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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

Psychology News Robot
DATE:
February 18, 2024 at 12:27AM
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TITLE:
GOP Candidates Use Anti-Transgender Messages in Appeal to Conservatives
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URL:
http://www.socialpsychology.org/client/redirect.php?from=rss_feed&id=177506&url=https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2024-02-18/gop-candidates-elevate-anti-transgender-messaging-as-a-rallying-call-to-christian-conservatives

<div><p>Source: <a href="http://www.usnews.com/" rel="tag" target="_blank">U.S. News and World Report</a></p>In the U.S., anti-transgender campaign messages have become a rallying call to win the support of Christian conservatives. Thousands of people in South Carolina roared when Donald Trump promised to cut federal funding on &quot;Day 1&quot; for schools pushing what he called &quot;transgender insanity&quot; onto children. &quot;And I can't even believe I have to say it, but I do,&quot; Trump told the crowd this month. &quot;I will keep men out of women's sports.&quot;</div><h6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></h6><br /><a href="https://www.socialpsychology.org/client/redirect.php?action=rssHomepage" target="_blank"><img title="Brought to you by Social Psychology Network" alt="Brought to you by SocialPsychology Network" src="https://www.socialpsychology.org/images/rss-footer-large.png" border="0" width="400" height="45" /></a><br><br>
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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

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DATE:
February 18, 2024 at 12:00PM
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TITLE:
Economic inequality fuels desire for wealth and status, reveals global study
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URL:
https://www.psypost.org/economic-inequality-fuels-desire-for-wealth-and-status-reveals-global-study/

<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672221083747"><em>Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin</em></a> published a study its June 2023 issue in which researchers discovered that higher levels of economic inequality significantly increase individuals&#8217; desires for wealth and status. This effect, evident across different social classes, stems from varying motivations such as self-improvement concerns among the less affluent, and social comparison concerns among the more affluent.</p>
<p>The concept of economic inequality has long intrigued social scientists. Defined as the unequal distribution of wealth and income, economic inequality has been linked to numerous societal issues, including health disparities, reduced happiness, and lower social cohesion. Prior research has primarily focused on these outcomes while leaving a gap in understanding of how inequality affects individuals&#8217; psychological desires. The present study aimed to bridge this gap, and uses straightforward methods to explore how people from various backgrounds respond to economic inequality.</p>
<p>The goal of the research was to examine the direct effects of economic inequality on peopleʼs desires for wealth and status. Noting a scarcity of direct empirical investigations in this area, the study wanted to unpack the underlying psychological dynamics driving these desires in the face of growing economic disparities. Namely, if these desires vary across social classes, aiming to contribute to the broader discussion on the implications of inequality for individual behavior and societal cohesion.</p>
<p>To tackle these questions, the study employed a two-pronged methodological approach. First, it used experimental designs to manipulate perceptions of inequality among participants, creating scenarios of high and low economic disparity. Across three studies, 142,394 total participants were recruited from Amazonʼs Mechanical Turk.</p>
<p>Through these studies, researchers were able to observe changes in desires for wealth and status in controlled conditions. Additionally, a large-scale correlational analysis of data from 73 countries provided real-world context, examining the relationship between actual economic inequality and individuals&#8217; desires. By combining these methods, the study offered a comprehensive look at the effects of perceived and actual inequality on peopleʼs psychological states across different cultures and societal structures.</p>
<p>The findings revealed a clear pattern: higher economic inequality intensifies the desire for wealth and status across the board. However, the motivations behind these desires differ by social class. For individuals in lower economic brackets, the drive for more wealth and status is rooted in a desire for self-improvement—to overcome the challenges posed by inequality. In contrast, for those in higher economic positions, the pursuit of wealth and status is motivated by the desire to maintain or enhance their social standing relative to others.</p>
<p>These nuanced insights highlight a societal restlessness, where both the affluent and the less affluent feel compelled to seek financial and social advancement, albeit for different reasons.</p>
<p>Still, despite its findings, the study acknowledges certain limitations. The reliance on self-reported measures to assess desires might introduce biases, as participants could respond in ways they perceive as socially desirable or lack complete self-awareness of their motivations. This, and the experimental scenarios, while carefully designed to mimic real-world conditions of inequality, might not fully capture the complexity of individuals&#8217; experiences and responses to actual economic disparities.</p>
<p>Zhechen Wang, Jolanda Jetten, and Niklas Steffens at Fudan University and the University of Queensland authored the present study, titled “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/01461672221083747">Restless in an Unequal World: Economic Inequality Fuels the Desire for Wealth and Status</a>.ˮ</p>

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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

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DATE:
February 18, 2024 at 08:00AM
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TITLE:
Children living in surroundings with more greenspace tend to have lower anxiety, study finds
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URL:
https://www.psypost.org/psychology-children-living-in-surroundings-with-more-greenspace-tend-to-have-lower-anxiety-study-finds/

<p>A study in Spain found that children who had more greenspace surrounding their home and school tended to have lower levels of anxiety. Increasing children’s exposure to greenspaces might promote mental health in youth. The paper was published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2023.102207"><em>Journal of Environmental Psychology</em></a>.</p>
<p>Mental health refers to a state of well-being in which an individual can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively, and is able to make a contribution to their community. The most common mental health issues in children include anxiety disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and behavior disorders such as oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and conduct disorder (CD). Depression and autism spectrum disorders (ASD) also significantly affect children&#8217;s mental health and development.</p>
<p>Studies have firmly established that many mental health issues in adulthood have their origin in the developmental period which is childhood. This is the reason why it is important to know what happens in these early years of life that is relevant for mental health, but also how to promote mental health in children and prevent the development of mental health disorders.</p>
<p>Previous research has demonstrated that environmental factors are pivotal in both the development of psychopathology and the preservation of mental health. Among these factors, the presence of green space in children&#8217;s environments has garnered significant interest from researchers.</p>
<p>Greenspace are areas of vegetation within urban environments, such as parks, gardens, and natural landscapes, which are set aside for recreational and aesthetic purposes. These spaces provide ecological benefits, improve air quality, and offer residents opportunities for outdoor activities and relaxation. Studies emphasize the importance of these spaces for the mental health of individuals residing nearby.</p>
<p>Study authors Núria de la Osa and her colleagues wanted to examine the association between long-term exposure to greenspace at school and at home and anxiety in preschool children and preadolescents. They conducted their study in Barcelona, a province located on the northeastern coast of Spain. Barcelona is the capital of the autonomous region of Catalonia, and is the second most populated city in Spain. The city has one of the highest population densities and air pollution levels in Europe.</p>
<p>The study involved 622 children and their families, participating in a longitudinal study on psychopathology risk factors from the age of 3. Over a 9-year period, researchers visited the families four times—when the children were aged 3, between 4-8, at 9, and at 10-11 years old—to measure the green space near the children’s homes and schools.</p>
<p>They used satellite imagery to determine the amount of green space and its proximity. During these visits, researchers also evaluated the children&#8217;s anxiety symptoms using age-appropriate assessment tools (the Child Behavior Checklist, the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale for Parents, and the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale).</p>
<p>The findings indicated a correlation between proximity to green space and its abundance: the more green space available, the closer the nearest green space was. Additionally, children with greater exposure to green space exhibited fewer anxiety symptoms. This correlation persisted across different measures of exposure to green space and various assessments of anxiety, with a more pronounced association observed in children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.</p>
<p>The study authors concluded, &#8220;Our study of children followed over a 9-year period between preschool and preadolescence showed that higher surrounding greenspace at home and school was associated with less anxiety symptoms. We also found indications for a stronger association for children with lower SES [socioeconomic status]. These findings, if confirmed by future studies, call for considering the inclusion of adequate levels of greenspace in the neighborhoods as well as schools to promote mental health in urban children.&#8221;</p>
<p>The study sheds light on the links between environment and mental health. However, it is important to note that the study&#8217;s design does not allow for causal inferences. While it is plausible that green space benefits mental health, it is also possible that families with better mental health are more likely to choose or afford living environments with more green space.</p>
<p>The paper, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2023.102207">”Long-term exposure to greenspace and anxiety from preschool and primary school children,</a>” was authored by Núria de la Osa, Jose-Blas Navarro, Eva Penelo, Antonia Valentí, Lourdes Ezpeleta, Payam Dadvand.</p>

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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

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DATE:
February 18, 2024 at 06:00AM
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TITLE:
Unlocking the mysteries of psychedelics: The remarkable dual effect of psilocybin revealed in new study
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URL:
https://www.psypost.org/unlocking-the-mysteries-of-psychedelics-the-remarkable-dual-effect-of-psilocybin-revealed-in-new-study/

<p>New research published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-023-02391-7"><em>Molecular Psychiatry</em></a> provides insight into how psilocybin, a compound found in psychedelic &#8220;magic&#8221; mushrooms, influences the brain and behavior. By observing the effects of psilocybin on larval zebrafish, scientists uncovered that it not only stimulates exploratory behavior but also buffers against stress-induced changes in activity patterns.</p>
<p>This investigation sheds light on the complex interplay between psychedelic compounds and the serotonergic system — the part of the brain that helps regulate mood, anxiety, and happiness.</p>
<h3>What is Psilocybin, and Why Focus on It?</h3>
<p>Psilocybin is a naturally occurring psychedelic compound found in certain species of mushrooms, renowned for its ability to induce profound changes in perception, mood, and thought. It operates primarily by activating serotonin receptors in the brain, particularly those in regions involved with mood regulation and perception.</p>
<p>This substance has been the subject of increasing scientific interest, especially in the field of psychiatry, due to its potential to offer therapeutic benefits for a range of mood-related disorders. Unlike traditional antidepressants, which often take weeks to show effects and come with various side effects, research suggests that psilocybin might provide rapid and lasting relief after just a few doses.</p>
<p>But how does this compound work in the brain? To answer this question, researchers turned to larval zebrafish. The choice of zebrafish stems from their transparent bodies and the remarkable similarity of their serotonergic system to that of humans, which makes them an invaluable tool for studying brain activity and behavior in response to pharmacological treatments.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our laboratory mainly studies the functions of the endogenous serotonergic systems in the brain, which is not easy to study in mammals but is more accessible in fish,&#8221; said study author <a href="https://www.weizmann.ac.il/brain-sciences/labs/kawashima/home" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Takashi Kawashima</a>, an assistant professor in the Department of Brain Sciences at Weizmann Institute of Science. &#8220;Hence, the recent psychedelic boom in psychiatry naturally caught our attention. Psychedelics act on serotonin receptors, and we thought we might be able to contribute some basic research insight from our background of serotonin research.&#8221;</p>
<h3>The Research Methodology</h3>
<p>For their study, the researchers developed a high-resolution tracking system specifically developed to monitor the movements and behaviors of these tiny aquatic creatures in a controlled environment. The system was capable of capturing the nuanced body kinematics of zebrafish larvae with extraordinary detail, thanks to a custom-built setup featuring a high-speed camera and specialized lighting. This allowed for the precise observation of spontaneous exploration behaviors and responses to visual stimuli, which are critical for understanding the innate and drug-induced behavioral patterns of zebrafish.</p>
<p>To assess the impact of psilocybin, researchers conducted a series of experiments where larval zebrafish were exposed to varying concentrations of the compound, as well as to other pharmacological treatments for comparison, including traditional antidepressants (SSRIs). The experimental design also incorporated stress-inducing conditions, such as changes in water temperature, to evaluate how psilocybin influenced stress-related behaviors</p>
<h3>The Findings: Psilocybin&#8217;s Dual Effects</h3>
<p>The study revealed that psilocybin had a dual effect on larval zebrafish: it enhanced spontaneous exploration but also shielded against stress-induced behavioral disruptions.</p>
<p>Psilocybin-treated zebrafish demonstrated a marked increase in spontaneous movement and exploration, suggesting a stimulatory effect of the compound on these behaviors. Furthermore, when subjected to stress, these same fish maintained normal swimming patterns, in stark contrast to the erratic &#8220;zig-zag&#8221; movements observed in control fish under similar conditions. This indicated a significant anxiolytic effect, with psilocybin helping to mitigate the behavioral manifestations of stress.</p>
<p>&#8220;The action of psychedelics has been mostly studied in the cognitive domains of brain functions,&#8221; Kawashima told PsyPost. &#8220;However, we found that psychedelics is at least acutely anxiolytic in fish, which shares evolutionarily old structures with humans. This indicates that psychedelics may also modulate a primitive functionality of the brain.&#8221;</p>
<p>Through behavioral analyses, the study also revealed that psilocybin&#8217;s effects were distinct from those of traditional antidepressants, which tended to suppress overall movement rather than stimulate exploratory behavior.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are very surprised by the dramatic, visible effects of psilocybin in fish,&#8221; Kawashima said. &#8220;Behavioral phenotypes in these types of model organisms are usually subtle and bar graphs. We did quantify the effects using cutting-edge machine-learning algorithms. Nonetheless, I can easily explain our findings, how the fish change their trajectories under stress and psilocybin, to our preschool daughters.&#8221;</p>
<p>Further analysis showed that psilocybin&#8217;s impact extends deep into the brain&#8217;s serotonergic system, specifically affecting the dorsal raphe nucleus, a key area involved in mood regulation. Here, psilocybin appeared to suppress the activity of serotonergic neurons, offering a clue to its calming effect on stress-induced behaviors.</p>
<h3>Limitations and Future Directions</h3>
<p>While the findings from this study are compelling, they also highlight the complexity of psilocybin&#8217;s actions and the need for further research. The larval zebrafish model, though powerful, is a simplified system. Human brains are vastly more complex, and how these findings translate to humans remains to be fully understood.</p>
<p>&#8220;First and foremost, this is a study of fish behavior,&#8221; Kawashima explained. &#8220;I studied medicine before turning into a basic researcher and am cautious about direct translation into clinical insights. Second, we haven’t demonstrated persistent effects of psychedelics that last for weeks and months, which is the most interesting clinical finding in humans. We are working on this.&#8221;</p>
<p>Future research will need to explore the long-term effects of psilocybin, its efficacy across different types of stressors and mood disorders, and its potential side effects. Additionally, studies will benefit from incorporating more advanced imaging techniques to observe changes in neural activity and connectivity in real-time, providing a more detailed map of psilocybin&#8217;s impact on the brain.</p>
<p>This study is a step toward demystifying the mechanisms behind psilocybin&#8217;s promising effects on mood and behavior. By leveraging the simplicity of the zebrafish model, researchers have begun to unravel the intricate dance between psychedelic compounds and the brain&#8217;s serotonergic system.</p>
<p>&#8220;Zebrafish’s brain is entirely accessible for methodologies of circuit studies in neuroscience,&#8221; Kawashima added. &#8220;We intend to clarify which part of the serotonin system psilocybin acts on using whole-brain neural activity imaging that we have expertise in. Also, zebrafish have been used at the first level of drug screening for various biomedical goals. We hope our machine learning approach will advance such industrial aspects of zebrafish use.&#8221;</p>
<p>The study, &#8220;<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-023-02391-7">High-resolution tracking of unconfined zebrafish behavior reveals stimulatory and anxiolytic effects of psilocybin</a>,&#8221; was authored by Dotan Braun, Ayelet M. Rosenberg, Elad Rabaniam, Ravid Haruvi, Dorel Malamud, Rani Barbara, Tomer Aiznkot, Berta Levavi-Sivan, and Takashi Kawashima.</p>

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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

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DATE:
February 17, 2024 at 02:00PM
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TITLE:
Ancient viruses emerge as unexpected heroes in vertebrate brain evolution
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URL:
https://www.psypost.org/neuroscience-ancient-viruses-ermge-as-unexpected-heroes-in-vertebrate-brain-evolution/

<p>Scientists have uncovered a fascinating link between ancient viruses and the development of myelination, the biological process crucial for the advanced functioning of the nervous system in vertebrates, including humans. This discovery sheds light on the evolutionary puzzle of how complex brains and sophisticated nervous systems evolved in animals.</p>
<p>The researchers have identified a genetic element, named &#8220;RetroMyelin,&#8221; derived from retroviruses, as essential for the production of myelin in a broad range of vertebrates, including mammals, amphibians, and fish. This finding, published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(24)00013-8"><em>Cell</em></a>, suggests that the intrusion of viral sequences into the genomes of early vertebrates was a pivotal step in the evolution of myelination, thereby enabling the development of complex brains and diverse vertebrate life.</p>
<p>Myelination is the process by which nerve fibers are wrapped in a fatty insulating sheath called myelin. This sheath is critical for the rapid transmission of electrical signals along nerve cells, facilitating efficient communication within the nervous system. Myelin not only speeds up signal transmission but also provides metabolic support to nerve fibers, allowing them to extend over long distances without losing signal strength.</p>
<p>The advent of myelination was a significant evolutionary development, coinciding with the emergence of jaws in vertebrates. This evolutionary milestone enabled the compact packing of nerve fibers and the emergence of complex nervous systems, underpinning the vast diversity and adaptability of vertebrate species.</p>
<p>Driven by curiosity about how myelination first emerged in vertebrates, a team led by neuroscientist Robin Franklin at Altos Labs-Cambridge Institute of Science embarked on a journey to explore the molecular underpinnings of this process.</p>
<p>&#8220;Retroviruses were required for vertebrate evolution to take off,&#8221; Franklin explained. &#8220;If we didn’t have retroviruses sticking their sequences into the vertebrate genome, then myelination wouldn’t have happened, and without myelination, the whole diversity of vertebrates as we know it would never have happened.&#8221;</p>
<p>They focused on the role of retrotransposons, fragments of DNA derived from ancient viruses that have integrated into the genome of host organisms over millions of years. These genetic elements, making up a significant portion of the genome, have long been speculated to play a role in evolutionary development, yet their contribution to specific physiological traits like myelination remained unexplored until now.</p>
<p>&#8220;Retrotransposons compose about 40% of our genomes, but nothing is known about how they might have helped animals acquire specific characteristics during evolution,” said first author Tanay Ghosh, a computational biologist at Altos Labs-Cambridge Institute of Science. “Our motivation was to know how these molecules are helping evolutionary processes, specifically in the context of myelination.&#8221;</p>
<p>By analyzing gene networks in oligodendrocytes, the cells responsible for producing myelin in the central nervous system, the researchers discovered the critical role of RetroMyelin. In rodents, inhibiting RetroMyelin resulted in the failure to produce myelin basic protein, a key component of the myelin sheath.</p>
<p>The team extended their analysis across the animal kingdom, finding similar genetic sequences in other jawed vertebrates but not in jawless vertebrates or invertebrates. This pattern suggested a repeated evolutionary theme: the integration of RetroMyelin into the genomes of different vertebrate lineages through separate viral invasion events.</p>
<p>The presence of RetroMyelin in all examined jawed vertebrates and its essential role in myelination indicate that ancient viral infections were not merely random events but were instrumental in shaping the complex nervous systems of today&#8217;s vertebrates. By comparing RetroMyelin sequences across 22 species, the researchers demonstrated that these sequences were more similar within species than between them, supporting the theory of convergent evolution through separate viral invasions.</p>
<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s been an evolutionary drive to make impulse conduction of our axons quicker because having quicker impulse conduction means you can catch things or flee from things more rapidly,&#8221; Franklin explained.</p>
<p>Functional experiments in zebrafish and frogs further validated the importance of RetroMyelin in myelination, showing a significant reduction in myelin production when RetroMyelin was disrupted. This highlights the universal role of RetroMyelin in vertebrate myelination and opens new avenues for understanding the molecular mechanisms of myelin production and its evolutionary origins.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our findings open up a new avenue of research to explore how retroviruses are more generally involved in directing evolution,&#8221; Ghosh said.</p>
<p>The study, &#8220;<a href="https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(24)00013-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A retroviral link to vertebrate myelination through retrotransposon-RNA-mediated control of myelin gene expression</a>,&#8221; was authored by Tanay Ghosh, Rafael G. Almeida, Chao Zhao, Abdelkrim Mannioui, Elodie Martin, Alex Fleet, Civia Z. Chen, Peggy Assinck, Sophie Ellams, Ginez A. Gonzalez, Stephen C. Graham, David H. Rowitch, Katherine Stott, Ian Adams, Bernard Zalc, Nick Goldman, David A. Lyons, and Robin J.M. Franklin.</p>

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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

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DATE:
February 17, 2024 at 12:00PM
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TITLE:
Women, particularly younger ones, experience more social media friendship jealousy than men
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URL:
https://www.psypost.org/psychology-women-particularly-younger-ones-experience-more-social-media-friendship-jealousy-than-men/

<p>At the heart of friendships lies a concoction of emotions, where the warmth of companionship might sometimes be chilled by feelings of jealousy. Recent research published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/14747049231225738"><em>Evolutionary Psychology</em></a> delved into the study of this phenomenon, developing a novel measure to study social media friendship jealousy in particular.</p>
<p>“I work with a lot of young women as a university professor and soccer coach, and in this capacity, I noticed that friendship interactions on social media were not always positive. I undertook this study to see if what I was observing was widespread,” said study author Tracy Vaillancourt (<a href="https://twitter.com/vaillancourt_dr">@vaillancourt_dr</a>), PhD, a Professor and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair at the University of Ottawa.</p>
<p>Indeed, platforms like Instagram and Facebook lend themselves to the surveillance of friendships and broadcasting of interpersonal dramas, practices that can deepen jealousy and affect mental health. The creation of the Social Media Friendship Jealousy Scale (SMFJS) marks a significant step in better understanding this phenomenon.</p>
<p>Study 1 included 491 participants aged 24-35, who completed the newly developed SMFJS, which was adapted from previous scales for the purpose of assessing jealousy in friendships, from social media posts specifically; higher scores indicate greater jealousy. Participants also completed measures of friendship quality and three dimensions of personality (extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness).</p>
<p>The researchers found that SMFJS demonstrated strong psychometric properties, and was associated with poorer friendship quality (aligning with findings from romantic relationships). The SMFJS did not predict extraversion, but had a negative correlation with agreeableness and conscientiousness. The researchers observed no gender and age differences, suggesting social media friendship jealousy may be broadly experienced across these demographics.</p>
<p>Study 2 aimed to further validate the SMFJS, examine its links to trait jealousy and social media use, and further probe sex and age differences. Recruitment expanded the age range to 18-65 years, with a total of 494 participants. Participants completed the SMFJS, and measures of social media use and trait jealousy.</p>
<p>The researchers confirmed the strong psychometric properties of the scale, and found significant differences in social media friendship jealousy by sex and age, with women reporting more jealousy than men, and younger participants reporting more jealousy than older ones. These findings suggest variations in friendship dynamics and social media engagement across these demographics.</p>
<p>Study 3 drew from the McMaster Teen Study, a longitudinal project beginning in 2008 that is still ongoing, following individuals beginning at approximately age 10 (Grade 5). The final sample included 415 participants, who had at least some data on the SMFJS and internalizing symptoms (depression and anxiety) between ages 23-26. This study demonstrated the SMFJS’s reliability and stability over time.</p>
<p>As in Study 2, women consistently reported more jealousy than men. Higher-than-average jealousy was associated with higher-than-average internalizing symptoms. The authors suggest social media jealousy may have a negative mental health impact, particularly among those who are already prone to anxiety and depression.</p>
<p>“The take away from our study is that social media interactions between friends are not always positive. They can cause jealousy which impacts mental health. Accordingly, we should be as mindful with our online behavior as we are when we interact face-to-face with our friends,” Vaillancourt told PsyPost.</p>
<p>“It will be important to better understand the mechanisms linking feelings of jealousy in friendships with depression and anxiety. As we stated ‘the omission of tagging a friend on a social media post could be nefarious and intended to elicit jealousy or it could just be an oversight.’”</p>
<p>“The interpretation will depend on things like ‘selective attention to friendship threats, rumination, safety behavior (e.g., scanning and checking), and common thought distortions (e.g., mind-reading and catastrophizing)’ as well as ‘other factors that predict different attributions and behavior such as rejection sensitivity, fear of missing out, social comparison orientation, narcissism, hostility, or the use of indirect aggression,’” the researcher explained.</p>
<p>I asked Vaillancourt what questions still need to be addressed. She said, “We are currently looking at the flip side of this; not the hurt felt by social media jealousy but the reasons why friends do this in the first place. I suspect that some people purposefully manipulate their friends (e.g., they don’t tag a friend to make them feel jealous and insecure) and these individuals will be higher on indirect aggression use and dark triads like Machiavellianism than those who don’t engage in this type of behavior.”</p>
<p>The paper, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/14747049231225738">Social Media Friendship Jealousy</a>”, was authored by Tracy Vaillancourt, Heather Brittain, Mollie Eriksson, Amanda Krygsman, Ann H. Farrell, Adam C. Davis, Anthony A. Volk, and Steven Arnocky.</p>

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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

Psychology News Robot
DATE:
February 17, 2024 at 09:24AM
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TITLE:
Yale University Issues Apology for Role in Slavery
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URL:
http://www.socialpsychology.org/client/redirect.php?from=rss_feed&id=177487&url=https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2024-02-16/yale-university-issues-apology-for-role-in-slavery

<div><p>Source: <a href="http://www.usnews.com/" rel="tag" target="_blank">U.S. News and World Report</a></p>Yale University issued an apology Friday for its connection to slavery after several years researching the school's formative ties to the slave trade. &quot;We recognize our university's historical role in and associations with slavery,&quot; the school said in a statement, &quot;and we apologize for the ways that Yale's leaders, over the course of our early history, participated in slavery.&quot;</div><h6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></h6><br /><a href="https://www.socialpsychology.org/client/redirect.php?action=rssHomepage" target="_blank"><img title="Brought to you by Social Psychology Network" alt="Brought to you by SocialPsychology Network" src="https://www.socialpsychology.org/images/rss-footer-large.png" border="0" width="400" height="45" /></a><br><br>
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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

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DATE:
February 17, 2024 at 10:00AM
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TITLE:
Dopamine isn’t just a “feel good” chemical: New study reveals its role in reversal learning
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URL:
https://www.psypost.org/neuroscience-dopamine-isnt-just-a-feel-good-chemical-new-study-reveals-its-link-to-reversal-learning/

<p>Have you ever wondered how your brain manages to switch gears when life suddenly changes the rules of the game? Researchers have now shed light on this very process, revealing that a key brain chemical plays a pivotal role in helping us adapt to new situations. By combining brain imaging techniques with a specially designed task, they found that dopamine, a brain chemical often associated with pleasure and reward, is also crucial in helping us learn from our mistakes and adjust our decisions accordingly.</p>
<p>The findings have been published in the scientific journal<em> <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-44358-w" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nature Communications</a></em>.</p>
<p>Dopamine is a name that often pops up in conversations about happiness, motivation, and addiction. This brain chemical is a sort of messenger that transmits signals within the brain, affecting our mood, sleep, learning, concentration, and even our movement. But its role is far more complex than just making us feel good.</p>
<p>Dopamine is intricately involved in how we make decisions, especially in situations that require us to learn, unlearn, and relearn based on new information. The researchers embarked on this study to dive deeper into the mysteries of dopamine, motivated by the desire to understand how it influences our ability to adapt our decisions when circumstances change.</p>
<p>&#8220;I have a general interest in understanding what dopamine does in the human brain and what sorts of cognitive processes it supports,&#8221; said lead author Filip Grill, a postdoctoral researcher at the Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging. &#8220;Dopamine is a mysterious molecule since it seems to be related to several behavioral domains including processing of motivational, cognitive, and motor functions.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;The vast majority of research on how dopamine relates to behavior is done in rodents and non-human primates, since it is difficult to measure dopamine and especially dopamine-release in humans while we are actively engaged in some behavior. This kind of translation from animal to human is also something I am very interested in.</p>
<p>The study brought together 26 volunteers from the community, ensuring none had a history of neurological or psychiatric illness, drug or alcohol dependence, or any condition that would interfere with the brain imaging used in the research.</p>
<p>Participants engaged in a computer-based task while undergoing brain scans using two advanced techniques: positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This task was a reversal learning paradigm, a method used to explore how individuals adjust their decisions based on changing rewards.</p>
<p>The task was a game of guessing whether a hidden number was above or below five, with correct guesses rewarded and incorrect ones not. Unbeknownst to the participants, the rules for rewards changed during the task, creating periods of stability and volatility that mimicked real-life situations where the &#8216;right&#8217; choice can suddenly become &#8216;wrong.&#8217;</p>
<p>The PET scans were used to detect changes in dopamine levels in the brain by measuring the binding of a radioactive compound that competes with dopamine for the same brain receptors. The fMRI scans, on the other hand, provided insight into brain activity by detecting changes in blood flow, offering a glimpse into which parts of the brain were working harder during different phases of the task.</p>
<p>The researchers observed significant findings through the PET scans, particularly in the striatum, a brain region known for its role in reward processing. They found that dopamine release increased in this area when participants faced the switch from stable to volatile rules, suggesting dopamine&#8217;s key role in signaling the need for a strategy change. This dopamine release correlated with the participants&#8217; ability to adapt their decisions based on new information, with higher dopamine levels linked to quicker adjustment and better performance on the task.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think the general view of dopamine is that it is a kind of reward molecule but here we show that dopamine is also released when we learn from errors,&#8221; Grill told PsyPost. &#8220;Individuals that were very sensitive to their errors released more dopamine. However, these individuals were not necessarily best at the task. Instead, individuals that released a medium amount of dopamine had best performance.&#8221;</p>
<p>The fMRI data complemented these findings by showing increased brain activity in areas associated with attention and decision-making, especially after the rule change. This activity pattern suggests that the brain engages a network of regions to process unexpected outcomes and to adapt decisions accordingly.</p>
<p>&#8220;Seeing a rather strong brain–behavior correlation is quite surprising,&#8221; Grill remarked. &#8220;I hope I will get surprised again in the future.&#8221;</p>
<p>While the study&#8217;s results are compelling, they come with their share of limitations. For instance, the design of the brain imaging study meant that researchers could not compare their findings against a baseline of brain activity without the task, potentially overlooking how individual differences in dopamine levels might influence adaptability. Furthermore, the complexity of human behavior and brain chemistry means that dopamine is not the only player in this adaptive process. Future research could benefit from exploring how other neurotransmitters interact with dopamine and contribute to our ability to learn and adjust to new information.</p>
<p>The journey to fully understand the human brain&#8217;s adaptability is far from over. Future studies could explore how different levels of dopamine affect decision-making in various contexts, perhaps by incorporating tasks that simulate more complex real-life scenarios or by using pharmacological methods to alter dopamine levels directly. Another promising direction is to examine the role of dopamine in populations with neurological conditions that affect decision-making and learning, providing insights that could inform new therapeutic approaches.</p>
<p>&#8220;The study was conducted with healthy young adults,&#8221; Grill noted. &#8220;The long-term goal is to adapt the paradigm to investigate dopamine release during different behaviors in neurological and psychiatric disorders with abnormal dopamine signaling such as Parkinson’s disease and schizophrenia.&#8221;</p>
<p>The study, &#8220;<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-44358-w" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dopamine release in human associative striatum during reversal learning</a>,&#8221; was authored by Filip Grill, Marc Guitart-Masip, Jarkko Johansson, Lars Stiernman, Jan Axelsson, Lars Nyberg, and Anna Rieckmann.</p>

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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

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DATE:
February 17, 2024 at 08:00AM
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TITLE:
ADHD is somewhat heritable, study finds
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URL:
https://www.psypost.org/psychology-science-adhd-is-somewhat-heritable-study-finds/

<p>A study of a massive number of twins revealed that behaviors indicative of attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) exhibit a notable degree of heritability. This suggests that the resemblance in ADHD behaviors between parents and children can be partially attributed to shared genetic factors. The influence of parental ADHD behaviors on their children was found to be relatively minor, as was the impact of gene-environment interactions. The paper was published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S003329172300315X"><em>Psychological Medicine</em></a>.</p>
<p>ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by a persistent pattern of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that interferes with functioning or development. Individuals with ADHD struggle with maintaining attention on tasks or activities, behave in ways that are excessively active and often act without thinking about the consequences. This disorder is typically identified in childhood, but can continue into adulthood. It often adversely affects academic, occupational, and social functioning.</p>
<p>Studies show that children with ADHD-like traits often have parents with similar traits. However, it so far remained unknown whether this transmission of ADHD traits is due to children learning to copy behaviors of parents (i.e., environmental transmission), because of their shared genes (genetic transmission), due to some interaction between genes and the environment, or due to conditions in the environment that affect both children and their parents, making both develop ADHD-like behaviors. Some previous studies have proposed that ADHD is highly heritable (70%-80% heritability), but these conclusions were contentious.</p>
<p>Study author Thomas H. Kleppesto and his colleagues wanted to investigate whether the similarities between parents and their children in ADHD-like behaviors are caused by genetic or environmental factors. The key issue they wanted to disentangle is whether parents transmit these behaviors to children through their interactions with children or through genetics.</p>
<p>They analyzed data from the Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Cohort Study, a large population-based study conducted by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. Participants of this study were recruited from all over Norway between 1999 and 2008.</p>
<p>For this particular study, the researchers included extended family units composed of two nuclear families where one parent in each nuclear family is a sibling to one parent in the other family. In total, they included 22,276 parents and 11,566 children in these analyses. Of these, in the parental generation, there were 69 pairs of monozygotic twins, 95 pairs of dizygotic twins, 9,442 pairs of full siblings, and 744 pairs of half siblings.</p>
<p>Measures of maternal and paternal ADHD behaviors were obtained using a short screening assessment for ADHD (the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale). Mothers reported on their own ADHD behaviors when children were 3 years old, and fathers did so during pregnancy. Measures of children’s ADHD were obtained from others (the Rating Scale for Disruptive Behavior Disorders) when the children were approximately 8 years old. At that time, mothers had a mean age of 39, and fathers were 41 years old on average.</p>
<p>The findings revealed a weak association between children&#8217;s ADHD behaviors and those of their parents, with a stronger correlation to maternal behaviors. The genetic analysis indicated that 11% of the variation in children&#8217;s ADHD behaviors could be attributed to genetic factors present in both generations, while 46% of the variation was due to genetics specifically affecting the children.</p>
<p>“Our study indicates that passive transmission of genetic factors explains the parent–child resemblance in ADHD behaviors,&#8221; the study authors conclude. &#8220;Children tend to resemble their parents in levels of impulsiveness, hyperactivity and (in)attention because of shared genetic influences, not because of shared home environments or effects of parental ADHD on child ADHD. Non-genetic factors play an important role in the development of ADHD, but these factors are largely unique to each child.”</p>
<p>The study sheds light on the genetic influences on ADHD behavior. However, it should be noted that the correlations between ADHD behaviors of a child and his or her relatives were weak. In spite of the fact that much of that similarity is due to genetic factors, the main cause of ADHD is likely an interplay of environmental factors unique for each child.</p>
<p>The paper, ”<a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S003329172300315X">Intergenerational transmission of ADHD behaviors: genetic and environmental pathways</a>”, was authored by Thomas H. Kleppesto, Espen Moen Eilertsen, Elsje van Bergen, Hans Fredrik Sunde, Brendan Zietsch, Magnus Nordmo, Nikolai Haahjem Eftedal, Alexandra Havdahl, Eivind Ystrom, and Fartein Ask Torvik.</p>

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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

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DATE:
February 17, 2024 at 06:00AM
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TITLE:
Unraveling the ties between circadian rhythms and psychological wellbeing
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URL:
https://www.psypost.org/unraveling-the-ties-between-circadian-rhythms-and-psychological-wellbeing/

<p>Have you ever noticed how your mood seems to ebb and flow with the time of day? New research in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleh.2023.07.012"><em>Sleep Health</em></a> has shed light on this phenomenon, revealing that our internal biological clock plays a significant role in influencing our mood and overall well-being. The research found that feelings of anxiety and depression peak in the morning hours, while well-being dips, highlighting the intricate link between our circadian rhythm and emotional state.</p>
<p>At the heart of this study is the concept of endogenous circadian rhythms. These are internal processes that follow a roughly 24-hour cycle, regulating various bodily functions, including sleep and metabolism. These rhythms are why we tend to feel sleepy at night and awake during the day, even without external cues like sunlight. Researchers embarked on this investigation to unravel the specific mechanisms through which our circadian rhythm might influence mental health.</p>
<p>&#8220;Currently, about 20% of the global population experiences mood and/or anxiety disorders at some point in their lives, which makes it important to understand what specific mechanisms can help explain such risk,&#8221; explained study authors <a href="https://sleep.hms.harvard.edu/research/labs-divisions/medical-chronobiology-program-mcp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Frank A.J.L. Scheer</a>, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and <a href="https://www.southampton.ac.uk/people/62h5sk/doctor-sarah-chellappa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sarah L. Chellappa</a>, an associate professor at the University of Southampton.</p>
<p>&#8220;Disturbances in sleep and circadian rhythms are bidirectionally intertwined with almost every category of psychiatric disorder. Human studies show day/night (diurnal) rhythms in symptoms of depression and, to some extent, in anxiety symptoms, with a morning worsening and an evening improvement. However, such results come from studies where individuals experience 24-h variations in environmental and behavioral factors, due to for example dark/light, sleep/wake, and rest/activity cycles that may influence their mood.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Because of that, we cannot determine the exact role of the endogenous biological (circadian) system to such mood profiles from such studies,&#8221; the researchers said. &#8220;We, therefore, utilized a stringently controlled circadian laboratory protocol to assess whether the endogenous circadian system modulates depression-like and anxiety-like mood, as well as wellbeing, in young healthy adults.&#8221;</p>
<p>To explore these rhythms without the interference of external factors like light exposure or social interactions, Scheer and Chellappa crafted a controlled environment. They enlisted 19 young, healthy adults who underwent a series of assessments to ensure they were free from mood and anxiety disorders.</p>
<p>Over the course of the study, participants followed a fixed sleep schedule before entering a lab setup designed to minimize external cues that could affect their circadian rhythm. They spent two days adapting to this environment, followed by a 32-hour period of continuous wakefulness in dim light, during which they were provided hourly snacks to keep their diet consistent.</p>
<p>The researchers used visual analog scales (VAS) to measure mood perceptions every hour. These scales allowed participants to rate their feelings of anxiety, depression, and overall well-being, including mental fatigue and physical comfort. By analyzing these ratings, the team sought to identify patterns that would reveal the influence of the circadian rhythm on mood and well-being independently of other factors.</p>
<p>Both anxiety-like and depression-like moods exhibited clear circadian patterns, with the highest levels of anxiety and depression recorded during the morning hours, roughly corresponding to 8-9 a.m. Well-being also showed significant circadian rhythms, with the more mental fatigue and less physical comfort occurring in the early morning. These patterns suggest that our internal biological clock directly impacts our emotional state, independent of external influences like sleep or light exposure.</p>
<p>&#8220;We were surprised to find out that the circadian system modulates anxiety-like mood levels in a similar way as it does for depression-like mood levels,&#8221; the researchers told PsyPost. &#8220;We know that sleep and anxiety are interrelated, such that if you experience anxiety during the day – and particularly close to your sleep time – it negatively affects sleep, potentially causing insomnia. Conversely, if one experiences poor sleep quality or insomnia, anxiety levels increase the next day. However, far less is known about whether the circadian system affects anxiety mood. That was a novel finding in our study.&#8221;</p>
<p>The study&#8217;s findings provide evidence that the worsening of mood and well-being in the morning could be a result of our endogenous circadian rhythms. This aligns with observations in individuals with Major Depressive Disorder, indicating a possible common underlying mechanism. Additionally, the research highlights the circadian system&#8217;s role in anxiety-like mood changes, an area previously less understood.</p>
<p>&#8220;These results have real-life relevance as they help explain the diurnal rhythm in mood profiles typically occurring in depression and anxiety, for example,&#8221; Scheer and Chellappa said. &#8220;In other words, they confirm and help explain why the morning hours are likely the time when we experience worse mood and wellbeing. Consistent daily rhythms between individuals with and without depression and/or anxiety suggest these results are relevant to patient populations, although we need future studies to verify this.&#8221;</p>
<p>While the study&#8217;s controlled setting offers valuable insights into the circadian rhythm&#8217;s impact on mood, it&#8217;s important to recognize its limitations. The participant pool was relatively homogenous — predominantly young, lean, and White — which may not reflect the broader population.</p>
<p>Future research is poised to build on these findings by exploring circadian rhythms in a wider array of participants, including those with mood and anxiety disorders. Such studies could further elucidate the potential for circadian-based interventions and treatments, offering hope for more personalized approaches to managing mental health.</p>
<p>&#8220;Given our study, behavioral interventions that directly target the circadian system, such as light therapy, might help individuals experiencing depression and anxiety,&#8221; Scheer and Chellappa explained. &#8220;However, we need more research in patient populations to validate such findings, as our study was conducted in young adults without psychiatric disorders.&#8221;</p>
<p>The study was titled: &#8220;<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352721823001626" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Endogenous circadian rhythms in mood and well-being</a>.&#8221;</p>

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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

Psychology News Robot
DATE:
February 17, 2024 at 05:40AM
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TITLE:
75 Hard Has a Cultish Following. Is It Worth All the Effort?
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URL:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/17/health/andy-frisella-youtube-75-hard-program.html

Thousands of people each year partake in the 75-day program meant to build “mental toughness,” according to its creator, but health experts caution the program may be too rigid and intense.
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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

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DATE:
February 16, 2024 at 06:00PM
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TITLE:
A simple cognitive tendency has surprisingly profound implications for the spread biased information
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URL:
https://www.psypost.org/2024/02/a-simple-cognitive-tendency-has-surprisingly-profound-implications-for-the-spread-biased-information-221565

<p>Have you ever considered that our brains might be more receptive to learning from people we like compared to those we dislike? A recent study conducted by researchers in cognitive neuroscience reveals just that — our ability to learn and make connections between different pieces of information is significantly influenced by our feelings towards the person presenting the information. Essentially, if the information comes from someone we like, we find it easier to remember and link together compared to when it comes from someone we dislike.</p>
<p>The new findings have been published in the journal <em><a href="http://10.1038/s44271-023-00043-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Communications Psychology</a></em>.</p>
<p>The motivation behind this study stems from a desire to understand the mechanisms that underpin our learning and memory processes, particularly in the context of social dynamics. Memory plays a crucial role in our ability to learn from new experiences and update our existing knowledge. By examining how social preferences affect memory integration—the process through which we connect information across different learning events—the researchers aimed to shed light on how our social environments can shape our understanding of the world.</p>
<p>To investigate this phenomenon, the research team, led by Inês Bramão, associate professor of psychology at Lund University, conducted a series of experiments. Participants were presented with a task that involved encoding and recalling associations between different objects, such as a bowl, a ball, spoon, scissors, and various other everyday items.</p>
<p>These objects were introduced by personas that participants were led to either like or dislike, based on a range of characteristics including political views, hobbies, and music preferences. This setup allowed the researchers to simulate real-world social dynamics in a controlled experimental environment, thereby providing a window into how our social biases might extend into our cognitive processes, particularly memory integration.</p>
<p>To construct these social preferences, participants were asked to create profiles for their ingroup (liked individuals) and outgroup (disliked individuals) personas, choosing from a set of predetermined attributes that covered a wide spectrum of interests and beliefs. This personalization aspect was crucial, as it ensured that the participants&#8217; biases were genuinely reflected in the experiment, enhancing the ecological validity of the study&#8217;s findings.</p>
<p>The core of the study revolved around the associative inference task, a method used to assess how participants could link information across separate but related learning events. Specifically, they were asked to remember pairs of associated objects presented in different contexts, with the ultimate goal being to infer a relationship between objects that were not directly linked but shared a common associative link through an intermediate object or context.</p>
<p>This task was carefully designed to mimic the process of memory integration in everyday life, where we often have to make connections between different pieces of information to learn new things or update our existing knowledge.</p>
<p>The researchers found that participants were indeed more adept at remembering and connecting information when it was presented by personas they liked. This effect was observed across multiple measures, including the ease with which participants could encode the information, their ability to infer connections between objects not directly associated, and their memory for the information associated with liked versus disliked personas. Essentially, the study provided compelling evidence that our social preferences significantly influence our cognitive processes, particularly those related to learning and memory.</p>
<p>Such biases in memory integration could play a role in the formation and reinforcement of polarized beliefs within social groups. By favoring information from liked individuals, we might be more likely to integrate and accept information that aligns with our existing beliefs, potentially leading to a more divided perception of reality among different social groups.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are more inclined to form new connections and update knowledge from information presented by groups we favor. Such preferred groups typically provide information that aligns with our pre-existing beliefs and ideas, potentially reinforcing polarized viewpoints,&#8221; explained Mikael Johansson, a professor of psychology at Lund University.</p>
<p>As an example, Bramão explained: &#8220;A political party argues for raising taxes to benefit healthcare. Later, you visit a healthcare center and notice improvements have been made. If you sympathize with the party that wanted to improve healthcare through higher taxes, you&#8217;re likely to attribute the improvements to the tax increase, even though the improvements might have had a completely different cause.&#8221;</p>
<p>However, the research is not without its limitations. The online nature of the study, though necessary for reaching a diverse participant pool, introduces variables that could affect data quality. Additionally, the use of self-selected criteria for liking and disliking individuals, while increasing the ecological validity of the findings, may also limit the generalizability of the results to other contexts or populations. Future research could explore these dynamics further, potentially by incorporating more controlled group inductions and examining the effects of neutral versus polarizing information sources.</p>
<p>The study, &#8220;<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s44271-023-00043-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ingroup sources enhance associative inference</a>&#8220;, was authored by Marius Boeltzig, Mikael Johansson, and Inês Bramão.</p>

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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

Psychology News Robot
DATE:
February 16, 2024 at 04:30PM
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TITLE:
Dominatrices Are Showing People How to Have Rough Sex Safely
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URL:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/dominatrices-are-showing-people-how-to-have-rough-sex-safely/

<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px; text-align:start"><span style="caret-color:#212121"><span style="font-style:normal"><span style="font-variant-caps:normal"><span style="font-weight:400"><span style="letter-spacing:normal"><span style="orphans:auto"><span style="text-transform:none"><span style="white-space:normal"><span style="widows:auto"><span style="word-spacing:0px"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust:auto">Research shows rough sex is becoming more common. Dominatrices are helping the general public catch up.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>

<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px; text-align:start"><span style="caret-color:#212121"><span style="font-style:normal"><span style="font-variant-caps:normal"><span style="font-weight:400"><span style="letter-spacing:normal"><span style="orphans:auto"><span style="text-transform:none"><span style="white-space:normal"><span style="widows:auto"><span style="word-spacing:0px"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust:auto">&nbsp;</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

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DATE:
February 13, 2024 at 02:07PM
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TITLE:
Why we’re more exhausted than ever
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URL:
https://time.com/6694092/exhaustion-increasing-causes-essay/

People feel so fatigued that they are cutting out activities that used to be commonplace and low stress.
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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

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DATE:
February 16, 2024 at 04:00PM
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TITLE:
New research uncovers an intriguing link between narcissism and state-level health outcomes
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URL:
https://www.psypost.org/2024/02/new-research-uncovers-an-intriguing-link-between-narcissism-and-state-level-health-outcomes-221562

<p>Could the secret to a healthier society be hidden within traits we often view negatively? A new study spanning the United States has unearthed surprising connections between narcissism and various health outcomes, suggesting that this much-maligned characteristic might have a silver lining. In their study, published in the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092656624000138"><em>Journal of Research in Personality</em></a>, the researchers found that states with higher levels of narcissism experience lower rates of obesity and depression, alongside an increased demand for plastic surgery and a tendency towards shorter sleep durations.</p>
<p>Narcissism refers to a personality trait characterized by an inflated sense of self-importance, a deep need for excessive attention and admiration, and a lack of empathy for others. However, this trait is not monolithic; it spans a spectrum from healthy levels of self-confidence and self-assurance to pathological forms that can significantly impair interpersonal relationships and social functioning. The adaptive aspects of narcissism, such as ambition, resilience, and the ability to maintain a positive self-image, suggest that it could have beneficial impacts on individual behavior.</p>
<p>Recognizing a gap in the literature, where the focus has predominantly been on the detrimental aspects of narcissism, the new study aimed to investigate the positive side of this personality trait. Specifically, it sought to determine whether the adaptive components of narcissism could lead to better health behaviors and outcomes.</p>
<p>&#8220;The study was initiated out of curiosity about how narcissistic traits, often deemed negative, could potentially contribute to positive health behaviors and outcomes,&#8221; said study author <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jongruda/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dritjon Gruda</a>, an invited associate professor in organizational behavior at the Católica Porto Business School and lecturer at Maynooth University.</p>
<p>The study collected data from 4,230 individuals, aged between 18 to 85 years, from 38 states. This sample was carefully chosen to represent a broad demographic spectrum, comparing closely with U.S. Census data to ensure representativeness in terms of age, gender, and race/ethnicity.</p>
<p>Participants in the study were asked to complete the Short Dark Triad (SD3) questionnaire, a widely recognized measure that assesses subclinical levels of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Alongside the SD3, the survey included questions regarding demographic information and a range of health outcomes, both self-reported and objectively measured through data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), such as obesity rates, heart failure, hypertension deaths, and the prevalence of plastic surgery across states.</p>
<p>The researchers&#8217; findings presented a complex picture of narcissism&#8217;s impact on health. At the state level, narcissism was notably associated with several positive health outcomes. States with higher average levels of narcissism reported lower rates of obesity and depression, suggesting that the adaptive aspects of narcissism, such as a greater focus on self-image and perhaps a more proactive approach to health and fitness, could contribute to better overall health.</p>
<p>&#8220;The main insights are that some aspects of narcissism, such as confidence and a focus on self-care, seem to encourage healthier lifestyles,&#8221; Gruda told PsyPost. &#8220;The study highlights the importance of a balanced perspective on self-focus and ambition in relation to health.&#8221;</p>
<p>Furthermore, the demand for plastic surgery was higher in these states, reinforcing the notion that narcissistic individuals might place a higher value on physical appearance, leading to increased engagement with cosmetic enhancements.</p>
<p>Narcissism was also negatively associated with certain health conditions like heart failure and hypertension deaths, suggesting beneficial effects, but it did not show significant associations with other health behaviors such as frequency of medical check-ups or dental visits.</p>
<p>&#8220;While we expected to find population-level narcissism to be associated with lower obesity and depression rates and a higher demand for plastic surgery, we also found that states with a highly narcissistic population reported an overall lower death rate due to heart failure and hypertension,&#8221; Gruda said.</p>
<p>However, the study also uncovered less favorable associations. For example, higher state-level narcissism correlated with a greater percentage of individuals sleeping less than seven hours per night, indicating a potential downside to the trait&#8217;s adaptive qualities. This finding hints at the complex balance between narcissism&#8217;s beneficial effects on self-care and its potentially harmful tendencies, such as overwork or heightened stress, which can reduce sleep quality and duration.</p>
<p>In contrast, Machiavellianism and psychopathy showed fewer clear associations with health outcomes, though Machiavellianism was linked to higher rates of binge drinking—a finding that opens new avenues for understanding how different facets of personality influence health behaviors.</p>
<p>The researchers accounted for potential confounders such as public health funding, poverty rates, and per capita income. But the study, like all research, is not without its limitations. The reliance on self-reported data for some measures introduces potential biases, and the study&#8217;s design cannot prove causation—only association. The complex nature of narcissism, with its mix of potentially positive and negative impacts on health, suggests that more research is needed to untangle these effects fully.</p>
<p>&#8220;A crucial caveat of the study is that narcissism, and the other two dark triad traits Machiavellianism and psychopathy, were measured on the U.S. state-level and associated with state-level public health outcomes,&#8221; Gruda noted. &#8220;So, just because you live in a state with a highly narcissistic population (compared to other states), this does not make you are a narcissist nor does it mean that you yourself, for example, have a strong interest in undergoing plastic surgery.&#8221;</p>
<p>Future studies could explore the mechanisms behind narcissism&#8217;s influence on health behaviors and outcomes, perhaps focusing on how societal and cultural factors interact with personality to shape health. The researchers also suggest examining how interventions targeting narcissistic traits could potentially improve public health strategies.</p>
<p>&#8220;We aim to explore associations between the dark triads and other state-level outcomes in future studies,&#8221; Gruda told PsyPost. &#8220;It&#8217;s essential to balance the benefits of narcissistic traits without overlooking possible negative effects. The study advocates for a nuanced approach to utilizing personality traits in better understanding public health outcomes.&#8221;</p>
<p>The study, &#8220;<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092656624000138" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who’s the Healthiest of them All &#8211; The Surprising Role of Narcissism in State-Level Health Outcomes</a>,&#8221; was authored by Dritjon Gruda, Paul Hanges, and Jim McCleskey.</p>

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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

Psychology News Robot
DATE:
February 16, 2024 at 12:53AM
.
TITLE:
U.S. Census to Test Questions on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
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URL:
http://www.socialpsychology.org/client/redirect.php?from=rss_feed&id=177478&url=https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/census-bureau-thinking-sex-people-opinions-107288511

<div><p>Source: <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/" rel="tag" target="_blank">ABC News - Politics</a></p>The U.S. Census Bureau this year plans to test questions about sexual orientation and gender identity in a survey sent to 480,000 households. If the questions are approved, it will be the first time sexual orientation and gender identity questions are asked on the American Community Survey, which already asks questions about commuting times, internet access, family life, income, education levels, disabilities, and military service, among other...</div><h6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></h6><br /><a href="https://www.socialpsychology.org/client/redirect.php?action=rssHomepage" target="_blank"><img title="Brought to you by Social Psychology Network" alt="Brought to you by SocialPsychology Network" src="https://www.socialpsychology.org/images/rss-footer-large.png" border="0" width="400" height="45" /></a><br><br>
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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

Psychology News Robot
DATE:
February 16, 2024 at 12:52AM
.
TITLE:
Despite the Evidence, Nearly 15% of Americans Deny Climate Change
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URL:
http://www.socialpsychology.org/client/redirect.php?from=rss_feed&id=177471&url=https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2024-02-16/despite-the-evidence-nearly-15-of-americans-deny-climate-change

<div><p>Source: <a href="http://www.usnews.com/" rel="tag" target="_blank">U.S. News and World Report</a></p>Nearly 15% of Americans still deny that climate change is real, according to a new national assessment from the University of Michigan. Evidence of climate change has been mounting, including natural disasters that are growing in frequency and intensity sooner than originally predicted, researchers said. Nevertheless, climate change is still not accepted as fact by one in every six or seven Americans, the study estimates.</div><h6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></h6><br /><a href="https://www.socialpsychology.org/client/redirect.php?action=rssHomepage" target="_blank"><img title="Brought to you by Social Psychology Network" alt="Brought to you by SocialPsychology Network" src="https://www.socialpsychology.org/images/rss-footer-large.png" border="0" width="400" height="45" /></a><br><br>
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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

Psychology News Robot
DATE:
February 16, 2024 at 12:51AM
.
TITLE:
Zimbabwe Government Will Block Scholarship for LGBTQ+ People
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URL:
http://www.socialpsychology.org/client/redirect.php?from=rss_feed&id=177475&url=https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2024-02-16/zimbabwes-vice-president-says-the-government-will-block-a-scholarship-for-lgbtq-people

<div><p>Source: <a href="http://www.usnews.com/" rel="tag" target="_blank">U.S. News and World Report</a></p>Zimbabwe's powerful vice president said Thursday the government will block a university scholarship for young LGBTQ+ people. The state university scholarship is sponsored by GALZ, an LGBTQ+ membership organization in Zimbabwe. The group started offering the scholarship in 2018 without incident. But a recent online advertisement inviting applications attracted a harsh response from Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, a self-proclaimed devout...</div><h6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></h6><br /><a href="https://www.socialpsychology.org/client/redirect.php?action=rssHomepage" target="_blank"><img title="Brought to you by Social Psychology Network" alt="Brought to you by SocialPsychology Network" src="https://www.socialpsychology.org/images/rss-footer-large.png" border="0" width="400" height="45" /></a><br><br>
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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

Psychology News Robot
DATE:
February 16, 2024 at 12:50AM
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TITLE:
Second Trump Presidency Would Axe Biden Climate Agenda, Say Advisers
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URL:
http://www.socialpsychology.org/client/redirect.php?from=rss_feed&id=177469&url=https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2024-02-16/second-trump-presidency-would-axe-biden-climate-agenda-gut-energy-regulators

<div><p>Source: <a href="http://www.usnews.com/" rel="tag" target="_blank">U.S. News and World Report</a></p>U.S. President Joe Biden has spent years implementing programs to fight climate change by advancing renewable energy and imposing tougher regulations on fossil fuels. Much of that work could go up in smoke if his likely rival Donald Trump beats him at the polls in November, according to Republican policy advisers. Former President Trump would re-enter the White House with a raft of executive orders to expand oil, gas, and coal development, they...</div><h6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></h6><br /><a href="https://www.socialpsychology.org/client/redirect.php?action=rssHomepage" target="_blank"><img title="Brought to you by Social Psychology Network" alt="Brought to you by SocialPsychology Network" src="https://www.socialpsychology.org/images/rss-footer-large.png" border="0" width="400" height="45" /></a><br><br>
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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

.
DATE:
February 16, 2024 at 02:00PM
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TITLE:
New study unpacks the impact of TikTok and short video apps on adolescent well being
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URL:
https://www.psypost.org/2024/02/new-study-unpacks-the-impact-of-tiktok-and-short-video-apps-on-adolescent-well-being-221554

<p>A recent study published in the journal <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2023.115247"><em>Psychiatry Research</em></a> has shared compelling insights into how TikTok and similar short-video applications impact the lives of adolescents. The study differentiates between non-users, moderate users, and addictive users of these platforms — revealing that addictive users tend to suffer from significantly worse mental health conditions, academic performance, and family relationships compared to their counterparts.</p>
<p>The digital era has propelled short-video applications like TikTok into popularity — especially among adolescents. Previous research has extensively explored the broader impacts of social media use on mental health, highlighting concerns over increased depression, anxiety, and stress. However, the effects of short-video platforms, characterized by their brief yet engaging content, remained less understood until now.</p>
<p>This gap prompted a team of researchers to analyze these platforms by differentiating between moderate and addictive usage patterns — and then finding those patternsʼ association with various psychosocial factors. The motivation behind this study stemmed from an urgent need to understand the implications of short-video application use among adolescents — a demographic particularly susceptible to any adverse effects of social media.</p>
<p>With TikTok and similar platforms gaining traction among youth, the researchers wanted to uncover whether these digital engagements serve as mere entertainment, or bear deeper consequences for young users&#8217; mental health, academic lives, and familial relationships.</p>
<p>To unravel these intricate dynamics, the study surveyed 1,346 adolescents across three schools in China, categorizing them into non-users, moderate users, and addictive users based on their engagement with short-video platforms. Participants were assessed on various fronts, including mental health conditions, academic stress, parental relationships, and experiences of bullying. This correlational analysis allowed researchers to explore the relationships between adolescents&#8217; usage patterns of short-video applications and a spectrum of psychosocial factors.</p>
<p>Addictive users reported significantly higher levels of depression, anxiety, and stress. Furthermore, they faced greater academic challenges, including higher stress levels, poorer performance, and more frequent bullying victimization. Their family relationships also suffered, marked by more negative parenting styles and lower parental education levels. In contrast, moderate users did not show significant differences in mental health or academic performance compared to non-users, though their family environments showed distinct characteristics.</p>
<p>Despite its insight, the study acknowledges certain limitations. For example, its reliance on self-reported data might introduce biases, and the findings&#8217; applicability beyond the Chinese adolescent demographic remains uncertain. Additionally, the cross-sectional design precludes the establishment of causality between short-video application use and the observed outcomes. The researchers also caution against the generalizability of the cut-off scores used to define &#8220;addictive use&#8221; — suggesting further research is needed across diverse cultural contexts and age groups.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165178123001889">TikTok use and psychosocial factors among adolescents: Comparisons of non- users, moderate users, and addictive users</a>,ˮ was authored by Miao Chao, Jing Lei, Ru He, Yunpeng Jiang, and Haibo Yang at Tianjin Normal University and the Center of Collaborative Innovation for Assessment and Promotion of Mental Health, in China.</p>

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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

.
DATE:
February 16, 2024 at 12:00PM
.
TITLE:
Investigating the emotional attentional blink: The role of crisis-related stimuli
.
URL:
https://www.psypost.org/2024/02/investigating-the-emotional-attentional-blink-the-role-of-crisis-related-stimuli-221549

<p>In an era marked by frequent natural disasters, pandemics, and conflicts, it is increasingly important to understand how these events impact cognitive processes. New research, published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-023-00525-7"><em>Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications</em></a>, investigated the influence of crises on attention, focusing on the emotional attentional blink (EAB), where emotionally significant stimuli divert attention from target tasks.</p>
<p>“I had been studying temporal attentional capture by emotional stimuli, specifically using attentional blink (AB) and EAB paradigms, for around 6 years when I came up with the idea,” said <a href="https://linzsa.wixsite.com/lindsaysantacroce/">Lindsay Santacroce</a> (<a href="https://twitter.com/LASantacroce22">@LASantacroce22</a>), PhD, a postdoctoral research fellow at Toronto Metropolitan University.</p>
<p>“Research had examined personally relevant traumatic stimuli in the EAB with specific extreme populations (e.g., combat-related stimuli with veterans experiencing PTSD), but that largely ignored the general population experiencing a widespread crisis event. Being in Houston, Texas at the time, I had a unique opportunity to utilize images related to Hurricane Harvey, which devastated the area a few years prior. In addition, we were currently in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, and thus there were a lot of ‘buzzwords’ going around that could potentially capture attention out of context. So I wanted to see if, in the absence of clinical diagnoses, these crisis-related stimuli would capture attention in the EAB.”</p>
<p>Experiment 1 utilized an EAB and Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) task. The sample comprised 40 students of diverse backgrounds, who had experienced Hurricane Harvey firsthand. The task involved identifying fruit images amid distractors of varying emotional valence, including images of Houston pre- and post-Hurricane Harvey, across different temporal lags between distractor and target images.</p>
<p>Participants first completed a demographics survey and calibration tasks to standardize the visual presentation, followed by practice trials to familiarize themselves with the task. The experiment consisted of 600 trials over 20 conditions, with each session lasting about 1.5 hours. This method aimed to assess the potential long-term stress effects from Hurricane Harvey on cognitive attention among affected individuals, four years after the event.</p>
<p>Unpleasant images induced a conventional EAB effect, whereas stimuli related to Hurricane Harvey produced an ambiguous response, suggesting a weaker, if any, EAB effect compared to conventional emotional stimuli. The stress-induced EAB by Hurricane Harvey images was significantly smaller than that evoked by unpleasant stimuli. This indicates that, even in the face of a major natural disaster, the attentional capture by crisis-related stimuli was not as strong as expected among students.</p>
<p>Experiment 2 explored the impact of COVID-related, taboo, and neutral words on attention in 40 University of Houston students using an EAB paradigm with word stimuli. Experiment 2 likewise utilized an RSVP task, consisting of 360 trials where participants identified fruit target words amidst different distractors across 12 conditions. The COVID-19 words, deemed more negative and arousing, were used to measure attentional shifts amidst emotionally significant distractors, to examine the cognitive effects of current crises compared to conventional emotional stimuli.</p>
<p>Santacroce and colleagues found that while taboo words significantly triggered an EAB, indicating strong attentional shifts, COVID-related words did not produce a similar effect. Thus, stimuli associated with the ongoing COVID-19 crisis had a limited impact on disrupting attention among university students, compared to the pronounced effect of conventional emotionally charged stimuli.</p>
<p>The researcher explained: “Stimuli associated with a widespread crisis event do not increase the EAB in a general (specifically college student) population. So these stimuli are not salient to capture temporal attention the way that generally unpleasant stimuli (i.e., images of gore or taboo curse words) do. This could indicate that, in the real world, crisis stimuli don’t really ‘trigger’ capture/rumination like one might expect.”</p>
<p>“We only used college students from the University of Houston, so it’s possible that other populations/crisis events could capture attention. For example, I was interested in also including an experiment using fire images in a population from California where there were raging wildfires. However, this was not feasible at the time. I honestly think the results would remain, but the possibility is there.”</p>
<p>Are there questions that still need answers? Santacroce said that “it would be interesting to see if there is a difference between those who were more heavily affected by the crises compared to those with more mild experiences. For example, those who lost their house in Hurricane Harvey versus those who just saw flooding in their streets or those who lost someone close to them from COVID-19 versus someone who never caught it. We could also look at different populations or crisis events.”</p>
<p>“Given that widespread crises are going to be increasing over the years, it&#8217;s important to understand how they would affect the general population. Attentional capture is a great way to examine this because it shows how reminders of crises could affect our ability to complete/focus on daily tasks.”</p>
<p>The research, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-023-00525-7">Crisis‑related stimuli do not increase the emotional attentional blink in a general university student population</a>”, was authored by Lindsay A. Santacroce and Benjamin J. Tamber‑Rosenau.</p>

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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

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DATE:
February 16, 2024 at 11:05AM
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TITLE:
How harassment of women and Black online gamers goes on unchecked
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URL:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/02/16/online-gaming-harassment-women-black-gamers/72576093007/

Several large gaming companies have taken steps to address harassment, but the cumulative effects can be draining for those victimized
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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

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DATE:
February 16, 2024 at 10:00AM
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TITLE:
Writing by hand may increase brain connectivity more than typing on a keyboard
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URL:
https://www.psypost.org/2024/02/writing-by-hand-may-increase-brain-connectivity-more-than-typing-on-a-keyboard-221551

<p><strong>In an ever more digital world, pen and paper are increasingly getting replaced with screens and keyboards in classrooms. Now, a new study has investigated neural networks in the brain during hand- and typewriting. The researchers showed that connectivity between different brain regions is more elaborate when letters are formed by hand. This improved brain connectivity, which is crucial to memory building and information encoding, may indicate that writing by hand supports learning.</strong></p>
<p>As digital devices progressively replace pen and paper, taking notes by hand is becoming increasingly uncommon in schools and universities. Using a keyboard is recommended because it’s often faster than writing by hand. However, the latter has been found to improve spelling accuracy and <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/subjects/memory-recall">memory recall</a>.</p>
<p>To find out if the process of forming letters by hand resulted in greater brain connectivity, researchers in Norway now investigated the underlying neural networks involved in both modes of writing.</p>
<p>“We show that when writing by hand, brain connectivity patterns are far more elaborate than when typewriting on a keyboard,” said Prof Audrey van der Meer, a brain researcher at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and co-author of the study published in <em>Frontiers in Psychology</em>. “Such widespread brain connectivity is known to be crucial for memory formation and for encoding new information and, therefore, is beneficial for learning.”</p>
<h2>The pen is mightier than the (key)board</h2>
<p>The researchers collected EEG data from 36 university students who were repeatedly prompted to either write or type a word that appeared on a screen. When writing, they used a digital pen to write in cursive directly on a <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/subjects/touchscreen">touchscreen</a>. When typing they used a single finger to press keys on a keyboard. High-density EEGs, which measure electrical activity in the brain using 256 small sensors sewn in a net and placed over the head, were recorded for five seconds for every prompt.</p>
<p>Connectivity of different brain regions increased when participants wrote by hand, but not when they typed. “Our findings suggest that visual and movement information obtained through precisely controlled <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/subjects/hand-movements">hand movements</a> when using a pen contribute extensively to the brain’s connectivity patterns that promote learning,” van der Meer said.</p>
<hr />
<p><a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1219945/full">Read original article</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1219945/pdf">Download original article (pdf)</a></p>
<hr />
<h2>Movement for memory</h2>
<p>Although the participants used digital pens for <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/subjects/handwriting">handwriting</a>, the researchers said that the results are expected to be the same when using a real pen on paper. “We have shown that the differences in brain activity are related to the careful forming of the letters when writing by hand while making more use of the senses,” van der Meer explained. Since it is the movement of the fingers carried out when forming letters that promotes brain connectivity, writing in print is also expected to have similar benefits for learning as cursive writing.</p>
<p>On the contrary, the simple movement of hitting a key with the same finger repeatedly is less stimulating for the brain. “This also explains why children who have learned to write and read on a tablet, can have difficulty differentiating between letters that are mirror images of each other, such as ‘b’ and ‘d’. They literally haven’t felt with their bodies what it feels like to produce those letters,” van der Meer said.</p>
<h2>A balancing act</h2>
<p>Their findings demonstrate the need to give students the opportunity to use pens, rather than having them type during class, the researchers said. Guidelines to ensure that students receive at least a minimum of handwriting instruction could be an adequate step. For example, cursive writing training has been re-implemented in many US states at the beginning of the year.</p>
<p>At the same time, it is also important to keep up with continuously developing technological advances, they cautioned. This includes awareness of what way of writing offers more advantages under which circumstances. “There is some evidence that students learn more and remember better when taking handwritten lecture notes, while using a computer with a keyboard may be more practical when writing a long text or essay,” van der Meer concluded.</p>

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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

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DATE:
February 16, 2024 at 08:00AM
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TITLE:
Revisiting the science of attraction: Averageness is key to facial beauty, study finds
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URL:
https://www.psypost.org/2024/02/revisiting-the-science-of-attraction-averageness-is-key-to-facial-beauty-global-study-finds-221550

<p>A study that analyzed over 1,500 faces from 10 different populations worldwide discovered that faces with unique facial proportions are perceived as less attractive. It was observed that males found the more feminine faces of women to be more beautiful, whereas masculinity had little to no impact on women&#8217;s perception of male attractiveness. The study also noted that facial symmetry did not influence attractiveness perceptions. This research was published in the journal<em> <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2023.10.001">Evolution and Human Behavior</a>.</em></p>
<p>From an evolutionary perspective, facial beauty is a sign of health, fertility, and good genes. Facial features, such as symmetry, skin clarity, and proportionate traits, are thought to signal genetic fitness and health, guiding potential mates in their subconscious evaluations. This preference for beauty is theorized to have evolved because it helped our ancestors choose partners who were more likely to provide healthy offspring, thus enhancing the survival and reproduction of their genes.</p>
<p>Attaching importance to facial beauty is deeply ingrained in human psychology. It strongly influences social interactions in modern society as well. Both research studies and everyday experiences indicate that individuals with beautiful faces attract mates much more easily. This feature often provides attractive individuals better economic and social opportunities as well.</p>
<p>However, most previous studies on facial attractiveness focused solely on individuals of European descent from modern, developed societies. In their new study, Karel Kleisner and his colleagues aimed to examine the factors influencing facial attractiveness across a diverse array of faces from different global populations. They concentrated on facial distinctiveness (i.e., how a face&#8217;s proportions deviate from the average for a given population), symmetry, and sex typicality (how typical a face is for individuals of the same sex).</p>
<p>To conduct their study, these researchers used a total of 1,550 images of faces from 10 different countries. Faces were Brazilian, British, Cameroonian, Czech, Colombian, Namibian, Romanian, Turkish, Indian, and Vietnamese. The attractiveness of a face was determined by the average rating from opposite-sex evaluators from the subject&#8217;s own culture.</p>
<p>All the facial pictures were taken using a digital camera, with models (the people whose pictures were taken) set on a fixed distance from the camera, asked to look directly into it, and to avoid vertical and horizontal head tilting. The researchers manually applied 72 landmarks to each of the images of faces and used them to assess symmetry, averageness vs. distinctiveness of these faces, and their sex typicality.</p>
<p>Results showed that symmetry of a face was not a factor of beauty. This suggests that facial symmetry, when directly measured from standardized, unmanipulated faces, does not significantly impact the perception of attractiveness. This finding challenges the previously held view that facial symmetry is a crucial component of facial attractiveness.</p>
<p>On the other hand, distinctiveness, or how far an individual&#8217;s facial proportions deviate from the average within a population, plays a significant role in attractiveness perception. Distinctiveness negatively impacts perceived attractiveness. In other words, faces closer to the average (more prototypical) are generally found to be more attractive.</p>
<p>Female faces exhibiting higher sex-typicality, meaning those appearing more feminine, were universally judged as more attractive. However, increasing the masculinity of male faces did not influence their attractiveness ratings. Overall, women were rated as more attractive than men. Individuals with a lower body mass index (i.e., those who were slimmer) were rated as more attractive, with the exception of Namibian women, who found men with a higher body mass index more appealing.</p>
<p>“Two main conclusions may be derived from our study,&#8221; the study authors concluded.&#8221; First, preferences for facial prototypicality, symmetry, and sex-typicality do not substantially vary across geographically and culturally diverse populations. Second, facial attractiveness is robustly predicted by only two shape characteristics. It is negatively associated with distinctiveness (the opposite of averageness) and positively with morphological femininity.</p>
<p>&#8220;Notably, and perhaps surprisingly, facial symmetry has no robust effect. Our results thus clearly show that facial prototypicality (population specific distance from the mean) and female sex-typicality (morphological femininity) are universally preferred across the world.&#8221;</p>
<p>The study makes an important contribution to the scientific understanding of factors affecting facial beauty perceptions. However, it should be noted that study authors do not report in their paper who the raters that provided the beauty ratings were and what were the instructions based on which they provided their ratings. Due to this, the details of the rating process remain unknown to the readers.</p>
<p>The paper, ”<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2023.10.001">Distinctiveness and femininity, rather than symmetry and masculinity, affect facial attractiveness across the world,</a>” was authored by Karel Kleisner, Petr Tureček, and Ondřej Pavlovič.</p>

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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

Psychology News Robot
DATE:
February 16, 2024 at 12:23AM
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TITLE:
See Sora, OpenAI's New Text-To-Video Generator, in Action
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URL:
http://www.socialpsychology.org/client/redirect.php?from=rss_feed&id=177459&url=https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiTGh0dHBzOi8vbWFzaGFibGUuY29tL2FydGljbGUvb3BlbmFpLXNvcmEtYWktdGV4dC10by12aWRlby1tb2RlbC1hbm5vdW5jZW1lbnTSAQA?oc=5

<div><p>Source: <a href="http://news.google.com/?ned=us&topic=m" rel="tag" target="_blank">Google News - Health</a></p>On Thursday, the makers of ChatGPT and DALL-E announced Sora, a text-to-video tool. The tool is now available to &quot;red teamers,&quot; or experts who adversarially test the model for harms and risks. Sora can generate richly detailed videos up to one minute long. The announcement included highly realistic scenes as well as imaginary worlds, such as a closeup video of two pirate ships battling each other as they sail inside a cup of coffee.</div><h6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></h6><br /><a href="https://www.socialpsychology.org/client/redirect.php?action=rssHomepage" target="_blank"><img title="Brought to you by Social Psychology Network" alt="Brought to you by SocialPsychology Network" src="https://www.socialpsychology.org/images/rss-footer-large.png" border="0" width="400" height="45" /></a><br><br>
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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

Psychology News Robot
DATE:
February 16, 2024 at 12:15AM
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TITLE:
Amid Artificial Intelligence Boom, AI Girlfriends and Boyfriends Arrive
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URL:
http://www.socialpsychology.org/client/redirect.php?from=rss_feed&id=177388&url=https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2024-02-14/amid-artificial-intelligence-boom-ai-girlfriends-and-boyfriends-are-making-their-mark

<div><p>Source: <a href="http://www.usnews.com/" rel="tag" target="_blank">U.S. News and World Report</a></p>A few months ago, Derek Carrier started seeing someone and became infatuated. He experienced intense romantic feelings but also knew it was an illusion. That's because his girlfriend was generated by artificial intelligence. Similar to general-purpose AI chatbots, companion bots use vast amounts of training data to mimic human language, but they also include voice calls, picture exchanges, and emotional interactions that lead to deeper...</div><h6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></h6><br /><a href="https://www.socialpsychology.org/client/redirect.php?action=rssHomepage" target="_blank"><img title="Brought to you by Social Psychology Network" alt="Brought to you by SocialPsychology Network" src="https://www.socialpsychology.org/images/rss-footer-large.png" border="0" width="400" height="45" /></a><br><br>
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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

Psychology News Robot
DATE:
February 16, 2024 at 11:22AM
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TITLE:
Greece Legalizes Same-Sex Civil Marriage and Adoption
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URL:
http://www.socialpsychology.org/client/redirect.php?from=rss_feed&id=177457&url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/greece-legalize-same-sex-marriage-adoption/

<div><p>Source: <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/world/" rel="tag" target="_blank">CBS News - World News</a></p>Greece on Thursday became the first Orthodox Christian country to legalize same-sex civil marriage, despite opposition from the influential, socially conservative Greek Church. A majority of 176 lawmakers in the 300-seat parliament voted in favor of the landmark bill advocated by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who said on social media after the vote that Greece &quot;is proud to become the 16th (European Union) country to legislate marriage...</div><h6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></h6><br /><a href="https://www.socialpsychology.org/client/redirect.php?action=rssHomepage" target="_blank"><img title="Brought to you by Social Psychology Network" alt="Brought to you by SocialPsychology Network" src="https://www.socialpsychology.org/images/rss-footer-large.png" border="0" width="400" height="45" /></a><br><br>
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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

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DATE:
February 15, 2024 at 04:00PM
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TITLE:
Neuroscience breakthrough: The essential role of oligodendrocytes in brain function
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URL:
https://www.psypost.org/2024/02/neuroscience-breakthrough-the-essential-role-of-oligodendrocytes-in-brain-function-221519

<p>Could specialized cells in our brain hold secrets to understanding and potentially treating neurological disorders? A recent study led by neuroscientists at the University of Zurich unveils how a particular type of cell, crucial for insulating nerve fibers, plays a pivotal role in brain function. The findings have been published in <em><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-023-01558-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nature Neuroscience</a>.</em></p>
<p>The team discovered that these cells, known as oligodendrocytes, not only detect electrical signals from nerve fibers but also respond by ramping up their energy intake, thereby fueling the brain&#8217;s complex network of signals. This finding could have far-reaching implications for understanding diseases like multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer&#8217;s.</p>
<p>Brain cells communicate through electrical signals that travel along axons, extensions of nerve cells insulated by a fatty layer called myelin. Myelin is produced by oligodendrocytes, which ensure signals are transmitted swiftly and efficiently.</p>
<p>Disruptions in this process can lead to neurological diseases. By focusing on oligodendrocytes, the researchers aimed to understand better how these cells support the high-energy demands of active nerve fibers, potentially opening new pathways to treat various brain disorders.</p>
<p>The researchers focused on the mouse optic nerve, a prime model for studying electrical activity in myelinated axons. They employed innovative techniques, including tiny biosensors, to monitor how oligodendrocytes react to electrical signals from nerve fibers.</p>
<p>These biosensors allowed for the detection of molecular changes in real-time, providing a window into the cellular processes at play. They further explored this interaction by examining genetically modified mice lacking specific potassium channels in their oligodendrocytes, revealing the vital role these channels play in maintaining nerve fiber health.</p>
<p>The key discovery was that oligodendrocytes are not passive insulators; they actively sense the electrical firing of axons and respond by ramping up their glucose consumption. This increased energy intake enables them to supply energy-rich molecules to the active axons, catering to their heightened energy needs. The trigger for this rapid response was identified as potassium, released by axons during electrical activity, signaling the oligodendrocytes to kick into high gear.</p>
<p>&#8220;We found that oligodendrocytes not only detect the signals from active nerve fibers, but also respond to them by immediately accelerating their consumption of glucose, a primary energy source,&#8221; said study author Aiman Saab of the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Zurich.</p>
<figure id="attachment_221520" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-221520" style="width: 820px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-221520" src="https://www.psypost.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Neuron-with-oligodendrocyte-and-myelin-sheath.jpg" alt="" width="820" height="940" srcset="https://www.psypost.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Neuron-with-oligodendrocyte-and-myelin-sheath.jpg 820w, https://www.psypost.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Neuron-with-oligodendrocyte-and-myelin-sheath-262x300.jpg 262w, https://www.psypost.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Neuron-with-oligodendrocyte-and-myelin-sheath-768x880.jpg 768w, https://www.psypost.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Neuron-with-oligodendrocyte-and-myelin-sheath-750x860.jpg 750w" sizes="(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-221520" class="wp-caption-text">(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Neuron_with_oligodendrocyte_and_myelin_sheath.svg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons</a>)</figcaption></figure>
<p>Further investigation revealed a specific potassium channel, Kir4.1, as a vital mediator in this process. The team observed that mice lacking these channels in their oligodendrocytes showed signs of nerve fiber distress, including reduced levels of lactate (a key energy source) and significant axon damage over time. This pointed to the essential role of Kir4.1 channels in maintaining the health and functionality of nerve fibers.</p>
<p>&#8220;Using a variety of chemicals and inhibitors, we were able to show that potassium, released by axons during firing, is the key signal that activates the oligodendrocytes,&#8221; explained Zoe Looser, the first author of the study.</p><div class="addrop-wrap" data-id="64749"><p style="text-align: center;">
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<p>This groundbreaking work highlights the importance of oligodendrocytes in supporting the brain&#8217;s intricate network of neurons. The researchers underscore that disruptions in this energy supply mechanism could lead to nerve damage, aging, and diseases such as multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer&#8217;s. The findings pave the way for new research directions, focusing on how these cellular interactions influence brain health and disease progression.</p>
<p>However, the study is not without its limitations. The research was conducted on mice, and while these findings provide valuable insights, further research is needed to confirm their applicability to humans. Additionally, the study opens up new questions regarding how these mechanisms vary across different brain regions and in the context of various neurological disorders. Future research will need to explore how oligodendrocytes&#8217; regulation of glucose metabolism affects specific brain functions and their health during aging and in disease states.</p>
<p>This study marks a significant step forward in our understanding of brain function and the critical role of oligodendrocytes in supporting the brain&#8217;s electrical signaling system. By shedding light on the metabolic interactions between nerve fibers and their insulating cells, it opens new avenues for research into treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, offering hope for millions affected by these conditions worldwide.</p>
<p>The study, &#8220;<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-023-01558-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Oligodendrocyte–axon metabolic coupling is mediated by extracellular K+ and maintains axonal health</a>,&#8221; was authored by Zoe J. Looser, Zainab Faik, Luca Ravotto, Henri S. Zanker, Ramona B. Jung, Hauke B. Werner, Torben Ruhwedel, Wiebke Möbius, Dwight E. Bergles, L. Felipe Barros, Klaus-Armin Nave, Bruno Weber, and Aiman S. Saab.</p>
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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

.
DATE:
February 15, 2024 at 02:00PM
.
TITLE:
Study sheds light on the truth behind the “deceptive stability” of abortion attitudes
.
URL:
https://www.psypost.org/2024/02/study-sheds-light-on-the-truth-behind-the-deceptive-stability-of-abortion-attitudes-221502

<p>In an era marked by rapid social and political change, a new study provides insights into why the American public&#8217;s stance on abortion has remained &#8220;deceptively&#8221; consistent. The findings, published in <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10659129231222883"><em>Political Research Quarterly</em></a>, reveal how shifts among key demographic, religious, and partisan groups have balanced each other out.</p>
<p>The motivation behind the study stemmed from a curiosity about why, against a backdrop of significant societal change, opinions on abortion have scarcely wavered. Researchers were intrigued by the contrast between the stable attitudes toward abortion and the dramatic shifts in public opinion on other social issues.</p>
<p>&#8220;My colleagues and I are interested in understanding the attitudes of Americans about the issue of abortion for a few reasons. One is that despite all the changes our political system has undergone over the past half century including a dramatic partisan polarization attitudes on abortion from <em>Roe</em> to <em>Dobbs</em> (1973-2022) have been strikingly consistent,&#8221; said study author <a href="https://www.laurelelder.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Laurel Elder</a>, a professor and chair of political science at Hartwick College.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is unusual! Attitudes on other social issues such as legalization of marijuana and LGBTQ+ rights have shifted dramatically over this same time period in a decidedly liberal direction. Also, we wanted to develop a really well grounded understanding of public opinion on abortion prior to the 2022 <em>Dobbs</em> decision that overturned <em>Roe v. Wade</em> and led more than a dozen states to ban abortion.&#8221;</p>
<p>For their study, the researchers analyzed data from the General Social Survey (GSS), a nationally representative survey that has been conducted annually or biannually since the 1970s. This rich dataset allowed the them to explore public opinion using detailed measures of abortion attitudes. The survey asked respondents about their support for legal abortion under seven specific conditions, providing a nuanced view of public sentiment.</p>
<p>Analyzing responses from thousands of participants over several decades, the researchers constructed a comprehensive picture of how abortion attitudes have evolved, examining the influence of factors such as race, gender, age, religious affiliation, and political affiliation.</p>
<p>The findings revealed several key insights into the dynamics of abortion attitudes in America. First, while there have been minor shifts in attitudes based on race and gender, the overall trend has been one of stability. Notably, Black Americans have become more supportive of legal abortion, whereas attitudes among white Americans and between genders have remained relatively unchanged. Age, surprisingly, has not been a factor driving more liberal attitudes toward abortion, unlike its influence on other social issues.</p>
<p>The most significant shifts were observed among religious and partisan groups. Evangelical Christians showed a marked move toward more conservative abortion attitudes, while secular Americans remained the most supportive of legal abortion. Partisan shifts were particularly striking, with Republicans becoming more conservative and Democrats more liberal over time. These changes, however, have balanced each other out, contributing to the overall stability of abortion attitudes at the national level.</p>
<p>&#8220;Even though abortion attitudes in the aggregate look incredibly stable from 1973-2022, there are important underlying shifts taking place that are now incredibly relevant in the post-<em>Roe</em> era,&#8221; Elder told PsyPost. &#8220;The reason abortion attitudes look stable is that the big changes in abortion attitudes have largely canceled each other out.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;For example, Democrats have become more supportive of access to abortion at about the same rate that Republicans have become more opposed to abortion access. Also, the percent of Americans who are non-religious, who also have the most liberal views on abortion access, has increased while white evangelical Christians have become even more anti-abortion. The aggregate result of these shifts is a deceptive stability in public opinion on abortion.&#8221;</p><div class="addrop-wrap" data-id="64749"><p style="text-align: center;">
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<p>Despite the robust findings, the study acknowledges certain limitations. The data do not capture the intensity of individuals&#8217; opinions on abortion or how this issue ranks in importance compared to other political concerns.</p>
<p>Additionally, while the study provides a detailed snapshot of abortion attitudes up to 2018, it does not account for the potential impact of the <em>Dobbs</em> decision in 2022, which overturned <em>Roe v. Wade</em> and significantly altered the legal landscape of abortion rights in America. Future research directions will need to explore the ongoing shifts in abortion attitudes in the post-<em>Dobbs</em> era, examining how the intensity and prioritization of abortion as a political issue may change.</p>
<p>&#8220;The major caveat is that this study is based on data from prior to the 2022 Dobbs decision,&#8221; Elder said. &#8220;The big question now is how has this decision and the significant changes in state abortion laws in its aftermath influences public opinion on abortion&#8211;and what is driving those changes?&#8221;</p>
<p>The study, &#8220;<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10659129231222883" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Deceptively Stable? How the Stability of Aggregate Abortion Attitudes Conceals Partisan Induced Shifts</a>&#8220;, was authored by Melissa Deckman, Laurel Elder, Steven Greene, and Mary-Kate Lizotte.</p>
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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

.
DATE:
February 15, 2024 at 12:00PM
.
TITLE:
Craving for music increases after listening to music, study finds
.
URL:
https://www.psypost.org/2024/02/craving-for-music-increases-after-listening-to-music-study-finds-221515

<p>A study conducted in Germany discovered that cravings for music and the occurrence of earworms tend to rise after listening to a song. Individuals displaying more pronounced personality traits of extraversion, psychoticism, and openness to experience exhibited a stronger inherent craving for music. The paper was published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/03057356231212401"><em>Psychology of Music</em></a>.</p>
<p>Craving is a powerful and intense desire or urge for a specific substance or experience, often associated with addiction or dependency. It is characterized by an overwhelming emotional and physiological response that drives an individual to seek out and consume the desired object, despite potential negative consequences.</p>
<p>Craving is the most intensely studied in the scope of various addictions. These studies show that craving increases when an individual is exposed to cues related to the substance they are addicted to (e.g. seeing it, smelling it, hearing sounds associated with it etc.). When this happens, a person experiences a strong increase in the subjective urge to consume the substance. A specific neural pattern can be detected in the mesolimbic reward system of the brain at those times as well.</p>
<p>Recent studies on internet, smartphone, and gaming addictions indicated that craving and addiction are not solely related to substances. Scientists now talk about behavioral addictions as well. But are reactions to music guided by the same or similar neural mechanisms?</p>
<p>Study author Katrin Stacke and her colleagues wanted to find out. They conducted a study in which they assessed subjective craving reactions and experiences of earworms before and after listening to music. They also assessed some components of participants’ personality. These researchers wondered if the craving reactions might be associated with personality characteristics. Their expectation was that strengths of earworms and cravings will change after listening to music.</p>
<p>Earworms, also known as involuntary musical imagery, are catchy pieces of music that seem to loop repeatedly in one&#8217;s mind without conscious effort. These snippets of music are believed to be triggered by emotions, memories, or even random exposure. They can persist for hours or days and are a common experience among people.</p>
<p>The study involved 81 adults aged between 21 and 60 years, including 31 females, with an average age of 30. The study was conducted using the online tool Labvanced.</p>
<p>Participants first completed assessments of musical preferences (the Short Test of Music Preferences) and personality (the Short Eysenck Personality Profiler and the NEO PI-R Openness scale). They then reported on their current craving for music (a modified version of the Desires for Alcohol Questionnaire) and strengths of potential earworms (the Musical Imagery Questionnaire, a version they modified to ask about earworms as a current state).</p>
<p>Next, participants listened to a song they chose from a list of eight songs. The songs offered were “Riders on the Storm (single version)” (The Doors), “Let it be” (The Beatles), “Gangstas Paradise” (Coolio), “Shape of you” (Ed Sheeran), “Levans Polka” (Loituma), “Smells like teen spirit” (Nirvana), “September” (Earth, Wind, and Fire), and “Despacito” (Luis Fonsi featuring Daddy Yankee)”. After the song, participants again reported on their music cravings and earworms, completed a cognitive task, and filled out an earworm-related questionnaire.</p>
<p>The findings revealed that both music cravings and earworm intensities escalated post-listening. Notably, individuals with pronounced traits of extraversion, psychoticism, and openness experienced higher earworm intensities initially but not after the music session. These traits were also linked to initial music craving strengths, though such associations vanished post-listening, except for more emotionally stable individuals, who demonstrated a slightly stronger music craving thereafter.</p><div class="addrop-wrap" data-id="64749"><p style="text-align: center;">
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<p>“Results indicate that craving for music increased after listening to a piece of music. Thus, when participants started listening to music, they wanted more. They were not satisfied after listening to one piece of music. These findings extend cue-reactivity research in drug addiction or addictive behaviors. In addiction research, cues are presented but the substance consumption or the behavior is not executed, whereas music listening includes the &#8216;consumption&#8217; of the stimulus,&#8221; the study authors concluded.</p>
<p>The study makes a valuable contribution to the scientific understanding of psychological reactions to music. However, it should be noted that the study did not include either a control group or a control condition. This seriously limits how much the results can be generalized. Due to this, the study design does not allow any definitive cause-and-effect conclusions to be drawn from the data.</p>
<p>The study, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/03057356231212401">”Craving for music increases after music listening and is related to earworms and personality,</a>” was authored by Katrin Stacke, Finn Garret Lüders, and Richard von Georgi.</p>
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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

Psychology News Robot
DATE:
February 15, 2024
.
TITLE:
Social Work Tech Talk: Facing Up to Facial Recognition
.
URL:
https://www.socialworker.com/feature-articles/technology-articles/facing-up-facial-recognition/

The future is here. Facial recognition is used in everyday tasks like unlocking your phone and in more weighty situations, such as providing suspect matches in law enforcement. When it gets it wrong, the cost can be high.
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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

.
DATE:
February 15, 2024 at 08:00AM
.
TITLE:
FoMO is linked to evolutionary behaviors, study finds
.
URL:
https://www.psypost.org/2024/02/fomo-is-linked-to-evolutionary-behaviors-study-finds-221514

<p>A new study published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crbeha.2023.100096"><em>Current Research in Behavioral Sciences</em></a> looked at FoMO (“Fear of Missing Out”) from an evolutionary perspective, finding the phenomenon was positively linked to competitive behaviors and short-term mating interests, with women higher in FoMO experiencing reduced social support.</p>
<p>“The topic of FoMO captured our attention because it seems like a completely new cultural phenomenon that grew in popularity around 2010,” said study author <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Adam-Davis-2">Adam Davis</a>, PhD, a professor in the Department of Social Sciences at Canadore College.</p>
<p>“This makes sense considering that the internet and social media are more recent human inventions. But feelings of anxiety related to missing out on important social events likely extend deep into our evolutionary past. Belonging, affiliation, and socialization are fundamental human needs, which is why our species has been characterized as ‘ultra-social.’ Social events, like playing organized sports, participating in ceremonies, and attending parties, are culturally unique, but they seem to matter regardless of which society we are looking at. This insight motivated us to look beyond the more clinically focused research on FoMO and to consider its possible evolutionary origins.”</p>
<p>The study included 327 heterosexual American adults ages 19-60, recruited through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Participants completed measures of FoMO (e.g., “I fear others have more rewarding experiences than me”), status seeking (e.g., “Being very successful is important to me. I hope people recognize my achievements”), intrasexual competition (e.g., “I can’t stand it when I meet another woman/man who is more attractive than I am”), sociosexual orientation (e.g., “I can imagine myself being comfortable and enjoying ‘casual’ sex with different partners”, and received social support (i.e., emotional and practical support from 11 possible sources).</p>
<p>“We want people to consider that FoMO is likely not a completely new culturally specific experience. Missing out on important social activities can negatively impact the ability of people to stay connected to family members and friends, to meet new sexual and romantic partners, to expand our social networks, and to learn about what is going on in the lives of others around us,” explained Davis.</p>
<p>“We wanted to test the idea that FoMO might alert people to the threat of not participating in these important social activities, which could motivate them to seek out and compete for social and sexual opportunities. Among American adults, we found that higher levels of FoMO were associated with competing more fiercely for social status, a stronger inclination to self-promote and derogate rivals, and a greater desire to seek out short-term sex partners.”</p>
<p>While FoMO was positively associated with unrestricted sociosexual behavior and desires, it did not significantly correlate with unrestricted sociosexual attitudes, which captures beliefs about the morality or acceptability of sex without love and intimacy.</p>
<p>Interestingly, FoMO did not broadly affect received social support; however, the researchers found that women with higher levels of FoMO reported receiving less social support, suggesting there may be gender-specific impacts of FoMO on social connections in particular.</p>
<p>I asked Davis if there are any major caveats to this study. The researcher responded, “Our study involved a sample of American adults who completed an online self-report questionnaire. So, we cannot conclude that higher levels of FoMO in those adults caused them to compete more actively for social and sexual opportunities. And we cannot say that the same findings would apply to adolescents or adults in different nations across the world. We can only argue that these variables are related to each other in an American context.”</p>
<p>“Because we are taking an evolutionary perspective in this research, it is important to see if these findings replicate in other cultural contexts. This is necessary to provide support for the argument that FoMO is not a culturally specific experience, but something that likely extends deeper into our evolutionary past. We also only measured desire to seek out short-term sexual partners, and it might be the case that higher levels of FoMO relate to competing for long-term romantic partners as well.”</p><div class="addrop-wrap" data-id="64749"><p style="text-align: center;">
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<p>Davis added, “People are highly motivated to think of the cultural aspects of our psychology. There is a strong ‘nurture’ assumption when we consider our attitudes, emotions, personality traits, and behavior. But, we know that psychology results from interactions between the forces of nature (e.g., genetics, evolution, etc.) and nurture (e.g., family upbringing, the media, etc.).”</p>
<p>“Therefore, when thinking about concepts that suddenly capture the public’s interest, like FoMO, we should also consider the forces of nature: is that psychological concept culturally and/or historically unique? What function or purpose does it serve? Might it have helped to solve problems related to survival or reproduction in our evolutionary past?”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crbeha.2023.100096">The links between fear of missing out, status-seeking, intrasexual competition, sociosexuality, and social support</a>”, was authored by Adam C. Davis, Graham Albert, and Steven Arnocky.</p>
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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

Psychology News Robot
DATE:
February 15, 2024 at 06:45AM
.
TITLE:
Farmers in Crisis, Long Overlooked, Are Finally Getting Mental Health Support
.
URL:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/farmers-in-crisis-long-overlooked-are-finally-getting-mental-health-support/

<p>Amid a mounting mental health crisis among farmers, experts are working to make help more accessible</p>
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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

.
DATE:
February 15, 2024 at 06:00AM
.
TITLE:
DMT shows promising results in reducing depression symptoms, study finds
.
URL:
https://www.psypost.org/2024/02/dmt-shows-promising-results-in-reducing-depression-symptoms-study-finds-221504

<p>A powerful psychedelic compound known as DMT shows promise in reducing symptoms of depression. Conducted with healthy volunteers, a recent study in <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-53363-y" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Scientific Reports</a></em> revealed significant improvements in depression symptoms following DMT administration, along with an intriguing link between the intensity of the psychedelic experience and psychological benefits.</p>
<h3>What is DMT and Why Investigate Its Effects?</h3>
<p>DMT, or N,N-Dimethyltryptamine, is a naturally occurring substance found in various plants and animals, and it is known for its potent psychedelic effects. When ingested or inhaled, DMT produces intense visual and auditory hallucinations, often described as otherworldly or spiritual experiences. Researchers have turned their attention to DMT due to its rapid onset and short duration of effects, making it a unique candidate for therapeutic use.</p>
<p>Unlike other classic psychedelics such as LSD or psilocybin, which can induce prolonged psychedelic experiences, DMT&#8217;s effects are brief yet profound, offering a potentially more manageable and flexible therapeutic option.</p>
<p>The motivation behind the study stemmed from a growing body of evidence suggesting that psychedelics can significantly impact mental health, particularly in treating depression, anxiety, and other mood disorders. With DMT&#8217;s unique properties and the need for innovative mental health treatments, researchers aimed to explore its therapeutic potential and understand its effects on psychological well-being.</p>
<p>&#8220;I have been doing research with the psychedelic compound DMT for quite some years now, and we were wondering whether DMT has the same therapeutic possibilities as psilocybin and LSD. So we set out to start a preliminary investigation into this by measuring scores of depression, anxiety and wellbeing before and after administration of DMT and placebo to healthy volunteers participating in our studies,&#8221; explained study author <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&amp;user=ezYk7h0AAAAJ&amp;view_op=list_works" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chris Timmermann</a>, the head of DMT Research Group at the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London.</p>
<h3>How Was the Study Conducted?</h3>
<p>The researchers utilized data from two separate but complementary studies, involving a total of 30 healthy volunteers who had previous experience with psychedelics. This prior experience was a crucial inclusion criterion, aimed at ensuring participants&#8217; psychological safety and familiarity with altered states of consciousness. Participants underwent rigorous screening, including physical tests, psychiatric interviews, and medical examinations, to rule out any potential risk factors.</p>
<p>The study was structured around a placebo-controlled trial and a prospective sample analysis. In the placebo-controlled part, 13 participants received DMT and a placebo in a fixed order, allowing the researchers to observe changes attributable to DMT by comparing outcomes after placebo and DMT sessions, which were spaced a week apart. The doses of DMT varied among participants, and its effects were measured against baseline and post-placebo states, focusing on mental health outcomes such as depression and anxiety symptoms.</p>
<p>In the prospective sample, 25 participants underwent a more complex protocol that included EEG and fMRI recordings to capture the neurological effects of DMT. This part of the study used a pseudo-balanced order for DMT and placebo administration across four dosing sessions on two separate days, with a two-week gap between sessions. This design aimed to control for any potential order effects and to provide a comprehensive view of DMT&#8217;s impact on psychological well-being.</p>
<h3>Key Findings: DMT&#8217;s Impact on Mental Health</h3>
<p>The researchers found significant reductions in symptoms of depression following DMT administration in both study parts, highlighting DMT&#8217;s potential as a rapid-acting agent with therapeutic effects on mood.</p>
<p>Interestingly, the study also revealed a significant association between the intensity of DMT-induced &#8216;Oceanic Boundlessness&#8217; — which is characterized by a feeling of oneness with the world and a sense of awe — and improvements in mental health outcomes. This suggests that the qualitative aspects of the psychedelic experience might play a crucial role in its therapeutic potential.</p><div class="addrop-wrap" data-id="64749"><p style="text-align: center;">
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<p>&#8220;In a similar way to psilocybin and LSD, DMT was able to lower scores of depression symptoms in healthy volunteers,&#8221; Timmermann told PsyPost. &#8220;Furthermore, we found that the scores of &#8216;peak&#8217; experiences induced by DMT were correlated with reductions in symptoms of depression and anxiety. This means that DMT may have therapeutic potential and that the same experiential mechanism (the trip) is at play as with other psychedelics.&#8221;</p>
<p>In addition, a significant reduction in neuroticism was observed in the placebo-controlled trial, suggesting that DMT could have a lasting impact on personality traits associated with mental health challenges.</p>
<p>However, the results for anxiety and other psychological factors were less definitive. While reductions in trait anxiety were noted, they did not reach statistical significance, suggesting a potential but not conclusively proven anxiolytic effect. Similarly, increases in nature-relatedness and gratitude were detected but did not remain significant after adjusting for multiple comparisons, indicating that further research is needed to understand these effects fully. No significant changes were observed for wellbeing, optimism, or meaning in life.</p>
<p>&#8220;We didn&#8217;t find any improvements in wellbeing in this healthy population after DMT compared to placebo,&#8221; Timmermann said. &#8220;This has to do with so-called &#8216;ceiling effects,&#8217; when participants display already high scores of wellbeing before they are administered with DMT, so there is little room to observe a change.&#8221;</p>
<h3>Limitations and Future Directions</h3>
<p>Despite these promising results, the study&#8217;s authors caution against overinterpretation. The variability in DMT dosages, the methodological differences between the study&#8217;s two parts, and the exclusive focus on healthy volunteers with previous psychedelic experience may limit the generalizability of the findings. Nevertheless, the findings provide important groundwork for future research. Looking ahead, the researchers advocate for further studies to explore DMT&#8217;s therapeutic potential in clinical populations, including those with diagnosed mental health conditions.</p>
<p>The long-term goal of the research is &#8220;to understand to what extent we can use DMT safely for therapeutic purposes,&#8221; Timmermann explained. &#8220;Many outstanding questions remain here but the most important pertains how DMT is delivered. We know now that DMT can be administered in a flexible way, as shown <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37897244/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in our previous study</a>, therefore we need to understand the right way in which to best administer the compound.&#8221;</p>
<p>The study, &#8220;<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-53363-y" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Effects of DMT on mental health outcomes in healthy volunteers</a>,&#8221; was authored by Christopher Timmermann, Richard J. Zeifman, David Erritzoe, David J. Nutt, and Robin L. Carhart-Harris.</p>
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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

Psychology News Robot
DATE:
February 15, 2024 at 12:56AM
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TITLE:
Duolingo Under Investigation in Russia for LGBTQ+ Content
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URL:
http://www.socialpsychology.org/client/redirect.php?from=rss_feed&id=177421&url=https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2024/02/14/duolingo-russia-investigation-lgbtq-content/8181707965903/

<div><p>Source: <a href="http://www.upi.com/Health_News/" rel="tag" target="_blank">United Press International - Health News</a></p>Global language-learning app Duolingo is under investigation in Russia for including LGBTQ+ characters, according to Russian state media. Roskomnadzor, Russia's media watchdog, has accused the U.S.-based company of spreading &quot;LGBT propaganda&quot; after several parents in Russia complained that the app refers to LGBTQ+ people. Last year, Russia's high court ruled that &quot;the international LGBT public movement&quot; is an extremist organization and is,...</div><h6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></h6><br /><a href="https://www.socialpsychology.org/client/redirect.php?action=rssHomepage" target="_blank"><img title="Brought to you by Social Psychology Network" alt="Brought to you by SocialPsychology Network" src="https://www.socialpsychology.org/images/rss-footer-large.png" border="0" width="400" height="45" /></a><br><br>
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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

Psychology News Robot
DATE:
February 15, 2024 at 12:53AM
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TITLE:
Bullied Teens' Brains Show Chemical Change Associated with Psychosis
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URL:
http://www.socialpsychology.org/client/redirect.php?from=rss_feed&id=177406&url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/02/240205165849.htm

<div><p>Source: <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/" rel="tag" target="_blank">Science Daily - Top Society</a></p>Researchers have found that adolescents being bullied by their peers are at greater risk of the early stages of psychotic episodes and in turn experience lower levels of a key neurotransmitter in a part of the brain involved in regulating emotions. The finding, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, suggests that this neurotransmitter may be a potential target for pharmaceutical interventions aimed at reducing the risk of psychotic...</div><h6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></h6><br /><a href="https://www.socialpsychology.org/client/redirect.php?action=rssHomepage" target="_blank"><img title="Brought to you by Social Psychology Network" alt="Brought to you by SocialPsychology Network" src="https://www.socialpsychology.org/images/rss-footer-large.png" border="0" width="400" height="45" /></a><br><br>
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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

Psychology News Robot
DATE:
February 15, 2024 at 12:56AM
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TITLE:
Meat Consumption Tied to Erectile Dysfunction and Prostate Cancer
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URL:
http://www.socialpsychology.org/client/redirect.php?from=rss_feed&id=177358&url=https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2024/02/13/meat-prostate-cancer-treatments/6171707830493/

<div><p>Source: <a href="http://www.upi.com/Health_News/" rel="tag" target="_blank">United Press International - Health News</a></p>The red meat diet associated with masculinity could be the worst thing for men dealing with prostate cancer, a new study suggests. Prostate cancer patients who eat lots of plant-based foods instead of meat and dairy products tend to suffer less erectile dysfunction, urinary incontinence, and other embarrassing side effects associated with their treatment, researchers say. The new study was published online Tuesday in the journal Cancer.</div><h6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></h6><br /><a href="https://www.socialpsychology.org/client/redirect.php?action=rssHomepage" target="_blank"><img title="Brought to you by Social Psychology Network" alt="Brought to you by SocialPsychology Network" src="https://www.socialpsychology.org/images/rss-footer-large.png" border="0" width="400" height="45" /></a><br><br>
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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

Psychology News Robot
DATE:
February 15, 2024 at 12:47AM
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TITLE:
New York Sues Social Media Firms Over Youth Mental Health Crisis
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URL:
http://www.socialpsychology.org/client/redirect.php?from=rss_feed&id=177413&url=https://www.usnews.com/news/technology/articles/2024-02-14/new-york-city-files-a-lawsuit-saying-social-media-is-fueling-a-youth-mental-health-crisis

<div><p>Source: <a href="http://www.usnews.com/" rel="tag" target="_blank">U.S. News and World Report</a></p>New York City, its schools, and public hospital system announced a lawsuit Wednesday against the tech giants that run Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube, blaming their &quot;addictive and dangerous&quot; social media platforms for fueling a childhood mental health crisis that is disrupting learning and draining resources. Children and adolescents are especially susceptible to harm because their brains are not fully developed, the lawsuit...</div><h6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></h6><br /><a href="https://www.socialpsychology.org/client/redirect.php?action=rssHomepage" target="_blank"><img title="Brought to you by Social Psychology Network" alt="Brought to you by SocialPsychology Network" src="https://www.socialpsychology.org/images/rss-footer-large.png" border="0" width="400" height="45" /></a><br><br>
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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

Psychology News Robot
DATE:
February 15, 2024 at 12:35AM
.
TITLE:
UK Antisemitic Hate Incidents Hit New High in 2023, Says Charity
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URL:
http://www.socialpsychology.org/client/redirect.php?from=rss_feed&id=177415&url=https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2024-02-14/uk-records-worst-year-for-antisemitism-after-outbreak-of-israel-hamas-war

<div><p>Source: <a href="http://www.usnews.com/" rel="tag" target="_blank">U.S. News and World Report</a></p>Reports of antisemitic incidents in the UK reached a record high last year, according to figures from a Jewish security charity. The Community Security Trust (CST) recorded reports of 4,103 anti-Jewish hate incidents in 2023, up from 1,662 in 2022 and almost double the previous record of 2,255 hit in 2021. Two-thirds of incidents happened on or after the Hamas attacks on 7 October.</div><h6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></h6><br /><a href="https://www.socialpsychology.org/client/redirect.php?action=rssHomepage" target="_blank"><img title="Brought to you by Social Psychology Network" alt="Brought to you by SocialPsychology Network" src="https://www.socialpsychology.org/images/rss-footer-large.png" border="0" width="400" height="45" /></a><br><br>
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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

Psychology News Robot
DATE:
February 15, 2024 at 12:26AM
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TITLE:
Warning: Online Dating Scams Rise Around Valentine's Day
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URL:
http://www.socialpsychology.org/client/redirect.php?from=rss_feed&id=177356&url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/online-dating-scams-chatbots/

<div><p>Source: <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/us/" rel="tag" target="_blank">CBS News - U.S. News</a></p>Activity on dating apps and websites rises around Valentine's Day, and so does the risk of being scammed, according to new research. Increasingly, scammers are using high-tech tools like bots and artificial intelligence to trick victims into sending them money. One study of dating apps reported a 2087% increase in bot attacks between 2023 and 2024. Even back in 2022, nearly 70,000 people said they fell for romance scams and reported $1.3 billion...</div><h6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></h6><br /><a href="https://www.socialpsychology.org/client/redirect.php?action=rssHomepage" target="_blank"><img title="Brought to you by Social Psychology Network" alt="Brought to you by SocialPsychology Network" src="https://www.socialpsychology.org/images/rss-footer-large.png" border="0" width="400" height="45" /></a><br><br>
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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

Psychology News Robot
DATE:
February 15, 2024
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TITLE:
Social Work Tech Talk: Facing Up to Facial Recognition
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URL:
https://www.socialworker.com/feature-articles/technology-articles/facing-up-facial-recogition/

The future is here. Facial recognition is used in everyday tasks like unlocking your phone and in more weighty situations, such as providing suspect matches in law enforcement. When it gets it wrong, the cost can be high.
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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

.
DATE:
February 14, 2024 at 09:31PM
.
TITLE:
Even seasoned pilots fall prey to outcome bias, study in Applied Cognitive Psychology reveals
.
URL:
https://www.psypost.org/2024/02/even-seasoned-pilots-fall-prey-to-outcome-bias-study-in-applied-cognitive-psychology-reveals-221510

<p>In a fascinating exploration into the minds of pilots, a recent study has unearthed that the outcomes of past decisions, whether good or bad, significantly sway how pilots evaluate the quality of those decisions. This phenomenon, known as outcome bias, was observed across various simulated flight scenarios, revealing that even experienced pilots are more likely to judge a decision negatively if it leads to a poor result, regardless of the decision-making process itself.</p>
<p>The findings, published in <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/acp.4046"><em>Applied Cognitive Psychology</em></a>, underscore the complex nature of human judgment and highlight the need for aviation training programs to address cognitive biases more thoroughly.</p>
<p>Why embark on this study? The motivation is rooted in the critical nature of aviation decisions. While pilots often rely on standardized procedures, checklists, and operating manuals for decision-making, they also face scenarios that demand rapid judgment calls in the absence of complete information and under the pressure of several competing alternatives. This type of decision-making is inherently more complex and fraught with the potential for error.</p>
<p>Previous research has highlighted that a significant portion of aviation accidents are due to human error, with a considerable number of these errors tied to decision-making under pressure. Given these stakes, the researchers aimed to delve deeper into the cognitive processes underpinning pilot decision-making, particularly the role of outcome bias — a psychological phenomenon where the results of a decision influence how we view the quality of that decision in hindsight.</p>
<p>The researchers recruited 60 pilots who were qualified to fly under instrument flight rules (IFR), dividing them into two categories based on their experience. Expertise was determined by the number of hours each pilot had logged as pilot-in-command (PIC), with those accumulating more than 2,000 hours classified as experts, and those with fewer as novices.</p>
<p>Participants were presented with four carefully crafted scenarios through an online survey. These scenarios simulated real-world decisions pilots might face while flying under IFR. The scenarios were developed with input from seasoned pilots to ensure realism and relevance. Each scenario concluded with either a positive or negative outcome, designed to test the impact of outcome knowledge on the pilots&#8217; evaluations.</p>
<p>The scenarios were as follows:</p>
<ol>
<li>A flight with minimum fuel expecting clear weather, which either lands safely or requires a go-around due to unanticipated bad weather.</li>
<li>A decision to fly above clouds to save fuel, leading either to an uneventful flight or ice crystal icing causing technical issues.</li>
<li>Continuing an approach despite a red cell (heavy rain) on the weather radar, which ends either with a safe landing or a downdraft necessitating a windshear escape maneuver.</li>
<li>Landing in freezing rain with no reported braking action value, resulting in either a safe stop or an overshoot of the runway.</li>
</ol>
<p>Participants rated each scenario on three aspects: the decision&#8217;s quality, the perceived risk, and their likelihood of making the same decision.</p>
<p>The study&#8217;s findings revealed a significant presence of outcome bias across all measures. Decisions that led to positive outcomes were rated more favorably in terms of decision quality, perceived risk, and the likelihood of making the same choice, compared to those with negative outcomes. This trend persisted regardless of the pilots&#8217; experience, indicating that both novices and experts were equally influenced by the outcomes when evaluating past decisions.</p>
<p>These findings underscore the significant role of outcome bias in the decision-making processes of pilots, challenging the assumption that experience alone can mitigate the influence of cognitive biases.</p><div class="addrop-wrap" data-id="64749"><p style="text-align: center;">
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<p>The study&#8217;s insights into how pilots evaluate past decisions based on outcomes rather than the information available at the time have important implications for aviation safety and training. By recognizing the impact of outcome bias, training programs can be better designed to address these cognitive biases, potentially leading to improved decision-making processes and enhancing overall flight safety.</p>
<p>The findings open up several avenues for future research. There&#8217;s a need to explore other cognitive heuristics that pilots may rely on during decision-making and to investigate whether these biases affect judgment in real-life flight situations as strongly as they do in simulated scenarios. Moreover, comparing the decision-making processes in aviation with those in other high-stakes fields, like medicine, could offer deeper insights into how professionals manage risk and uncertainty.</p>
<p>The study, &#8220;<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/acp.4046">All&#8217;s well that ends well? Outcome bias in pilots during instrument flight rules</a>&#8220;, was authored by Ana P. G. Martins, Moritz V. Köbrich, Nils Carstengerdes, and Marcus Biella.</p>
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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

.
DATE:
February 14, 2024 at 04:00PM
.
TITLE:
Hormonal health and brain protection: The role of CYP46A1 in combating Alzheimer’s in women
.
URL:
https://www.psypost.org/2024/02/hormonal-health-and-brain-protection-the-role-of-cyp46a1-in-combating-alzheimers-in-women-221495

<p>The <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/aging/aginginfo/alzheimers.htm#:%7E:text=Alzheimer's%20disease%20is%20the%20most,and%20respond%20to%20the%20environment">most common form of dementia</a>, Alzheimer’s, is a progressive, life limiting, neurodegenerative condition, which damages and destroys parts of the nervous system, especially the brain, over time.</p>
<p>Women are most likely to be affected. They make up <a href="https://www.alz.org/alzheimers-dementia/what-is-alzheimers/women-and-alzheimer-s">two-thirds of people</a> with Alzheimer’s. It is not yet understood why <a href="https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/blog/why-dementia-different-women">women have greater risk</a> of developing the disease – but there does seem to be a link with the menopause.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adj1354">Our latest research</a> has examined this link <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adj1354">and it suggests</a> that the activation of a brain protein called CYP46A1, using an anti-HIV drug, could help protect women from developing disease.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/155651#_noHeaderPrefixedContent">Women transition into menopause</a>, usually between 45 and 55 years of age. Menopause is caused by <a href="https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321064#symptoms">loss of oestrogen</a>, a hormone essential for maintaining brain health as well as learning and memory skills.</p>
<p>Early menopause, with onset before 45 years, is a risk factor for memory loss and for developing Alzheimer’s disease later in life.</p>
<p>Research suggests that women who experience <a href="https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/alzheimers-early-age-at-menopause-late-start-to-hormone-therapy-may-be-a-risk-factor#:%7E:text=%E2%80%9CWe%20found%20that%20in%20multiple,years%20in%20the%20United%20States">early menopause</a> who go on to get Alzheimer’s disease have higher levels of a protein called <a href="https://www.alz.org/media/Documents/alzheimers-dementia-tau-ts.pdf">tau</a> in their brain, which is a hallmark of the disease. Tau is a protein that stabilises neurons – the nerve cells that send messages all over your body to allow you to do everything from breathing to talking, eating, walking, and thinking. In people with Alzheimer’s, tau forms toxic tangles, which contribute to the deterioration of brain functions and memory loss.</p>
<h2>Activating brain protein CYP46A1</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adj1354">Our study</a> shows that activation of a brain protein called CYP46A1 could protect women from developing Alzheimer’s disease.</p>
<p>The main function of this protein in the brain is to get rid of excess cholesterol by transforming it into a cholesterol product called 24S-hydroxycholesterol (24SOH). When CYP46A1 levels are increased in the brains of mice, also heightening the production of 24SOH, females present healthier neurons and higher oestrogen activity in the hippocampus – the brain region essential for memory.</p>
<p>The female mice with high CYP46A1 levels showed enhanced memory capacities. Just like humans, when mice get old their memory worsens compared to young mice, and the same is true for menopausal mice compared to non-menopausal mice. Activation of CYP46A1 counteracted memory loss both during aging and during menopause – but only in the female mice.</p>
<p>In male mice, activation of CYP46A1 led instead to worsening memory and accumulation of the male hormone <a href="https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/24555-dht-dihydrotestosterone">di-hydro-testosterone</a> in their brains.</p><div class="addrop-wrap" data-id="64749"><p style="text-align: center;">
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<p>To understand better how the CYP46A1 protein could have different effects in male and female mice, we grew neurons in culture (on plastic plates in the lab) and treated them with the CYP46A1 product, 24SOH.</p>
<p>In these neurons, 24SOH increased hormone activity, especially oestrogen. We found that increasing oestrogen activity develops healthier and better functioning neurons, explaining the protective effects of the hormone in female mice. However, the male mice did not benefit in the same way because high levels of dihydrotestosterone blocked the positive effects of oestrogen.</p>
<p>Results from mice were supported with studies in people with Alzheimer’s disease. In the <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adj1354">human study</a>, 24SOH was measured in the cerebrospinal fluid (the liquid around the brain and spinal cord) of patients from Karolinska Hospital, Sweden. Higher 24SOH levels corresponded to lower levels of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666144621000125#:%7E:text=Dynamic%20Biomarkers%20of%20AD%20Pathology,are%20drawn%20concordantly%20(orange).">Alzheimer’s pathological markers</a> like tau – but only in women.</p>
<p>This suggests that the possible protective effect of high levels of CYP46A1 and 24SOH on Alzheimer’s disease is exclusively for women.</p>
<h2>Anti-HIV drug helpful for Alzheimer’s</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9797897/">Previous research</a> has shown that CYP46A1 can be activated by low doses of the commercial <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9855767/">anti-HIV drug Efavirenz</a>. Efavirenz has been <a href="https://www.alzdiscovery.org/uploads/cognitive_vitality_media/Efavirenz-Cognitive-Vitality-For-Researchers.pdf">proposed as Alzheimer’s therapy</a> because lab studies showed beneficial effects against tau and amyloid plaques (where proteins clump together and disrupt cell function), which is known to accumulate in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s.</p>
<p>But the results from our study suggest different effects of CYP46A1 activation in men and women – with beneficial effects prominently in women.</p>
<p>CYP46A1 activators like Efavirenz may offer a new therapeutic approach to promote oestrogen-mediated brain protection in women at risk of Alzheimer’s disease – women with early menopause, for example.</p>
<p>This approach is different from hormone replacement therapies (HRT), which have <a href="https://alzres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13195-022-01121-5">yielded variable results so far</a>. The use of HRT seems to reduce the risk of women developing Alzheimer’s disease – but only if given at the time of menopause symptoms. There seems to be no protective effect if given after menopause – and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6780820/">HRT is controversial</a> after being <a href="https://www.breastcancer.org/risk/risk-factors/using-hormone-replacement-therapy">linked to a higher risk of cancer</a>.</p>
<p>New possibilities of increasing oestrogen activity in the brains of women, then, are welcome – and have the potential to become preventative therapy against devastating neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img decoding="async" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221538/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/women-are-more-likely-to-develop-alzheimers-but-our-research-suggests-a-specific-brain-enzyme-could-help-protect-them-221538">original article</a>.</em></p>
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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

.
DATE:
February 14, 2024 at 12:00PM
.
TITLE:
Maltreatment linked to altered brain structure and spontaneous thought patterns in children, study finds
.
URL:
https://www.psypost.org/2024/02/maltreatment-linked-to-altered-brain-structure-and-spontaneous-thought-patterns-in-children-study-finds-221490

<p>A new study has found that children exposed to maltreatment tend to have fewer positive thoughts and are more likely to develop ruminative thought patterns compared to children who were not mistreated. They also had reduced thickness of the subcallosal cingulate cortex region of the brain, a characteristic associated with difficulties in emotion regulation and depressive symptoms. The paper was published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13853"><em>Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry</em></a>.</p>
<p>Childhood maltreatment encompasses any act or series of acts, whether by commission or omission, by a parent, caregiver, or another individual in a caregiving role, that causes harm, potential harm, or threat of harm to a child. It includes physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, as well as neglect—both physical neglect and neglect of a child’s emotional needs. The effects of childhood maltreatment can be profound and long-lasting, impacting an individual&#8217;s physical and mental health well into adulthood, and influencing their quality of life, relationships, and overall wellbeing.</p>
<p>Childhood maltreatment is one of the strongest and the most widespread risk factors for the development of the major depressive disorder. Studies have particularly pointed out that unwanted, repetitive thoughts oriented towards past events and shaded by negative affect might be a link between childhood maltreatment and depression. These thought patterns are referred to as ruminative. Being immersed in them for prolonged periods is called rumination.</p>
<p>Researchers assess rumination by examining spontaneous thoughts—that is, self-generated thoughts. Individuals report these thoughts, and if they are repetitive, negatively affect-laden, and frequently focused on the same past events, they are considered indicative of rumination.</p>
<p>In their new study, Ferdinand Hoffmann and his colleagues sought to explore the spontaneous thought patterns and their characteristics in children aged 6 to 12 years. They aimed to compare these patterns between children who had experienced childhood maltreatment and those who had not. The researchers hypothesized that maltreated children would be more susceptible to rumination and that there could be neurobiological differences between the groups, particularly in terms of depression-associated characteristics. Specifically, they believed that maltreated children might exhibit lower cortical thickness in the subcallosal cingulate cortex and higher cortisol levels.</p>
<p>The subcallosal cingulate cortex is crucial for emotion and stress response regulation. Research indicates that reduced thickness in this region may suggest a vulnerability to emotional dysregulation and could potentially serve as a biomarker for the severity of depressive symptoms or the effectiveness of treatment interventions. Cortisol, a steroid hormone known as the &#8220;stress hormone,&#8221; increases in response to stress and low blood glucose levels. High cortisol levels can signal physical or psychological stress and are linked to various adverse health conditions.</p>
<p>The study involved 96 maltreated children, recruited from child welfare and protection services, and 87 healthy, non-maltreated children, with an average age of 9 years.</p>
<p>The researchers utilized the Maltreatment Classification system to quantify the level of maltreatment each child had experienced. They also evaluated the children&#8217;s cognitive abilities using the Snijders-Oomen Nonverbal Intelligence Tests and assessed their socioeconomic status with the Winkler and Stolzenberg Index, based on educational attainment, occupational qualifications, status, and household net income. Furthermore, the children underwent assessments for depressive symptoms and participated in magnetic resonance imaging.</p>
<p>Additionally, the children completed an assessment of depressive symptoms (the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale for Children), a screening interview for the diagnosis of depression (Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for school-age children, Kiddie-SADS Present and Lifetime Version), and underwent magnetic resonance imaging.</p>
<p>Results showed that maltreated children had significantly lower cognitive ability and lower socioeconomic status compared to healthy children. They also had more pronounced depressive symptoms.</p><div class="addrop-wrap" data-id="64749"><p style="text-align: center;">
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<p>While no initial differences were observed in the thickness of the subcallosal cingulate cortex, after adjusting for cognitive ability and socioeconomic status, a notable difference emerged, showing reduced thickness in maltreated children. The most severely maltreated children exhibited the least cortical thickness in this brain region. No differences in cortisol levels were found between the groups.</p>
<p>Analysis of spontaneously generated thoughts demonstrated that maltreated children had significantly fewer positive thoughts, and their negative thoughts were more interconnected. Their negative self-perceptions and outlook on the future were tightly linked.</p>
<p>“This study using a novel network analytic approach to SGTs [self-generated thoughts] provides evidence that maltreated children show maladaptive, rumination-like thought patterns within their thought network that can be identified already in middle childhood,&#8221; the researchers concluded. &#8220;These are characterized by greater connectiveness of negatively valenced thoughts with self-related and future-and past oriented thoughts, greater centrality of other-related and past-oriented thoughts, and an absence of future-self thought coupling.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Rumination-like thought patterns in maltreated children were associated with depressive symptoms, as well as with neurobiological and physiological markers of depression and rumination, in terms of SCC [subcallosal cingulate cortex] thickness and cortisol levels.&#8221;</p>
<p>The study sheds light on the psychological and physiological factors associated with childhood mistreatment. However, it should be noted that the study design does not allow any cause-and-effect inferences to be made from these data.</p>
<p>The paper, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13853">”Children with maltreatment exposure exhibit rumination-like spontaneous thought patterns: association with symptoms of depression, subcallosal cingulate cortex thickness, and cortisol levels,</a>” was authored by Ferdinand Hoffmann, Roman Linz, Nikolaus Steinbeis, Martin Bauer, Felix Dammering, Claudia Lazarides, Heiko Klawitter, Lea Bentz, Sonja Entringer, Sibylle M. Winter, Claudia Buss, and Christine Heim.</p>
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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

.
DATE:
February 14, 2024 at 10:00AM
.
TITLE:
Cannabis use in youth linked to lower college and graduate degree attainment, study finds
.
URL:
https://www.psypost.org/2024/02/cannabis-use-in-youth-linked-to-lower-college-and-graduate-degree-attainment-study-finds-221460

<p>New research has found a connection between cannabis use during adolescence and decreased chances of completing higher education in adulthood. The research, drawing on over two decades of data, suggests that those who used cannabis during their teenage years are less likely to attain college and graduate degrees compared to their peers who abstained. The findings have been published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2023.101347"><em>Economics &amp; Human Biology</em></a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;The recent wave of marijuana legalizations may result in a greater use by adolescents. Yet, we do not know much about the causal effect of adolescent marijuana use on future degree attainment. This study contributes to estimating this effect using a nationally representative dataset from the United States,&#8221; said study author <a href="https://www.utoledo.edu/al/econ/people/amialchuk.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Aliaksandr Amialchuk</a>, a professor at the University of Toledo.</p>
<p>The researchers analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), a survey that followed approximately 90,000 respondents from their school days in the mid-90s into adulthood. The final analysis focused on a subset of these participants, those who were re-interviewed as adults between 2016 and 2018, when they were aged 33 to 43, resulting in a final sample size of 8,953 individuals after excluding those with missing data on key variables of interest.</p>
<p>The researchers employed a rigorous methodological framework to examine the relationship between adolescent cannabis use and later educational outcomes. This included using statistical models that account for various individual and family characteristics that might influence both drug use and education, as well as an innovative instrumental variable technique to tackle potential biases in their analysis.</p>
<p>The results showed that teenagers who used cannabis had a notably higher chance of continuing its use into adulthood. Moreover, these adolescent users were approximately 10 percentage points less likely to attain a college degree and 3 percentage points less likely to achieve a graduate degree compared to their peers who did not use cannabis during their teenage years.</p>
<p>An interesting feature of the study&#8217;s methodology was the use of an instrumental variable approach, a statistical technique used to estimate causal relationships when controlled experiments are not feasible.</p>
<p>Imagine you&#8217;re trying to understand if eating candy directly leads to cavities, but you know kids who eat candy often also tend to skip brushing their teeth. To truly figure out if candy is the culprit, you need to find a way to isolate candy&#8217;s effect from the habit of not brushing.</p>
<p>This is similar to what the researchers faced in their study on adolescent cannabis use and educational outcomes. They needed to ensure that the link they observed between cannabis use and lower educational achievement wasn&#8217;t muddled by other factors that could influence both, like a student&#8217;s family background or personal characteristics.</p>
<p>To tackle this challenge, the researchers examined the cannabis use status of &#8220;friends once removed&#8221; (friends of the respondent&#8217;s friends who are not directly connected to the respondent).</p>
<p>They first looked at whether these friends once removed were using cannabis and if that made the teenagers in the study more likely to use it too, while controlling for other variables. This stage essentially isolated the part of an individual&#8217;s cannabis use that can be explained by the social influence of their wider peer network, independent of their own characteristics or other influences that might also affect their educational outcomes.</p><div class="addrop-wrap" data-id="64749"><p style="text-align: center;">
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<p>Then, the researchers used this information to see if teenagers&#8217; cannabis use influenced their education, like finishing college. Since this cannabis use is now only connected to the influence from friends once removed (and not directly tied to the teenagers&#8217; other traits or their environment), it gives a clearer picture of cannabis&#8217;s effect on education.</p>
<p>Through this methodology, the researchers found that the negative impact of adolescent cannabis use on educational attainment could be significantly greater than previously estimated. The instrumental variable model suggested that the likelihood of completing college could decrease by as much as 44 percentage points for adolescent cannabis users, with a 13 percentage points decrease in the likelihood of obtaining a graduate degree.</p>
<p>&#8220;These results suggest that initiating marijuana use in adolescence is much more detrimental to these academic outcomes than what is suggested by the unadjusted differences between the users and non-users,&#8221; the researchers wrote.</p>
<p>The researchers also explored various adjustments to their analysis, such as the intensity of cannabis use and the age of first use, finding that their primary conclusions remained consistent across these different models. This consistency further strengthens the argument that early cannabis use has a pervasive and detrimental effect on educational outcomes.</p>
<p>Despite the compelling evidence presented, the researchers acknowledge certain limitations to their study. The instrumental variable technique, while innovative, relies on assumptions that may not hold in every context, and the study&#8217;s focus on adolescent cannabis use does not account for those who may start using the drug later in life. Furthermore, the mechanisms through which cannabis use affects educational outcomes—whether through cognitive impairment, motivational changes, or social dynamics—are not directly addressed in this research, presenting avenues for future investigation.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the findings suggest the need for targeted interventions to prevent cannabis use among teenagers and highlights the importance of conveying the potential risks associated with early drug use.</p>
<p>&#8220;This research suggests that age restrictions on the purchase of marijuana products make a lot of sense and should not be lifted,&#8221; Amialchuk said. &#8220;Also, because this is a school-based study, it informs school-based policies that target prevention.&#8221;</p>
<p>The study, &#8220;<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1570677X23001284" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The effect of marijuana use in adolescence on college and graduate degree attainment,</a>&#8221; was authored by Aliaksandr A. Amialchuk and Brooke M. Buckingham.</p>
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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

Psychology News Robot
DATE:
February 14, 2024 at 07:15AM
.
TITLE:
Valentine's Day Got You Blue? There's an Upside
.
URL:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/valentines-day-got-you-blue-theres-an-upside/

<p>Unpleasant emotions like sadness and anger can feel overwhelming, but recent research suggests they can trigger behaviors that lead to something better</p>
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psychbot , 5 months ago to psychology

.
DATE:
February 14, 2024 at 08:00AM
.
TITLE:
New research delves into the unexplored psychology of Femcels
.
URL:
https://www.psypost.org/2024/02/new-research-delves-into-the-unexplored-psychology-of-femcels-221485

<p>A new study published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-023-02796-z"><em>Archives of Sexual Behavior </em></a>explored the psychology of involuntarily celibate women, or “femcels”, revealing their struggles with sexual frustration, a focus on personal rather than male grievances, and tendency toward non-violent means for empowerment.</p>
<p>“When I first heard the term ‘femcel,’ I was immediately interested and wanted to know more about their communities. When I began exploring their online subculture, I saw so many different directions that our research could take because this is such an understudied population,” said Hannah Rae Evans, a master’s graduate of the University of Alabama’s Criminology and Criminal Justice Program. Rae currently works as the Stepping Up Initiative Coordinator for Tuscaloosa County.</p>
<p>The term “incels,” referring to involuntarily celibate men has been linked to several violent acts and online misogynistic culture, capturing global attention. However, the narrative around “femcels” has been largely unexplored. Despite assumptions that women can readily access sexual and romantic opportunities, many express frustration over the lack of meaningful connections and sexual satisfaction, leading to the creation of online communities like The Pink Pill. In this work, Rae and Adam Lankford delved into the femcel phenomenon.</p>
<p>The researchers collected data from the five most subscribed subforums on ThePinkPill.co, an online femcel discussion website, capturing posts from May 2021 to May 2022. This process yielded a large dataset of 24,525 user posts across 3461 threads. The final sample for focused analysis comprised approximately 1200 posts identified through text search queries for the following terms: sexual, power, revenge, and frustration (and their stemmed versions, e.g., frustrated, frustrating). This study was designed to give voice to femcel experiences by relying on their language and expression.</p>
<p>“First, femcels struggled with numerous types of sexual frustration. All three major types of sexual frustration proposed in Dr. Lankford’s sexual frustration theory—unfulfilled desires to have sex, unavailable partners, and unsatisfying sexual activities—were found in femcel posts,” Rae told PsyPost.</p>
<p>This suggests there is a deep-rooted concern with the quality and availability of intimate relationships among this population.</p>
<p>“Another key finding is how much in-depth analysis and commentary we found from femcels. This is why we decided to include so many illustrative quotes within our findings and share what the femcels had to say about gender, societal expectations, beauty standards, power dynamics, and more.”</p>
<p>For example, when discussing women and power, the power of beauty was a common theme. One user wrote “It’s not about just beauty from the objective point, it’s about what you gain with beauty. I want that. That power.”</p>
<p>Another wrote, “Stacys know that they are hot, and they know that this gives them power and money, so they want to maximize their power.”</p>
<p>Femcel discussions predominantly focused on women’s experiences, highlighting the emphasis on the female perspective within the femcel community.</p><div class="addrop-wrap" data-id="64749"><p style="text-align: center;">
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<p>What can we learn by studying this population? Rae said, “Although the femcel discussions in our study contained much less support for aggression and violence than what has been reported about male incels, some did express extreme views.”</p>
<p>“Further studying these populations could help us identify factors that may contribute to radicalization and could aid efforts to prevent escalation of harmful ideologies. Also, researchers can learn more about the mental health challenges associated with involuntary celibacy and sexual frustration. This would give us a better foundation for developing evidence-based support strategies tailored to the specific needs of these populations.”</p>
<p>“One of the most important things to note is that we examined only these femcels’ online statements and discussions and have no way of verifying their offline behavior,” the researcher explained.</p>
<p>“While some postings involved extreme rhetoric, we are not aware of any mass shootings or violence committed by someone who considered themselves a femcel or identified with the femcel community. Additionally, femcels are not ideologically homogeneous and the beliefs of the most extreme members are not indicative of the group as a whole.”</p>
<p>Are there questions that still need answers? Rae responded, “There is still much to learn about the femcel community, their experiences, and the broader societal dynamics that shape their perspectives. For example, further research could investigate femcels&#8217; struggles with social isolation, self-esteem issues, and interpersonal skills. We’d also like to do a direct comparison study of femcels and male incels.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-023-02796-z">Femcel Discussions of Sex, Frustration, Power, and Revenge</a>”, was authored by Hannah Rae Evans and Adam Lankford.</p>
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DATE:
February 14, 2024 at 01:00AM
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TITLE:
Male Body Dysmorphic Disorder and Eating Disorders in Sports
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URL:
http://www.socialpsychology.org/client/redirect.php?from=rss_feed&id=177371&url=https://health.usnews.com/wellness/mind/articles/male-body-dysmorphic-disorder-and-eating-disorders-in-sports

<div><p>Source: <a href="http://www.usnews.com/" rel="tag" target="_blank">U.S. News and World Report</a></p>Body dysmorphic disorder, or BDD, is a brain-based disorder that causes people to fixate on their appearance. Someone with BDD will be preoccupied with nonexistent or slight defects in their physical appearance, which causes significant emotional distress or significantly interferes with their daily functioning. While the cause of the disorder is not entirely clear, BDD is about 50% heritable, and it can strike men as well as women.</div><h6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></h6><br /><a href="https://www.socialpsychology.org/client/redirect.php?action=rssHomepage" target="_blank"><img title="Brought to you by Social Psychology Network" alt="Brought to you by SocialPsychology Network" src="https://www.socialpsychology.org/images/rss-footer-large.png" border="0" width="400" height="45" /></a><br><br>
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