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Social & Behavior

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 21-Jun-2026 07:15 ET (21-Jun-2026 11:15 GMT/UTC)

Signs on Stone Age objects: Precursor to written language dates back 40,000 years

Saarland University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

EMBARGO February 23, 2026 at 3:00 PM U.S. Eastern time - Over 40,000 years ago, our early ancestors were already carving signs into tools and sculptures. According to a new analysis by linguist Christian Bentz at Saarland University and archaeologist Ewa Dutkiewicz at the Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte (Museum of Prehistory and Early History) in Berlin, these sign sequences have the same level of complexity and information density as the earliest proto-cuneiform script that emerged tens of thousands of years later, around 3,000 B.C.E. Using a computational approach, the team examined over 3,000 signs found on 260 objects to reveal insights on the origins of writing. Their findings, which will be published in the journal PNAS, were clear – and surprised even the researchers.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Funder: European Research Council

Adolescent social health may foretell loneliness, aggressive behavior, study suggests

University of California - Davis
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Teens who are lonely and those who experience conflict in their home life are more likely to act aggressively toward peers or become victims themselves. These are some of the findings in a new University of California, Davis, study that creates a detailed picture of children’s social lives by identifying patterns and predictors of adolescent social health.

Journal: Developmental Psychology

‘Fast-paced, fit, agile': ableist words in job ads decrease applicants

University of Guelph
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new University of Guelph study says that more neutral language might be key to drawing in more applicants of all ability levels.

Journal: Journal of Applied Psychology
Funder: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Department of Psychology’s "Workplace Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Graduate Research Fund”

ACES marks 150 years of the Morrow Plots, our nation's oldest research field

University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences
Business Announcement

A lot has changed on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus since its founding in 1867, but a storied plot of land near the south quad has been preserved nearly intact for a century and a half. The Morrow Plots, famed in song and story, represent the oldest continuously running agricultural experiment in North America, and are the second oldest in the world. And this year, they turn 150.

Iron Age massacre targeted women and children, new research reveals

UCD Research & Innovation
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The findings, published in Nature Human Behaviour, provide fresh understanding to Iron Age conflict and sheds new light on how mass violence was used to assert power in prehistoric Europe.

Journal: Nature Human Behaviour

Study Finds Online Racism Associated With Black Young Adults Seeking Mental Health Support

North Carolina State University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study finds Black young adults who experience high levels of online racism are also more likely to use digital mental health tools – regardless of whether they have clinically significant levels of anxiety or depression.

Journal: JMIR Formative Research
Funder: American Foundation for Suicide Prevention

University of Houston professor warns of nerve stimulation during MRI

University of Houston
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A University of Houston engineering professor is warning that implanted cuff electrodes – widely used in therapy for epilepsy, depression and inflammatory disorders – could trigger unintended nerve stimulation for patients undergoing an MRI scan.

Journal: Magnetic Resonance in Medicine