Reviews & Analysis

It is important for research users to know how likely it is that reported research findings are true. The Social Science Replication Project finds that, in highly powered experiments, only 13 of 21 high-profile reports could be replicated. Investigating the factors that contribute to reliable results offers new opportunities for the social sciences.

A study finds association between the occurrence of intimate partner violence and marital fertility among Tsimané forager-horticulturalists, independent of proximate explanations, suggesting that intimate partner violence may persist as an evolutionary strategy to enhance male fitness.

Human infants need a social environment to survive as they rely on caregivers to maintain allostasis. This Perspective proposes that the need of others to regulate physiological changes determines brain development, not only in the social domain.

Cullati and colleagues propose a framework to understand vulnerability in later life as a product of biological, psychological, cognitive, emotional, economical and relational ‘reserves’ built up over a lifetime, which can be called on to buffer against or recover from adversity.

The success of humans as the last surviving species of the hominin clade may be explained by our ecological plasticity. Roberts and Stewart review evidence for human dispersal 300,000–12,000 years before present and propose that humans thrived via a unique ‘generalist specialist’ ecological niche.

By analysing whether characteristics of Austronesian populations could predict the rate of adoption of Christianity, researchers find that political leadership and small population sizes facilitated Christianity’s spread in the Pacific.

Agriculture is one of the key innovations of human societies, yet the nature of and reasons for its emergence are debated. A new model that hindcasts past global population suggests that an improving climate increased plant productivity and human population density, facilitating domestication.

A study shows that updating visual perceptual skills is an active process with many similarities to memory plasticity. Using classic behavioural techniques and new brain imaging tools, the authors show that this perceptual skill can undergo reconsolidation.

Fehr and Schurtenberger show that the prevailing evidence supports the view that social norms are causal drivers of human cooperation and explain major cooperation-related regularities. Norms also guide peer punishment and people have strong preferences for institutions that support norm formation.

Category learning requires finding commonalities between objects in spite of their differences in appearance. While generally thought to rely on abstract representations, far removed from the sensory input, category learning may instead involve early sensory processes more than expected.

Online communication has become integral to modern political behaviour — to the extent that events online both reflect and influence actions offline. A study uses geolocated Twitter data to argue that moralization of protests leads to violent protests and increased support for violence.

Hilbe et al. synthesize recent theoretical work on zero-determinant and ‘rival’ versus ‘partner’ strategies in social dilemmas. They describe the environments under which these contrasting selfish or cooperative strategies emerge in evolution.

Polling problems in recent elections have called into question whether sample surveys can still produce valid data. A new study provides reassurance.

Growing evidence links adverse childhood experiences to health problems decades later. A study of adults followed in midlife finds that perceived social support predicts lower subsequent mortality, particularly for adults reporting child abuse, suggesting that supportive relationships buffer long-term health in the context of early maltreatment.

Asymmetric social boundaries allow a minority culture to reap the benefits of outside interaction while maintaining its distinctiveness. This opens questions about the nature of intergroup interactions and whether such boundaries are the only way to preserve valued cultural norms.

The social science of happiness needs to recognize the importance of social connection and prosocial action for human well-being and become more interdisciplinary with greater collaboration, especially among social scientists and policymakers.

Male antisocial behaviour peaks in adolescence and declines later in life. Moffitt reviews recent evidence in support of the hypothesis that the age–crime curve conceals two groups of individuals with different causes.

Studying subtle signals of generosity is important to understand the long term maintenance of human cooperative networks. Certain types of low-cost food sharing among Martu women, for example, may signal commitment and cement cooperative ties.

Diener et al. synthesize findings from psychology and economics on subjective well-being across cultures and identify outstanding questions, priorities for future research and pathways to policy implementation.

With just a handful of modifications to their social networks, individuals and groups can reduce the likelihood that they will be detected by others using standard social network analysis algorithms.