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Penn Integrates Knowledge Professors

A road map to reduce firearm harms by 2040
Six people stand on a set of parallel, converging arrows, illustrating the concept of collaboration or moving forward together.

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A road map to reduce firearm harms by 2040

Three Penn faculty members are among more than 40 experts to author a report addressing the persistent challenge of gun violence and proposing solutions stemming from a JAMA Summit convened last spring.

2 min. read

Dolores Albarracín receives Career Award from Society for Personality and Social Psychology

Dolores Albarracín receives Career Award from Society for Personality and Social Psychology

The Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication and director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center’s Communication Science division has been honored with the 2025 Career Contribution Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology for her contributions to social psychology.

Lynn Meskell elected Fellow to the British Academy
Lynn Meskell

Meskell is the Richard D. Green Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor with joint appointments in the School of Arts & Sciences, the Weitzman School of Design, and the Penn Museum.

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Lynn Meskell elected Fellow to the British Academy

The honor recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding contributions to the humanities and social sciences.

3 min. read

Ants and naked mole-rats and societal roles
Leafcutter ants moving around a bright green leaf.

In eusocial superorganisms like leafcutter ant colonies, labor is divvied up according to body shape and size, but PIK Professor Shelley Berger and her team discovered that molecular signals can override that blueprint. Their findings reveal how simple neuropeptides can reprogram ant behavior, reshuffling roles in nature’s most disciplined workforce.

(Image: Courtesy of Tierney Scarpa)

Ants and naked mole-rats and societal roles

PIK Professor Shelley Berger and colleagues explored the genetic basis of labor distribution in communal-dwelling species and discovered that pathways dating back hundreds of millions of years are conserved across animal kingdoms. Their findings offer fundamental insights into complex social behaviors.

5 min. read

How cable news has diverged from broadcast news
Person sitting on couch watching news.

Image: simonkr via Getty Images

How cable news has diverged from broadcast news

A team of researchers from the Computational Social Science Lab at the University of Pennsylvania find that cable news has increasingly diverged from broadcast news in the topics covered and language used.

3 min. read

Shelley Berger honored by AACR for cancer research

Shelley Berger honored by AACR for cancer research

Berger, the Daniel S. Och University Professor with appointments in the Perelman School of Medicine department of Cell & Developmental Biology and a Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor in the School of Arts & Sciences, is recognized for her outstanding contributions to cancer research by the American Association for Cancer Research with the 2025 AACR-Women in Cancer Research Charlotte Friend Lectureship.

People select feedback to flatter others, except when they dislike them

People select feedback to flatter others, except when they dislike them

New research by Penn’s Social Action Lab research associate Xi Shen and PIK Professor Dolores Albarracín finds that people generally want to make other people feel good about themselves—unless they dislike that person.

From the Annenberg Public Policy Center

2 min. read

‘I Will Vote’: Using future-oriented frames to motivate voters
A person affixes an I VOTED sticker to their t-shirt.

Image: kali9 via Getty Images

‘I Will Vote’: Using future-oriented frames to motivate voters

A new paper from Penn’s Annenberg Public Policy Center examines whether “I Voted” stickers influence people’s voting intentions, and whether different language choices in this approach to voter outreach might make a bigger impact on civic engagement.

From the Annenberg Public Policy Center

2 min. read