32 readings with original sources
Society and relationships
How we relate to others can be studied in conversations, groups and everyday situations. These readings explore particular questions about social life without turning one finding into a rule for everyone.
What to look for in these studies
Culture, setting and the way participants were selected can change how a result should be interpreted. An association does not identify a cause on its own. Look at who took part and what kind of interaction researchers compared.
- Who took part, and in what setting?
- Was behavior observed or reported by participants?
- What interaction or situation was compared?
Explore the research
- Without saying a word, their steps already showed whether they hit it off
- Remembering who helped you brought warmth and a wish to give back
- Students chose to view more scenes of harm between people
- Grading peers and being graded raised scores slightly
- Where resources were more unequal, the shared fund received less
- Before graduating, men already expected to earn more than women
- A memory exercise increased a sales offer, but not a salary offer
- Similar applications with another name received a different response
- Sharing a desk for one semester made friendship more likely
- Showing that you helped others brought more yeses to hosting requests
- An invitation from a neighbor did not change how many people came to clean
- Women spent more time on housework at every age
- A rental inquiry with an Arabic male name received fewer replies
- In Boston, the hottest areas were not the most vulnerable
- When deprivation was added, diversity was less consistently linked to lower cohesion
- Lower-income people had fewer high-income friends than expected
- Each account's politics was more closely linked to what it shared than to the source
- Average trust did not change with social assistance in Kenya
- People who talked more with others reported less psychological distress
- When groups mixed, shared cooperation was rewarded more
- Older adults had more social support in areas with community initiatives
- Among refugees in Germany, each kind of support had its own network
- Trust in institutions went along with feeling safer
- In German classrooms, refugees were named as friends less often
- Receiving financial support from their children went along with less work
- Counties with greater community trust recorded fewer infections
- Greater exposure to false messages, but similar willingness to share them
- In a disaster, neighbors combined memory, relationships, and technical knowledge
- People who connected different groups were more involved with politicians
- Older adults said a lack of transport could mean missing social gatherings
- Valuing inclusion was more closely linked to colleagues than to training
- Nearly 80% saw libraries as potential places to meet