social sciences

Individualistic values have been rising in China as the country has undergone rapid economic and social change, researchers report.

Anthropology professor Alan Page Fiske writes in an op-ed that the ‘Charlie Hebdo’ attackers, like so many people who use violence, probably thought they were acting righteously.

In a new book, UCLA and Northwestern social scientists ascribe most acts of violence to a truly surprising impulse: the desire to do the right thing.

UCLA’s Laure Murat writes that for at least several centuries people have ascribed acts of terror to madness, often to advance political agendas.

Study finds that putting opponents of gay marriage in contact with people who can explain the issue’s personal importance can have dramatic results.

That most people have never heard of Hatshepsut — a pharaoh of ancient Egypt, who was the greatest female ruler of the ancient world — is emblematic of the challenges women have always faced in politics, writes UCLA Egyptologist Kara Cooney.

UCLA professor Lynn Vavreck writes in The New York Times that if the Democrats lose the Senate, it would follow recent electoral history for the party of an unpopular president. Also, watch a video of Vavreck speaking about political TV ads.

Actor Henry Winkler, who played “The Fonz” on the long-running sitcom “Happy Days,” recently talked with UCLA students about the process he goes through in co-authoring the popular “Hank Zipzer” series of children’s books.

In the 18th century, two teams of scientists set out to answer whether the earth was shaped more like a tomato or a Japanese eggplant?

In a new mainstream biography, Kara Cooney sets out to rehabilitate the image of the pharaoh Hatshepsut, a woman whose successes were later erased or reassigned to male forebears.

Many white Americans are becoming less enthusiastic about diversity and multiculturalism as the U.S. moves toward becoming a minority-majority nation, UCLA psychologists report.

In his latest documentary, “Bitter Honey,” UCLA anthropologist Robert Lemelson tracks the abuses suffered by wives trapped in polygamous marriages.

A new book by a UCLA professor shows how ailments presented in 19th century French mental hospitals held up a kind of fun-house mirror to the often horrific political dramas of the country's post-revolutionary era.

Francisco J. López-Flores grew up living in the shadows to keep his identity as a Mexican national hidden. But under President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program, he has a work permit, a Social Security card and a future.

UCLA social scientists found that walking in sync may make men feel more formidable against a potential foe, and they suggest that doing so could play a role in excessive use of force by police.

UCLA geographer Judith Carney is part of an international team of interdisciplinary researchers who have sequenced the complete genome of African rice (Oryza glaberrima). The findings were reported online Sunday in the scholarly journal Nature Genetics.

UCLA professor Edward Walker explains how corporations — from Verizon to Wal-Mart — manufacture citizen lobbyists.

A group of Los Angeles K-12 teachers participated in a special two-day seminar at UCLA on using soccer in the classroom as a way to teach politics, economics and globalization.

If construction pays so much more than other fields that don't require a college education, why don't women flock to it? A new study details the obstacles.

A new book by UCLA sociologist Edward T. Walker pulls back the curtain on a lucrative industry of consultants who mobilize public activism as a marketable service.

Job loss among single mothers has significant negative effects on the well-being of their children as young adults, according to a new study by researchers at the California Center for Population Research at UCLA.

Phony laughter, unlike the real thing, is unique to humans, says Greg Bryant, who is studying the acoustic properties that differentiate the two types of cachinnation.

Doctoral students in UCLA's new Dissertation Launchpad program learn to communicate about their complex research in ways the rest of us can understand.

Why are so many Americans in prison? Between 1975 and 2007, the American incarceration rate increased nearly fivefold, a historic increase that puts the United States in a league of its own among advanced economies.

Brenda E. Stevenson is professor of history at UCLA. She is the past chair of the history department and past chair of Afro-American Studies. Her books include the award-winning "Life in Black and White: Family and Community in the Slave...