Culture

Mitt Romney is first Mormon in U.S. history to become a presidential nominee for one of the country’s major political parties. His running mate, Paul Ryan, is Catholic, but this has caused far fewer waves in 2012 than John Kennedy’s religion did in 1960. Instead, it’s the presidential nominee’s faith that has brought attention to a religion once considered outside the mainstream of U.S. culture.

Large gatherings such as concerts, sporting events, religious ceremonies and demonstrations are an essential part of a society’s vibrant public life and traditions, but they also carry risks. Participants can suffer from stress-related illnesses or sustained exposure to extreme temperatures, and even be injured or die as a result of uncontrolled crowd behaviors.

Research has found that men often overestimate women’s interest in them. This dynamic can be seen through a biological and evolutionary lens, as the costs of rejection for men are relatively low (embarrassment), while the potential value of maximizing limited opportunities for mating is high (reproduction). Such misperceptions are fodder for innumerable comedies and melodramas, but also factor into far more serious situations, such as sexual harassment.

A tension exists between adults’ natural desire to keep children safe and the apparently natural need for children to develop their risk-taking abilities by engaging in adventurous play. The first step towards determining what is the appropriate level of risk for children is to categorize the various types play in which they engage.

The link between religiosity and enhanced self-control has been the subject of prior study, but researchers have not definitively investigated such a link in an experimental or lab setting.

Tourism is often promoted as an effective economic development strategy by regional planners and politicians in the United States. Among the potential benefits cited are job creation and tourism’s ability to create a positive public image for a region. Critics argue that tourism is not a panacea, but instead creates jobs that are low paying, offer few benefits, and are only part-time or seasonal work.