Book and media reviews from the journal Science, edited by Valerie Thompson.

Valerie Thompson, Editor

Posts tagged with "Social Science"

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  The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World
  Jamil Zaki

  Book Social Science

  Compassion can be cultivated, argues a psychologist

  18 June, 2019

  Google searches for “empathy” have been increasing over the past 15 years, and it’s the latest buzzword at companies as diverse as Facebook and Ford. Joining several recent books on the topic [such as (1-3)] is The War for Kindness by Stanford psychologist Jamil Zaki, which sets out to help people increase their empathy in… Read More
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  The Formula: The Universal Laws of Success
  Albert-László Barabási

  Book Social Science

  A complexity expert reveals how social networks create recognition and acclaim

  11 December, 2018

  Want to master your professional and social networks to maximize recognition? Want to learn how to build productive teams that create lasting impact? In his new book, The Formula: The Universal Laws of Success, Albert-László Barabási translates almost a decade of scholarly research on the science of success into a lively and compelling narrative woven… Read More
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  Deep Roots: How Slavery Still Shapes Southern Politics
  Avidit Acharya, Matthew Blackwell, and Maya Sen

  Book Political Attitudes, Social Science

  Racial tension continues to influence political attitudes in U.S. regions that once depended on slave labor

  23 October, 2018

  Debates about immigration, the emergence of #BlackLivesMatter and NFL activism, and the lingering presence of alt-right and white supremacy movements signal that racial attitudes still color interactions in the United States. Amid this backdrop, Deep Roots emerges as a story about the determinants of white racial attitudes in the South, a region known for being… Read More
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  Uncivil Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity
  Lilliana Mason

  Book Partisanship, Social Science

  Is contemporary partisanship “identity all the way down”?

  22 October, 2018

  If there is a single buzzword that sums up American politics in the present era, it is “polarization.” Though citizens and commentators alike loosely use the term to refer to the acrimony that characterizes relations between Democrats and Republicans, political scientists often have something very specific in mind when they talk about polarization. These days… Read More
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  Randomistas: How Radical Researchers Are Changing Our World
  Andrew Leigh

  Book Social Science

  An engaging synthesis highlights the value of field experiments in the social sciences

  24 July, 2018

  Social scientists once restricted their research to carefully controlled laboratory experiments. Over the past 25 years, however, they have increasingly made use of field experiments. Insights gained have spanned nearly every imaginable segment of our society, lending tests of theory, advice to policymakers, and guidance to nonprofit and for-profit firms alike. In his new book, Randomistas… Read More
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  Bit by Bit: Social Research in the Digital Age
  Matthew J. Salganik

  Book Social Science

  A breezy, personal guide provides a road map to solid computational social science research

  2 January, 2018

  Subatomic particle physics has CERN. Astronomy has the Hubble telescope. Social science has the Internet, smartphones, email, social media, satellites, and a myriad of other ways to follow human behavior. The gods of the information age have produced a whole panoply of technologies for social research along the journey to other destinations. Generally, social scientists… Read More
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  The Emoji Code: The Linguistics Behind Smiley Faces and Scaredy Cats
  Vyvyan Evans

  Book Linguistics, Social Science

  PODCAST: Q&A with Vyvyan Evans, author of The Emoji Code

  24 August, 2017

  Nonverbal cues can clue listeners into implied meaning during in-person conversations, but, until recently, tone and nuance were often lost during digital interactions. Enter the emoji. This week on the Science podcast, linguist Vyvyan Evans argues that these icons better allow us to signal our attitudes and emotions in text-based discussions, ultimately making us more… Read More