social science – Kettinki

2026-04-02 @ 10.56.50 ∈ In English

Study suggests people are losing 338 spoken words every year and have been for at least 15 years

When we plotted the daily spoken word counts against the year each study was collected, we found a consistent linear decline. Every year, the estimate of daily spoken words dropped by 338. That is how you get from around 16,000 in 2005 to around 12,700 by 2019.

2026-03-26 @ 13.34.06 ∈ In English

Motivations behind violent extremism uncovered in new global study

Individuals exhibiting high levels of narcissism and a strong [tendency to manipulate had] strong inclinations toward defensive extremism. [Conversely,] a strong desire for group dominance and high levels of religious fundamentalism were linked to offensive extremism. [Liberal] political group identification was unexpectedly associated with higher offensive but lower defensive intentions[.]

2026-03-18 @ 17.07.25 ∈ In English

Bell-bottoms today, miniskirts tomorrow: Math reveals fashion's 20-year cycle

Over the past century, skirt lengths have repeatedly shortened and [lengthened every two decades. But starting] in the 1980s, the data show a wider range of skirt lengths appearing at the same time, suggesting that fashion trends are becoming more fragmented.

2026-03-11 @ 5.52.00 ∈ In English

(N = 1636)

Heat does not reduce prosociality, study suggests

At temperatures above 30°C, participants reported significantly more frustration, tiredness, and unhappiness, but neither heat nor the stress of losing had any systematic effects on egalitarianism, resource maximization, selfishness, spite, or competitiveness.

2025-12-11 @ 17.25.51 ∈ In English

Personal risk tolerance has sweeping implications for how societies evolve

[When] wealth buffers are low and the stakes are high, that increases the degree to which risk tolerance is passed down from one generation to the next, so a distaste for risk—and therefore change—is likely to persist long-term.

2025-10-17 @ 14.41.26 ∈ In English

Tradwife phenomenon isn’t a return to tradition, it’s a plea for balance

A survey of 1,000 young women aged between 18–34 found that what attracts them to tradwife content is less the male-breadwinner female-caregiver model and more the aesthetic of simplicity, leisure and escape from the pressures of increasingly demanding yet insecure work.

2025-09-26 @ 11.03.44 ∈ In English

New research reveals women outperform men on intelligence, competitiveness and literacy

When confidence was explicitly measured and incentivized, women consistently outperformed men. In the task measuring intelligence, they allocated their belief tokens in a way that achieved higher earnings efficiency than men, meaning they earned closer to the maximum possible expected reward[.]

2025-09-13 @ 14.19.59 ∈ In English

Many lonely people would prefer a robot over human interaction

"We found that lonely customers with a reduced need for interaction with other humans are more likely to use service robots as a means of avoiding human contact and conserving emotional resources."