Advertisement Public shaming can help uphold online community norms. bo feng/iStock via Getty Images Jennifer Forestal, Loyola University Chicago “Cancel culture” has a bad reputation. There is growing anxiety over this practice of publicly shaming people online for violating social norms ranging from inappropriate jokes to controversial business practices. Online shaming can be a wildly disproportionate response that violates the privacy of the shamed while offering them no good way to defend themselves. These consequences lead some critics to claim that online shaming creates a “hate stor ..read more

Advertisement Pro-abortion rights demonstrators rally in Scottsdale, Ariz., on April 15, 2024. Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images Dara E. Purvis, Penn State When the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to get an abortion in June 2022, Justice Clarence Thomas suggested that the court “should reconsider” other rights it currently recognizes – like the rights for same-sex couples to have sex and marry. If the Supreme Court overturns legal precedents on these and other issues, old state laws that haven’t been enforced, possibly for centuries, can suddenly spring back to life ..read more

Advertisement Many traditional Japanese foods are high in vitamins and minerals which may help to keep the brain healthy. Nishihama/ Shutterstock Giovanni Sala, University of Liverpool and Shu Zhang, National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology Cognitive decline and dementia already affect more than 55 million people worldwide. This number is projected to skyrocket over the next few decades as the global population ages. There are certain risk factors of cognitive decline and dementia that we cannot change – such as having a genetic predisposition to these conditions. But other risk facto ..read more

Advertisement Marcia Zug, University of South Carolina “First comes love, then comes marriage” – so goes the classic children’s rhyme. But not everyone agrees. Increasingly, the idea that love is the most important reason to marry – or at least to stay married – is under attack. Republican pundits and lawmakers have been pushing back on the availability of no-fault divorce, challenging the idea that not being in love is a valid reason to end a marriage. Speaking as a professor of family law, I know such views aren’t new. Zsa Zsa Gabor once quipped, “Getting divorced just because you don’t l ..read more

Advertisement Spencer and Gabby Goidel hadn’t planned to become activists. Spencer and Gabby Goidel, CC BY-ND Spencer Goidel, Auburn University The day before the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos created and used for in vitro fertilization are children, my wife, Gabby, and I were greenlighted by our doctors to begin the IVF process. We live in Alabama. That Friday evening, Feb. 16, 2024, unaware of the ruling, Gabby started taking her stimulation medications, worth roughly US$4,000 in total. We didn’t hear about the decision until Sunday morning, Feb. 18. By then, she had tak ..read more

Advertisement Donald Trump supporters drive by a rally for Nikki Haley on Feb.1, 2024, in Columbia, S.C. Brandon Bell/Getty Images Tatishe Nteta, UMass Amherst; Adam Eichen, UMass Amherst, and Jesse Rhodes, UMass Amherst Following multiple defeats in the Republican presidential primary, including in her home state of South Carolina, Nikki Haley suspended her bid for the Republican presidential nomination on March 6, 2024. Barring unforeseen events, Donald Trump will be the GOP candidate in November’s election. Haley’s failure to pose a more serious challenge to Trump may be puzzling to some ..read more

Advertisement szefei/Shutterstock Kirsty Ross, Massey University As a clinical psychologist, I often have clients say they are having trouble with thoughts “on a loop” in their head, which they find difficult to manage. While rumination and overthinking are often considered the same thing, they are slightly different (though linked). Rumination is having thoughts on repeat in our minds. This can lead to overthinking – analysing those thoughts without finding solutions or solving the problem. It’s like a vinyl record playing the same part of the song over and over. With a record, this is usu ..read more

Advertisement Women’s own negative medical experiences influence their vaccine decisions for their kids. AP Photo/Ted S. Warren Johanna Richlin, University of Maine Why would a mother reject safe, potentially lifesaving vaccines for her child? Popular writing on vaccine skepticism often denigrates white and middle-class mothers who reject some or all recommended vaccines as hysterical, misinformed, zealous or ignorant. Mainstream media and medical providers increasingly dismiss vaccine refusal as a hallmark of American fringe ideology, far-right radicalization or anti-intellectualism. But v ..read more

Advertisement One of the earliest depictions of flying witches is in a 15th-century text entitled “Le champion des dames,” or “The Defender of Ladies.” Martin Le Franc/W. Schild. Die Maleficia der Hexenleut’ via Wikimedia Commons Michael D. Bailey, Iowa State University The image of a witch flying on a broomstick is iconic, but it is not nearly as old as the idea of witchcraft itself, which dates to the earliest days of humankind. Several theologians, church inquisitors, secular magistrates and other authorities first wrote about such flight in the early 1400s. The earliest known visual dep ..read more

Advertisement Within weeks, for the first time in the U.S. consumers will be able to find a birth control pill on retail shelves. Bill Oxford/iStock via Getty Images Sarah Lynch, Binghamton University, State University of New York The Food and Drug Administration’s 2023 approval of the first over-the-counter birth control pill, called Opill, broadened the options for people seeking to prevent pregnancy. On March 4, 2024, the pill’s manufacturer, Perrigo Company, announced that it has started shipping Opill and that consumers can expect to see it on shelves by the end of the month. The Conve ..read more