6,078 articles
Rind et al. controversy
Rind et al. controversy: dispute over the 1998 Psychological Bulletin meta-analysis by Rind, Tromovitch, and Bauserman of 59 college-sample CSA studies, its congressional condemnation, and scholarly critiques and rebuttals.
Riot grrrl
Riot grrrl, an underground feminist punk movement and music style from the early 1990s Pacific Northwest and Washington, D.C., tied to third-wave feminism, Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, zines, and the Riot Grrrl Manifesto.
Rise Up Australia Party
Rise Up Australia Party (RUAP), also called RUA, was an Australian far-right Christian party led by pastor Daniel Nalliah, registered 2012 and deregistered 2019, known for its anti-Islam, anti-multiculturalism slogan "Keep Australia Australian".
Risk assessment
Risk assessment: the systematic process of identifying hazards, analyzing likelihood and consequences, and evaluating risks against criteria, central to ISO 31000 risk management, EPA and NIOSH regulatory practice, and distinct from psychological risk perception.
Risk compensation
Risk compensation, or risk homeostasis, is the hypothesis that people offset safety improvements with riskier behavior. Originated by Peltzman (1975) and Wilde (1982); empirical support for significant offsetting is weak.
Rita Schwerner Bender
Rita Schwerner Bender, American civil rights activist and family law attorney, widow of CORE worker Michael Schwerner, killed by Klansmen in Neshoba County, Mississippi on June 21, 1964 during Freedom Summer; later an ACLU and public defender lawyer in Seattle and prosecution witness at the 2005 Killen trial.
Road rage
Road rage, also known as driving anger, is deliberate violence or aggression by a driver or passenger using a vehicle or weapon, arising from a road incident.
Rob K. Henderson
Rob K. Henderson, American writer and psychologist (Yale BS; Cambridge PhD), coined 'luxury beliefs' in 2019 and wrote the 2024 memoir Troubled about foster care, family, and social class.
Robby Starbuck
Robby Starbuck, Nashville-based conservative activist and former music video director, led 2024 anti-DEI campaigns against Tractor Supply, Ford, Walmart and others, then sued Meta over AI defamation and became its AI-bias adviser in an August 2025 settlement.
Robert Monroe
Robert Allen Monroe (1915–1995) was an American radio broadcast executive who reported out-of-body experiences from 1958, founded The Monroe Institute, and patented the Hemi-Sync audio method.
Robert Swan
Robert Swan OBE, British polar explorer, first person to walk to both the South Pole (1986) and North Pole (1989); founder of the 2041 Foundation for Antarctic preservation.
Robert Wright (journalist)
Robert Wright is an American journalist and author known for books applying evolutionary theory and game theory to human behavior and religion, including The Moral Animal and The Evolution of God.
Roberta McCain
Roberta Wright McCain (1912–2020), Oklahoma-born oil heiress, Washington socialite, and Navy wife, mother of Senator John McCain; eloped in 1933, campaigned at 95/96 in 2008, died at 108.
Robin Cavendish
Robin Cavendish (1930-1994), British polio survivor and disability advocate, respirator-dependent from 1958, co-developed the first wheelchair-mounted ventilator with Teddy Hall, founded Netley Waterside House, received an MBE, and is the subject of the 2017 film Breathe.
Robin Sharma
Robin Sharma (Robin S(hilp) Sharma, born 1964) is a Canadian self-help author and leadership speaker, author of The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari and The 5AM Club with its 20/20/20 morning formula; former lawyer, founder of Sharma Leadership International, tens of millions of books sold.
Roblox ban protests in Russia
Roblox ban protests in Russia: children's and parents' demonstrations and 63,000 complaint letters after Roskomnadzor blocked Roblox on December 3, 2025, over child-safety and LGBT-propaganda claims; the ban was lifted June 10, 2026.
Rochester racial slur video incident
The Rochester racial slur video incident: Shiloh Hendrix called a Black autistic boy a slur at Soldiers Field Park in April 2025; Sharmake Omar's viral video led to charges and a 2026 split verdict.
Rod Ansell
Rod Ansell (Rodney William Ansell, 1954–1999) was an Australian bushman and buffalo hunter in the Northern Territory whose 1977 outback survival ordeal inspired the film Crocodile Dundee.
Roger Hallam (activist)
Roger Hallam (Julian Roger Hallam) is the British activist who co-founded Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain, and Just Stop Oil; a former Welsh organic farmer and King's College London civil-disobedience researcher, he received a five-year prison sentence in July 2024 for the M25 gantry protest conspiracy, reduced to four years in March 2025.
Rohingya people
The Rohingya are a stateless Muslim minority from Rakhine State, Myanmar, denationalized by the 1982 Citizenship Law; over 700,000 fled in 2017, and around 1.2 million now live in Bangladesh camps while The Gambia's ICJ genocide case proceeds.
Rohith Vemula (రోహిత్ చక్రవర్తి వేముల)
Rohith Vemula (రోహిత్ చక్రవర్తి వేముల), born 1989, was a Dalit PhD scholar at the University of Hyderabad who died by suicide on 17 January 2016 after suspension and hostel expulsion following a dispute with ABVP students, sparking nationwide caste-discrimination protests.
Roko Camaj
Roko Camaj (1941–2001), Albanian immigrant from Montenegro, WTC window washer for ABM Industries from 1973; hand-washed the South Tower's wide 107th-floor panes at 1,300 feet; died trapped on the 105th floor on 9/11, called the patron saint of window washers.
Role
Role (social role): the expected behavior attached to a social position or status in sociology and social psychology. Also gender roles, role theory, social role theory (Eagly, Wood). Defined by Banton and Merton, learned via socialization, and measurably shaping labor-market outcomes.
Role model
Role model: exemplar whose behavior others observe and emulate, a term coined by Robert K. Merton in reference group theory. Distinguished from mentors (no prior relationship required); effectiveness depends on competence, similarity, and attainability.
Role reversal (psychotherapy)
Role reversal is a psychodrama technique in which a client temporarily enacts another person's role, such as a family member's, to see the situation through their eyes.
Role theory
Role theory: sociological and social psychology framework explaining behavior as enactment of roles tied to social positions, with structural and symbolic interactionist traditions, concepts like role conflict and strain, and documented criticisms.
Romance (love)
Romance (love) is the intense attraction to a specific preferred partner, studied scientifically as distinct from sex drive and attachment. Sources cover its neurochemistry, cross-cultural universality, measurement, and relationship outcomes.
Romance scam
Romance scam, also called romance fraud or pig butchering when investment-based: fraud using a fake online identity to build a romantic relationship and extract money; emerged around 2007-2008, with advance-fee and crypto-investment variants.
Romanda Hombir
Romanda Hombir, South African clinical audiologist from Mpumalanga, Miss World South Africa 2026; finished Top 6 at Miss World 2026 in Vietnam and was crowned Miss World Africa 2026, South Africa's best placement since 2014 or 2017.
Romani Americans
Romani Americans, also called American Roma or American Gypsies, are US residents of Romani descent from groups such as the Vlax Kalderasha, Machwaya, and Romanichal; present since 1498, numbering roughly one million by Hancock's estimate, largely invisible to the census.