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Why Social Science? Because Vaccination is a Human—Not Technical—Process

By Elisa J. Sobo (San Diego State University), Diana Schow (Idaho State University), Elizabeth Cartwright (Idaho State University), and Emily K. Brunson (Texas State University) on behalf of the CommuniVax Coalition  The COVID-19 pandemic is being experienced by people—and without insights…

Why Social Science? - Because Leaders Need to Know How to Lead with Evidence

By Ellen Peters, PhD, Director, Center for Science Communication Research, University of Oregon Being bad at math can kill people. Even experts who should understand medical science and help us make good health decisions sometimes fail. In December, a doctor—let’s call him Dr. Smith—advised a…

Why Social Science? Because Controlling the COVID-19 Pandemic Depends on Vaccine Uptake

By Caitlin E. Burgdorf, Ph.D., Wen-Ying Sylvia Chou, Ph.D., M.P.H., Anna Gaysynsky, M.P.H., and Christine M. Hunter, Ph.D. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused extraordinary devastation, claiming millions of lives and disrupting the economy and daily life across the globe. From the beginning, the…

Why Social Science? Because We’re Living Through an “Infodemic”

By Stephen C. Rea, PhD (Colorado School of Mines), Colin Bernatzky (University of California Irvine), and Sion Avakian (University of California, Irvine) In February 2020, about a month before COVID-19 became an inescapable reality around the world, the World Health Organization issued a warning…

Why Social Science? Because Collective Behavior Change is the Only Way We Can Stop the Spread of COVID-19

By Jolanda Jetten (University of Queensland), Stephen D. Reicher (University of St Andrews), S. Alexander Haslam (University of Queensland), and Tegan Cruwys (University of Queensland) The idea that led us to write the book titled Together Apart: The Psychology of COVID-19 was…

Why Social Science? Because We Will Need to Do Better in the Next Crisis

By John Haaga, PhD The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked a surge of interest in the press and social media in comparisons with other countries. When did the new virus reach other countries, how did they handle it, and how well did they do? I have lost count of the number of times I have read that the…

Why Social Science? Because Institutional Racism Exacerbates our Health and Economic Challenges

By Allison, Plyer, ScD, Chief Demographer, The Data Center of Southeast Louisiana The COVID-19 epidemic is hitting African Americans particularly hard. As of this writing, 70% of all COVID-19 deaths in Louisiana are black residents in a state where only one-third of the population is black. To date…

Why Social Science? - Because Money Makes The World Go ’Round

By Bill Maurer, PhD, Dean, School of Social Sciences, University of California, Irvine I often get asked questions like, “What is an anthropologist like you doing studying money? I thought that was the domain of economists!” The archaeological and ethnographic record is full of objects, texts, and…