6,078 articles
Pyrokinesis
Pyrokinesis: the alleged ability to ignite or control fire by psychic concentration; a form of psychokinesis popularized by Stephen King's 1980 novel and standard in fiction, but not demonstrated scientifically.
Pyromania
Pyromania is a rare impulse control disorder marked by repeated deliberate fire setting for tension relief, not profit or revenge. Also called pathological fire setting; DSM-5 and ICD-11 diagnose it, treatment evidence remains limited.
Q methodology
Q methodology is a research method introduced by William Stephenson in 1935 in which participants rank-order statements and by-person factor analysis reveals the group's shared subjective viewpoints.
Qandeel Baloch
Qandeel Baloch (Fauzia Azeem), Pakistani social media celebrity murdered by her brother Waseem in Multan in July 2016 in an honor killing; her death prompted Pakistan's 2016 anti-honor-killing law, his 2019 life sentence, and 2022 acquittal.
QAnon
QAnon, also called the Q conspiracy, is a far-right conspiracy movement begun by anonymous "Q" posts on 4chan in October 2017, claiming a Satanic pedophile cabal that Trump fights, linked to Pizzagate, violence, and the GOP.
Qataris
Qataris are the citizen population of Qatar, an indigenous Arab minority of roughly 338,000 in mid-2020, only 11.3% of residents in 2023; Qatar does not publish full nationality breakdowns and runs a population policy addressing the imbalance.
Quadroon
Quadroon: dated, offensive English term for a person of one-quarter Black ancestry (one Black grandparent), offspring of a mulatto and a white parent; used in the 1890 US census and Louisiana law, from Spanish cuarterón.
Quapaw
The Quapaw, self-named Ogaxpa or Ugaxpa ("Downstream People"), are a Dhegiha Siouan Native American people of the Arkansas River and Mississippi confluence; the French named Arkansas after them.
Quarter-life crisis
A quarter-life crisis is a period of confusion and instability in emerging adulthood, ages 18 to 30, named in a 2001 book by Alexandra Robbins and Abby Wilner.
Qubilah Shabazz
Qubilah Shabazz (born 1960), second daughter of Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz, was indicted in 1995 for plotting to kill Louis Farrakhan via FBI informant Michael Fitzpatrick; charges were settled without trial in 1995.
Quechua people
Quechua people: diverse Andean indigenous populations whose maternal language is Quechua, centered in Peru (5,179,774 self-identified; 4,800 localities) and highland Bolivia; heirs of Inca-era civilizations, organized in ayllus and comunidades campesinas.
Queer
Queer is an umbrella term for sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions outside societal norms, and shorthand for the LGBTQ community. Once a pejorative, it was reclaimed during the 1980s-1990s AIDS crisis and underpins queer theory.
Queer heterosexuality
Queer heterosexuality (queer straight): a queer theory concept for heterosexual identities that subvert heteronormative norms of gender and monogamy, developed by Schlichter and Heasley, and contested for co-optation.
Queer theory
Queer theory: interdisciplinary framework treating sex, gender, sexuality, and identity as constructed and performative; coined by Teresa de Lauretis in 1990; founded on Butler's Gender Trouble and Sedgwick's Epistemology of the Closet; focuses on normativity, not identity categories.
Queerbaiting
Queerbaiting: a fan-coined pejorative for media producers hinting at or advertising queer content to attract LGBTQ audiences without delivering it. Known in Sinophone fandom as maifu; debated around authorial intent, celebrity personas, and Thai Y-series.
Questioning (sexuality and gender)
Questioning (sexuality and gender), the Q in LGBTQ, is the process of exploring one's sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. Covers definitions, identity-development timing, SOGI survey measurement, and youth mental health.
Questionnaire
Questionnaire: a structured data-collection tool of questions or items measuring attitudes, opinions, and behavior, administered self-administered or researcher-administered, designed through rational, construct, facet and other methods, distinct from interviews.
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
Quiet (2012) by Susan Cain, also translated as La force des Discrets, is a bestselling nonfiction book arguing that Western culture's extrovert ideal undervalues introverts, citing Kagan, Aron, Little, Grant, and brainstorming research.
Quiverfull
Quiverfull is an American evangelical Protestant movement whose members reject all birth control, seek many children per Psalm 127, and practice homeschooling and male headship; rooted in Mary Pride's 1985 The Way Home and the Hesses' 1990 A Full Quiver.
R/The Donald
r/The_Donald: pro-Donald Trump subreddit founded June 2015, quarantined 2019, restricted February 2020, and banned June 29, 2020 with about 2,000 subreddits under Reddit's hate-speech policy; its 790,000 users had largely migrated to thedonald.win.
Race (human categorization)
Race (human categorization): classification of humans by perceived physical traits; also called racial classification, now viewed as a social construct. Scientific consensus holds it is not a valid measure of human genetic variation, while remaining socially and legally consequential.
Race and ethnicity in Brazil
Race and ethnicity in Brazil: IBGE's five self-declared color/race categories (branca, preta, parda, amarela, indígena), the 2022 census showing pardos at 45.3% overtaking whites, measurement debates, and affirmative-action policy.
Race and ethnicity in New York City
Race and ethnicity in New York City describe the composition of the city's 8.8 million residents, among the most diverse in the United States, shaped above all by immigration.
Race and ethnicity in the United States
Race and ethnicity in the United States: how the Census Bureau classifies the population under OMB standards (White, Black, Asian, AIAN, NHPI, Hispanic), self-identification history since 1790, ACS composition, and the 2024 single-question revision with a MENA category.
Race and intelligence
Race and intelligence: contested research field on IQ differences between racial groups. Also called the IQ controversy; covers eugenics-era origins (Galton, Terman), Jensen 1969, The Bell Curve, heritability limits, and mainstream conclusions that race lacks biological validity.
Race and sports
Race and sports, also known as race in sports, is a field of study examining how racial categories and racism shape athletic participation, performance, and organization, a critical sociology that developed from the 1990s.
Rachael Denhollander
Rachael Denhollander, American attorney, author, and advocate, first woman to publicly accuse USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar in 2016; author of What Is a Girl Worth?; delivered final sentencing statement.
Rachel Corrie
Rachel Aliene Corrie (1979–2003) was an American peace activist from Olympia, Washington, crushed by an Israeli military bulldozer in Rafah, Gaza, while protecting a Palestinian home from demolition.
Rachel Dolezal
Rachel Dolezal, later Nkechi Diallo, is an American activist who led the Spokane NAACP chapter until June 2015, when her parents said she was white; she resigned and said she identifies as black.
Rachel Goldberg-Polin
Rachel Goldberg-Polin, American-Israeli educator and activist, mother of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, taken October 7, 2023 from the Nova festival and murdered in Gaza in August 2024; TIME100 2024, Lantos Prize 2025, memoir When We See You Again.