Sociology

Collection by Carly
Psychology Today
Friends Turn Into Lovers More Often Than People Think4 min read · Aug 17th · How individuals start a relationship is an often overlooked area of research.
relationships
BBC Future
The reasons humans started kissing1 min read · Aug 16th · Lip-on-lip kissing is not nearly as universal as we might think it is. The diversity of ways that humans kiss might reveal what it is that we find important.
relationships
UnHerd
Life is one big status game7 min read · Sep 2nd · The battle to be virtuous inspires endless political cruelty
better living
society
Most highlighted
The battle for status has defined human history
Unsurprisingly, therefore, a huge amount of effort goes into signalling and detecting.
People do terrible things more out of love than out of hate.
The New York Times
Opinion | One Thing We Can Agree on Is That We’re Becoming a Different Country10 min read · Sep 8th · Tolerance and intolerance are taking on many different guises.
society
Most highlighted
A highly charged ideological transition reflecting a “massive four-decade-long shift in political values and attitudes among more educated people — a shift from concern with traditional materialist issues like redistribution to a concern for public goods like the environment and diversity” is a driving force in the battle between left and right
the dramatic shift to a knowledge economy, which expresses itself on the left as “wokeness” and on the right as populism
This is not just an economic or cultural or political phenomenon, it is inextricably geographic or spatial as different groups pack and cluster into different kinds of communities
The Economist
Why nations that fail women fail4 min read · Sep 9th · And why foreign policy should pay more heed to half of humanity | Leaders
politics
warzel.substack.com
How To Have Difficult Conversations9 min read · Jul 14th · Hint: Not on Twitter!
relationships
Most highlighted
Many social media platforms are essentially a service that makes conversation feel less safe.
Often, with a term like “Cancel Culture,” there’s zero hope for a productive discussion because the loudest voices in a given space or on a platform are arguing about semantically different things. They’re using the same words, but they’re not abiding by similar definitions.
Many social media platforms are essentially a service that makes conversation feel less safe.
BBC Future
The animals changed by proximity to humans6 min read · Aug 9th · It's not just domestication that has changed animals – simply sharing their environment with humans has radically altered the behaviour of some species.
environment
biology
Most highlighted
It's not just domestication that has changed animals – simply sharing their environment with humans has radically altered the behaviour of some species.
His experiments also show us just how dramatic an effect proximity to humans can have on the behaviour of animals.
"When you start thinking about the initial phases of domestication going back thousands of years, the absolute first step must have been a reduced fear of humans, as fearful animals can’t thrive and reproduce,"
Vox
Homeownership can bring out the worst in you8 min read · Jul 30th · It’s the biggest thing you might ever buy. And it could be turning you into a bad person.
society
Most highlighted
Homeownership, as it has evolved in the United States, often turns its beneficiaries against progress and change, manifesting as anything from opposing homeless shelters in your neighborhood to blocking transit projects in your region. This identity transcends partisanship, a rarity in our polarized age. You’ll find Democrats and Republicans alike screaming opposition to change and growth, no matter what it costs.
In a newsletter titled “America’s scarcity mindset,” economist Noah Smith described the political effect of what happens when people are forced to live under scarcity: “Survival values, which supposedly come about because of economic scarcity, include ethnocentrism, xenophobia, fear of disease, and a hunger for authoritarianism.
The Atlantic
The Time Tax~15 min read · Jul 27th · A six-month wait for unemployment insurance. A paperwork nightmare over an insurance reimbursement. Drug tests for cash benefits. Why is there so much red tape in American life?
economy
equality
sociology
Most highlighted
And very little attention is being paid to making things work for the neediest—people short on time, money, and mental bandwidth.  The time tax needs to be measured. It needs to be managed. And it needs to end.
The time tax is everywhere.
“time tax”—a levy of paperwork, aggravation, and mental effort imposed on citizens in exchange for benefits that putatively exist to help them.
Aeon+Psyche
The inheritance of crime10 min read · From 2017 · Eugenic ideas about criminal genes have been repudiated for decades, but a new biological approach to crime is emerging
Quartz
This new government data show US parents didn’t do more parenting in 20202 min read · Jul 22nd · The pandemic changed and didn't change parenting in surprising ways, according to the American Time Use Survey
parenting
The New York Times
The Battle Over State Voting Rights Is About the Future of Texas6 min read · Jul 14th · The current skirmish is the latest in a tug of war being waged between the state’s increasingly Democratic cities and its deeply conservative rural areas.
The Washington Post
How Tucker Carlson became the voice of White grievanceJul 14th · With the defeat of former president Donald Trump and the death of Rush Limbaugh, the Fox News host has emerged as a dominant force shaping a Republican Party energized by racial resentment.
bizjournals.com
A gender gap has resulted in fewer women’s health inventions, but it’s narrowingJul 17th · Fewer women inventors = fewer inventions addressing women’s health, researchers say.
National Review
Convincing the Skeptics5 min read · Jul 16th · Vaccine resisters can’t be persuaded if they feel disrespected.
The Washington Post
Vaccine hesitancy morphs into hostility, as opposition to shots hardens8 min read · Jul 15th · The notion of coronavirus vaccines as unnecessary or harmful — or a government plot — is increasingly embraced by Trump supporters, complicating Biden’s push to boost the public’s immunity before autumn.
Sociology

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