Politics

A new study of online communities suggests that their interaction dynamics can amplify small, local imbalances in opinions, rapidly turning initially mixed-opinion communities into highly-polarized ones—even without the algorithms and homogeneity-seeking behaviors typically blamed for […]

Many scholars have studied the effects of colonial management on terrestrial resources, but what about the effect of colonialism on bodies of water? A new article in Isis: A Journal of the History of Science […]

“Mercy,” a film released in January 2026, depicts a dystopian Los Angeles in the near future: a city riddled with violence, homelessness, and civic disorder. California’s response is to set up the Mercy Capital Court, […]

A Florida law designed to prevent gun violence by temporarily removing firearms from people at risk of harming themselves or others is used unevenly across the state, according to a new study. The study, published […]

Eighty-one years after Adolf Hitler died by his own hand in a Berlin bunker, a viral video on TikTok shows an AI-generated vision of the Nazi dictator standing in Antarctica, shoulders broad and face smiling, […]

Hostage-taking by nation-states is emerging as an overlooked consequence of the more unstable and dangerous world that’s been created by the fracturing rules-based order. In an increasingly might-is-right system of international relations, malign actors have […]

Everyone on Earth takes a private vote by pressing a red or blue button. If more than 50% of people press the blue button, everyone survives. If less than 50% of people press the blue […]

More than a third of Americans have lost relationships with friends, family members, romantic partners, or others due to political differences, according to a study. Mertcan Güngör and Peter Ditto examined survey data from thousands […]

If you’re registered to vote in the United States and you’re not among the richest of the rich, political scientist Peter K. Enns has a message for you: Your voice still matters. So does data […]

A physics-inspired model calibrated on 40 years of US congressional data pinpoints a spending threshold of roughly 1.8 million USD at which campaigns stop influencing who wins and start fueling polarization instead.This article is brought […]