Social Sciences

Knowing our partner is in pain automatically triggers affective pain processing regions of our brains, according to new research by University College London (UCL) scientists. The study, published in the 20th February edition of the journal Science, asked whether empathizing with the pain of others involves the re-activation of the entire pain network underlying the processing of pain in our selves. The results suggest that empathy for pain of others only involves the affective, but not sensory comp

New research suggests that pointing enhances understanding

In some cultures, pointing is a faux pas, sometimes even insulting. New research is turning this social don’t on its head, showing that hand gestures, such as pointing, can enhance the understanding of messages.

While describing portraits, participants in a study who used referential gesturing were better able to identify targets and reduce verbal cues than participants who only relied on verbal directions.

Compared with their husbands, women tend to put less effort into planning for retirement, studies show. But lesbians tend to plan even less than other women, according to one of the first studies to look at the retirement plans of gay and lesbian couples.

A significant factor influencing same-sex couples’ retirement planning is, put simply, satisfaction with their relationship, according to Cornell University experts on gender issues.

“Although the quality of a marriage tends to

A group of Dutch investigators has published in the March-April issue of Psychotherapy and Psychoomatics a study linking childhood adversities and alexithymia (the inability to express emotions).

Affect regulation is assumed to be a biologically based function that can become disrupted by inadequate parenting and by traumatic experiences. We studied the relation between the perceived parental parenting style, and sexual and physical abuse, with alexithymia, dissociation, anxiety and depress

New research by Historian Dr Rebecca Earle from the University of Warwick charts love letters from the 16th -18th centuries to reveal that over 300 years ago men commonly used flowery, romantic words to express emotions, and that the emotionally open ‘New Man’ is not so new. Her research also suggests that 16th century Spaniards were more romantic than their American or English contemporaries.

The study of 303 letters entitled “Letters and Love in Colonial Spanish America” charts the langu

Well-qualified women are less likely than their male counterparts to consider running for public office because women do not perceive themselves as qualified and do not receive as much encouragement as men, according to a new study by political scientists at Brown University and Union College.

Despite the fact that women perform as well as men in terms of campaign fundraising and vote totals, they remain severely under-represented in U.S. political institutions. Gender disparities are appar