Social Sciences

Urban inequality is often taught through theory and statistics. But for UC Berkeley Continuing Lecturer in Geography Seth Lunine, the most meaningful insights come from spending time with the Bay Area communities who live the realities that students study.

At a recent Social Matrix event, titled “Promise & Precarity: Exploring Oakland Through Community-Engaged Scholarship,” Lunine discussed how he combines classroom learning on racialized inequalities in urban development with hands-on research in Oakland neighborhoods. ...

Are you a social savant who easily reads people’s emotions? Or are you someone who leaves an interaction with an unclear understanding of another person’s emotional state?

New UC Berkeley research suggests those differences stem from a fundamental way our brains compute facial and contextual details, potentially explaining why some people are better at reading the room than others — sometimes, much better.

Human brains use information from faces and background context, such as the location or expressions of bystanders, when making sense of a scene and assessing someone’...

UC Berkeley Political Science professors David Broockman and Paul Pierson were recognized for their influential research in political science by the journal PS: Political Science & Politics

The rankings, which were mentioned in the paper, “A Global Ranking of Research Productivity of...

Americans who grow up in historically violent states may move to a safer state, but they remain far more likely to die violently, according to new research co-authored at the University of California, Berkeley.

In effect, the research finds, people who migrate from states with a strong “culture of honor” bring with them a don’t-back-down defensiveness learned in their home communities. That makes them more likely to die by violence wherever they are, says the study led by UC Berkeley political scientist...