Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Mark Connick, Postdoctoral Researcher in Paralympic Classification and Biomechanics, The University of Queensland; Queensland University of Technology
The milestone was celebrated worldwide, not just by athletics fans. It was considered at the time to be a similar achievement to scaling Mount Everest for the first time, which Sir Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay had done the year before.
On Sunday, Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe and Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha achieved a breakthrough comparable to Bannister’s some 72 years ago: running the 42 kilometres of a marathon in less than two hours.
Let’s break down this new benchmark and work out how these athletes were able to do it.
What happened in London?
Sawe smashed the men’s world record by an astonishing 65 seconds in winning the event in 1 hour, 59 minutes and 30 seconds.
The race was blisteringly fast. Even third-place getter Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda broke the previous world record – set in 2023 by Kenya’s Kelvin Kiptum in the United States – by seven seconds (finishing in 2:00:28).
Sawe ran quicker as the marathon went on, covering the second half of the race in 59:01. He pulled clear of Kejelcha after about 30 kilometres and made his solo break in the final two kilometres.
After the race, Sawe said:
I’ve made history today in London, and for the next generation I’ve shown them that nothing is impossible. Everything is possible, with a matter of time.
The training and nutrition
Sawe’s team said he trained by running up to 240 kilometres a week and fuelled himself before the race with bread and honey.
This reported training volume is likely an important factor in running a sub two-hour marathon.
Running up to 240 kilometres a week is beyond what most runners can tolerate. But high training volume, especially when much of it is done at relatively low intensity, is associated with faster marathon performances.
Nutrition during the race was also well planned.
A two-hour marathon is run at such high intensity that carbohydrate intake becomes important to maintain performance. The body stores carbohydrate in the muscles and liver but those stores are limited.
According to his nutrition team, Sawe took a carbohydrate drink and a gel leading up to the start, then used carbohydrate drinks and gels throughout the race.
His reported intake averaged about 115 grams of carbohydrate per hour.
While this is not a recommendation for the recreational runner, at the intensity required to run a two-hour marathon, it helps to maintain energy supply and pace late in the race.
The physiology
Although Sawe and Kejelcha’s laboratory data are not public, the physiology required to run a fast marathon is due to three main attributes:
an exceptional capacity to take in and use oxygen during running
the ability to maintain a high fraction of that capacity for prolonged periods
an exceptional running economy, which means using less oxygen at a given speed.
Exceptional marathon performances also depend on durability, which is the ability to prevent deterioration of these qualities throughout the race.
What about the shoe?
Sawe and Kejelcha wore the lightest “supershoe” in history: Adidas’ Adios Pro Evo 3.
Supershoes can improve running economy by about 4% compared with conventional racing shoes.
The Adios Pro Evo 3 combines several features common in supershoes: very low weight, thick resilient foam and a stiff carbon-based structure in the midsole. The heel thickness is reported to be 39 millimetres, just under the 40mm limit permitted by World Athletics.
While most runners benefit from supershoes, the effect is variable and not the same for all runners.
Firstly, the foam and stiffening element can affect the “spring-like” bounce of the body as the foot hits and leaves the ground.
Secondly, they can change how the runner moves, including how the foot and ankle work, how long the foot stays on the ground, and the timing of energy return. As such, a shoe may be capable of storing and returning more energy, but the athlete still has to interact with it effectively.
The exact benefit of the Adios Pro Evo 3 over other supershoes has not been independently measured, but even small improvements are likely to be important over a marathon.
The conditions in London also likely contributed to these performances. While London is considered to be a relatively fast course (although not as fast as Berlin), the weather conditions were close to ideal: between 13-17°C during the race, which is at the upper end of the theoretical optimum for marathon running but within the range associated with fast endurance performance.
The best explanation for the performances in London is the convergence of many factors including exceptional physiology, years of high-volume training, efficient biomechanics helped by the use of advanced footwear, optimised fuelling and favourable weather conditions.
Mark Connick does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Le 26 avril a lieu la journée de la visibilité lesbienne qui vise à mettre en avant des modèles, à célébrer la culture lesbienne et à lutter contre la lesbophobie. La question de la visibilité dans le cadre professionnel mérite d’autant plus d’être mise à l’ordre du jour que les lesbiennes sont exposées à davantage de violences et de discriminations.
La journée de la visibilité lesbienne, le 26 avril, est d’autant plus nécessaire notamment dans le monde du travail que les lesbiennes subissent une double invisibilité. Tout d’abord, elles sont quasi absentes des discours publics, des médias, des représentations culturelles. Cette absence de visibilité peut notamment freiner la prise de conscience de l’orientation sexuelle, et certaines lesbiennes interrogées dans le cadre de l’enquête expliquent qu’elles ont construit une vie hétérosexuelle (avec un compagnon et des enfants), avant de se rendre compte qu’elles étaient lesbiennes.
Elle suppose de très peu parler de sa vie quotidienne, ou bien de parler au « je » pour éviter de mentionner l’existence d’une compagne, ou encore de dire « il » en parlant de sa compagne, pour passer pour hétérosexuelle. 28 % déclarent ne dévoiler leur orientation sexuelle qu’auprès d’un petit groupe de collègues dont elles ont auparavant vérifié l’ouverture d’esprit. Cette stratégie se fait donc en deux temps : il s’agit tout d’abord de lancer des sujets de conversation orientés autour de valeurs progressistes pour identifier comment se positionnent les collègues, avant, dans un second temps, de dévoiler son orientation sexuelle.
Elle est coûteuse en matière de charge mentale car elle suppose de se souvenir des collègues qui le savent et ceux qui ne le savent pas, et d’adapter ses propos et la manière de parler de sa vie quotidienne en fonction des cercles de collègues. Une femme lesbienne interrogée raconte aussi une situation dans laquelle, croisant dans la rue une collègue qu’elle connaît de loin, elle a demandé à sa compagne de lui lâcher la main. Cette dernière lui a dit « Je croyais que tes collègues étaient au courant », ce à quoi elle a répondu « Oui, ils sont au courant, mais pas elle en particulier ».
Une surexposition aux violences et aux discriminations
Cette invisibilité s’explique en partie par le fait que les lesbiennes sont surexposées aux violences et aux discriminations au travail, comme c’est également le cas dans l’espace public. Par exemple, toujours d’après notre enquête, 10 % des salariées lesbiennes disent avoir été victimes de violences physiques dans leur organisation de travail, contre 3 % des salariées hétérosexuelles et 7 % des salariés gays. 23 % déclarent avoir été victimes de violences psychologiques et morales, contre 14 % des salariées hétérosexuelles et 18 % des salariés gays. Enfin, 9 % ont été victimes de violences sexuelles, contre 4 % des salariées hétérosexuelles et 7 % des salariés gays.
Ces chiffres montrent une forte surexposition des salariées lesbiennes aux violences, et cette surexposition se retrouve pour les discriminations : 27 % des salariées lesbiennes estiment avoir déjà été discriminées en raison de leur genre ou de leur orientation sexuelle dans leur organisation de travail, contre 11 % des salariées hétérosexuelles.
Lesbophobie d’ambiance
Les récits recueillis donnent à voir différentes formes de micro-agressions et violences, allant de maladresses, à des agressions sexuelles, en passant par de l’homophobie ou de la lesbophobie d’ambiance, c’est-à-dire des propos homophobes ou lesbophobes non dirigés vers la personne qui les entend. Comme le raconte une des salariées lesbiennes interviewées, Sarah, qui travaille dans un collège :
« Ça reste des ados, et on sait comment ça se propage. Il y a des problématiques où effectivement j’ai eu une jeune la semaine dernière qui m’a dit : ‘Je ne l’aime pas parce qu’il est gay’. Enfin, voilà, clairement, je suis confrontée aussi à ça. Du coup, ça me travaille et du coup, je sais aussi comment ça se véhicule et potentiellement l’image négative que certains ont. »
Louie Media 2021.
Le modèle « monsieur gagne-pain »
Les données sur la réussite professionnelle (carrière, salaire) montrent des résultats étonnants. En effet, alors qu’elles sont plus exposées aux violences et aux discriminations que les salariées hétérosexuelles, les salariées lesbiennes semblent moins pénalisées en ce qui concerne le salaire, l’accès à la promotion, ou encore l’accès à des postes managériaux. Par exemple, d’après notre enquête, 43,7 % des salariées lesbiennes ont des responsabilités managériales, contre 38,4 % des salariées hétérosexuelles. Une piste d’explication à cette moindre pénalisation des salariées lesbiennes peut se trouver dans le fait qu’elles sont moins soumises aux normes de genre, et notamment au modèle de « monsieur gagne-pain », qui domine encore largement les couples hétérosexuels, et dans lequel le revenu du foyer est supposé dépendre avant tout du salaire et donc de la réussite professionnelle du mari.
Les couples lesbiens sont par ailleurs beaucoup plus égalitaires en termes de répartition des tâches domestiques, et d’ailleurs les salariées lesbiennes travaillent moins fréquemment à temps partiel que les salariées hétérosexuelles. Tout cela peut les conduire à accorder à la fois plus de temps et plus d’importance à leur travail, à leur rémunération, et à leur carrière. Certaines salariées lesbiennes interrogées témoignent aussi de l’existence de stéréotypes sur les femmes lesbiennes qui peuvent les avantager professionnellement (notamment le fait que les femmes lesbiennes sont perçues comme ayant plus de caractéristiques « masculines ») tout en les enfermant dans des cases.
Finalement, cette enquête suggère des pistes pour les organisations souhaitant s’engager en faveur de l’inclusion des salariées lesbienne :
visibiliser leur existence, par exemple en tenant compte des enjeux liés à l’orientation sexuelle dans les politiques d’égalité femmes-hommes et des enjeux liés au genre dans les politiques d’engagement LGBT+, ou encore en mettant en avant des rôles modèles ;
sensibiliser sur la persistance de violences, de discriminations et de stéréotypes ;
affirmer une politique de tolérance zéro à l’égard des actes et propos sexistes, homophobes et lesbophobes.
Le projet « ODILE ») est soutenu par l’Agence nationale de la recherche (ANR), qui finance en France la recherche sur projets. L’ANR a pour mission de soutenir et de promouvoir le développement de recherches fondamentales et finalisées dans toutes les disciplines, et de renforcer le dialogue entre science et société. Pour en savoir plus, consultez le site de l’ANR.
Clotilde Coron a reçu des financements de l’ANR (projet “ODILE”) pour le projet dont l’ouvrage est issu.
Ghana introduced a new payment arrangement for petroleum imports in 2023, using gold instead of scarce US dollars. The policy was designed to ease pressure on the cedi by reducing the need for upfront dollar purchases to settle fuel import bills.
In an import-dependent economy, rising demand for US dollars usually weakens the domestic currency. Importers must exchange local currency for dollars. As the local currency loses value, the local cost of imports rises, driving inflation.
Ghana’s petroleum-for-gold strategy delivered short-term benefits. It reduced immediate demand for foreign exchange, supported relative stability in the cedi and contributed to moderating fuel price pressures and inflation.
The country is still vulnerable to global oil price shocks, however. That has become evident with the latest surge in oil prices triggered by instability in the Middle East. For oil-importing economies such as Ghana, geopolitical risks like this translate directly into higher fuel import costs and greater pressure on foreign-exchange reserves.
I am a scholar who has served as a technical adviser to Ghana’s Ministry of Energy and major oil firms. This article argues that Ghana’s current stabilisation measures are helping to manage short-term pressure, but they have not removed the country’s exposure to oil shocks. That matters because temporary relief should not be mistaken for structural reform.
The structural gaps are limited refining capacity, weak storage infrastructure and an underdeveloped downstream petroleum sector.
As long as these constraints remain, oil shocks will continue to transmit quickly into the exchange rate, inflation and the broader economy.
The creation of the Ghana Gold Board, under the Ghana Gold Board Act, 2025 Act 1140, improves the state’s ability to mobilise gold through official channels. This is not a solution to Ghana’s energy problem. But it is a more credible stabilisation strategy than relying on politically driven fuel price interventions and implicit subsidies. Those strategies, seen in earlier periods, contributed to fiscal losses and market distortions.
Inflation has eased significantly over the past year, falling from peak levels in 2023 to around 3%-4% in early 2026. Fuel prices have moderated, with pump prices declining by over 20% year-on-year in Febuary 2026. This indicates that short term pressures are being managed.
But relief is not reform. Policies such as gold-for-oil cannot eliminate Ghana’s dependence on imported refined fuels.
The gaps
Ghana’s vulnerability to global oil shocks stems from the structure of its energy system. Despite producing crude from offshore fields such as Jubilee, TEN and Sankofa-Gye Nyame, the country remains heavily dependent on imported refined fuels priced and settled in US dollars. That mismatch ties the domestic economy directly to global oil markets.
In practice, this dependence is substantial. Domestic refining meets only a small share of demand, with roughly 72% of refined petroleum products supplied through imports in recent years. In other words, most of the fuel actually consumed in the economy is sourced from international markets rather than processed locally, reinforcing the country’s reliance on foreign currency.
These imports are concentrated in a few critical products that underpin everyday economic activity. Diesel accounts for the largest share, used extensively in transport, logistics, construction and backup power generation. Petrol (gasoline) supports road transport, while liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is widely used for household cooking and some commercial purposes. In effect, Ghana’s import bill is not abstract. It underwrites the economy’s core energy needs, from moving goods and people to powering businesses and households.
This dependency on imports is driven by three factors.
Limited refining capacity. Ghana’s ability to process crude oil domestically is constrained by the limited and unreliable operation of its main refining asset, the Tema Oil Refinery. Although installed capacity exists, it has operated intermittently for years due to financial constraints, maintenance challenges and operational inefficiencies.
But expanding domestic refining capacity on its own won’t insulate Ghana from price dynamics. Domestic fuel prices remain linked to international benchmarks, meaning global oil shocks would continue to pass through to inflation.
Where refining could make a difference is on the financing side. It would lower demand for US dollars.
Weak storage infrastructure. Ghana has limited strategic storage capacity for petroleum products, reducing its ability to build reserves and manage supply over time. The country must rely on frequent imports to meet demand, increasing exposure to external supply and financing shocks.
An underdeveloped downstream petroleum sector. Beyond refining and storage, inefficiencies in the movement and sale of petroleum products constrain how effectively supply is managed within the domestic market. Distribution remains fragmented across importers, bulk distributors and retail outlets, with limited coordination and logistical bottlenecks in transportation and depot infrastructure. Regulatory rigidities in pricing and market participation further reduce flexibility. As a result, even when supply is available, it is not always efficiently allocated, and global price shocks are transmitted quickly and with limited buffering through the domestic economy.
What needs to be done
Four priorities now stand out.
First, recent gains must be consolidated through continued macroeconomic discipline and a firm avoidance of policy reversals.
Second, foreign-exchange buffers should be strengthened to better absorb future oil-price shocks and contain exchange-rate pressures.
Third, gold and foreign exchange strategies need to be integrated so that gold mobilisation directly reinforces external liquidity.
Finally, dependence on downstream imports must be reduced through credible investment in refining, storage and broader energy infrastructure.
The real test of Ghana’s fuel strategy is not whether it can withstand a single episode of oil-market volatility, but whether today’s stabilisation measures can be converted into a more resilient energy system.
Ishmael Tingbani does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Meta and Microsoft are the latest software companies to announce big cuts to their global workforce. Both companies are also making big investments in artificial intelligence (AI).
The link seems obvious. Meta’s chief people officer, Janelle Gale, said the job cuts – about 10% of staff or almost 8,000 workers – serve to “offset the other investments we’re making”. Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg has previously spoken about a “major AI acceleration” with spending in excess of US$115bn planned this year.
Microsoft is also betting big on AI. The company also just announced early retirement packages for about 7% of its US workforce.
What is happening here? How we understand these layoffs depends on what we think AI is, and what implications it will have. Broadly speaking, there are three ways of looking at it: that AI is superintelligence, that it’s mostly hype, and that it’s a useful tool.
The end of white-collar work?
In the first view, AI is emerging superintelligence. It is a new kind of mind, that learns, reasons, and will soon outperform humans at most cognitive tasks (hint: it’s not!).
The job losses are not just a corporate restructuring. They are an early tremor of something seismic.
In February 2026, AI entrepreneur Matt Shumer put this view vividly – comparing the current moment to the strange, quiet weeks before COVID-19 broke into global consciousness. Most people, he argued, haven’t yet realised we are facing an “intelligence explosion”.
The essay drew significant criticism. Commentators noted it contained little hard data and read at times like a pitch for Shumer’s company’s own AI products.
But it captured a genuine anxiety. Something real is happening in software engineering, at least, where tasks are well-defined and success is easy to verify.
But the leap to “all white-collar work will be automated” is a big one. The view that AI is a kind of universal mind that learns and improves itself is far-fetched.
And most professional work is far messier than coding: ambiguous briefs, competing stakeholder interests, outputs that are hard to verify, and shifting success criteria. Coding may be a canary in the coal mine, but coal mines and boardrooms are very different places.
Are tech companies winding back hiring sprees?
The second view sees the conversation around AI as mostly hype. AI is being invoked as cover. Companies that hired aggressively during the pandemic boom, and now face financial pressure, are blaming AI as the more palatable explanation.
For example, Meta announced in March it would shut down its Metaverse platform Horizon World by June. Reality Labs, the division developing the technology, employed 15,000 people as of January 2026.
We don’t know in detail the make-up of the present job cuts, so Meta may just be repackaging earlier failures as AI-driven productivity gains.
Another cynical reading suggests that laying off workers in the name of AI is a way to drive up stock prices. When Block invoked AI and cut nearly 4,000 roles, its stock jumped the following day.
Announce AI-driven layoffs and you may find investors reward you for being future-focused. It is a historically familiar trick: technology has repeatedly served as convenient cover for financial restructuring.
Are layoffs a way to make staff use AI?
The third view is more nuanced. It sees AI as a powerful tool, but one that companies will need to transform themselves to take advantage of.
This has implications for what jobs are needed and in what quantities. We think this view has the most merit.
On this reading, the tech leaders believe AI will change how software gets built. But they don’t know exactly how.
So they do what tech companies often do when faced with uncertainty: they create pressure. They cut headcount staff, expect those remaining to produce just as much as before, and force teams to find ways to meet those expectations using AI.
It’s not a bet that AI will do everything, but that the pressure will force humans to work out how to use AI to increase productivity.
This also lines up with industry experience. For example, Google chief executive Sundar Pichai claims a 10% increase in engineering speed from AI adoption across the company. This could tally with cuts of around 7–10% of total workforce for most of the mentioned companies.
What this means for knowledge workers
These three views are often presented as mutually exclusive. In practice, all three expectations exist simultaneously. The honest answer to “what is really happening here” is probably “a bit of everything”.
What is true is that software development tends to be an early indicator of broader shifts in knowledge work. Productivity benefits from AI are real for those who adopt it. Yet adoption is unevenly distributed, and lags in less technical industries.
In this context, the ability to understand AI and make good decisions about how and where to use it is becoming a baseline professional skill.
The workers most at risk are not necessarily those whose tasks can be replicated by AI. They are those who wait for pressure to arrive from outside rather than getting ahead of it now.
We will have answers to the question of whether AI is mostly hype or a useful tool in the next few years.
If Meta, Microsoft, and their peers rehire staff with different skills, redesign workflows, and emerge genuinely more capable, the case for useful AI looks good. If they simply pocket the payroll savings, the cynics were right.
If you want to know where tech companies are going, don’t look at what they cut – watch what they hire.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
President Donald Trump speaks at the White House on April 25, 2026, after the cancellation of the annual White House Correspondents Association Dinner.Andrew Leyden/Getty Images)
As the investigation into the shooting continues, Alfonso Serrano, The Conversation’s politics and society editor, spoke with James Piazza, a political violence scholar at Penn State, about what is driving the rise of political violence in the U.S. and what can be done about it.
This is not the first time Trump has faced political violence. What stands out after the latest attack?
I think the events of April 25 underscore how dangerous this political moment is in the United States. For the past several years – certainly since Jan. 6, 2021 – the U.S. has been experiencing a period of increased political violence, which is generally defined as violence that is motivated by politics or is intended to communicate a political message or achieve a political objective.
Law enforcement responds to an incident at the Washington Hilton during the White House Correspondents Dinner on April 25, 2026, in Washington. AP Photo/Allison Robbert
What’s driving that apparent plague of political violence afflicting the country?
There are several important drivers of political violence at work in the U.S. today, according to my own research and research by other scholars. The United States is currently very politically polarized, meaning that Americans are sharply divided against one another along partisan lines. They are suspicious and hostile toward one another, and this produces a tense and volatile environment for politics and public life. This has produced a “zero-sum” environment in which every election and political contest is a “do or die” moment.
Disinformation is also an important driver of political violence. A number of people who have engaged in recent acts of political violence seem to have been motivated by conspiracy theories and other forms of disinformation, often gleaned from social media. Disinformation plays a particularly important role in the context of social media communities, where people are exposed to large amounts of disinformation and are hermetically sealed off from other sources that might challenge their worldview. This facilitates radicalization and has been shown to fuel political violence in some cases.
Finally, I think an important factor is also the current assault on democratic norms and democratic institutions in the United States. U.S. democracy is experiencing pressures that are unprecedented in the modern era. This has had a very damaging effect on Americans’ trust in government, confidence in democratic institutions and value for democratic rule itself.
President Donald Trump takes questions at the White House on April 25, 2026, after a shooting incident at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
How does this moment of political violence stand out from other violent periods in U.S. history – are we in uncharted waters?
While the U.S. is currently experiencing an uptick in political violence, unfortunately it is not unprecedented. One example would be the highly polarized period in the 1850s in the run-up to the Civil War. In this era, there was a sharp division between abolitionists and advocates of slavery. This culminated in political assassinations, an assault on an abolitionist member of Congress by a pro-slavery member of Congress, and a bloody civil conflict in Kansas between pro- and anti-slavery armed groups.
Finally, the 1960s also saw a period of intense political violence surrounding opposition to the Vietnam War and backlash to the Civil Rights Movement.
Though there are some unique features about political violence today – namely the influence of social media – I think we can look for some parallels in these early periods of political violence.
Any last thoughts?
I believe it is absolutely critical that both Democratic and Republican politicians – politicians from all sides – unite to condemn this attack and all political violence. Political commentators and influencers can also condemn this and all use of political violence.
Research amply shows that what political elites – politicians, political leaders, media commentators, online influencers – say in the wake of these sorts of events has a huge effect on citizens’ attitudes. Political elites can adopt rhetoric that does not normalize this sort of behavior.
If the message comes from across the political spectrum, it will be that much more effective at reducing the public attitudes that nurture political violence.
James Piazza has received grants from the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State, a non-partisan research and public events center that sponsors research on democracy.
Capture d’écran du jeu *Fortnite*, produit par Epic Games.Whelsko/Flickr
Depuis les premiers jeux violents des années 1970, le débat sur l’impact des jeux vidéo divise : corrompent-ils ou éduquent-ils ? Notre recherche montre que la clé réside moins dans la violence elle-même que dans la manière dont les jeux, par leur design et leur narration, suscitent des émotions chez les joueurs – entre indifférence et prise de conscience morale.
Le 5 février 2026, lors d’une interview, le président de la République, Emmanuel Macron, a exprimé le fait que
Les jeux vidéo, a-t-il poursuivi, « où on descend tout le monde, dont Fortnite, c’est pas ça la vie, parce que ça déréalise le rapport à la violence ».
Suscitant l’indignation des gamers, la remarque présidentielle a relancé le débat sur les effets de la violence inhérente à de nombreux jeux sur les comportements des jeunes dans le monde réel. Certes, le chef de l’État a reconnu qu’il ne fallait pas mettre « tout dans le même sac » et que certains usages des jeux vidéo étaient « bons », comme l’atteste en effet toute une littérature en game studies autour des jeux historiques, persuasifs, pédagogiques ou encore ce qu’on appelle les jeux sérieux.
La question de la violence et de ses effets reste cependant en suspens lorsque l’on regarde de plus près la façon dont sont conçus les jeux de guerre. Notre hypothèse est que certains jeux peuvent générer de le violence, ou rendre indifférents à la violence, parce qu’ils mobilisent la figure du héros et qu’ils donnent la priorité à la dynamique ludique du jeu.
D’autres jeux, au contraire, sont capables de créer un design et un narratif qui incitent les joueurs à une véritable réflexion morale. Dans les deux cas, comme nous le suggérons dans notre ouvrage, Émotions et Jeux vidéo. Une approche comportementale et institutionnelle (Garnier Flammarion, 2026), ce sont les émotions ressenties et exprimées par les joueurs qui sont au cœur de la dynamique vidéoludique et de l’apprentissage moral.
Quand le divertissement efface l’éthique
Un jeu vidéo, c’est avant tout un savant mélange entre la définition de règles plus ou moins rigides (ce que l’on appelle le game) et une mécanique de jeu qui donne au joueur le plaisir (le fun) qu’il est venu y chercher (ce qu’on appelle le play). Dans tous les jeux, les concepteurs cherchent à maintenir un équilibre attractif entre les contraintes (induites par les règles) et la liberté d’action du joueur.
De la même façon, les concepteurs sont soucieux de trouver un équilibre entre l’expérience hédonique du joueur et ce qu’il apprend ou saisit au cours de cette expérience. L’« économie rétentionnelle » du jeu vidéo implique en particulier la mise en œuvre d’une interface vidéoludique (design, narration, cinématiques, etc.) qui suscite en permanence l’attention des joueurs, par l’intermédiaire notamment des mécanismes d’« amplification affective ». C’est ainsi, selon James Ash, chercheur en games studies, que lorsque « les variables [à saisir dans le jeu] sont trop nombreuses, le joueur est débordé et perd le sentiment de maîtrise ; à l’inverse, s’il n’y en a pas assez, il peut s’ennuyer faute de défis. »
En étudiant les jeux de guerre, qu’on appelle aussi des jeux de tir à la première personne – comme, par exemple, Call of Duty, Counter-Strike, Battlefield, Overwatch, Halo, Rainbow Six – les chercheurs en études vidéoludiques ont montré que ces jeux violents déforment la réalité de la guerre en recourant à des mécanismes de désengagement moral : justification et incitation systématique de la violence, mise en avant de la figure du héros, occultation des conséquences de la guerre, déshumanisation des ennemis, invisibilisation des victimes et des populations vulnérables (comme les femmes et les enfants).
Ces procédés – narratifs et ludiques – transforment la guerre en un divertissement sans ambiguïté morale. En évitant toute confrontation avec la complexité éthique des conflits réels (traumas, deuils, dilemmes), ces jeux banalisent la violence et réduisent l’empathie, tout en renforçant une vision simpliste du bien contre le mal. Le joueur ne tire aucune intuition morale de son expérience dans le jeu et passe à côté de la représentation de ce que serait une « guerre juste » dans laquelle les protagonistes respecteraient les normes humanitaires fixées par la Convention de Genève.
Jeux vidéo et responsabilité morale : l’exemple du phosphore blanc dans Spec Ops: The Line
Dans les jeux, la morale a tout d’abord été introduite en opposition à l’intérêt personnel du joueur. Par exemple, Papers, Please met les joueurs dans l’embarras en les confrontant à leur désir de poursuivre la progression dans le jeu qui s’oppose à la possibilité de venir en aide à l’un des personnages virtuels du jeu. Le dilemme moral est dit « impur », puisque le joueur a intérêt à ne pas secourir le personnage. Plus intéressante est la situation où l’intérêt ne rentre pas en ligne de compte comme c’est le cas dans l’effrayant Until Dawn où le joueur doit décider quel personnage virtuel il doit sacrifier, sans que cela ait une incidence sur sa progression dans le jeu.
Dans ces cas, le joueur fait face à un véritable dilemme moral. Apprend-il cependant quelque chose de son choix ?
Dans une version plus récente de Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, le joueur ne contrôle pas un soldat surentraîné (un héros) mais une enfant blessée, traumatisée, piégée dans un espace ravagé. En jouant notamment sur la mécanique du jeu (vitesse de déplacement réduite, absence d’armement, etc.) et sur l’impuissance de son personnage-joueur, cet épisode propose une expérience immersive qui favorise une prise de conscience empathique vis-à-vis des civils, réels ou fictionnels, dans les zones de conflits. Ces mises en situation peuvent ainsi faire naître chez le joueur une réflexion morale plus élaborée.
On peut cependant aller plus loin en évoquant le rôle central des jeux – comme Spec Ops: The Line ou This War of Mine – que l’on qualifie d’« anti-guerres », car ils cherchent à déconstruire la figure du héros et l’esthétisation de la guerre en mettant en scène la souffrance humaine, en provoquant un inconfort volontaire chez le joueur et en refusant de récompenser la violence dans le jeu.
Dans Spec Ops: The Line, la mécanique du jeu oblige le personnage-joueur à commettre une atrocité (lorsqu’il utilise le phosphore pour vaincre des ennemis et qu’il tue, par ricochet, des civils innocents) puis l’accuse par l’intermédiaire d’un personnage non joueur (ou PNJ) lorsque ce dernier le met face aux conséquences de son action et de sa responsabilité :
Violence et jeux vidéo : le design comme levier de la sensibilité morale
Résumons. D’un côté, on trouve des joueurs incités à mimer la violence ou a minima rendus indifférents à la violence dans des jeux de guerre standards. De l’autre, des participants qui font une expérience sensible de la guerre et qui peuvent en retirer une portée morale. L’hypothèse que nous développons de façon extensive dans notre ouvrage est que l’expression de la sensibilité du joueur dépend de façon cruciale du contexte dans lequel il est plongé. Les effets de la violence dans le jeu dépendent en conséquence principalement du design imaginé et produit pas les concepteurs et les développeurs.
Le travail effectué par la chercheuse en études vidéoludiques Stéphanie de Smale et ses collègues vient interroger la logique morale et émotionnelle du jeu du point de vue des concepteurs de This War of Mine. Pour ces derniers, « humaniser l’expérience de la guerre » implique que les joueurs ne perçoivent plus les personnages non joueurs comme de simples ressources, mais bien comme des êtres humains. Le design doit aussi intégrer délibérément des moments d’inconfort (et donc des émotions à valence négative comme le dégoût, la tristesse, la peur, la culpabilité ou la colère). La présence d’enfants sur le champ de bataille, par exemple, vise à susciter de la confusion, voire de l’indignation (« Ils ne devraient pas être là ! »).
Le récit, les potentialités offertes par le jeu (mécaniques, interactions) ainsi que le langage et les expressions corporelles des personnages non joueurs doivent conjuguer leurs effets pour éveiller la sensibilité morale des joueurs. En dehors des nombreux témoignages des joueurs et des développeurs, il est difficile d’établir un lien empirique entre inconfort et moralité. On peut cependant mesurer le fait que des situations stressantes dans un jeu comme Nevermind activent sur le plan physiologique des émotions à valence négative. Dès lors, ces émotions peuvent inciter à des actions morales.
Par ailleurs, la création d’un monde adverse, même virtuel, est susceptible d’exposer les concepteurs du jeu eux-mêmes à une forme d’apathie structurelle ou « d’engourdissement émotionnel ». Pour s’en protéger, ceux-ci font appel à des joueurs pour tester le jeu à différentes étapes du processus créatif, évitant ainsi une forme de désensibilisation face à un gameplay émotionnellement éprouvant. Face à une situation répétée de violence, même virtuelle, les individus peuvent chercher à se protéger en adoptant une forme de déni, comme le font par exemple, les modérateurs sur les réseaux sociaux.
On peut ainsi conclure que l’impact réel de la violence dans les jeux vidéo n’est nullement le fruit du hasard. Il dépend, comme le souligne Holger Pötzsch, chercheur en game studies, de la façon dont sont représentées, cachées ou filtrées les formes (réalistes ou non) de la violence, de la manière dont le personnage-joueur incarne (ou non) une idéologie masculiniste héroïcisée, des conséquences tangibles des actions qu’il est amené à poursuive et, enfin, de l’acuité et de la véracité des dilemmes moraux auxquels il est soumis. Ces différents filtres interrogent en ce sens directement la responsabilité des concepteurs au travers de ce qu’ils proposent dans les jeux mis sur le marché.
Emmanuel Petit ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.
Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Li-elle Rapaport, Doctoral Student and Private Practice Therapist, Department of Psychology, University of Manitoba
And so psychologists have begun asking: “How do we stay connected to the here and now, and to each other?”
One facet of self-compassion theory — a concept developed by psychologist Kristin Neff that dictates treating ourselves with the same care and understanding as we would our friends — may hold the answer. “Common humanity” promotes the recognition that we are, in fact, not alone since all humans share the same fundamental experiences, emotions and struggles.
The loneliness epidemic
To begin finding a solution to social disconnectedness, it’s important to understand the vehicles that drive it. A 2024 Statistics Canada survey found more than one in 10 Canadians report often or always feeling lonely, a finding that aligns with psychological research on rising social isolation.
Technology, AI and algorithms divide and capture human attention, often limiting exposure to interactions or varied points of view and perspectives. A study by clinical and social psychologists suggests that the motivation to escape everyday life and experience social gratification reinforces the relationship between mental health and AI dependence, especially for people with mental illness.
The more attention spent in the digital world, the less is available to spend with one another.
It’s easy to fall into a pattern of pessimism as we observe technology shifts toward automated entry-level jobs, addictive doomscrolling and students submitting AI-generated homework. These negative emotions, the attention we spend on them and the frustration we feel with ourselves for having these emotions can perpetuate a cycle of self-isolation.
Self-compassion and common humanity are evidence-based tools that can help stop this cycle by shifting attention back to what is important: each other.
Self-compassion and common humanity
According to Kristin Neff, an American education psychology scholar, self-compassion functions on three key tenets: self-kindness versus self-judgment, common humanity versus self-isolation and mindfulness versus over-identification.
Each facet emphasizes intentionality in our actions, both toward ourselves and others.
At its core, mindful self-compassion’s concept of common humanity is the belief that we are connected by familiar human experiences. Personal suffering is part of a shared human condition, for example, and in accepting this truth, we reduce self-judgment and weaken the tendency toward social withdrawal.
Research shows that self-compassion can be exercised like a muscle through interventions that shift awareness of our personal experiences to how these experiences connect us with others.
Appealing to the humanness of our present experiences reduces feelings of isolation and self-judgment and increases life satisfaction. Common humanity addresses our basic human need to belong.
Feeling down about not having plans with others this weekend? You’re not alone in this struggle. It is uniquely human to feel alone and want to self-soothe with a scroll on TikTok. Knowing this, it might be time to take the first step and reach out to that friend and invite them over.
From theory to practice
Demonstrating the principles of self-compassion and common humanity in the presence of others can create a positive feedback cycle. Three action-based practices help exercise control over our attention, centre community, empathize and attend to our “why.”
Invest in community. Allowing technology to seep into all corners of life is not inevitable. Self-compassion teaches that while this is human, we have the power to change our actions as an act of compassion. It is our choice to bring our attention back to the present.
This may mean making an explicit choice to unplug instead of following the urge to respond; leaning into sharing imperfect experiences and mutual not-knowing; talking something through instead of Googling it immediately; practising collaboration over outsourcing thinking.
Practise empathy. Excessive tech or AI use can leave us feeling depleted and disconnected. In order to interrupt the cycle of overusing technology, notice these emotions without judgment rather than feeling guilt and avoiding the guilt through more tech use.
To ground yourself, ask: “What do I need right now?” You may find your response involves uniquely human experiences: food, a cup of tea, calling a parent, fresh air or a walk.
Centre your ‘why.’ Think about why you choose to connect with others. Centre this “why” in your day-to-day life.
If you notice yourself opting for AI to write an email, pause for a moment and notice this reflex. It is human to seek shortcuts to preserve energy. Consider what you might gain from writing that email yourself. Notice any discomfort. Know that it’s human to feel it, and choose to write it yourself anyway. Theory suggests you might feel more connected to your people and to your own humanness in the process.
In this context, self-compassion functions as a psychological counterweight to the isolating tendencies of digital life. It helps reorient attention away from performance and productivity and back toward shared human experiences.
Li-elle Rapaport does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Rising global temperatures and air pollution are making it physically harder and unsafe to run outdoors, and some of the digital tools that many runners rely on carry their own environmental costs.(Unsplash/Fellipe Ditadi)
If it feels like everyone around you (physically and digitally) has taken up an affair with running in the past few years, you’re not imagining it. Since 2023, running has been the most uploaded activity on the exercise app Strava, according to their annual Year in Sport reports from 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Strava’s 2023 Trend Report noted that: 75 per cent of athletes said extreme heat affected their exercise plans, while poor air quality affected 27 per cent. We now have to reckon with the reality that, due to warming temperatures, running will become less accessible and safe.
Add to that the rise of “runfluencers,” running fashion trends and a new market of consumer products designed to help runners cope with heat, and it becomes increasingly clear that the relationship between running, climate change and consumption is wickedly ironic.
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For those keen to hit new personal bests, running in hotter conditions can impair performance. For example, an analysis of race data uploaded to Strava identified the average finishing time of the New York City Marathon was approximately 12 minutes slower in 2022 — when the temperature was 23C (plus humidity) — compared to 2021, when temperatures were around 13C.
And that’s just a few of the temperature-related risks associated with summer running. In addition to extreme heat exposure, the safety of summer running is also compromised by smoke and poor air quality.
Runfluencer culture
In addition to the climate-driven shifts affecting our daily jogs, the recent running boom and surrounding culture is also shifting how we run.
As runners adapt to rising heat, poor air quality and smoke-filled summers, the pressure to buy, track and optimize intensifies, further entangling running with the very environmental forces that threaten it.
If your social media algorithm is anything like ours, you might have noticed some targeted ads and sponsored content from “runfluencers” highlighting their new favourite running-related products and apps, such as Runna, a British-based coaching app known for its personalized training plans and AI-assisted pacing.
Runna was first launched in 2022, and its online presence jumped significantly after the app was acquired by Strava in April 2025.
Apps like these can help provide structure and prepare for races. However, they have also faced criticism, with experts noting concerns about the intensity of the AI-assisted training plans in regard to training spikes and risk of overuse injuries. Runna has said they “don’t use AI to generate training plans” but to “monitor a runner’s progress throughout their plan.”
While these apps promise efficiency and personalization, they are part of a wider digital infrastructure with their own environmental footprint. GPS tracking, constant data uploads, cloud storage and AI-assisted analysis all rely on energy-intensive data centres.
As running culture becomes more data-driven and automated, even a traditionally low-impact activity becomes entangled with the emissions and the energy demands of digital technology.
Beyond apps, runfluencers are also using their platforms to share their running esthetic — trying out new shoes, participating in the latest running fashion trends and showing off race day outfits.
That, in turn, promotes a culture that normalizes over-consumption under the guise of self-improvement and dramatically increases the environmental cost of what should be a low-impact activity. Such a focus can make running feel less appealing and appear less accessible.
Staying safe on a run
If you are someone with the flexibility to choose when you participate in races, consider pivoting to springtime training rather than slogging through increasingly risky summer training blocks. Not only will your training runs leading up to the race be cooler, but you can also expect more optimal marathon temperatures (2 to 13C) on race day.
For example, in the Canadian province of Ontario, races like the Mississauga Marathon in April and Toronto’s Sporting Life 10K in May offer runners safer racing temperatures and, potentially, improved performance compared to summer training and fall races.
Think about how you engage with running culture and be a smart consumer. Avoid over-consuming products and programs that you don’t need. Remember, running is one of the most accessible forms of exercise we have. You don’t need a bunch of gear and apps to participate.
As climate change intensifies and summer temperatures continue to rise, running will become less safe on hot days. Runfluencer culture and over-consumption in running fashion are dramatically increasing the environmental cost of what should be a low-impact activity.
To counter these trends, opt for spring races, listen to your body, seek advice from human coaches and pick durable gear over following the latest fashions.
These choices matter not because individual runners are to blame, but because they push back against a running culture that increasingly equates health with optimization, constant consumption and digital surveillance, even as climate change makes the sport itself more precarious.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Nonetheless, legislative and policy shift in multiple provinces in the past year threaten this principle — with little meaningful political resistance. It is important to closely examine the conditions and public narratives that have made this renewed use of psychiatric coercion possible.
In all four provinces, professionals operating within these coercive frameworks are afforded immunity from legal proceedings.
‘Compassionate intervention’
These examples highlight an acceleration in overt coercive intervention provisions being added to provincial mental health and addictions legislation.
This acceleration, however, is simply a continuation of mental health and addictions legislation across Canada that makes it easier for citizens to be detained, treated and controlled without their consent (for example, Brian’s Law in Ontario, the Nunavut Mental Health Act and the Maureen Breau Act in Québec).
Across Alberta, Manitoba, British Columbia and Québec, parliamentary debates and media coverage consistently portray coercive intervention for addiction and mental health as an act of compassionate intervention.
Even governments with differing ideological orientations — like the NDP versus the Conservatives — converge around the argument that the state has a moral obligation to “protect the most vulnerable.”
Media coverage amplifies this messaging, emphasizing crisis conditions, public disorder and the visible consequences of addiction or mental health. This coverage legitimizes the need for new legal tools.
Coercion is articulated as care and involuntary treatment is presented not as a restriction of liberty but as a necessary response to incapacityand risk.
This appeal to compassion functions as a unifying political language, enabling cross-partisan support despite differing ideological stances.
By portraying these policies as pragmatic, humane and long overdue, policymakers limit opposition. They also reconfigure the boundaries of acceptable state intervention, illustrating how compassion can be mobilized to normalize coercion. After all, who could be against compassion?
Furthermore, this compassion-focused public discourse — and the legislation flowing from it — greatly expands the role of policing in medical matters, often with few limits. At the same time, it extends the reach of medicine and social services into policing.
It also signals a modern return of the asylum — not as a single institution, but as a system of confinement, surveillance and control spread across multiple sectors. Indeed, despite being presented as new, recent and proposed legislative changes are anything but. Forced detention, incarceration and treatment reflect older, deeply rooted correctional approaches with origins dating back at least to the 17th century.
These legislative developments do not suggest a novel policy response. Instead, they reconfigure longstanding patterns of confinement and control under the guise of compassion. If left unchallenged, they will normalize coercion as care and erode fundamental rights in the name of protection.
Canadian legislators should resist responding to complex social and health crises with coercive measures that lack a sound scientific basis and risk doing more harm than good.
Jean-Laurent Domingue is a Registered Nurse in Ontario, and receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Law Commission of Canada.
Axel Ounis is affiliated with the federal liberal party.
Emmanuelle Bernheim receives funding from the Canada Research Chair program, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Law Commission of Canada.
Most Canadians have had relatively little experience with major economic downturns. Since the early 1990s, Canada has largely been spared the boom-and-bust cycles common in the United States. The country avoided the worst of the 2008 global financial crisis, and until COVID-19, had not experienced a major economic shock in a generation.
In that long stretch of time, Canadians have grown accustomed to relative stability, which makes the current moment feel especially disorienting. We are, as the saying goes, living in “interesting times,” and that is rarely good news for prices, employment prospects, government budgets, business investment or productivity.
This ongoing economic angst has several overlapping sources that are both global and domestic in nature.
Geopolitical conflicts, including the ongoing war involving the United States, Israel and Iran, are increasing the costs of everyday items like food and gas. These disruptions ripple through global supply chains, feeding into higher input costs for Canadian businesses and, ultimately, higher prices for consumers.
At the same time, tariff disputes led by the U.S. are causing inflationary pressure and discouraging long-term business investment. This, in turn, weighs on productivity and wage growth.
Some governments have responded to these shocks with industrial policies, attempting to support or protect specific sectors such as clean energy, manufacturing or technology. However, some economists warn against this approach, arguing that governments cannot reliably “pick winners” better than markets can.
Political fault lines are also contributing to uncertainty at home. Rising anti-immigration sentiment and the separatist rhetoric in Alberta are adding another layer of social turbulence. Without a social consensus, economic planning becomes more difficult and volatility often follows.
Canada’s safety net has limits
Canada does retain an important advantage: its social safety net. Canada spends roughly 18 to 20 per cent of GDP on public social programs — around the the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average. That’s below the levels of France, Germany and most Scandinavian countries, but meaningfully above the United States.
Canadians have access to relatively accessible employment insurance by North American standards. The country’s combination of publicly funded health care and income support programs provides important protection during periods of disruption that American households do not have.
Economic theory identifies three ways households can build resilience against a negative income or wealth shock. The first is cutting back spending. This includes spending on both durable goods (such as vehicles or appliances) and non-durable goods (anything with a short lifespan). This can involve delaying large purchases or scaling back discretionary expenses like dining out, travel or subscription services.
The second is shifting spending to lower-cost alternatives, even within the “needs” category. Households rarely have complete flexibility to cut essentials, but they can often substitute within them. This can involve switching to lower-cost brands, using public transit more frequently or seeking more affordable housing options where feasible.
The third — the toughest one of all — is aggressively reducing unsecured debt. Canadian households owe roughly $1.77 for every dollar of disposable income, the highest household debt burden in the G7. Much of that is mortgage debt, which at least builds equity. But revolving debt — credit cards, lines of credit, car loans and the like — carries higher interest rates and greater risk.
Households can do this by paying down the highest-interest balances first, consolidating debts into lower-interest products where possible or redirecting windfalls such as tax refunds toward repayment. Avoiding the accumulation of new high-interest debt is equally important.
Building a buffer
Once those balances are under control, households should build a financial buffer and maintain it even if the economic outlook improves.
A common guideline is saving three to six months of household expenses in case of an emergency. This typically requires setting aside 20 per cent or more of take-home income, depending on household circumstances and obligations.
Canadians have access to several tax-advantaged tools to support this process. The Tax-free Savings Account allows tax-free growth with no restrictions on withdrawals, while the First Home Savings Account offers first-time homebuyers an annual contribution room of $8,000 and a lifetime cap of $40,000. The Registered Education Savings Plan helps families save for post-secondary education.
If you are able to consistently put away funds and invest them based on your risk tolerance, these accounts can significantly improve long-term financial resilience.
Income risk in a changing economy
The harder challenge, of course, is income stability in an age of uncertainty. Canada is primarily a natural resources exporter, and rapid technological change — particularly the rise of artificial intelligence — is reshaping labour markets across other sectors.
Workers face growing uncertainty about which skills will remain valuable and how stable their employment will be.
Because of this, households may need to get creative about diversifying their income sources. This can include investing in additional training or certification programs, developing side income through freelance or contract work, monetizing existing skills through consulting, or building small entrepreneurial ventures.
The current period is unsettling. But households that reduce their debt exposure, build savings and treat the safety net as the partial buffer it actually is will be in a better position to absorb whatever comes next.
Chetan Dave does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
