Society

The gap in wages between the most- and least-educated US citizens has risen sharply in the last 40-odd years, and new research out of MIT finds that more than half of this disparity can be attributed to a single factor: automation. This bodes poorly.

New research published in the journal Antiquity suggests an ancient South American civilization spiked a beer-like drink with psychoactive drugs as a way of maintaining social cohesion and forging new bonds with surrounding communities.

A new four-year study using AI-enabled surveillance will track recently released prison parolees. The project’s goal is to lower rates of recidivism by identifying early interventions to help individuals transitioning from prison to regular society.

A report that surveyed over 200 participants from a prematurely cancelled Canadian basic income experiment found participants saw improvements in mental health and social relationships, plus a reduction in the use of general health services.

​In the largest cross-cultural survey ever conducted, a team of anthropologists has determined 7 moral rules they suggest are universal. Surveying ethnographic accounts from 60 different cultures the research concludes every single culture analyzed seems to be ruled by the same moral precepts.​

​​Ancient civilizations could have benefited, and at times suffered from belonging to an interconnected global economy, according to evidence presented in a newly-published study.

​A new study from UC Berkeley investigated the relationship between poor sleep and loneliness finding people tend to withdraw and avoid social interaction after even a single night’s disrupted sleep, and what's more, those feelings could be contagious.

An intriguing new study has homed in on several specific genomic regions that seem to be associated with greater traits of social isolation and loneliness. The results suggest genetic traits associated with loneliness cross over with a susceptibility for bad cardiovascular health and depression.

​Is loneliness a silent killer? Things like obesity and smoking are well established and clear contributors to the risk of premature mortality, but according to a new study, the impacts of chronic social isolation may pose a similar threat.

As more jobs are becoming automated, there are calls for everything from a robot tax to universal basic income to deal with the dramatic shift in the underlying structures of labor economies over the next 20 to 50 years. But what do these proposals truly mean and can any be properly implemented?

A new model attempts to explain the higher violent crime rates seen in parts of the world near the equator with hotter climates.

People diss Twitter for its triviality, but give me lunch tweets and lighthearted nonsense over pitchforks, death threats and endless opinions any day, says Gizmag's James Holloway.