Recent Science News

Told they are gender-atypical, boys avoid femininity while girls ease off with age
In an experiment with 147 children aged 5 to 10, feedback suggesting they were gender-atypical made all children worry about judgment, but only younger girls and older boys acted more gender-typical, and only boys avoided anything feminine.

Heavier media coverage of a company predicts worse earnings and higher bankruptcy risk
More press coverage of a firm strongly predicts weaker fundamentals, earnings surprises and higher odds of bankruptcy, dividend cuts and delistings, a Management Science study finds, as the financial press tilts toward negative news.

China’s Generation Z is no more democratic than its parents, 17 years of surveys show
Five nationally representative surveys from 2002 to 2019 show Chinese democratic values declined in the 2010s, the Xi Jinping era, and that Generation Z does not hold stronger democratic beliefs than earlier cohorts. People born 1971 to 1985 stand out for backing independent branches of government.

A 971-meter stone wall under the Baltic Sea was likely built by Stone Age reindeer hunters
Sonar and divers mapped 1,673 stones laid in a 971-meter line 21 meters under the Baltic Sea off Germany; the wall drowned about 8,500 years ago and was probably a hunter-gatherer drive lane for reindeer.

Employee Glassdoor reviews predict product recalls and profitability ahead of time
Using machine learning on more than 4.3 million Glassdoor reviews of S&P 1500 firms from 2008 to 2023, researchers built a quality index that predicted future quality better than firm fundamentals or Glassdoor ratings, and helped forecast product recalls, brand value and profitability.

Zoom first impressions are as accurate as in person, unless the connection is bad
Across two Zoom studies with 938 students and about 5,000 conversations, people judged new acquaintances’ personalities as accurately as in person. When audio and video quality was poorer, they judged less accurately and liked their partner less.

Unhappy people talk politics and push others to vote more than happy people do
In World Values Survey data on about 58,000 people in 44 countries, those who called themselves not very or not at all happy were more likely to discuss politics with friends and urge others to vote or take political action.