all Department of Sociology stories

The genes in your congeniality:

404132862 — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 14:46:26 -0500

Can’t help being the life of the party? Maybe you were just born that way. Researchers at Harvard and the University of California, San Diego, have found that our place in a social network is influenced in part by our genes, according to new findings published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Having happy friends can make you happy

404132862 — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 14:55:39 -0500

If you’re happy and you know it, thank your friends — and their friends. And while you’re at it, their friends’ friends. But if you’re sad, hold the blame. Researchers from Harvard Medical School and the University of California, San Diego, have found that “happiness” is not the result solely of a cloistered journey filled with individually tailored self-help techniques. Happiness is also a collective phenomenon that spreads through social networks like an emotional contagion.

Smoking is addictive but quitting is contagious

yvette — Mon, 19 May 2008 17:07:59 -0400

Over the last 30 years, the number of smokers in the U.S. has steadily decreased—a tribute to the efforts of public-health workers everywhere. And while this fact is unarguable, less obvious are the social and cultural forces that lead an individual to kick the habit. In fact, when someone crumbles that last empty pack of their favorite unfiltered brand and vows to never buy another, he might not realize that he is less like the heroic individual grasping his own boot straps and more like a single bird whose sudden left turn is just one speck in the larger flock.

Harvard researchers selected for National Academy of Sciences membership

yvette — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:39:20 -0400

Eight Harvard faculty members this week were elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.

Living in disadvantaged neighborhood equivalent to missing a year of school

404132862 — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 14:58:59 -0500

Childhood exposure to severely disadvantaged communities is linked to decreased verbal ability later in childhood, a lasting negative effect that continues even after moving out of the neighborhood, according to research that will be published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

According to the study, living in concentrated disadvantage decreases later verbal test scores by about four IQ points, which is roughly equivalent to missing a year of school.