Foundations of social research

behaviors and images of others’ suffer-ing. How widespread are our own feelings and how accurate are our perceptions? What has changed because of the pandemic, and what else influenced people during the pandemic? Social research methods help us to answer these bigger questions, challenge our preexisting assumptions, and develop more confidence in our answers. Social scientists physical and social processes through multiple investigations by many different scientists who share findings at conferences and criticize and evaluate each other’s work prior to pub-lication and public release. This process has been short-circuited due to the need to develop public guidelines as quickly as possible in the midst of a deadly, rapidly spreading viral threat. Mandaville suggests that health officials need to counter the “pseudoscience and lies” spread through social media about the pandemic by correcting misunderstandings about science and clearly communicating current uncertainties when new findings are publicized.