Social science
September 8, 2016
Life after Fitbit: Appealing to those who feel guilty vs. free
Is life better or worse after sticking your Fitbit in a drawer? UW researchers surveyed hundreds of people who had abandoned self-tracking tools and found emotions ranged from guilt to indifference to relief that the tracking experience was over.
September 6, 2016
UW law professor named to United Nations working group on business and human rights
When law professor Anita Ramasastry began teaching at the University of Washington in 1996, she was working on an article about banks’ responsibilities around human rights, to the bemusement of her peers. The groundbreaking piece focused on the role of Swiss banks during World War II and the dormant accounts of Holocaust victims and their…
Forefront marks World Suicide Prevention Day Sept. 10 with workshops, documentary film
World Suicide Prevention Day, Sept. 10, is a reminder that we all have a role to play in preventing suicide. Forefront: Innovations in Suicide Prevention, based in the UW School of Social Work and led by Professor Jennifer Stuber, is offering a film and two suicide prevention workshops on Sept. 10.
August 25, 2016
Report explores factors that might attract children to marijuana edibles
A new report from the UW School of Law’s Cannabis Law and Policy Project identifies factors that make food attractive to children. Commissioned by the state Liquor and Cannabis Board, the report studied research on what makes food appeal to children and the role that marketing and branding play.
August 21, 2016
Is divorce seasonal? UW research shows biannual spike in divorce filings
To everything there is a season — even divorce, new research from University of Washington sociologists concludes. Associate sociology professor Julie Brines and doctoral candidate Brian Serafini found what is believed to be the first quantitative evidence of a seasonal, biannual pattern of filings for divorce. The researchers analyzed filings in Washington state between 2001…
August 20, 2016
‘I miss you so much’: How Twitter is broadening the conversation on death and mourning
Death and mourning were largely considered private matters in the 20th century, with the public remembrances common in previous eras replaced by intimate gatherings behind closed doors in funeral parlors and family homes. But social media is redefining how people grieve, and Twitter in particular — with its ephemeral mix of rapid-fire broadcast and personal…
August 18, 2016
Twins, especially male identical twins, live longer
Analysis of almost 3,000 pairs of Danish twins shows that they live longer than the general population, especially if they are identical.
August 17, 2016
Study finds bias, disgust toward mixed-race couples
Interracial marriage has grown in the United States over the past few decades, and polls show that most Americans are accepting of mixed-race relationships. A 2012 study by the Pew Research Center found that interracial marriages in the U.S. had doubled between 1980 and 2010 to about 15 percent, and just 11 percent of respondents…
August 1, 2016
Twelve UW faculty elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences
A dozen scientists and engineers from the University of Washington have been elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences. According to a statement released by the organization, the new members were selected for “their outstanding record of scientific achievement and willingness to work on behalf of the academy in bringing the best available science…
July 25, 2016
Minimum Wage Study: Effects of Seattle wage hike modest, may be overshadowed by strong economy
The lot of Seattle’s lowest-paid workers improved following the city’s minimum wage increase to $11 in 2015, but that was more due to the robust regional economy than the wage hike itself, according to a research team headed by the UW Evans School.
July 21, 2016
From crop-raiding monkeys to political unrest: UW’s Randy Kyes embarks on 100th field course
A chance meeting with a fellow scientist 27 years ago forever changed Randy Kyes’ life — catapulting him from North Carolina to Indonesia and beyond. As the founding director of the University of Washington’s Center for Global Field Study and head of the Division of Global Programs at the Washington National Primate Research Center, Kyes…
July 14, 2016
Study: Perceived threats from police officers, black men predict support for policing reforms
At a time of intense national attention on law enforcement and race, a new University of Washington study suggests that racially based fear plays a role in public support for policing reforms. The research, conducted by UW postdoctoral researcher Allison Skinner and published online July 12 in the open-access journal Frontiers in Psychology, used a…
July 13, 2016
New UW program aims to foster better education for Native learners
At meetings with Native American community leaders, educators in the University of Washington’s College of Education repeatedly heard the same question — what can be done to improve educational outcomes among Native learners? Those discussions led to the creation of the UW’s new two-year Native Education Certificate program, which launches in August. The 10-unit curriculum…
June 29, 2016
UW project highlights liability of internet ‘intermediaries’ in developing countries
How much liability do website owners and other online service providers have for content posted by other people? If someone posts content on your website that is defamatory, constitutes hate speech, disseminates child pornography or invades someone’s privacy, are you liable? The answers to such questions can be murky in developing countries. And as internet…
June 23, 2016
Law student David Camps thought to be first Cuban resident to attend UW in half a century
In the fall of 2014, Cuban tour guide David Camps led a group from the University of Washington on a serendipitous bus tour around his native country. The group seemed to ask a lot of questions, but Camps — a former attorney and top diplomat turned tour guide — thought little of it; clients were often curious about…
June 21, 2016
Q&A: Essayist Elissa Washuta on being the Fremont Bridge’s first writer-in-residence, another recent award and her upcoming book
The year’s not quite yet half over, but it’s already been an auspicious one for Elissa Washuta. The University of Washington graduate and author of two books, “Starvation Mode” and “My Body is a Book of Rules,” is one of two recipients of the Artist Trust 2016 Arts Innovator Awards, which come with $25,000 in…
June 15, 2016
Falling fish catches could mean malnutrition in the developing world
The world won’t be able to fish its way to feeding 10 billion people by midcentury, but a shift in management practices could save hundreds of millions of fish-dependent poor from malnutrition, according to a new analysis by researchers at Harvard, the University of Washington and other universities.
June 13, 2016
Success in second language learning linked to genetic and brain measures
A new study by researchers at the University of Washington shows that the final grades that college students received in a second-language class were predicted by a combination of genetic and brain factors.
June 3, 2016
Q&A: Peter Kahn on nature interaction, wildness in cities
University of Washington professor Peter Kahn recently co-authored an opinion piece in the journal Science about the importance of interacting with nature in urban areas. UW Today asked Kahn a few more questions about the broader implications of his work.
Finding connections to nature in cities is key to healthy urban living
The authors of a Science perspective piece discuss the growing tension between an arguably necessary role urban areas play in society and the numbing, even debilitating, aspects of cities that disconnect humans from the natural world.
May 31, 2016
Q&A: CLPP’s Sam Méndez on Washington’s pot industry, why outdoor grows make sense and how marijuana is becoming like wine
The Cannabis Law and Policy Project, based in the University of Washington School of Law, was formed by professor Sean O’Connor in fall 2014 to be a center for researching regulatory issues around the state’s new legal cannabis industry. The group recently published its first report for the Washington state Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB),…
May 26, 2016
Documents that Changed the World: Noah Webster’s dictionary, 1828
Joe Janes of the Information School turns the attention of his Documents that Changed the World podcst to Noah Webster and his famous, 70,000-word “American Dictionary of the English language” published in 1828.
May 24, 2016
UW experts develop first method for including migration uncertainty in population projections
Statisticians at the University of Washington have developed the first model for projecting population that factors in the vagaries of migration, a slippery issue that has bedeviled demographers for decades. Their work, published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also provides population projections for all countries worldwide — and…
May 23, 2016
Study shows disparities in treatment for children with traumatic brain injuries
Children who suffer traumatic brain injuries can face a difficult road to recovery, requiring services such as physical therapy and mental health treatment for months or years to get their young lives back on track. When those children come from low-income households with limited English proficiency, there can be significant barriers in getting them the…
May 19, 2016
Burke Museum breaks ground on new building for Washington state museum
More than 500 people gathered May 18 on the University of Washington campus to celebrate the start of construction on the New Burke Museum. The Burke is Washington’s oldest museum and since 1899 has been the State Museum of Natural History and Culture; soon it will be Washington’s newest museum. Opening in 2019, the New…
May 12, 2016
UW study: state-licensed marijuana canopy enough to satisfy recreational and medical markets
The amount of marijuana allowed to be grown by state-licensed producers in Washington is enough to satisfy both the medical and recreational marijuana markets, a University of Washington study released today finds. The state Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB) tasked the UW-based Cannabis Law and Policy Project (CLPP) with calculating the “grow canopy,” or square…
May 11, 2016
UW-led suicide prevention initiative planned for Washington colleges and universities
The University of Washington is leading a new, four-year collaboration aimed at promoting mental health and preventing suicide at colleges and universities around the state. The initiative is a partnership between Forefront: Innovations in Suicide Prevention — an organization in the UW School of Social Work — and the New York-based Jed Foundation, which focuses…
May 10, 2016
Brain pattern predicts how fast an adult learns a new language
Some adults learn a second language better than others, and their secret may involve the rhythms of activity in their brains. New findings by scientists at the University of Washington demonstrate that a five-minute measurement of resting-state brain activity predicted how quickly adults learned a second language. The study, published in the June-July issue of…
May 5, 2016
Two-minute warnings make kids’ ‘screen time’ tantrums worse
Giving young children a two-minute warning that “screen time” is about to end makes transitions away from tablets, phones, televisions and other technological devices more painful, a new University of Washington study has found.
April 29, 2016
New UW program aims to create ‘brotherhood’ for male students of color
For some young men of color, college might seem a world away. To an African-American boy growing up in poverty, a Latino son of migrant farmworkers or a young Native American man living on a remote reservation, the path to post-secondary education can be hard to visualize. And once on campus, the reality can be…
April 25, 2016
Music improves baby brain responses to music and speech
Rock your baby in sync with music and you may wonder how the experience affects her and her developing brain. A new study by scientists at the University of Washington’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences (I-LABS) shows that a series of play sessions with music improved 9-month-old babies’ brain processing of both music and…
April 20, 2016
4 UW professors elected as fellows in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Four University of Washington professors join 172 other academics as newly elected fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the group announced Wednesday.
April 19, 2016
States with punitive justice systems have higher rates of foster care, study finds
The number of children in foster care across the country is driven not solely by child abuse and neglect, but by states’ varying politics and approaches to social problems, a new University of Washington study finds. States with more punitive criminal justice systems tend to remove children from their homes far more frequently than those…
April 18, 2016
Early analysis of Seattle’s $15 wage law: Effect on prices minimal one year after implementation
Most Seattle employers in a UW-led study said in 2015 they expected to raise prices on goods and services to compensate for the city’s new $15 per hour minimum wage law — but a year after implementation such increases are not in evidence.
UW to study link between recession-related stress and health in older Americans
The Great Recession devastated millions of Americans financially — but what impacts did that economic stress have on their physical and mental well-being? Gillian Marshall, an assistant professor of social work at the University of Washington Tacoma, wants to answer that question. Marshall was awarded a five-year, $654,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health…
April 13, 2016
UW study aimed at users of both marijuana and tobacco
If you’re looking to give up marijuana and possibly cigarettes as well, a group of researchers at the University of Washington would like to hear from you. The Innovative Programs Research Group, an organization in the UW School of Social Work, is recruiting people 18 and older for a free marijuana and tobacco treatment trial….
April 8, 2016
UW law students lay groundwork for new state privacy office
University of Washington law students played a key role in a law passed last week that aims to better protect privacy and monitor data collection by agencies in the state. House Bill 2875, signed into law by Gov. Jay Inslee April 1, establishes the state Office of Privacy and Data Protection. The office will examine…
April 6, 2016
3 University of Washington professors recognized by Guggenheim Foundation
Three University of Washington professors are among the 178 scholars, artists, and scientists from the U.S. and Canada recognized this year by the Guggenheim Foundation.
April 4, 2016
The Twittersphere does listen to the voice of reason — sometimes
In the maelstrom of information, opinion and conjecture that is Twitter, the voice of truth and reason does occasionally prevail, according to a new study from UW researchers. Tweets from “official accounts” — the government agencies, emergency responders, media or companies at the center of a fast-moving story — can slow the spread of rumors on Twitter and correct misinformation that’s taken on a life of its own.
Bilingual baby brains show increased activity in executive function regions
Many brain studies show that bilingual adults have more activity in areas associated with executive function, a set of mental abilities that includes problem-solving, shifting attention and other desirable cognitive traits. Now new findings reveal that this bilingualism-related difference in brain activity is evident as early as 11 months of age, just as babies are…
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