Design Student’s Interactive Map Links Public to COVID-19 Testing Sites

When UC Davis design major Matthew Kwong began looking online for places to get tested for COVID-19, he found little and bad information. He figured if finding a testing site was difficult for a tech-savvy 20-year-old, for others — especially vulnerable and elderly populations — it would be nearly impossible. So, he spent months creating an interactive COVID-19 testing site map.

Vaccine Myths on Social Media Can Be Effectively Reduced With Credible Fact Checking

Study finds that simple tags can make a difference.

Social media misinformation can negatively influence people’s attitudes about vaccine safety and effectiveness, but credible organizations — such as research universities and health institutions — can play a pivotal role in debunking myths with simple tags that link to factual information, UC Davis researchers suggest in a new study.

Psychology of a Pandemic

Researchers study the social and emotional toll of sheltering in place, and ways people cope.

After COVID-19 precautions shut down the campus last spring  — and with it most UC Davis laboratories — psychology professors turned their research upside down and shifted focus, fast.

Social scientists, in particular Professor of Psychology Paul Hastings, recognized the unprecedented human “experiment” presented by the pandemic and global efforts to “bend the curve.”

Empathy May Be in the Eye of the Beholder

Do we always want people to show empathy? Not so, said researchers from the University of California, Davis. A recently published paper suggests that although empathy is often portrayed as a virtue, people who express empathy are not necessarily viewed favorably.

Historian Awarded Prestigious Carnegie Fellowship

Andrés Reséndez, a professor of history at UC Davis whose groundbreaking research revealed the breadth of Native American enslavement, will study the lasting global impacts of Magellan's voyage with the support of a 2020 Carnegie Fellowship.

What Is Lost in a World Where We Cannot Touch?

During this period of social distancing, what sort of void has been created? In our social lives, touches are often subtle and brief – a quick handshake or hug. Yet it seems as though these brief encounters contribute mightily to our emotional well-being.

‘Sick Posts’ on Social Media Help Early Tracking of COVID-19

Tracking social media “sick posts” could give public health officials a head start on identifying and responding to emerging disease outbreaks, researchers in the UC Davis College of Letters and Science suggest in a new working paper.