happiness is more about mindset than umbrella drinks and sun-warmed beaches.
taboos
According to Sigmund Freud, our revulsion at taboos is an attempt to suppress a part of us that actually wants to do them.
progression bias
We seem to have a "progression bias" that nudges us toward pro-relationship decisions and away from breaking up.
self-actualization
If you want to be an authentic person, embrace reality. Don't try to clamber your way up Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
heroism
For such a near-universal concept, the definition of "heroism" is difficult to pin down.
Four children gossiping illustrating that gossip is a social skill
Like it or not, we are the descendants of busybodies.
A young woman looks at her phone outside.
The belief that lying is rampant in the digital age just doesn’t match the data.
It will take a national effort to get it done. Here’s how. Over the past six months — a full half of a year — the United States has suffered more deaths and illnesses due […]
Visiting even one friend can undo all the good work that social distancing has accomplished. Over the past few months, people all over the world have come to realize just […]
And why social distancing, isolation, and sheltering-in-place are so effective, but only if we do them early enough. In any biological system, if you put a living organism into an environment […]