Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

Protecting the planet at Penn

Earth Day and every day, the University community is at work to make the world a little better. Here are some highlights from those efforts.

Katherine Unger Baillie, Michele W. Berger

How superstitions spread

Superstitious beliefs may seem irrational, but they catch on in a society. Using an evolutionary approach to studying the emergence of coordinated behaviors, Erol Akçay and Bryce Morsky showed how a jumble of individual beliefs, including superstitions, coalesce into an accepted social norm.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Night at the (Penn) Museum

What it’s like to sleep over with mummies and more than 10,000 years’ worth of artifacts.

Gwyneth K. Shaw



In the News


U.S. News & World Report

Has RSV vaccine hesitancy subsided?

A survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center finds that more Americans believe in the effectiveness of vaccines developed to protect newborns and seniors against RSV.

FULL STORY →



The New York Times

Europe has a leadership vacuum. How will it handle Trump?

Amy Gutmann of the School of Arts & Sciences says that Germany is front and center in the economic problems currently afflicting Europe.

FULL STORY →



The Hill

Trust in court system at record low: Gallup

An October survey from the Annenberg Public Policy Center found that the public’s trust in the U.S. Supreme Court has dropped to a record low.

FULL STORY →



Los Angeles Times

Trump offers murky worldview ahead of second term, mixing dire warnings with rosy promises

Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg Public Policy Center says that Donald Trump is far more hyperbolic on average than traditional presidential candidates, who still routinely claim that they will do something alone that can’t be done without Congress.

FULL STORY →



The New York Times

An epidemic of vicious school brawls, fueled by student cellphones

PIK Professor Desmond Upton Patton says that many schools don’t have a playbook for addressing student violence or helping pupils engage more positively online, in part because few researchers are studying the issue.

FULL STORY →