Does mask-wearing affect behavior?
New research, set in China, suggests that using masks for health reasons also leads people to behave more ethically.
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3 Questions: Janelle Knox-Hayes on producing renewable energy that communities want
New position paper calls for getting stakeholders involved in wind power projects from the start.
The power of weak ties in gaining new employment
An experiment using data from 20 million LinkedIn profiles shows how much we rely on people we know less well to land new jobs.
The economics of missed opportunities
Danielle Li takes a close look at scientific practices and organizational decisions — and provides data about improving them.
MIT releases strategic action plan for belonging, achievement, and composition
New initiatives will build on the Institute’s culture of excellence while enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion within the MIT community.
Tech in translation
Paul Roquet examines Japan’s position at the leading edge of global trends in personal technology.
Power, laws, and planning
MIT urbanist Justin Steil studies how law and policy are used to replicate social divisions in the use of land.
Measuring the “woodwork effect” in medical insurance
Study: When adults gain access to Medicaid, they sign up their previously unenrolled kids, too — yet many more remain outside the system.
A better way to make development projects work
In a new book, Associate Professor Gabriella Carolini emphasizes that equitable partnership on the ground delivers the best results in the Global South.
Friendly skies? Study charts Covid-19 odds for plane flights
Researchers calculate chances of catching the illness when aloft, though pandemic conditions keep shifting.
Review: IT in health care has produced modest changes — so far
Large study of existing research shows incremental improvement in patient outcomes and productivity, without big employment changes.
Economists weigh a new approach to unemployment insurance
Study suggests automatically starting benefits at the outset of a recession would remove uncertainty for workers.
How the debt crisis of 2008-09 fueled populist politics
Research shows that in Hungary, debt drove voters to the right, as part of a consequential shift.
Study: Trade can worsen income inequality
Using Ecuador as case study, economists show international trade widens the income gap in individual countries.
When politics is local in the Middle East
Study suggests sectarian identity in the region is tied to domestic matters, not a larger, transnational religious split.