Human behaviour and psychology is incredibly complex. Many public health consultants, economists, social scientists and psychologists have dedicated their entire lives to studying the intent behind the things we think, say or do.
They have written hundreds of thousands of journals and research papers with the intent of conveying various aspects of human behaviour. Unfortunately, much of the knowledge and value that these studies offer is not accessible to the public because of factors like the technical language used in the documents and paywalls. The writings are so dense that people who are into academia rarely have the time and patience to read and understand them.
Understanding Human Behaviour Through Research and Evidence
We are not surprised that you are interested in this subject. We know that you aim at becoming a better individual by knowing more about your species. The Social Research journal is the place where we examine human behaviour by having a look at one study at a time. We will translate peer-reviewed research into insights that teach how people behave. Some of the things you will learn include:
- How parental and family upbringing shapes people’s behaviour and values.
- The reasons why people disagree on public policy and government decisions.
- How social behaviour changes during periods of crisis.
- The effect of trauma on human beings.
- Why inequality exists and how social systems reinforce these inequalities.
What Academics Have Discovered About Social Behaviour
Across multiple disciplines such as clinical medicine, anthropology, sociology, public health and economics, researchers have dedicated efforts to finding out what we think and how society is organized.
They have made multiple discoveries that we cannot explain all in a single book. However, one thing that stands out about every research is that social behaviour is rarely purely individual or coincidental. Their discovery is that social behaviour is determined by a combination of power structures, societal norms, environment conditions and cultural expectations.
At the level of individuals, behaviour is influenced by context more than we think. Factors like stress and scarcity can change the way we think or respond to others. Research has also shown that we rely on social cues and cognitive shortcuts. We tend to seek information that reinforces what we already believe. This explains why even well-meaning and mature people express biases and stereotypes towards others.
On the macro level, research has explored how social trust is maintained in a society and what can break it. Research documents have also explored why certain types of inequalities persist in certain communities or countries. Research is always ongoing at the individual and population level to unravel the hidden forces behind social behaviour. And this is what the Social Research journal aims to simplify.
Topics That We Cover Here
We cover several topics where social behaviour is an important factor in determining outcomes. Some of them include:
- Public health
- Ethics & Policy
- Culture & Identity
- Decision making
Public Health 🧬
Public health involves studying and protecting the health of communities and countries. This field of study aims to promote healthy sexual behaviour, good hygiene and contain the spread of diseases. To achieve this, public health does not treat individuals one by one. It examines things like social determinants (education, housing and income) and health strategies that affect the pattern of disease in a population.
This field of medicine also explains the effect of vaccination and health insurance on the health of communities. During crises and pandemics, public health studies examine how to make human behaviour compliant with guidelines from the authorities.
Ethics & Policy ⚖️
The ethics and policy section of our blog will take a deep dive into the compromises that need to be made when societies make decisions that affect a large number of people. This field explores things like moral trade offs as associated with balancing things like collective safety with individual rights or equity with efficiency.
Using equity vs efficiency as a case study, let’s imagine that a government wants to allocate doctors between rural and urban areas. From an equity point of view, the government should send doctors to rural areas to ensure that less privileged people have access to basic healthcare. This will come at a cost of fewer patients being treated or higher costs per patient.
Conversely, an efficiency-based model will insist on sending doctors to urban areas because there are many hospitals and the patient population is high. This increases system productivity by maximising the number of patients per doctor. However, the trade-off is that less privileged people in rural areas have to travel to cities.
We will explore studies that show how ethical frameworks like rights-based ethics, justice theories and utilitarianism affect government policy on health, security and welfare.
Culture & Identity 🧠
Culture and identity determine how people perceive other people’s behaviour and see the world. In this area, we will dissect research on how language, beliefs, tradition, gender norms and religion influence value systems.
One society might value individualism and personal identity, where people are free to express themselves. Another society might expect people to subject themselves to a collective identity where compromise must be made to ensure social harmony.
We also explore research that shows that different cultures’ assumptions can play a role in fanning the flames of conflict, and that conflict is not always a product of factual disagreement.
Decision Making 🔍
Social behaviour research has challenged the idea that humans always make rational decisions. From the academic material on economics and psychology, we will show you that emotions, environmental constraints and social pressure greatly affect people’s choices. These factors can make us take decisions that seem illogical.
We will explore every daily human behavious such as conformity, risk taking and procrastination. You will also see how fear and scarcity can shape our outlook for the future. When you reach simplified research from this section of our blog, you will learn how to make better decisions every day.
For Whom Is This Built?
We are lifelong learners who aim to make our knowledge useful for public good. We believe that education is the bedrock for advancing human civilisation. Our blog is meant for every curious mind who is willing to learn more. No matter how much you know, there is always something new to learn. If you want to learn why you act the way you do or the motives behind other people’s behaviour, this SR journal is for you.
Our work is also for students, professionals and academicians. If you are looking for a platform that offers a simplified foundation to help you learn and advance to more technical social science research, this place is the perfect starting point for you.