Voting for the Eurovision Song Contest has been scrutinised by statistics experts at UCL and Imperial College London, who have found that musical talent is unlikely to be the only element that wins scores – but that the contest is not ‘stitched up’ at the UK’s expense.
The analysis of voting patterns over the past two decades suggests that widespread support for certain countries’ acts is, however, not driven by prejudice, as the media periodically suggests, but by positive loyalties based on culture, geography, history and migration. But these effects are relatively small – and the team found no evidence to support Sir Terry Wogan’s criticism that the contest is marred by blatant bias and discrimination. (more…)
An analysis conducted by UCLA’s Jody Herman and collaborators at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention has found that transgender people who experienced rejection by family and friends, discrimination, victimization, or violence have a higher risk for attempting suicide.
Examining data from the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, the researchers found that 78 percent of respondents who suffered physical or sexual violence at school reported suicide attempts, as did 65 percent of respondents who experienced violence at work. (more…)
ANN ARBOR — A new University of Michigan analysis challenges the conventional wisdom that President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty failed.
In the decade after Johnson declared “unconditional war on poverty,” poverty rates plummeted to reach their historic low of about 11 percent in 1973. Poverty rates were 19 percent in 1964. (more…)
Black and Latino “hip-hop” students are disproportionately punished in urban schools, finds a two-year study that sheds light on some of the unfair disciplinary practices newly targeted by the Obama administration.
Muhammad Khalifa, a Michigan State University assistant professor of education, found that students who identified with hip-hop culture were often removed from school because of their cultural behaviors and dress. His paper is published in the research journal Multicultural Learning and Teaching. (more…)
The history of women with HIV/AIDS in the United States is really a story of racial and ethnic health disparities.
Overall, the rate of American women contracting the disease relative to men has climbed from 8 percent in the 1980s to 25 percent today. But most of this burden is in underserved communities: one in 32 African-American women will be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetime, as will one in 106 Latina women. Meanwhile, one in 526 Caucasian and Asian women will contract the virus. Death rates are also higher for African-American and Latina women, making it one of the leading causes of death for those groups. (more…)
In a study that offers insight into the depth of stigmatization of overweight and obese people, researchers at the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity found that weight stigma extends to the courtroom. Published online in the International Journal of Obesity, the study shows that a defendant’s body weight and gender impact jurors’ perceptions of guilt and responsibility.
Researchers conducted an online study with 471 adult participants. They were presented with a mock court case, including images of alleged defendants. Participants viewed one of four defendant images: a lean male, a lean female, an obese male, and an obese female. After viewing the image, participants were then asked to rate how guilty they thought the defendant was. (more…)
Experiencing rejection not only affects how we think and feel — over the long-term it can also influence our physical and mental health. New research suggests that when rejection comes in the form of discrimination, people respond with a pattern of thoughts, behaviors, and physiological responses that may contribute to overall health disparities.
“Psychological factors, like discrimination, have been suggested as part of the causal mechanisms that explain how discrimination gets ‘under the skin’ to affect health,” says psychological scientist and senior researcher Wendy Berry Mendes of the University of California, San Francisco. “We wanted to explore the behavioral consequences that follow experiences of discrimination to better understand these mechanisms.” (more…)
Study found that online presence can positively affect physical health and well-being
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Internet-based interactive games and social media outlets have become intertwined with the physical realities of millions of people around the world. When an individual strongly identifies with the cyber representation of themselves, known as an avatar, the electronic doppelganger can influence that person’s health and appearance, according to a University of Missouri researcher’s study. Harnessing the power of the virtual world could lead to new forms of obesity treatment and help break down racial and sexual prejudices.
“The creation of an avatar allows an individual to try on a new appearance and persona, with little risk or effort,” said Elizabeth Behm-Morawitz, assistant professor of communication in MU’s College of Arts and Science. “That alter-ego can then have a positive influence on a person’s life. For example, people seeking to lose weight could create fitter avatars to help visualize themselves as slimmer and healthier.” (more…)
