The Government’s new Child Trust Fund, which helps children save a tax-free cash ‘nest egg’ for their 18th birthday, has broad support from political parties, state departments, think tanks and pressure groups alike, according to new research sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
However, today’s 18-year-olds want to see greater restrictions on how the money is eventually spent, says the study led by Professor Andrew Gamble of the University of Sheffield.
Psychologists at The University of Manchester are investigating the idea that out-of-body experiences, commonly thought of as paranormal phenomena, may in fact have their roots in how people perceive and experience their own bodies.
Around 10% of the population have an out-of-body experience (OBE) at some time, typically involving a sensation of floating and seeing the physical body from the outside. It isn’t uncommon for people to have more than one OBE, and they may also oc
The Volkswagen Foundation has approved funding worth €361,000 for a three-year research project to study the effects of demographic change in cities. Czech and Polish cities are to be used as case studies to aid in identifying the experiences from the Eastern German Länder which are transferable and those characteristics which are not comparable. The UFZ Centre for Environmental Research (Umweltforschungszentrum Leipzig-Halle) is working closely on this project with the Czech and Polish Academi
Despite gains in the training of women scientists and the implementation of programs to help women overcome ingrained barriers, the career path of most women scientists at universities remains a difficult trek, fraught with roadblocks of bias, a sometimes chilly campus climate and the challenge of balancing family and work.
That, in short, is the conclusion of a group of prominent women scientists and administrators, including chancellors and provosts, in an analysis of the issue
When it comes to living together with a man, daughters often follow the lead of their mothers, according to a new study.
Research showed that young adult women whose mothers reported cohabitation were 57 percent more likely than other women to report cohabitation themselves. In addition, daughters of cohabiting mothers tended to cohabit at earlier ages than others.
“Women tend to model the behavior of their mothers when it comes to relationships,” said Leanna Mellot
When devotees of ‘Lord of the Rings’ re-watch the fantasy movies, many do their level best to forget the story and convince themselves they are seeing them for the first time, according to the biggest ever study of its kind, sponsored by the ESRC.
‘Not knowing’ the plot or the ending means they can experience as much of the full emotions and tension as possible and their pleasure is increased, says Professor Martin Barker of the University of Wales, who led the research over 15 mo
Financially richer people tend to be happier than poorer people, according to sociological researcher Glenn Firebaugh, Pennsylvania State University, and graduate student Laura Tach, Harvard University. Their research is focused on whether the income effect on happiness results largely from the things money can buy (absolute income effect) or from comparing one’s income to the income of others (relative income effect). They present their research in a session paper, titled “Relative Income an
New ASU study examines the factors that contribute toward children becoming overweight or obese in early adulthood
Parents have a strong influence over whether or not their children will become overweight or obese, and it’s not just their genes that they pass on.
Most significantly, when children grow up in families with bad eating habits and sedentary lifestyles dominated by television watching and video games, they are 33.3 percent more likely to become overweight or
Disaster research presented at the American Sociological Association Centennial Meeting
While it has long been assumed in the disaster research community that individuals with fewer resources are more likely to suffer in a disaster–and it is true that non-whites, the poor, and females often suffer more than their counterparts–the race-class-and-gender trinity of variables does not capture the entire spectrum in which disaster affects society. At the 2005 American Sociological A
Speakers Can Avoid Confusion for Listeners, Researchers Find
If someone told you to “put the apple in the basket on the table,” what would you do? Depending on how many apples and baskets are in your kitchen, it might not be clear. Would you move the apple in the basket to the table, or move the apple to the basket on the table? Had the speaker included the word “that’s” after the word “apple,” it would have eliminated any confusion. But people often fail to avoid such ambi
Working parents rely on a network of caregivers – a source of positive bonds, stress when childcare is insufficient or inflexible
Despite the long-cherished belief that the nuclear family is independent and self-sustaining, most families with working parents depend on a network of care to manage work and family demands, according to research by Brandeis University sociologist Karen Hansen. More than half of all U.S. households with young children have two employed parents.
If men thought they were frittering away money wining and dining a girl to win her hand, they should think again. Dr Peter Sozou and Professor Robert Seymour from University College London (UCL) have developed a mathematical model that shows how expensive but worthless gifts may help facilitate courtship.
Reporting in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B they analysed the function of a courtship gift and what the characteristics of a ‘good’ gift are.
Th
How alike are you and your husband or wife — or, you and your best friend? Probably more alike than you realize. A study of twins shows that people’s spouses and best friends are much more similar to them than was previously recognized — about as close as brothers and sisters. The research also suggested that the preference for partners who are similar to us is partly due to our genes.
The research was conducted by J. Philippe Rushton and Trudy Ann Bons of the University
What will retirement look like for you? Will you buy that 40-foot sailboat and sail between your summer home in Maine and your winter home in the Caribbean? Or will you plan for three daughters’ weddings, older parents, and other unexpected but unavoidable costs? One scenario pits you as being solidly independent; the other looks pretty interdependent. How consumers make such choices and set goals is the focus of an article in the September 2005 issue of the Journal of Consumer Research.
Believers in Brazil can choose from a wide variety of religions. The main reason for this rich selection lies in the country’s colonial history and its current socio-economic development. This is the key message of a project recently concluded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF in order to analyze why Brazil of all countries experiences such a big run on faith.
Millions of Europeans were under the spell of the elections for the new Pope, but the truth is that religions are losing
When faced with a challenging situation, a bicultural person may decide how to respond based on the cultural mindset that is active at the time, researchers have concluded.
College students in Hong Kong, for example, who were prompted ahead of time with icons of Chinese culture were more likely to cooperate with friends than were students who had been cued with American cultural icons, according to Ying-yi Hong of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Hong and
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