Corporal punishment—usually referring to adults hitting children—was abolished in South Africa in 1997. The Constitutional Court had already ruled it incompatible with the bill of rights in 1995. In that judgment, the chief justice said that in his view, “juvenile whipping is cruel, it is inhuman and it is degrading”—as well as “unnecessary.” The South African Schools Act of 1996 also outlawed it. Anecdotal evidence suggests, however, that this practice is still common in many schools and homes. Educational psychologist Simangele Mayisela researched the subject for her 2017 doctorate, asking why some teachers and parents (and even children) believed it was an effective and harmless form of discipline.
Why do South African teachers still threaten children with a beating? A psychologist explains
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As controversy over Australia’s new hate laws continues, last weekend’s so-called March for Australia rallies were the latest in a string of events that have raised the temperature of public debate.This post was originally published [...]
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Legal efforts to tackle excessive personal information collection by social media giants could transcend international boundaries if nations moved away from a focus on assessing competition using the value of data, a new study says.This [...]
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A new analysis of 471 U.S. counties has found that, for everyday travel, people from counties with particularly strong political leanings—whether liberal or conservative—are more likely to visit like-minded destinations. Zhengyi Liang and Jaeho Cho [...]
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Engineering and the quest for peace: Experts challenge profession to move beyond weapons and defense
Engineering can create weapons systems or systems for defense and well-being. But can engineering create peace? In a Perspective, Guru Madhavan and colleagues propose an expansive mode of engineering practice that seeks to reduce conflict. [...] -
Estimates of unlicensed online gambling in the Nordic countries vary widely and are often based on non-transparent data sources. This is shown by a new scoping review published in PLOS ONE. Led by researchers from, [...]
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When people encounter racism or discrimination, they don’t all respond in the same way. Some calmly challenge the remark, some file a complaint, others confront the offender aggressively—and many say nothing at all.This post was [...]
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There’s been much published about the Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study, which looked at the impact of intervention on delinquency in young Massachusetts boys. The groundbreaking research followed up with study participants for decades after the fact [...]
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Generative deep learning models are artificial intelligence (AI) systems that can create texts, images, audio files, and videos for specific purposes, following instructions provided by human users. Over the past few years, the content generated [...]
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Academic freedom is often described as a cornerstone of democratic society. Politicians regularly claim to defend it, universities invoke it in mission statements and most members of the public say they support it in principle.This [...]
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Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing our society and economy. A new study shows that the majority of people believe that artificial intelligence is displacing more human labor than it is creating new opportunities. Scientists at [...]
