How one professor uses online games as petri dishes of human behavior Edward Castronova has been a wizard, a clergyman, and lately, a monster-slaying blonde, all inside virtual worlds. Scholars may ...

Altruism, the tendency to behave in ways that benefit others even if it comes at a cost to oneself, is a valuable human quality that can facilitate cooperation with others and promote meaningful ...

Is social science research trustworthy? The economist Noah Smith raises this question in a recent piece entitled “How many of our ‘facts’ about society health, and the economy are fake?” As he points ...

Sept. 25 (UPI) --LinkedIn ran secret social experiments on around 20 million of the site's users in a sweeping five-year study on the strength of social ties in professional networking, according to ...

This past week, Swedish furniture giant IKEA made its contribution to antibullyism (my preferred term for the anti-bullying cause), the iconic social movement of the 21st century. It publicized a ...

As different initiatives, priorities, and efforts to change teaching and learning in schools come and go, one challenge remains constant: Time is a finite resource. In elementary schools, especially, ...

While all reality formats offer some insight into human behavior, social experiments dive deep into the psyche and reveal a more authentic, raw depiction of the human condition and what happens when ...

I’m a huge fan of Anthony Bourdain’s travel show Parts Unknown. In each episode, the chef visits remote villages across the globe, documenting the lives, foods, and cultures of regional tribes with an ...

Editor’s note: This is part of a series called “The Day Tomorrow Began,” which explores the history of breakthroughs at UChicago. Learn more here. A field experiment is a research method that uses ...