Recent Science News

Judges who were public defenders jail fewer people and give shorter trial sentences
Across 740,786 federal charges from 2010 to 2019, defendants assigned to a judge who had been a public defender were up to 2.5 percentage points less likely to be incarcerated, and trial sentences were about 16 months shorter.

Americans’ time with friends has halved, and Friday night took the biggest hit
Diaries from 243,095 American adults show weekly time with friends fell from about 350 to 170 minutes between 2003 and 2024, while the share of Friday evening spent with friends dropped from 9 to 4 percent, now no different from a weeknight.

Girls climbed playground structures twice as often as boys and perched longer at the top
Across 13 elementary schools, 3.14% of enrolled girls were climbing playground structures at recess versus 1.45% of boys, and girls aged 6 to 8 spent far more of their climbing time perched at the top of jungle gyms.

People size up places on four dimensions: density, desirability, light and temperature
Across six studies with 7,290 U.S. and U.K. participants, psychologists found that impressions of everyday environments boil down to four factors, density, desirability, light and temperature, which predict different behavioral intentions.

Firms may move proven workers into the wrong jobs to keep exploiting their overconfidence
A model of long-term employment shows that once a worker's talent becomes evident, the firm can no longer profit from his overconfidence, giving it a reason to reassign him to a poorly suited job, a new explanation for the Peter Principle.

Polls undercounted Trump in 2020 because his voters skipped surveys, not because they lied
The 2020 American National Election Studies overstated Biden's margin by 6.7 points. Researchers trace the error to Trump supporters being less likely to take part and to finish the survey, and rule out a "shy Trump voter" hiding their choice.

Talking to a computer makes people self-conscious, and they disclose less
Five experiments with 6,188 people found that speaking to voice technology instead of typing or clicking raises self-presentation worries. People who dictated ChatGPT queries disclosed fewer negative personal problems, and dictated messages were more positive.