Urban versus rural. Penn State versus Michigan. Star Wars versus Star Trek. As social beings, humans gravitate toward groups. But sometimes group living can spur an “us versus them” mentality that causes conflict, especially when two groups are competing for the same limited resources, like money or a championship trophy. Anne Pisor, assistant professor of anthropology at Penn State and Social Science Research Institute co-funded faculty member, discusses her recently published paper on the “us versus them” mindset as well as the causes and how to overcome it.

Confidence. Persistence. Ingenuity. Conventional wisdom tells us these are some of the traits needed for success at the office. But within teams, less laudable characteristics – maintaining the status quo, for instance – might be just as desirable, according to new Rutgers research.

Cong Liu, an expert on organizational thinking at the Rutgers Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, reports in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology that teams with high rates of envy often ostracize their best performers, in turn leading those standout employees to sabotage productivity.

Gun violence takes many forms—whether it’s a school shooting, the assassination of a public figure, or the everyday realities of gang-related crime and armed robbery. Beyond the loss of life, gun violence shapes where people choose to live, affects local economies, and weighs heavily on public well-being. New research finds that Americans are willing to pay nearly $100 billion for policies that reduce gun violence by 20%, underscoring the widespread desire for stronger intervention.

A new study published in the Strategic Management Journal uncovers a significant and often-overlooked risk in microfinance: while social capital fosters financial stability in normal times, it can exacerbate default rates during crises. The research, conducted by Arzi Adbi, Matthew Lee, and Jasjit Singh, examines the loan repayment behavior of nearly two million low-income borrowers in the aftermath of India’s 2016 demonetization policy, revealing the unintended consequences of peer accountability in financial markets.

Over the past fifty years, microfinance has been hailed as a revolutionary tool for financial inclusion, particularly through group-lending models. These models rely on social connections and peer accountability to encourage loan repayment among low-income borrowers. However, as this study demonstrates, the very mechanisms that drive repayment in stable times can accelerate default rates when external crises arise.