Shankar Vedantam

What Does 'Sexual Coercion' Say About A Society?

Shankar Vedantam — Fri, 10 May 2013 09:04:00 +0000

Anthropologists, sociologists and biologists have explored over several decades many factors that shape the likelihood of sexual coercion of women by men.

Such research cannot, of course, definitively explain the recent case in Cleveland involving Ariel Castro, who has been charged with abducting and raping three women over many years.

What Does Modern Prejudice Look Like?

Shankar Vedantam — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 21:51:00 +0000

Harvard psychologist Mahzarin Banaji was once approached by a reporter for an interview.

Shift In Gay Marriage Support Mirrors A Changing America

Shankar Vedantam — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 07:14:00 +0000

When Ohio Republican Sen.

Your Child's Fat, Mine's Fine: Rose-Colored Glasses And The Obesity Epidemic

Shankar Vedantam — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 08:24:00 +0000

About 69 percent of American adults are overweight or obese, and more than four in five people say they are worried about obesity as a public health problem.

But a recent poll conducted by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health revealed a curious schism in our national attitudes toward obesity: Only one in five kids had a parent who feared the boy or girl would grow up to be overweight as an adult.

Put another way, assuming current trends persist, parents of 80 percent of A

When Crime Pays: Prison Can Teach Some To Be Better Criminals

Shankar Vedantam — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 05:57:00 +0000

In popular lore — movies, books and blogs — criminals who go to prison don't come out reformed.