Social sciences – The Conversation

Large language models are becoming increasingly capable of imitating human-like responses, creating opportunities to test social science theories on a larger scale and with much greater speed.

From commerce to public policy, cuts to New Zealand’s university humanities departments will have repercussions well beyond the so-called ‘ivory towers’.

Archaeologists have studied how astronauts use the International Space Station to improve its potential future successors.

Climate change is often seen as solely a technical problem. This is a misguided belief. Understanding how to build a better world begins, and ends, with understanding the societies which inhabit it.

Social scientists in Nigeria communicate their research results more among themselves than they do to policymakers and the general public.

Pandemics often have animal origins, so prevention is often dominated by health and veterinary sciences. However, social sciences’ role in understanding human behaviour is also crucial to prevention.

The Coalition government showed a disdain for the arts, humanities and social sciences. The plight of these disciplines requires action from the incoming Labor government on three fronts.

It is the work of social scientists to understand how societies operate and, based on that knowledge, how populations can apply evidence-based solutions to the challenges of the 21st century.

The reduced rate of funding to universities (of up to 17%), per place, for national priority courses sends perverse messages to universities.

Twitter has long allowed anyone to access its data about who tweeted what and when. This has been a boon to research, from public health to criminology. The new fees put that research at risk.

A group of researchers examine the communication barriers impacting social science professionals’ credibility and how people make sense of their expertise.

Three Indigenous studies scholars draw from colonial histories and explain why listening for alien life can have ethical ramifications.

Anthropic developed an AI interviewer it claims can help social scientists conduct research at scale. But AI models lack the human qualities that make qualitative research unique.

Internships and work-integrated learning for social sciences and humanities students can be part of how post-secondary institutions increase their capacities to contribute to social innovation.

Our romances tell us a lot about how we live our lives and vice versa. They can help us make informed choices about changing and breaking habits or developing new ones.

Psychological and social perspectives on economy that were developed by 19th-century philosophers can help us re-imagine economics with a human face.

Focusing on despair is unhelpful and may even prevent climate action. Insights from climate social scientists can help navigate the doom and gloom.

The active and uninhibited dissemination of knowledge is vital for the advancement of knowledge.