July 23, 2014
July 23, 2014 —
This will not surprise most dog owners: Dogs can act jealous, finds a new study from the University of California, San Diego. Darwin thought so, too. But emotion researchers have been arguing for years whether jealousy requires complex cognition. And some scientists have even said that jealousy is an entirely social construct – not seen in all human cultures and not fundamental or hard-wired in the same ways that fear and anger are.
June 20, 2014
June 20, 2014 —
The California budget signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on June 20 creates a statewide research grants program called Cal-BRAIN, an initiative led by UC San Diego. With an initial allocation of $2 million, Cal-BRAIN – short for California Blueprint for Research to Advance Innovations in Neuroscience – is a state complement to the federal BRAIN Initiative announced by President Barack Obama in April of 2013. It aims to “accelerate the development of brain mapping techniques, including the development of new technologies.”
March 18, 2014
March 18, 2014 —
People lie – we know this. People lie to kids – we know this, too. But what happens next? Do children who’ve been lied to lie more themselves? Surprisingly, the question had not been asked experimentally until Chelsea Hays, then an undergraduate student in psychology at the University of California, San Diego, approached professor Leslie Carver with it.
March 12, 2014
March 12, 2014 —
Published in PLOS ONE, the study analyzes over a billion anonymized status updates among more than 100 million users of Facebook in the United States. Positive posts beget positive posts, the study finds, and negative posts beget negative ones, with the positive posts being more influential, or more contagious.
March 4, 2014
March 4, 2014 —
Social media may fuel unprecedented civic engagement. Digital networks might make possible mass protest and revolution – think “Arab Spring.” But sometimes and maybe even most of the time, a new study suggests, the accomplishments of online activism are much more modest.
January 30, 2014
January 30, 2014 —
Funded by USAID for $1.38 million, a research team led by UC San Diego’s Clark Gibson will run experiments with information and communications technology in the upcoming elections in South Africa. They are seeking to increase citizen participation in the electoral process, including the monitoring of Election Day.
January 16, 2014
January 16, 2014 —
Even “minimally buzzed” drivers are more often to blame for fatal car crashes than the sober drivers they collide with, reports a University of California, San Diego study of accidents in the United States.
January 16, 2014
January 16, 2014 —
Have you ever left a doctor’s office feeling ashamed or guilty? Chances are one in two that you answered “yes,” according to research from the University of California, San Diego. And what happened next? Perhaps you were motivated to make changes in an unhealthy behavior. Or, did you just lie to that doctor on subsequent visits? Avoid him or her? Maybe even terminate treatment entirely?
January 9, 2014
January 9, 2014 —
“It’s basic physics: You can only lift a small rock above your own head, but if you press a lever you can move a giant boulder,” says Mica Pollock, professor of education studies in the UC San Diego Division of Social Sciences and director of the Center for Research on Educational Equity, Assessment and Teaching Excellence.
January 9, 2014
January 9, 2014 —
A grant for nearly $600,000 will boost Korean studies at UC San Diego for the next five years. The 2013-18 grant – awarded by the Academy of Korean Studies’ Korean Studies Promotion Service, an organization supported by the South Korean Ministry of Education – both recognizes UC San Diego as an “overseas leading university for Korean studies” and will build future capacity in a novel way.
