news from the lab 2016

Bern, 06. Honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies are complex societies, in which work is not distributed by a central power. How tasks are allocated among workers is still poorly understood. A research team from the Swiss Bee Research Center at Agroscope and the Institute of Bee Health at the University of Bern (both Switzerland), discovered that young adults influence this process by promoting older individuals to perform duties outside the hive, which shortens their life expectancy.

Switzerland is one the world's top countries in terms of per capita consumption of fair trade products.

Poverty, unemployment and other forms of exclusion adversely affect people's wellbeing, reveals the Swiss Social Report 2016, which is published by the Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences (FORS), with support from the SNSF.

People are often excluded from social groups. As researchers from the University of Basel report in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, whether uninvolved observers find this acceptable or not may depend on the facial appearances of those excluded. The exclusion of cold and incompetent looking people is more likely to be accepted.

How big is the gap between rich and poor in Switzerland? Official statistics on income inequality provide an answer. A study by the Bern University of Applied Sciences and the University of Bern has now compared the previous survey methods with tax data. This revealed considerable discrepancies. Determining the extent of income inequality is a difficult undertaking that places high demands on science.

In psychiatric clinics with an exclusively open-door policy, the risk of patients committing suicide or absconding from treatment is no higher than in clinics with locked wards.

In Switzerland, an increasing number of offenders are aging and dying in prison. Penal institutions need to better adjust to this situation, and uniform rules are needed to ensure a dignified end of life in prison.

A project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation has found that Swiss farmers enjoy greater levels of job satisfaction than their counterparts in industrialised agricultural systems. What impact do agricultural systems have on job satisfaction among farmers? This is the question that Agroscope researchers have been investigating with funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation.