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• Study Finds Early Primaries Would Boost States’ Impact on White House Races

  As they prepare to caucus this weekend in the shadow of Super Tuesday’s much-publicized presidential primary, a new study by a Washington State University professor and political scientist suggests Washington’s voters could likely have boosted their impact on the race for the White House had they instead participated in an earlier primary process. Read more

• WSU Researchers Report Statewide Decline in Child Safety Restraint Use

  

  Washingtonians may lead the nation in buckling up when they drive, but recent research at Washington State University shows the state’s drivers are not nearly so conscientious when it comes to providing proper child safety restraints for the children riding with them. Read more

• Researchers Find Work Performance Standards Higher for Women; In surveys of American and British employees, gender gap persists

  

  The joke, "Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good," may not be totally off the mark in the workplace. In a recent study, no matter how they sliced the data and controlled certain variables, sociologists Julie Kmec of Washington State University and Elizabeth Gorman of the University of Virginia came to the same conclusion: women say they have to work harder than men. Read more

• WSU Researcher Casts Doubt on Reports of Increasing Violence by Teen-aged Girls

  

  While law enforcement agencies are continuing to report a rising trend in violent crime arrests of girls aged 12 to 17, a study by a Washington State University sociologist and her research associate shows there has been little actual change in the rate at which young females commit all forms of violent crime in the U.S. for nearly two decades. Read more

• WSU Prof’s New Book Argues Corporate Media Influence Will Be Offset by Technology, Specialized Media

  

  While mass media corporations will grow globally and reach more people than ever in the 21st century, a Washington State University researcher and media sociologist predicts that the media giants won’t influence the world marketplace any more than they have in the past. Read more

• WSU Anthropologist Wins NSF Grant for Child Stress Research

  

  The connection between a child’s stress level and the child’s future may be much clearer following additional research to be funded by a new grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Read more

• Parental Income Linked to Students’ Standardized Test Results

  Poverty appears to play a major role in depressing ACT and SAT test scores. In a paper presented by Donald C. Orlich, professor emeritus at Washington State University, he and his collaborators found a correlation between students’ scores and parental income. “The .97 correlation is extremely high and illustrates that parental income can account for 80 percent of the variance in those college entry exams. As a child’s parental income goes up, so do the ACT and SAT scores, and vice-versa,” said Orlich. Read more

• Faculty Productivity Survey Ranks WSU Plant, Animal Scientists Among Top In Nation

  

  Washington State University scientists conducting research on plants and animals are among the productive in the nation, according to a survey measuring faculty scholarly productivity published recently in The Chronicle for Higher Education. Read more

• WSU Researcher Says Satisfied Employees Key to Restaurant Profitability

  

  The “secret ingredient” for success in the restaurant business is more likely to be found in the attitudes of those who serve the food than in the food itself, according to a researcher at Washington State University. Read more

• WSU Extension To Participate In Rebuilding Iraqi Agriculture

  Washington State University is one of five universities teaming up to rebuild Iraq’s agricultural sector by strengthening extension programs and training at Iraqi universities. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a $5.3 million grant to the consortium of universities to develop and provide training programs for Iraqi nationals to enhance the management, production and marketing for small and medium agricultural enterprises. Agriculture is the second largest contributor to the Iraqi national economy and employs one-quarter of the workforce. Read more

Related News

• WSU Researcher Shows Your Spouse’s Personality May be Hazardous to Your Health

  To the long list of things to consider when choosing a mate, there is now evidence suggesting that your spouse’s personality can have a major influence on your own ability to recover from – and perhaps even survive – a major challenge to your health. It is a finding drawn from a study by a team of researchers including John M. Ruiz, an assistant professor of psychology at Washington State University, as well as Karen A. Matthews and Richard Schulz, at the University of Pittsburgh, and Michael F. Scheier with Carnegie Mellon University.

• WSU Researchers Explore Consumers’ Online Buying Behavior

  With U.S. consumers now spending billions of dollars online each year, researchers at WSU’s College of Business, including John Wells (l) and D. Veena Parboteeah (r), are discovering that retailers can add certain features to their Web sites that enhance the ‘entertainment value ‘of the shopping experience, prompting an increase in ‘impulse buying’ and driving up the amount of money consumers are willing to spend.

• WSU Researchers Seek to Spark Interest in Engineering

  PULLMAN, Wash. -- Washington State University researcher Denny Davis and colleagues have been awarded a three-year, $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation that seeks to improve student interest in math in secondary grades and better understand the factors affecting student interest in engineering and science careers.

• Ashby’s New Book Traces History of American Popular Culture

  American popular culture isn’t a distraction from the serious issues of our time. It is inseparable from them, and always has been. LeRoy Ashby, Washington State University Regents Professor of History, makes the case that popular culture is both a mirror and a shaper of our times in a 648-page meticulously researched volume titled “With Amusement for All: A History of American Popular Culture Since 1830.”

• National Poll Finds Broad Support for Access

  PULLMAN, Wash. – Americans strongly support open government and the press’ ability to access public records, and that support seems to be increasing, according to a national poll completed March 4 by researchers at Washington State University’s Edward R. Murrow School of Communication.

• Gift teaches reading, funds faculty project

  Mary Roe, professor of literacy education, sees her new summer reading program as a “triangle of learning opportunities.”

• Future Teachers Learn to Integrate Technology in the Classroom

  PULLMAN, Wash. – Guy Westhoff, assistant professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning in Washington State University’s College of Education, has made integrating technology in the classroom his research and teaching focus. Westhoff is training the next generations of K-12 teachers to use blogs and other new and emerging technologies as teaching tools.

• WSU Health Researchers Consider TVs in Classrooms

  A new study by Washington State University researchers Erica Weintraub Austin and Bruce Pinkleton found that in-school public affairs programming, which contains news and advertising or public service announcements, can provide some benefits to young adolescents. But the study also found justification for concerns—including those voiced by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)—about the commercialization of the classroom.

• Hypnosis Book Receives Arthur Shapiro Award

  Washington State University Professor Arreed Barabasz received the 2005 Best Book on Hypnosis Arthur Shapiro Award for his book “Hypnotherapeutic Techniques 2E.” The award is bestowed by the preeminent Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, which is charted by the Board of Regents of the State of New York.