Issues

Reseachers Michael LaCour and Donald Green began by identifying California precincts that had supported the ban on gay marriage, eventually settling on an especially conservative area of Southern California. They then used voter rolls to invite every voter in those precincts, as well as their housemates, to participate in an Internet survey on politics, including only two questions about support for same-sex marriage. more »

Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH): "I believe that as you look at your policies, the sanctions [for witness tampering] should be as severe as those for underlying violent acts because that is what it [discouraging victims from reporting violence] is, it is witness tampering. If you put those sanctions in place, it will make it very clear that if someone is a victim of domestic or sexual violence, neither the coaches nor the players, nor anyone else, should be interfering with their ability to come forward or interfering with the support that they need as victims of a crime." more »

Forty percent of adult internet users have personally experienced some kind of online harassment, most of it involving things like name-calling or attempts to embarrass someone. But there are also more menacing forms of harassment such as physical threats, and the Supreme Court has heard a case that weighs when threatening speech on social media breaks the law. more »

Mathew O. Jackson says norms are often so ingrained that people do not even notice the extent to which they shape behavior: "They make our behaviors seem natural." Norms become self-reinforcing, since it is much easier to live in a society where people's behaviors are predictable and people understand what is expected of them, Jackson adds. The downside is that such conformity can make even very bad norms difficult to change. more »