Tag "IQ"

IQ.HSE continues the tradition of saying goodbye to the old year in figures. Below are 19 facts from the HSE University research that we shared in 2019.

In early December 2019, HSE University welcomed Onur Güntürkün from Ruhr-University Bochum, a leading expert in studies of thinking, to deliver a lecture entitled ‘Cognition without a Cortex.’ Among other things, Onur Güntürkün is known for demonstrating that magpies pass the mirror test, i.e., recognize themselves in a mirror. IQ.HSE attended Prof. Güntürkün’ lecture, which was organized with the support of the German Research Foundation, DFG, and asked him several questions about the problem of thinking, and why cleaner fish turned out to be ‘smarter’ than octopi.

Although a growing number of Russians now exercise regularly, the overall figure remains low — only one-fourth of working women and less than one-third of working men are physically active. Are Russians just lazy or are gym memberships too expensive for them? What can stimulate people to adopt a more active lifestyle, and is Russia up to international standards in this regard? Find the answers in a newly released study from HSE University. IQ.HSE selected 10 of the most interesting facts from that research.

Not everyone whose income is below the official poverty line consider themselves as outsiders. On the contrary, some of those who feel that they barely make ends meet cannot objectively be considered as abjectly poor. Sociologist Ekaterina Slobodenyuk studied both groups of poor Russians. It turned out that they have little in common, which means they need different kinds of support.

Russia has just had a great contraceptive revolution, and it is not over: unwanted pregnancies are more often prevented than terminated. Russians now engage in family planning with more confidence: the number of births is almost equal to the number of pregnancies. On the basis of studies completed by HSE demographers, IQ.HSE examines the Soviet and Russian culture of birth control.

The turnstiles and entrance gates used in municipal transport not only ensure that passengers pay, but also structure their behavior according to age, body size, ability and speed. Many people must maneuver themselves to pass easily through the rotating arms or swinging gates of an Automated Passage Control System (APCS): passengers cannot be too large or too small and must not walk too quickly or too slowly. Sociologists studied how turnstiles impose uniformity on passengers’ physicality and behaviour.

Alexandre Dumas reveals some causes of economic crises, Ernest Hemingway explores financial decision-making, and Fyodor Dostoevsky offers his reader a glimpse into the minds of stock market players. IQ.HSE continues to read fiction from an economists' perspective: HSE Assistant Professor Henry Penikas takes a fresh look at some literary classics.

In 1945, the Soviet Army seized the film archive of the Third Reich, the so-called Reichfilmarchive, and brought it from Berlin to Moscow. The archive contained thousands of movies from various countries. Since then, the German, American, and a few European trophies circulated throughout the Soviet Union despite a lack of an effective distribution license. This copyright violation turned out to be a stumbling block in the relations between the USSR and the USA, while the early Cold War confrontation between the two superpowers added a political twist to the conflict. Both countries were now using cinematography as a weapon in their fight, trying to do as much harm to the opponent as possible. Kristina Tanis, a researcher from HSE University, investigates the battles between the two film industries.

Although HIV infection rates are high among the transgender community in Russia, many transgender people know very little about the virus, as well as their own health status. In Russia’s first study to examine transgender people as an at-risk social group for HIV transmission, demographers attribute these high infection rates to the community’s social stigmatization and isolation, as well as a lack of access to medical services. The study’s findings have been published in the HSE journal, Demographic Review.

Government officials and the police are perceived as antiheroes, parents are more likely to be seen as positive characters, while classmates and teachers fall under the 'it's complicated' category. This is how high school students perceive members of significant social groups, according to a survey of 7,000 Russian school students aged 14 to 18.