Raegan Murphy and colleagues have published their latest research entitled "Teacher attitudes toward and awareness of adolescent gambling behavior in the UK". Numbers of adolescents experiencing gambling related harm are increasing. Teachers spend a significant amount of time with students and their attitudes can make an impact on engagement in high-risk behavior. However, teachers’ awareness of, and attitudes towards adolescent gambling are under-researched; this study aimed to address this gap. 157 UK schoolteachers completed an online survey assessing their perceptions of adolescent gambling. Cochran’s-Q tests of association and regression analyses revealed that teachers perceived adolescent gambling as significantly less serious than other high-risk behaviors. Teachers also reported having significantly less frequent conversations about gambling and were less confident addressing gambling issues than other high-risk behaviors. Arguments are made for increased teacher training around problematic youth gambling. Such a strategy would be a prerequisite for the development and implementation of targeted prevention from harms.

  Quillette piece on our research into the nature and function of female orgasm Every second of every day, across the face of planet Earth, there are 18,000 ejaculations of sperm, and 4.4 births. The stark reality that sperm (and the men who produce it) are biologically cheap, in comparison to eggs (and the women who bear them) is arithmetically inescapable. It is worth keeping facts like these in mind, to resist the incessant desire that humans have, to pretend that we are not, in Martin Daly’s memorable phrase, “just another critter.” ... Read more

Mass killings are unusual events but devastating when they occur Although the absolute risk of dying at the hands of such a killer are low, people stubbornly refuse statisticians’ earnest assurances of relative safety This should not surprise us Mass killings are, among many other things, a deliberate attempt to drive a wedge into the existing social order That is why they are public, and why the killer seeks to maximise attention