Editor’s Selections: Urban Drivers, Hedonism, Treating Diagnoses, and Afro-Indians
July 15th, 2011 Editor's Selections 5 Comments
Krystal D’Costa selects interesting and notable ResearchBlogging.org posts in the social sciences, including anthropology, research, and philosophy. She blogs about anthropology, technology, and urban life at Anthropology in Practice.
Apologies for being late with this week’s selections. Without further ado, here’s a look at what’s new and notable from the social sciences this past week on ResearchBlogging.org:
- I’ve long had a sneaking suspicion that there must be as many cars as there are people in New York City, but it’s been a hard case to make with the popularity (and availability) of mass transit services. At Per Square Mile, Tim De Chant explains why housing density does not necessarily drive down vehicle usage.
- Freedom of choice is a highly prized and highly contested cultural attribute. But are we as free as we believe we are? Culture, politics, and our environment are influential in many ways, and David Bradley at Sciencebase discusses how variations in subculture beliefs can influence behaviors in ways that run counter to purported social norms.
- So much of our lives are determined by the resources at hand. This is no different in medicine. Neuroskeptic’s neuroscientist traces the ways the availability of treatment can determine the diagnosis.
- Human diversity is breathtaking. At Gene Expression Razib Khan traces the ancestry of Afro-Indians as he dissects two studies that suggest a regional bias of Afro-Indians in South Asia.
I’ll be back next week (on time, at my new home with the new Scientific American blog network) with more from the social sciences.
