Forber and his co-researcher, Rory Smead of Northeastern University in Boston, wanted to understand why spite might evolve. They used a famous economics game, called the Ultimate Game, to find out. In the Ultimatum Game, there are two players. The first is given a resource — say, $10 — and told to offer part of […]

“Americans expect leaders to be role models for the nation, to display moral values that will see them fit to run the country. The media serves as watchdogs,” says Alice Sedar, former reporter for Le Monde and Le Figaro, and current professor of French culture at Northeastern University. “The French have a much more cynical […]

Buyback programs sometimes only remove “crime guns,” firearms not likely to be used for violence, said Jack McDevitt, a criminal justice expert and associate dean at Northeastern University in Boston. But rewards that include tickets to a popular concert or sporting event, instead of gift cards to Walmart, can motivate young people, he added. “Anytime […]

Dan Lebowitz joined Jim and Margery to talk about Michael Sam and gay athletes. Lebowitz is Executive Director of Northeastern University’s Institute of Sport in Society.

BY THE 10th anniversary of Facebook, it’s become almost a cliche to talk of social media as putting distance between people: It’s made face-to-face interaction obsolete, or so the argument goes. But explain then how, in the dark of morning, with temperatures hovering at 8 degrees, amid a declared snow emergency, a group of 200 […]

“Whatever effect India’s policies may have on profits (of) multinational companies, including those headquartered in the US, India’s recent enactment and implementation of its patent law (are) fully in accord with the World Trade Organisation’s Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS),” said academics Brook Baker, Srividhya Ragavan and Sean Flynn in […]

Third, in a weak job market long-term unemployment tends to be self-perpetuating, because employers in effect discriminate against the jobless. Many people have suspected that this was the case, and last year Rand Ghayad of Northeastern University provided a dramatic confirmation. He sent out thousands of fictitious résumés in response to job ads, and found […]

The town will soon get help from a group of roads scholars. Twenty-seven civil engineering students at Northeastern University are working with Professor Daniel Dulaski, a Mansfield resident, studying traffic patterns and development plans around town. Dulaski’s senior students are conducting the research as part of a transportation “capstone” program in which students get real-world […]

I then went looking for more hard data — and I found some in the research of Jack Levin (owns a Coton de Tulear, which he says looks like him) and his Northeastern University colleague, Arnie Arluke (three cats). They presented a paper last August to the American Sociological Association. Of the 240 18-to-25-year-olds sampled, more showed […]

The latest MassBenchmarks report showed a state economy in full forward speed, with an annualized growth rate of roughly 5 percent projected for the first half of 2014. The happy times are here again, right? Well, not exactly. Sure, when I talked to Alan Clayton-Matthews, a Northeastern University economist and report author, he seemed hopeful […]

I then went looking for more hard data — and I found some in the research of Jack Levin (owns a Coton de Tulear, which he says looks like him) and his Northeastern University colleague, Arnie Arluke (three cats). They presented a paper last August to the American Sociological Association. Of the 240 18-to-25-year-olds sampled, more showed […]

HAPPINESS 101 Happiness is a bargain Methods A Northeastern University marketing professor and her colleague observed and conducted ethnographic interviews with aficionados of thrift stores. Results Shoppers who frequent secondhand stores enjoy both the pleasure-seeking “treat” of retail shopping along with the self-image-enhancing pleasures of frugality. Thrift shopping isn’t just about saving money, it’s about “the thrill […]