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Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences
Latino voters and lessons from the 2020 election
Latino voters and lessons from the 2020 election
Political scientist Michael Jones-Correa, historian Ann Farnsworth-Alvear, and demographer Emilio Parrado share their thoughts on the election results and what both parties might take away from looking at how Latinos voted.
How can cities become healthier, greener, and more equitable in the future?
How can cities become healthier, greener, and more equitable in the future?
In a year marked by COVID-19, renewed calls for racial justice, a contentious presidential election, and an active wildfire and hurricane season, Penn experts share what’s needed to make urban areas more resilient to future crises.
A new vision for the Population Aging Research Center
A new vision for the Population Aging Research Center
For more than 25 years, PARC has been a hub for work on disparities in aging and mortality. Co-directors Hans-Peter Kohler and Norma Coe, who took over in July, want to expand its reach.
‘What makes us human’: Amy Lutz on autism and community
‘What makes us human’: Amy Lutz on autism and community
In “We Walk: Life with Severe Autism,” doctoral candidate Amy Lutz examines what it means to be in community.
A modified game of ‘chicken’ reveals what happens in the brain during decision-making
A modified game of ‘chicken’ reveals what happens in the brain during decision-making
Research from the Platt Labs found that in rhesus macaques, two regions of the brain mirror those of similar regions in humans, broadening the understanding of what unfolds, neurologically, when people interact and cooperate.
One step closer to a clinical fix for the side effects of monovision
One step closer to a clinical fix for the side effects of monovision
Monovision counters the deterioration of the ability to see up close but also causes dramatic visual distortions. New research confirms that a solution that successfully works with trial lenses—the special lenses used by eye doctors—also succeeds with contact lenses.
Gers and the grid: Combatting air pollution in Mongolia
Gers and the grid: Combatting air pollution in Mongolia
The Center for Environmental Building and Design (CEBD) at The Weitzman School partnered with Mongolian nonprofit GerHub to test out ways of making ger living more energy efficient to reduce air pollution and improve respiratory conditions in Ulaanbaatar.
Google News prioritizes national media over local
Google News prioritizes national media over local
A new study from the Annenberg School for Communication found that Google News prioritizes national media outlets over local media outlets in search results, even when users are searching for local topics.
The party of Lincoln? GOP’s future after the 2020 election
The party of Lincoln? GOP’s future after the 2020 election
As part of the Andrea Mitchell Center’s Race and Politics series, political scientist Rogers Smith spoke with former GOP communications director Tara Setmayer about the election’s impact on the identity of the Republican Party.
How did echo chambers influence the 2020 election?
How did echo chambers influence the 2020 election?
Research from the Annenberg School for Communication shows that people are consuming news from more diverse sources, but many don’t consume any news at all. It’s too soon to tell what role that played in the recent race for president.
In the News
The Washington Post
On conservative talk radio, efforts to tone down inflammatory rhetoric appear limited
Brian Rosenwald of the School of Arts & Sciences weighed in on how conservative talk radio hosts will address the incoming Biden administration. “A Democratic administration equals a new boogeymen to focus on,” said Rosenwald. “You might have offhand references or conversation about Biden being an illegitimate president, but the focus won’t be on the ‘stolen election’ unless and until there is fresh news on the topic.”
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Philadelphia Inquirer
From the fashion to the flags, Joe Biden’s inauguration presents a vision of a unified America
Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw of the School of Arts & Sciences weighed in on some of the outfits seen at President Biden’s inauguration. “There was a real conscious choice not to wear polarizing colors,” she said. “There was a sense of merging red and blue into one to visualize the bringing together of the country. These two hues have been used to politically separate us into tribes. This was a visual end to that.”
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The Washington Post
The Trump presidency was marked by battles over truth itself. Those aren’t over
Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg Public Policy Center said people can be primed to believe false information through repetition. “What Trump did was take tactics of deception and played to confirmation biases that were already circulating in our culture and embodied them in somebody who is president of the United States. He didn’t change what was available, but he changed its accessibility,” she said. “That crazed content has always been there. But it becomes dangerous when it is legitimized and when it has the power of the state behind it.”
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The New York Times
Go ahead. Fantasize
Martin Seligman of the School of Arts & Sciences said dreaming about the future can help people live well in the present. “Imagining the future—we call this skill prospection—and prospection is subserved by a set of brain circuits that juxtapose time and space and get you imagining things well and beyond the here and now,” he said. “The essence of resilience about the future is: How good a prospector are you?”
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Huffington Post
Trump supporters’ main problem was never the economy
Research by Diana Mutz of the Annenberg School for Communication and School of Arts & Sciences found that people who voted for Trump in 2016 did so because of racial anxieties, not economic distress. “It’s the same old same old. White males have been the group with the most power in our country for a long, long time,” she said. “Change is hard.”
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