#counseling — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #counseling, aggregated by home.social.
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DATE: August 20, 2026 at 02:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Gen Z Americans are more willing to use blockades and violence to stop public speakers
A survey of over 4,000 individuals found that Gen Z Americans tend to be more accepting of shoutdowns, blockades, and violence as methods to suppress speech than their older compatriots, regardless of whether they are asked about these tactics in the abstract or against speech they find personally offensive. Young liberals tended to be more supportive of these methods compared to conservatives when asked abstractly worded questions, but this ideological gap disappeared when the questions referred to suppressing specific, highly offensive ideas. The paper was published in PS: Political Science & Politics.
Free speech is a cornerstone of democratic society. However, people do not always agree about what should happen when speech is considered offensive or harmful. One of the personal and social characteristics that allows free speech to exist is political tolerance. Political tolerance involves allowing people to express ideas that we strongly oppose. In this way, controversial speech is an important test of a person’s commitment to the principles of political tolerance.
Recent research suggests that attitudes toward free speech in the United States may be changing, particularly among younger generations. Younger and more progressive Americans appear increasingly likely to weigh concerns about equality, inclusion, and harm against an unrestricted commitment to freedom of expression. The issue becomes especially complicated when protests themselves are intended to prevent other people from speaking. Although Americans generally support peaceful protest, support falls considerably when protesters employ disruptive, coercive, or violent tactics.
Study author Kevin Jay Wallsten explored the American public’s views on speech-suppressing, disruptive protest tactics. He noted that previous research generally examined tolerance in one of three ways: by exploring abstract support for free speech; by exploring how much people tolerate speech from groups the researchers believe are broadly unpopular, such as communists or racists (the “fixed-group” approach); and by exploring tolerance toward a “least-liked group” that the respondents previously selected from a list.
He notes that the first two approaches can overestimate tolerance because they do not measure whether respondents would actually extend civil liberties to groups they find disagreeable. Researchers using the fixed-group approach do not definitively know if their respondents actually find the groups they are asking about disagreeable, or to what extent. They only gauge the general view of the public.
To address this, Wallsten conducted a nationally representative survey of 4,188 Americans. Study participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions. In the first condition (the “non-group” or abstract approach), participants were asked: “How acceptable [always/sometimes/rarely/never] would you say it is for people to engage in the following action to protest a public speaker?: (1) shouting down a speaker to prevent them from speaking; (2) blocking other people from attending a speech; and (3) using violence to stop a speech.”
In the second condition (the “most-offensive-idea” approach), participants were first asked to select the statement they found most offensive from a list (e.g., “All whites are racist oppressors” or “America got what it deserved on 9/11”). They were then asked whether the protest tactics described in the first condition would be acceptable when used against a speaker advocating the specific idea they just selected.
Results showed that the idea participants found to be most offensive depended heavily on their political ideology. For example, the statement “January 6th was a peaceful protest” was selected as the most offensive by almost 25% of liberals, but only 1% of conservatives. On the other hand, statements like “All whites are racist oppressors” were much more frequently selected by conservatives. Interestingly, the shares of conservatives and liberals who selected “America got what it deserved on 9/11” and “All immigrants should be arrested and deported” as the most offensive were relatively similar.
Results further showed that the three tactics the survey asked about were not equally endorsed. Participants were most accepting of shouting down a speaker and least accepting of using violence. Overall, the youngest participants (Gen Z) tended to be more accepting of all three methods of suppressing speech than older generations. Furthermore, the study found no significant difference between Gen Z respondents who attend college and those who do not, suggesting this acceptance is a generational shift rather than a result of higher education socialization.
Ideological differences also depended entirely on how the question was asked. Young liberals tended to be more supportive of these methods compared to conservatives and moderates only in the abstract condition where the speaker’s statements were not specified. However, when respondents evaluated tactics used against a speaker making a statement they personally found offensive, acceptance increased among conservatives and moderates, completely erasing the ideological gap.
“These analyses reveal important generational differences in how people think about speech-suppressing shoutdowns, blockades, and violence. Members of Gen Z consistently express more permissiveness about these tactics than older cohorts,” the study author concluded.
“Although previous research suggests that young liberals are particularly supportive of disruptive protest actions, this study demonstrates that ideological polarization is present only when survey respondents are asked abstractly worded questions. When asked to evaluate disruptive acts targeting speakers that they find personally offensive, ideological gaps between liberals and conservatives close.”
The study contributes to the scientific understanding of political tolerance in the U.S. However, it should be noted that all data came from self-reports (asking people how acceptable certain actions are to them in theory) rather than observing their behavior in real-world situations. This leaves room for self-reporting bias—where people answer how they think they should feel rather than how they would actually act—to have affected the results.
The paper, “Generational and Ideological Divides in Support for Speech-Suppressing Protest,” was authored by Kevin Jay Wallsten.
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #GenZ #FreeSpeech #ProtestTactics #SpeechSuppression #ShoutDowns #Blockades #ViolenceInProtest #PoliticalTolerance #GenerationalDivide #PublicSpeaking
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DATE: August 20, 2026 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: University teachers with a strong sense of purpose report higher job satisfaction
College instructors who feel a deep, personal calling to their profession tend to show higher levels of engagement in their daily tasks. This heightened dedication is heavily influenced by how committed they feel to their university and how satisfied they are with their jobs. The findings were recently published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.
Work engagement describes a psychological state where employees feel energetic, dedicated, and entirely absorbed in their tasks. People with high engagement often experience a sense of meaning and enthusiasm, and they can focus on their work so deeply that time seems to pass quickly. Career calling refers to a deep internal drive where individuals view their work as a vital part of their identity. Instead of treating their job as a simple way to earn a paycheck, they see it as a way to fulfill a higher purpose.
Researchers Yulong Guo of Harbin Engineering University and Mengshi Zhang of Northeast Forestry University wanted to understand how this internal drive relates to daily professional enthusiasm. They focused on a specific group of educators in China known as ideological and political theory teachers. These instructors teach Marxist theory and government ideology at the university level.
Past research on what drives these particular teachers has mostly looked at external factors or how they organize their daily routines. Guo and Zhang wanted to explore the internal, psychological drivers of their work habits. They based their investigation on a framework known as self-determination theory. This theory suggests that humans have basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and a sense of belonging.
When people feel a strong career calling, their work fulfills these basic needs. The work feels like a personal choice rather than an external demand, giving them autonomy. The desire to succeed in their mission drives them to improve their skills, building competence.
Finally, connecting their daily tasks to a broader societal goal fosters a sense of belonging. The researchers theorized that fulfilling these needs makes teachers feel more attached to their schools.
The researchers also drew on social exchange theory, which views human behavior as a reciprocal exchange of resources. If an organization provides a supportive environment, the employee feels an obligation to return the favor. In this context, the researchers suspected that if a strong sense of calling made teachers happier with their jobs, they would reciprocate by pouring more energy into their lesson plans and student interactions.
To test these ideas, the researchers distributed an electronic survey using a snowball sampling method. They sent the questionnaire to teachers within their own professional networks and asked those individuals to forward it to other colleagues across different institutions. The survey asked respondents to rate their feelings on standardized scales measuring four different concepts.
These included their sense of career calling, their emotional attachment to their university, their overall job satisfaction, and their level of daily work engagement. The work engagement scale specifically measured a teacher’s physical vigor, emotional dedication, and mental absorption. The job satisfaction scale measured happiness with both the internal aspects of the work and external conditions like the working environment.
After one month, the researchers collected 1,428 valid responses from teachers at universities across 13 provinces and municipalities in China. The participants included a mix of age groups, educational backgrounds, and academic ranks. About 58 percent held master’s degrees, and 22 percent held doctoral degrees.
The researchers used statistical modeling software to analyze how the responses to the four different survey categories related to one another. They specifically tested whether organizational attachment and job satisfaction acted as psychological bridges between a teacher’s sense of calling and their ultimate dedication to their work. The analysis revealed that a higher sense of career calling is closely associated with higher work engagement.
Instructors who viewed their profession as a profound personal mission reported putting more energy and focus into their teaching and research. The data also showed that organizational commitment and job satisfaction both separately act as intermediate links in this relationship. When teachers felt a strong calling, they were more likely to feel deeply loyal to their university. That loyalty in turn predicted higher engagement.
Similarly, a strong calling was linked to greater overall job satisfaction. That job satisfaction also predicted higher work engagement. Beyond these separate links, the statistical models revealed a sequential chain connecting all four concepts together.
A strong sense of calling predicted higher loyalty to the university. That heightened loyalty then correlated with increased job satisfaction. Finally, that elevated job satisfaction predicted the highest levels of daily work engagement.
The researchers noted that this multi-step pathway helps explain exactly how an abstract feeling of purpose translates into concrete work habits. An educator’s mindset shapes how they view their school. This organizational view influences their daily mood, which ultimately dictates their daily effort.
The study relies on a cross-sectional design, meaning all the survey data was collected at a single point in time. Because of this, the statistical models can only show associations between the different psychological states, not a chain of cause and effect. Future research would need to track educators over several years to see if changes in a person’s sense of calling eventually lead to changes in their work habits. Other factors like teaching experience or specific school resources might also influence the results.
The data is also entirely self-reported. This can introduce bias if participants provide answers they believe make them look like better or more dedicated employees. Additionally, the snowball sampling method used to recruit participants might have gathered a group of teachers with similar professional networks. This approach limits how well the results represent all educators across the country.
The study sample was also about 75 percent female, which does not perfectly match the overall gender distribution of university instructors in this field. This imbalance might obscure differences in how male and female educators experience career calling. Future studies might use random sampling and incorporate objective measures of performance, such as student feedback or research output, to get a broader picture of educator engagement.
The study, “The influence of career calling on the work engagement of ideological and political theory teachers in colleges and universities: the chain mediating effect of organizational commitment and job satisfaction,” was authored by Yulong Guo and Mengshi Zhang.
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #CareerCalling #WorkEngagement #UniversityTeaching #AcademicDedication #JobSatisfaction #OrganizationalCommitment #HigherEducation #EducationResearch #FrontiersInPsychology #TeachingMotivation
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DATE: August 20, 2026 at 11:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Scientists discover an epigenetic mechanism that links childhood trauma to adult stress sensitivity
Experiencing trauma during early development suggests a lasting alteration in how brain cells package their DNA, leaving individuals more vulnerable to stress later in life. A recent study published in the journal Neuron indicates that early-life adversity increases a specific enzyme that keeps DNA loosely coiled in a key brain region, making the brain hyper-reactive to future stressors. Preventing this molecular change protected mice from developing heightened stress sensitivity in adulthood.
Childhood trauma and severe early-life stress are known risk factors for anxiety, depression, and other mood disorders in adulthood. The authors of the current study aimed to understand the physical mechanisms that allow trauma during early development to alter the brain permanently.
“Millions of children experience stress while growing up,” explained Catherine Jensen Peña, an assistant professor at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute. “We’ve known for decades that the more stress a child encounters, the greater the risk for additional stress later in life to precipitate anxiety, depression, or addiction. But we’ve known very little about the biology of that latent vulnerability. Ultimately, we hope this research can help point to new treatments to ease this stress sensitivity.”
To investigate this, the scientists focused on the ventral tegmental area, a brain region rich in dopamine-producing neurons that processes rewards and adversity. Within these dopamine cells, the scientists examined the epigenome. The epigenome consists of molecular tags that attach to DNA and determine whether specific genes are turned on or off.
Inside the nucleus, DNA is tightly wound around proteins called histones, resembling a coiled spring. When the DNA coil is compressed, the genes are hidden and turned off, but when chemical tags cause the coil to stretch and open, the genes become accessible and can be easily activated by environmental triggers.
“The effects of childhood adversity may not be immediately obvious, and sometimes manifests much later in life as exaggerated sensitivity to new stress encounters,” Peña told PsyPost. “We found one biological mechanism for this latent sensitivity at the epigenetic interface of nature and nurture.”
To observe how early-life stress alters these molecular tags, the researchers first used an analytical technique called mass spectrometry on brain tissue. They compared samples from 18 adult male mice, half of which experienced standard rearing and half of which were exposed to early-life stress. The stress condition involved separating the pups from their mothers for a few hours a day and reducing their nesting material between their tenth and seventeenth days of life.
The analysis indicated that early-life stress persistently altered the proportions of multiple histone modifications in the ventral tegmental area. Specifically, the stressed mice showed increased levels of 14 different modifications that are generally associated with a permissive, open DNA state. The researchers noted a large statistical effect size for a specific chemical tag called H3K4me1, which they then validated using protein analysis in a separate cohort of 27 male and female mice.
The scientists next sought to identify the enzyme responsible for adding this H3K4me1 tag to the histones. They analyzed RNA sequencing data from eight male mice and conducted genetic expression tests on a new cohort of 21 male and female mice, comparing standard-reared and stress-reared groups. The early-life stress condition increased the expression of Setd7, the gene that produces the enzyme responsible for placing the H3K4me1 tag, leaving the DNA structure stretched open.
To test if increasing this enzyme mimics the effects of early-life stress, the researchers used viral vectors to artificially overexpress Setd7 in the ventral tegmental area of juvenile mice. This approach acted as a form of genetic manipulation to introduce the enzyme, but it did not dictate exactly which genes the enzyme targeted.
“Increasing SETD7 was a fairly broad, non-specific tool (we didn’t have control over where the enzyme was depositing H3K4me1 around the genome) so it was a bit of a long-shot that it worked to mimic early-life stress,” Peña told PsyPost. “We don’t yet know if there is specificity in where early-life stress acts throughout the genome, or if the broad scatter-shot approach is the point.”
They compared this genetically altered group to a control group that received a neutral viral vector. Once the mice reached adulthood, they were exposed to a short social defeat stress protocol, and the researchers then sequenced the RNA from the brain tissue of 13 mice to observe gene activity.
In the control mice, the adult stressor mostly suppressed gene activity, decreasing the expression of 99 genes and increasing 39. In the mice with artificially boosted Setd7, the opposite occurred. The adult stressor increased the expression of 48 genes and decreased only three, providing evidence that the open DNA structure primed the cells for a hyper-active genetic response to stress.
The researchers also measured the electrical activity of the dopamine neurons. They artificially increased Setd7 in another group of juvenile mice, and during adulthood, these mice experienced three days of unpredictable stressors, such as tail suspension and mild foot shocks. The scientists then used microscopic electrodes to record the electrical firing of dopamine neurons in about 36 mice across the different experimental and control groups.
Increasing Setd7 did not change the baseline electrical activity of the dopamine cells in unstressed mice. Following the adult stress protocol, however, the dopamine neurons in the Setd7-boosted mice fired much more rapidly in response to stimulation and showed a higher baseline electrical current compared to the control mice. This indicates that the epigenetic changes specifically lowered the cells’ tolerance to future stress, rather than simply raising their baseline activity.
To observe how this hyper-reactivity affects behavior, the researchers tested 28 mice, split evenly by sex. Half received the Setd7 boost as juveniles, and half received a control vector. As adults, the mice underwent a social interaction test and an open field exploration test before and after experiencing social defeat stress.
The brief adult stressor did not strongly affect the behavior of the control mice. For the Setd7-boosted mice, the adult stressor reduced their social interaction time and decreased the time they spent exploring the center of an open field. This behavioral shift suggests that artificially opening the DNA structure is sufficient to make mice more susceptible to adult stress.
Finally, the researchers tested whether blocking this enzyme could prevent stress sensitivity. They used a customized viral vector to reduce Setd7 levels in the ventral tegmental area of juvenile mice that had actually experienced early-life stress. They tested the behavior of roughly 50 mice, including standard-reared and stress-reared groups with and without the genetic reduction, before and after adult stress.
Mice exposed to early-life stress typically showed reduced social interaction and more anxious behavior following adult stress. Reducing the Setd7 enzyme prevented these behavioral changes. The mice with lowered Setd7 levels remained social and exploratory after the adult stressor, mirroring the resilience of mice that never experienced early-life trauma.
The research involves certain limitations regarding the precision of the genetic tools used. The viral vector used to increase the Setd7 enzyme operated across all cell types in the targeted brain region, not just dopamine neurons. This broad application means the resulting behavioral changes could partially stem from alterations in neighboring non-dopamine cells. Future studies will need to use more advanced gene-editing techniques to target epigenetic modifications to specific cell types and precise locations on the DNA coil.
The viral vectors allowed the researchers to successfully reduce Setd7 and prevent stress sensitivity in mice, but translating this to human medical care presents immense hurdles. “We used a form of gene therapy to ameliorate the effects of early-life stress in this study, but we are far from using that safely and ethically in humans, especially in a preventative manner,” Peña explained. “Instead, we might explore whether we can harness the extra sensitivity early-life stress bestows, but in positive contexts.”
This future direction aligns with the fact that the current experiments focused only on aversive stressors. It remains unknown if this epigenetic priming mechanism might also make the brain more sensitive to positive, enriching experiences in adulthood.
The study, “Early-life stress alters H3K4me1 in VTA to prime stress sensitivity,” was authored by Hye Ji J. Kim, Luke T. Geiger, Julie-Anne Balouek, Lisa Z. Fang, Mason R. Barrett, Jeremy M. Thompson, Lorna A. Farrelly, Travis Hage, Rixing Lin, Andy S. Chen, Megan Tang, Hao Huang, Anna Buretta, Agatha Chan, Shannon N. Bennett, Benjamin A. Garcia, Ian Maze, Meaghan C. Creed, and Catherine Jensen Peña.
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #EarlyLifeStress #Epigenetics #H3K4me1 #SETD7 #VTA #Dopamine #StressSensitivity #Neuroscience #TraumaAndBrain #NeuronStudy
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DATE: August 20, 2026 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Brain imaging reveals why some people struggle to resist sweet foods
URL: https://www.psypost.org/how-your-brain-s-cellular-vacuums-might-drive-your-sugar-cravings/
How our brains process sugar might influence our ability to resist dessert. A recent study found that individuals who exhibit a specific change in their brain chemistry after receiving sugar tend to have a harder time controlling their intake of sweet foods. The research, published in Human Brain Mapping, suggests that an overly efficient system for removing reward-related chemicals could leave some people craving more sweets.
The global rate of obesity has increased massively over the past few decades, bringing elevated risks for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and certain cancers. The human brain plays a central role in regulating our energy balance, deciding when we feel hungry and when we feel full. Food acts as a natural reward, and the neurotransmitter dopamine is a primary driver of this system. Dopamine is a chemical messenger that helps modulate motivation, habit formation, and the pleasurable sensations associated with eating.
When we eat highly palatable foods like sweets, dopamine is released into the microscopic gaps between our brain cells. Researchers have proposed that obesity might be linked to irregularities in this dopamine system. Some suggest that certain individuals are hypersensitive to the rewarding aspects of food, leading to excessive intake. Others propose a reward deficit model, where people who are insensitive to everyday rewards overeat to boost their dopamine to normal levels.
To study this in living humans, researchers typically use Positron Emission Tomography, or PET scans. A PET scan is an imaging test that uses harmless radioactive tracers to visualize specific cellular functions and brain chemistry. Past PET scan research often focused on dopamine receptors, which act as the docking stations on brain cells that receive the dopamine signal. The results from those studies were highly inconsistent.
Some studies showed higher receptor levels in obese individuals, while others showed lower levels or no difference at all. Because dopamine receptors are difficult to interpret on their own, a research team led by Kyoungjune Pak at Pusan National University Hospital in South Korea shifted their focus to the dopamine transporter. This transporter is a protein that acts like a cellular vacuum cleaner. After dopamine has been released and done its job, the transporter sweeps the chemical out of the space between neurons and returns it to the sending cell.
Previous research by the same team demonstrated that giving humans a dose of glucose increases the activity of these dopamine transporters. When blood sugar rises, the body releases the hormone insulin to help cells absorb the energy. Insulin also appears to signal the brain to deploy more dopamine transporters. Pak and his colleagues wanted to see if this physiological response relates to how people subjectively experience and crave sweet foods.
The researchers recruited thirty-five healthy young men for a small study. Each participant visited the hospital on three separate days, fasting overnight for at least twelve hours before each appointment. This fasting ensured that recent meals would not interfere with their baseline brain chemistry or hormone levels.
During two of these visits, the participants received an intravenous infusion while resting in the scanner. On one day, they received a dose of liquid glucose, and on the other day, they received a placebo of normal saline. The participants did not know which infusion they were receiving on which day, eliminating the influence of expectation.
Following each infusion, the participants underwent a PET scan using a specific tracer designed to bind exclusively to dopamine transporters. This allowed the researchers to measure the availability of the transporters in the striatum. The striatum is a cluster of neurons located deep in the center of the brain that is heavily involved in reward, motivation, and decision-making.
On the third visit, the participants underwent a different type of PET scan that measures overall brain glucose metabolism. This scan provided a baseline map of their normal brain cellular activity. Between all these visits, the researchers tracked the participants’ body mass index, height, and weight.
In addition to the brain scans, all participants completed a twelve-item sweet taste questionnaire. This survey measures an individual’s psychological attitude toward sweets, scoring them on their sensitivity to the mood-altering effects of sugary foods. It also measures their perceived lack of control over eating sweet items. The researchers measured the participants’ blood sugar and insulin levels before and after the infusions to track the body’s physical response.
The glucose infusions successfully raised the participants’ blood sugar and insulin levels, mimicking the biological aftermath of eating a carbohydrate-heavy meal. When analyzing the PET scans, the researchers observed that dopamine transporter availability was generally higher following the glucose infusion compared to the placebo infusion. The participants essentially had more cellular vacuums ready to sweep up dopamine.
When the team compared the brain imaging data to the questionnaire responses, a consistent pattern emerged. The participants who showed higher dopamine transporter availability after the glucose infusion also scored higher on the sweet taste questionnaire. They reported being more sensitive to the mood-altering effects of sweets and having a harder time controlling their consumption of them.
The researchers did not find this relationship when looking at the baseline placebo scans. A person’s dopamine transporter levels under normal, fasting conditions did not predict their attitude toward sweet foods. Similarly, the participants’ baseline brain glucose metabolism and their body mass index did not correlate with their questionnaire scores.
The authors suggest that this biological mechanism might explain why some people struggle to resist sugary snacks. If a spike in blood sugar prompts the brain to rapidly deploy dopamine transporters, those transporters will quickly vacuum up the available dopamine. This rapid removal would abruptly end the rewarding sensation of the treat.
As a result, the individual might feel an immediate desire to eat more sweets to bring the dopamine levels back up. Their brain essentially curtails the pleasure of the sugar, creating a cycle of craving. The faster the dopamine is removed, the faster the person wants another dessert.
The authors noted a few limitations to their research. As a cross-sectional analysis, the results highlight a correlation between brain chemistry and dietary attitudes but cannot prove a direct sequence of cause and effect. It is possible that individuals with an inherent sensitivity to sweet foods simply have different underlying biological traits. Future experiments involving repeated interventions would be needed to establish exactly how these variables influence one another.
The sample size of this small study also limits the strength of the conclusions. The statistical models showed consistent directional trends, but some of the specific regional brain data were not statistically significant after adjusting for multiple comparisons. A larger cohort of participants is required to confirm the findings.
The research exclusively enrolled male participants. Past studies have shown that men and women can exhibit entirely opposite neuroendocrine responses to food-related signals. For example, previous brain imaging research found that intravenous glucose alters dopamine receptor availability differently depending on a person’s sex.
The mechanisms observed in this experiment likely have sexually dimorphic characteristics, meaning the results cannot be automatically generalized to females. Finally, because the study focused primarily on lean individuals, the findings might not apply to populations with clinical obesity. Medical professionals will need to replicate these scans in diverse groups to fully understand how sugar influences dopamine across the general public.
The study, “The Change of Dopamine Transporter After Glucose Loading Is Associated With an Individual’s Attitude Toward Sweet Foods in Healthy Young Males,” was authored by Kyoungjune Pak, Jihyun Kim, Keunyoung Kim, Seongho Seo, and Myung Jun Lee.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/how-your-brain-s-cellular-vacuums-might-drive-your-sugar-cravings/
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #SugarCravings #DopamineScience #BrainImaging #PETScan #DopamineTransporter #SweetTooth #SugarAndBrain #ObesityResearch #FoodReward #GlucoseLoading
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DATE: August 20, 2026 at 09:41AM
SOURCE: PSYCHIATRIC TIMESDirect article link at end of text block below.
The FDA signals clear IND path for @protagenic's PT00114, a first-in-class neuropeptide aiming to reset stress responses in patients with generalized anxiety disorder. https://t.co/aEQ0C0En2e
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #psychotherapist #PT00114 #neuropeptide #GeneralizedAnxietyDisorder #FDAIND #ProtagenicTherapeutics
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DATE: August 20, 2026 at 09:30AM
SOURCE: PSYCHIATRIC TIMESDirect article link at end of text block below.
Urine drug screenings are often misordered and misread, risking stigma and harm. Let's discuss when testing truly helps. https://t.co/OFzBo0tCvC
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #psychotherapist #UrineDrugScreening #MedicalErrata #ScreeningMisreads #StigmaReduction #WhenTestingHelps
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DATE: August 20, 2026 at 09:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Researchers identify two key factors driving prejudice against asexual individuals
People on the asexual spectrum are often viewed as lacking emotional depth and maturity by heterosexual individuals, especially when they do not express romantic interest. A recent paper published in The Journal of Sex Research indicates that this emotional devaluation stems from rigid societal expectations regarding sex and romance. The findings suggest that those who deviate from romantic norms face the harshest social judgments from the general public.
Society typically operates under a framework of allonormativity, which is the assumption that experiencing sexual attraction is a universal and essential human trait. Similarly, culture is heavily influenced by amatonormativity, or the expectation that pursuing a central romantic relationship is a universal life goal. Individuals on the asexual spectrum, often referred to as a-spec, report little to no sexual attraction. They often find themselves marginalized or misunderstood within these traditional societal frameworks.
A. Catarina Carvalho and David L. Rodrigues wanted to understand exactly how the general public perceives a-spec individuals. Prior academic work provides evidence that marginalized groups often face a subtle form of stigma known as infrahumanization. This occurs when people assume an outgroup experiences basic emotions like fear or happiness but lacks complex, uniquely human emotions like remorse or hope. The authors aimed to test whether violating norms about sex or norms about romance drives this kind of emotional devaluation toward a-spec people.
“In many Western societies, people are expected to experience sexual attraction and to want a romantic relationship,” said Carvalho, a PhD candidate in social psychology and research assistant at the University Institute of Lisbon in Portugal. “But what happens when someone does not fit these expectations? Asexuality is typically defined as experiencing little or no sexual attraction, but it is increasingly understood as part of a broader spectrum—the asexual spectrum (a-spec)—encompassing a diverse range of identities and lived experiences.”
“We wanted to understand whether perceptions of people on the a-spec are shaped by how closely they conform to dominant expectations surrounding sexuality and romantic relationships,” Carvalho continued. “To address this question, we focused on two aspects of a-spec people’s experiences: whether or not they engaged in sexual activity and whether or not they experienced romantic attraction. Although previous research has shown that a-spec individuals experience stigma, much less is known about why this stigma emerges. Our goal was therefore not simply to document that stigma exists, but to better understand when it emerges and the social beliefs that contribute to it.”
To begin, the researchers explored what traits people consider essential to an a-spec identity. They recruited 486 adults from various countries for an online survey. Participants answered questions on a seven-point scale to indicate whether they believed identifying as asexual meant lacking sexual attraction, romantic attraction, or general affection.
The data suggests that participants uniformly viewed a lack of sexual attraction as the defining feature of a-spec identities. Heterosexual participants tended to assume a-spec individuals also lacked romantic attraction and a desire for affection. People who identified as LGBTQ+ or a-spec held more nuanced views, indicating an awareness that many a-spec people still desire romance and emotional intimacy.
In a second phase, the researchers tested how these beliefs translated into emotional judgments. They presented 292 non-asexual participants from the initial group with a brief written scenario describing a couple. Participants randomly read about an a-spec couple that did not have sex, an a-spec couple that did have sex, or a heterosexual couple that had sex.
After reading the scenario, participants rated the couples on a seven-point scale for various positive and negative emotions. The researchers statistically controlled for participants’ pre-existing prejudices against asexuality.
Heterosexual participants attributed fewer positive emotions and more negative emotions to the a-spec couples compared to the heterosexual couples. This emotional devaluation occurred regardless of whether the a-spec couple was described as having sex or not. Participants who identified as LGBTQ+ did not show this bias, which suggests that belonging to a sexual minority group might protect against relying on strict societal norms to judge others.
The researchers did not expect the presence of sexual activity to have zero impact on the heterosexual respondents’ judgments. “One of the most surprising findings was that participants’ perceptions did not change depending on whether an a-spec couple was described as engaging in sexual activity,” Carvalho explained. “We expected that describing the couple as sexually active might make them seem more similar to couples in which both partners experience sexual attraction (i.e., allosexual couples), but heterosexual participants still attributed fewer positive and more negative emotions to the a-spec couple regardless of whether they were sexually active.”
Because the previous phase did not separate romantic attraction from sexual attraction, the authors conducted an additional experiment with 232 heterosexual adults to focus on romantic norms. Participants read scenarios about either an aromantic a-spec couple who experience no romantic attraction, a romantic a-spec couple who experience romantic attraction, or a heterosexual couple.
Participants then rated the targets on uniquely human emotions, primitive emotions shared with animals, social skills, and psychological immaturity using a seven-point scale. The authors controlled for the belief that romantic attraction is an inevitable part of human development.
The responses point to a strong social penalty for violating romantic expectations. Aromantic a-spec targets were judged the harshest by the heterosexual participants. Compared to the heterosexual couple, the aromantic targets were rated as experiencing fewer uniquely human positive emotions, and they were viewed as less sociable and more immature.
“Moreover, describing an a-spec individual as aromantic (experiencing little or no romantic attraction) was associated with additional forms of stigma,” Carvalho noted. “Heterosexual participants perceived aromantic a-spec individuals as less sociable and more immature than allosexual individuals who were described as experiencing romantic attraction. This suggests that conforming to expectations surrounding sexuality alone may not be sufficient to reduce stigma, and that expectations surrounding romantic relationships also play an important role in shaping how people perceive a-spec individuals.”
The romantic a-spec targets received softer judgments. They were rated similarly to heterosexual targets regarding uniquely human emotions and maturity levels. The romantic a-spec targets were still viewed as less sociable than heterosexual targets, but conforming to societal expectations of romantic love appeared to shield them from the most extreme forms of emotional devaluation.
“One of the key take-home messages from our study is that stigma toward a-spec individuals appears to be closely tied to broader social expectations about what people’s emotional lives and relationships are ‘supposed’ to look like,” Carvalho added. “Across our studies, these patterns were most evident when a-spec individuals departed from what researchers call allonormative and amatonormative expectations—the widespread assumptions that everyone experiences sexual attraction and wants a romantic relationship. In these situations, heterosexual participants tended to assume that a-spec individuals and their relationships were less emotionally positive, and additional forms of stigma were observed when a-spec individuals were also described as aromantic.”
“Together, these findings suggest that perceptions of a-spec individuals are shaped by social norms that privilege sexual and romantic conformity,” Carvalho explained. “When people evaluate a-spec individuals through these expectations, some a-spec identities and relationships may be perceived as less legitimate and less emotionally rich, reinforcing the invisibility and misunderstanding that many a-spec individuals report experiencing.”
While the differences in ratings were not massive on an absolute scale, Carvalho emphasized that these results capture a very real psychological mechanism. “Although the effects were modest, they are meaningful because they reflect subtle forms of stigma. Small differences in how people perceive a-spec individuals can accumulate over time, becoming ingrained in people’s assumptions about who a-spec individuals are and what their relationships are like. These seemingly small perceptions may contribute to the invisibility and misunderstanding that many a-spec people report experiencing, making it more difficult for their identities and relationships to be recognized as equally valid and emotionally meaningful.”
Reading brief, hypothetical scenarios in a survey does not capture the complexity of real-world social interactions. People often use different cues and gather more information before forming opinions about individuals they meet in daily life.
“One important caveat is that our findings come from experimental studies in which participants evaluated hypothetical scenarios,” Carvalho said. “This approach allowed us to isolate the effects of specific characteristics, such as sexual and romantic attraction. However, everyday social interactions are often much more complex. An important next step will be to examine whether these same patterns emerge in real-world settings and how they may shape the experiences of people on the asexual spectrum over time.”
The researchers also note that their sample was primarily drawn from Western, educated, and industrialized nations. Cultural norms surrounding marriage, sex, and romance vary wildly across the globe. Expanding the research to include different cultural and religious backgrounds could provide a more complete picture of how a-spec individuals are perceived worldwide. Additionally, the wording used in the scenarios might have influenced the outcomes. The vignettes used the term asexual rather than a-spec, which might have prompted participants to rely on specific stereotypes rather than considering a broader spectrum of identities.
Understanding these dynamics is a primary focus for Carvalho’s ongoing work. “This study is part of a broader doctoral research program examining the experiences of people on the asexual spectrum from multiple perspectives. On the one hand, I study how society perceives and responds to a-spec individuals, including the stereotypes and stigma they may face,” she explained.
“At the same time, I examine how a-spec individuals themselves navigate identity development, interpersonal relationships, minority stress, and community belonging,” Carvalho added. “Bringing these perspectives together helps us better understand not only where stigma comes from, but also how it affects people’s lives and what factors may promote well-being and resilience. Ultimately, I hope this research contributes to greater visibility for a-spec communities and helps inform more inclusive education, clinical practice, and public understanding.”
“Asexuality remains one of the least understood sexual identities, despite growing visibility. Although research has made important progress over the past decade, there is still much to learn about how social norms shape the everyday experiences of a-spec individuals,” Carvalho concluded. “I hope these findings encourage people to think more critically about the assumptions we make regarding intimacy, relationships, and emotional fulfillment, and to recognize that meaningful and fulfilling lives can take many different forms. Above all, I hope this study helps a-spec individuals feel more seen and represented in psychological research.”
The study, “Perceptions of A-Spec Individuals: Evidence of Emotional Devaluation Across Romantic and Sexual Dimensions,” was authored by A. Catarina Carvalho and David L. Rodrigues.
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DATE: August 20, 2026 at 08:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: New study tracks oxytocin spikes in MDMA therapy trials
URL: https://www.psypost.org/meta-analysis-confirms-mdma-triggers-sustained-oxytocin-release/
The psychoactive drug MDMA temporarily increases levels of the social hormone oxytocin in human subjects, with levels peaking a few hours after use. These findings might help researchers time therapeutic interventions during clinical trials for psychiatric conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder. The research was published in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews.
The drug 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, commonly known as MDMA, is classified as an entactogen. This designates it as a psychoactive substance that heavily alters emotional processing. People who take the substance often report enhanced feelings of closeness, empathy, and social unity.
In recent years, MDMA has become the subject of clinical trials for treating post-traumatic stress disorder, commonly called PTSD. Therapists suggest that the drug helps patients build an emotional bond with their doctors. It reduces anxiety related to social interactions and helps people process perceived emotional threats.
Researchers suspect a primary biological mechanism behind these prosocial effects is the release of oxytocin. Oxytocin is a chemical messenger produced in the hypothalamus, a region deep within the brain. It acts as both a local brain signaling molecule and a hormone that circulates throughout the body.
The hormone is best known for its role in childbirth and lactation, but it also regulates social behaviors. Elevated levels of oxytocin are linked to increased empathy, generosity, and trust, particularly among people within the same social group.
MDMA initiates its effects by causing the brain to release a flood of monoamines. These are chemical messengers that include serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine.
The sudden surge of serotonin activates specific receptors on neurons in the hypothalamus. Animal models demonstrate that this receptor activation directly triggers the release of oxytocin into the bloodstream and central nervous system.
Medical professionals have tried administering oxytocin directly via nasal sprays to treat social anxiety and similar conditions. However, the nasal spray has a very short active period in the bloodstream, disappearing in just a few minutes.
MDMA, by contrast, has a much longer active window. It promotes a robust release of the body’s own naturally produced oxytocin. This creates a sustained social effect that is better suited for long psychotherapy sessions.
While individual studies have shown that MDMA triggers the release of oxytocin, results have varied widely. Lead author Anna Vaslavski, a researcher at Bar-Ilan University, and her colleagues noticed a gap in the literature. No previous research had systematically gathered and analyzed these disparate studies to figure out exactly how the drug influences oxytocin levels across different times, doses, and demographic groups.
To find answers, the research team conducted a meta-analysis. This is a statistical technique that pools data from multiple independent studies to identify overall trends. The team searched academic databases to find peer-reviewed studies that administered MDMA to human subjects and measured their oxytocin levels.
They identified ten qualifying studies containing a total of 39 effect size estimates. The original studies used varying doses of MDMA, ranging from 75 to 150 milligrams. The researchers also measured oxytocin from blood or urine samples at different time intervals.
The team analyzed this pooled data, looking specifically at three modifying variables. They tested whether the amount of the drug, the time of measurement, or the sex of the participants altered the amount of oxytocin released.
Time emerged as a modifying factor, showing a curvilinear relationship with hormone levels. After a person took MDMA, their oxytocin levels rose steadily. The levels reached their highest point between 150 and 200 minutes after administration.
Following this peak, oxytocin concentrations began to decline. Some studies noted that levels remained slightly elevated above their baseline even five hours after the drug was taken.
The analysis did not find a statistically significant relationship between the dose of MDMA and the resulting oxytocin levels. The varied dosing strategies used in the original ten studies might explain this lack of an effect. Some studies gave all participants a flat dose, while others adjusted the amount based on a person’s body weight.
The team also found a slight trend regarding the sex of the participants. The results suggested that studies with a higher proportion of female subjects tended to record smaller increases in oxytocin. However, this finding was not statistically significant and requires more targeted testing to confirm.
Readers should exercise caution when interpreting blood or urine oxytocin levels as a direct reflection of brain activity. Oxytocin in the bloodstream does not easily cross the blood-brain barrier, meaning peripheral levels might not perfectly mirror the amounts acting directly on brain circuits.
Still, recent physiological studies suggest that circulating oxytocin can influence the brain indirectly. The hormone can stimulate the vagus nerve, a major neural pathway connecting the body’s internal organs to the brainstem. This vagal pathway might carry the social and emotional signals generated by peripheral oxytocin into the central nervous system.
The meta-analysis also revealed a high degree of unexplained variance among the ten studies. The statistical models showed that differences in time, dose, and sex only accounted for about a quarter of the variation in the results. This indicates that other unmeasured biological factors are influencing how much oxytocin the body releases in response to MDMA.
The potential difference in how males and females respond to the drug might be tied to estrogen. Estrogen is known to regulate how sensitive cells are to oxytocin.
Because the analysis relied on existing published data, the research team could not isolate female-only groups or control for the use of hormonal birth control. These missing details leave the exact nature of the sex difference an open question. Differences in body mass index or the menstrual cycle could potentially alter how a person reacts to the drug.
Methodological differences in how the original researchers processed their biological samples might also have skewed the overall numbers. Oxytocin levels can appear vastly different depending on whether researchers use advanced extraction techniques to isolate the hormone from blood plasma.
Moving forward, scientists need to standardize how they administer MDMA and measure oxytocin. Implementing consistent dosing based on body weight and utilizing uniform extraction methods will yield more reliable data.
The researchers also noted evidence of publication bias in the available literature. Small studies with larger margins of error tended to report disproportionately high oxytocin effects. Conducting studies with a large sample size will help correct this imbalance and verify the true strength of the drug’s impact on the hormonal system.
The study, “The effect of MDMA administration on oxytocin concentration levels: systematic review and a multilevel meta-analysis in humans,” was authored by Anna Vaslavski, Anna Harwood-Gross, Salomon Israel, and Leehe Peled-Avron.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/meta-analysis-confirms-mdma-triggers-sustained-oxytocin-release/
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DATE: August 20, 2026 at 07:27AM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY PSYCHIATIRY FEEDTITLE: Schizophrenia’s lost brain connections follow a surprising pattern
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260820002443.htm
Specialized brain scans reveal that schizophrenia is linked to widespread loss of the synapses that connect brain cells, with the left side of the brain hit especially hard. The damage follows a surprisingly organized pattern tied to the brain’s chemistry and wiring. Researchers also identified a left frontal region that may serve as a starting point for the loss.
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260820002443.htm
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DATE: August 20, 2026 at 07:27AM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY PSYCHOLOGY FEEDTITLE: Schizophrenia’s lost brain connections follow a surprising pattern
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260820002443.htm
Specialized brain scans reveal that schizophrenia is linked to widespread loss of the synapses that connect brain cells, with the left side of the brain hit especially hard. The damage follows a surprisingly organized pattern tied to the brain’s chemistry and wiring. Researchers also identified a left frontal region that may serve as a starting point for the loss.
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260820002443.htm
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DATE: August 20, 2026 at 07:27AM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY MIND-BRAIN FEEDTITLE: Schizophrenia’s lost brain connections follow a surprising pattern
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260820002443.htm
Specialized brain scans reveal that schizophrenia is linked to widespread loss of the synapses that connect brain cells, with the left side of the brain hit especially hard. The damage follows a surprisingly organized pattern tied to the brain’s chemistry and wiring. Researchers also identified a left frontal region that may serve as a starting point for the loss.
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260820002443.htm
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DATE: August 20, 2026 at 07:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Negative social media posts correlated with changes in the brain’s fear network during the COVID-19 lockdown
The collective emotional stress of the COVID-19 pandemic may be reflected in how the human brain regulates fear and anxiety. A recent study published in Frontiers in Nuclear Medicine indicates that on days when public social media posts expressed higher levels of negative emotions, brain scans of patients taken on those same days showed reduced activity in areas responsible for emotional regulation. This provides evidence that societal stress can have measurable, wide-reaching neurological effects on vulnerable populations.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought about widespread isolation, uncertainty, and fear. Public health lockdowns, intended to limit the spread of the virus, placed intense psychological burdens on communities worldwide. These environmental and societal factors can interact with human biology, a dynamic that population neuroscience aims to understand. By studying this interaction, scientists hope to learn how collective experiences shape large-scale brain function.
An earlier study by the same research group explored the physical impacts of the lockdown. The scientists found that social isolation and reduced physical activity were associated with lower brain metabolism in the sensorimotor network, the areas that process movement and sensory information. In separate work, they also observed that long COVID was associated with metabolic changes in olfactory regions, the temporal lobe, and the brainstem.
“The idea grew directly out of our previous study,” said study author Eric Guedj, a professor at Aix-Marseille University in France. “In that work, we investigated the more physical side of lockdown — reduced activity and deconditioning — and found measurable effects on brain metabolism.”
“We then wanted to explore another question: how does our individual brain absorb the emotional shocks experienced collectively by society?” Guedj explained. “The first COVID-19 lockdown provided a unique natural setting to examine this.”
To capture the psychological climate, the researchers used a sentiment analysis of public social media posts. “We used social media as a real-time window into the collective emotional climate and compared daily negative-emotion levels, derived from approximately 2.6 million French tweets, with FDG-PET brain scans performed on the same days in 95 patients with neurological conditions,” Guedj said.
These posts were created on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, during the 55-day national lockdown in France from March to May 2020. The authors calculated a daily negative-emotion score by evaluating the intensity of words related to fear, anger, disgust, sadness, and surprise. They then compared this daily national mood score to brain imaging data collected in clinical settings during the same period.
The sample included 95 adult patients, with an average age of 54, who underwent brain positron emission tomography scans. A positron emission tomography scan, commonly known as a PET scan, uses a small amount of radioactive material to measure cellular metabolism, showing how different parts of the brain utilize energy. The patients in the study were already receiving these scans for pre-existing neurological conditions, such as cognitive impairment, brain tumors, or focal epilepsy.
When running their statistical models, the authors controlled for several potential confounding variables. They adjusted for the patients’ age, sex, and the presence of specific focal brain lesions. They also accounted for the duration of the lockdown, noting how many days had passed since the lockdown began at the time of each scan.
The data suggests an inverse relationship between collective negative emotions and the metabolism of specific brain regions. On days when the national negative-emotion score was higher, the patients’ PET scans tended to show lower metabolic activity in the right ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex.
These two regions are core components of the brain’s fear network. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex helps regulate emotional responses and decision-making, while the anterior cingulate cortex is involved in processing emotions and assessing threats.
“The broader message is that our brains do not function in isolation from the social world,” Guedj told PsyPost. “On days when negative emotions expressed collectively on social media were more intense, we observed lower brain metabolism in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex, two regions that play important roles in regulating fear, stress and emotions.”
The correlation between the daily negative-emotion score and brain metabolism was moderate, with a correlation coefficient of -0.40. A correlation coefficient measures the strength of a relationship on a scale from -1 to 1, meaning this represents a moderate negative relationship at the group level. When the authors looked at specific emotions, they found that sadness, fear, and surprise drove this effect. In contrast, emotions like anger and disgust were not statistically significant in their primary brain imaging analysis.
Social media served as an indicator of the environment rather than the direct cause of the brain changes. “This does not mean that social media itself was changing the brain,” Guedj clarified. “Rather, social media provided us with a kind of real-time mirror of the emotional climate experienced by society, and that collective emotional climate was associated with measurable differences in brain function.”
The authors also analyzed how these specific brain regions interacted with others. They found that the prefrontal and cingulate cortices were connected to a broader network located primarily in the right hemisphere of the brain. This network included the amygdala, which detects threats, as well as the hippocampus, which is involved in memory processing.
“What struck us most was the anatomical coherence of the finding,” Guedj said. “The association was not scattered randomly across the brain: it involved regions at the core of emotional regulation, connected to a broader limbic network including the amygdala, hippocampus, thalamus and basal ganglia.”
The reduced metabolism in these regulatory areas points to a potential impairment in how the brain processes collective stress. Notably, this pattern of reduced metabolism in the fear network was entirely separate from the sensorimotor changes the researchers previously linked to physical deconditioning. It also only had a ten percent overlap with the pattern seen in long COVID patients, suggesting that collective emotional stress affects the brain through its own distinct pathways.
“It was also interesting that this pattern was distinct from the brain changes we had previously associated with physical deconditioning during lockdown, and also distinct from the brain changes associated with long COVID,” Guedj added. “This suggests that the physical and emotional dimensions of a collective crisis may affect the brain through partly different mechanisms.”
The study relies on observational data, meaning it indicates a correlation but cannot establish that the national mood directly caused the brain changes. Additionally, the proxy measure for societal stress is limited to users of a single social media platform. Social media users do not perfectly represent the demographics, socioeconomic status, or emotional state of an entire country.
“The most important point is that this is an observational study showing an association, not proof of causality,” Guedj warned. “We cannot say that collective negative emotions directly caused the metabolic changes we observed. The Twitter-derived score was also a measure of the broader emotional environment, not of what each individual patient personally felt or saw online.”
The sample consisted exclusively of individuals with neurological conditions, who may possess a heightened vulnerability to societal stressors. Conditions like brain tumors or cognitive impairments can disrupt neural connectivity, potentially making these patients more susceptible to the effects of collective negative emotions.
“Finally, our participants had neurological conditions and may represent a particularly vulnerable population, so the findings cannot yet be directly generalized to healthy people,” Guedj said.
The findings suggest a new way to conceptualize emotional well-being during wide-scale events. “One concept I find particularly important is that mental health is not exclusively an individual matter,” Guedj explained. “We are relational beings, continuously influenced by our social and emotional environment.”
“Social media is often viewed mainly as a potential source of psychological harm, but from a research perspective it can also provide an extraordinary real-time measure of collective emotional states,” he continued. “Combining these large-scale societal data with objective biological markers such as brain imaging may help us better understand how events experienced by society become associated with what happens in individual brains.”
Future research could track individuals over longer periods to see if these metabolic patterns persist after a crisis resolves. Expanding data collection beyond social media to include personal diaries or longitudinal surveys could provide a more accurate picture of collective stress.
The researchers hope to expand this framework to other contexts. “We would like to develop this approach within what could be called population or societal neuroscience: studying how large-scale social and environmental events interact with individual brain function and vulnerability,” Guedj noted. “The COVID-19 pandemic offered an exceptional natural experiment, but the broader questions go far beyond COVID. How does the brain respond to periods of collective fear, major social crises, terrorist attacks, wars or climate-related disasters?”
Investigating the potential benefits of shared positive experiences is another goal for the team. “And conversely, could positive collective experiences — major celebrations, sporting events or periods of social cohesion — produce measurable protective effects? These are questions we would now like to explore,” Guedj said.
Understanding how vulnerable populations react to environmental shifts may eventually guide public health interventions. “In that sense, the most vulnerable individuals may also act as particularly sensitive indicators of the effects of collective stress,” Guedj said. “Understanding this interaction between society and the brain could become increasingly important for public health.”
“Ultimately, this type of research could help identify both individual vulnerability and population-level warning signals, and perhaps contribute to better mental-health strategies during future collective crises,” he concluded.
The study, “Emotional stress during the COVID-19 lockdown: how negative X/Twitter posts correlated with changes in the brain’s fear network,” was authored by Eric Guedj, Jacques-Yves Campion, Tatiana Horowitz, Fanny Barthélémy, Stéphanie Khalfa, and Wissam El-Hage.
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DATE: August 20, 2026 at 06:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Severe e-scooter crashes result in higher rates of traumatic brain injuries than motorcycle accidents
A fall from an electric scooter (e-scooter) can look deceptively minor. The rider is standing only a short distance above the road and, unlike a motorcycle, most e-scooters are limited to relatively modest speeds.
Yet trauma surgeons are seeing injuries that tell a different story. E-scooter crashes can cause serious head injuries, damage to internal organs, and complex fractures – sometimes after what appears to have been a simple fall.
This matters as e-scooters become an increasingly common form of transport in cities around the world. New research from England and Wales offers one of the clearest pictures yet of the injuries involved.
The study examined more than 15,000 people with moderate or severe injuries recorded in a national trauma database. This included 580 e-scooter riders, more than 7,000 motorcyclists, and more than 7,000 cyclists.
The clearest difference was what happened to riders’ heads.
Among seriously injured adults, traumatic brain injuries were around three and a half times as common among e-scooter riders as among motorcyclists, and around 1.7 times more common than in cyclists. More than a third of the injuries recorded among adult e-scooter riders involved traumatic brain injury.
Damage to internal organs and blood vessels was also proportionally more common. Fractures, however, were actually less common among e-scooter riders than among motorcyclists or cyclists.
There is an important qualification. These figures do not mean that taking an e-scooter journey makes someone three and a half times more likely to suffer a brain injury than riding a motorcycle. The researchers did not have comparable information on the number of journeys or distance travelled by motorcyclists and cyclists.
Instead, the results tell us that when people sustain moderate or severe injuries, the pattern of injuries sustained on an e-scooter is different. Head and internal injuries make up a much greater proportion of the resulting trauma.
That distinction matters when headlines describe e-scooters as “three times riskier” than motorcycles. The study cannot tell us whether an e-scooter journey is three times more likely to result in serious injury than a motorcycle journey, because the researchers did not have comparable data on how far people travelled on each.
Why e-scooters can cause serious injuries
One explanation for this injury pattern lies in how e-scooters are designed and ridden. Riders stand upright, giving them a relatively high centre of gravity. Their wheels are much smaller than those on most bicycles, while the handlebars provide a narrow point through which the rider controls the vehicle.
Hit a pothole, kerb or piece of debris and the small front wheel can stop suddenly. The rider keeps moving forwards and can be thrown over the handlebars towards the road, with very little protection between their head and the ground.
This makes helmet use particularly important. Among seriously injured e-scooter riders in the study, only about 6% were recorded as wearing helmets, compared with 45% of cyclists and 76% of motorcyclists.
Children also featured disproportionately. Around 16% of injured e-scooter riders in the trauma database were under 18 – substantially higher than the proportion among injured cyclists or motorcyclists.
A second part of the research examined more than 23,000 incidents involving rental e-scooters across more than 33 million journeys and almost 78 million kilometres. Collision rates varied considerably between cities, suggesting that where people ride may matter as well as what they ride.
Official figures give some indication of the wider burden. In Great Britain, police recorded 1,312 collisions involving e-scooters in 2024, resulting in 1,390 casualties: six people died and an estimated 444 were seriously injured.
How e-scooter injuries are treated
Treatment depends on what has been damaged. Minor fractures may need a cast or brace. More complicated fractures can require surgery involving plates, screws or metal rods. Serious head injuries may need intensive care, brain surgery, or prolonged rehabilitation, while internal bleeding may require emergency surgery.
The consequences can therefore extend far beyond the initial crash. A few seconds on an e-scooter can lead to months away from work, rehabilitation and, in the most severe cases, permanent disability.
Many of the factors contributing to these injuries can be reduced. A helmet cannot prevent a fall, but it can protect the part of the body that appears particularly vulnerable.
Riders should also become familiar with the acceleration, braking and steering before entering heavy traffic. Speed matters, particularly on wet or uneven roads. Using a phone, carrying another passenger or riding after drinking alcohol adds further risk to a vehicle that already demands balance and concentration.
E-scooters have clear advantages: they are convenient, relatively cheap and can replace short car journeys. Millions of rides take place without serious injury.
But their appearance can be misleading. An e-scooter may look more like a child’s scooter than a motorcycle, yet the injuries seen in trauma centres show that falling from one is not necessarily a trivial event.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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DATE: August 20, 2026 at 05:01AM
SOURCE:
NEW YORK TIMES PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGISTS FEEDTITLE: What Is Treatment-Resistant Depression?
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/20/well/mind/treatment-resistant-depression.html
If multiple antidepressants haven’t helped, there are other avenues to explore.
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/20/well/mind/treatment-resistant-depression.html
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DATE: August 20, 2026 at 04:30AM
SOURCE: STAT NEWS MENTAL HEALTHTITLE: Can reclassifying muscle dysmorphia unlock better care for boys and men?
Males make up about a third of the population struggling with eating disorders in the United States. While these conditions often start during the teen years, by some estimates, as many as 14% of American men experience an eating disorder by age 40, and they may be more likely to die from it than women. Yet, recognition of this mental illness is not where it should be according to male eating disorder expert Jason Nagata.
This is especially true for muscle dysmorphia, he says, a disorder that overwhelmingly affects males and is characterized by a hyperfixation on building muscles. It is categorized under obsessive-compulsive and related disorders in the diagnostic manual for psychiatric illnesses, known as the DSM, though it frequently also involves extreme dieting.
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DATE: August 19, 2026 at 11:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: People who imagine their future without anyone else in it aren’t loners by nature — new research suggests it’s a learned defense that quietly collapses the moment the imagined future turns stressful
New research published in the Journal of Individual Differences provides evidence that a person’s relationship patterns actively shape how they imagine their own future. The findings suggest that people with high relationship anxiety tend to envision future scenarios filled with social interactions. In contrast, those who avoid closeness tend to imagine futures with fewer interpersonal connections.
Human beings spend a significant portion of their mental lives thinking about things that have not yet happened. Psychologists refer to this ability to mentally simulate personal future events as episodic future thinking. This mental process plays an important role in how people make decisions, regulate their emotions, and behave in everyday situations.
Episodic future thinking is generally recognized as a healthy cognitive habit. It contributes to overall well-being by allowing individuals to anticipate challenges, create effective plans, and manage their emotional responses before an event actually occurs. Because interpersonal relationships make up a massive part of daily life, the degree to which people include social interactions in these mental rehearsals can influence their behavior.
When imagining these future events, people draw heavily on their past social experiences. One major framework for understanding how past experiences shape human behavior is attachment theory. Attachment style refers to the individual differences in how people feel, think, and act within interpersonal relationships.
Scientists often measure attachment style along two specific dimensions known as attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance. People with high attachment anxiety often fear abandonment and constantly seek closeness and reassurance from others. Individuals with high attachment avoidance tend to feel uncomfortable with intimacy and prefer to rely solely on themselves.
Most past research on attachment styles has focused on how these traits affect a person’s memory of the past or their experiences in the present moment. Very little attention has been given to how these deeply ingrained relationship habits influence expectations about the future. Fan Yang, an assistant professor at Waseda University, and Ze Zhang, a doctoral student at Okayama University, explained the underlying motivation for the study.
“We often think about attachment as something rooted in the past that affects our present relationships,” Yang and Zhang said. “But people also constantly imagine the future. These imagined possible futures matter because they can shape how people prepare, make decisions, and regulate their emotions.”
The researchers noted a gap in the scientific literature regarding interpersonal expectations. “What we wanted to know was whether those past relationship experiences also shape how people picture their future, especially whether they imagine future events as involving other people, support, closeness, or distance,” Yang and Zhang explained.
To test these ideas, the researchers conducted two separate studies. The first study involved 155 participants who were recruited through Chinese social networking platforms. The sample consisted of 129 females and 26 males, with an average age of about 22 years.
First, the participants completed a well-established questionnaire designed to measure their levels of attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance. The scientists then asked each person to complete five distinct episodic future thinking tasks.
For each task, participants had to imagine a realistic and plausible future event that could happen in their personal lives. The instructions required them to picture highly specific details, such as the exact time and location of the event. The imagined scenario needed to last anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours, but no longer than a single day.
The researchers also instructed the participants to come up with completely new events rather than repeating daily routines or past experiences. They were given at least thirty seconds to mentally simulate each scenario. Afterward, the participants rated how strongly the imagined event related to interpersonal relationships on a seven-point scale.
The data revealed a distinct pattern based on attachment styles. As expected, attachment anxiety positively predicted the amount of interpersonal content in the imagined future scenarios. This means that as a person’s level of relationship anxiety increased, they tended to imagine more future events involving other people.
On the other hand, attachment avoidance negatively predicted this relevance. Participants with higher levels of avoidance tended to mentally simulate future events that had very little to do with interpersonal relationships. These findings provided initial evidence that attachment traits manifest when people daydream about the future.
Following these initial findings, the scientists designed a second study to see if stress would alter this dynamic. According to attachment theory, relationship behaviors are typically activated under conditions of threat or stress. The researchers wanted to observe how episodic future thinking might change when participants imagined stressful events compared to nonstressful ones.
The second study involved 67 Japanese university students, including 50 females, 14 males, and three individuals who identified as other. Their average age was about 20 years. Similar to the first study, participants filled out a questionnaire to measure their attachment styles before moving on to the imagination tasks.
In this phase, the researchers used a within-person design, meaning every participant completed both the nonstressful and stressful tasks. First, the participants were instructed to imagine five potential personal future events that were entirely nonstressful. They followed the same strict guidelines regarding specificity and realism used in the first study.
After completing the nonstressful simulations, the participants imagined five stressful future events. The scientists purposely had everyone complete the nonstressful tasks first to prevent the negative emotions of the stressful scenarios from lingering and affecting the neutral tasks.
Following each mental simulation, participants rated how much the event involved interpersonal relationships. They also rated the extent to which they felt positive or negative emotions about the imagined scenario. This emotional rating allowed the authors to verify that the stressful tasks actually elicited more negative feelings than the nonstressful tasks.
When the researchers analyzed the data, they found that attachment anxiety continued to predict more interpersonal content across both conditions. Anxiously attached individuals consistently included other people in their future simulations, whether they were imagining a relaxing day or a highly stressful situation.
For avoidantly attached individuals, the patterns shifted depending on the emotional tone of the imagined event. During the nonstressful tasks, higher attachment avoidance predicted less interpersonal content, matching the findings of the first study. However, during the stressful tasks, attachment avoidance had no significant effect on whether the scenario involved other people.
The authors suggest this shift occurs because avoidant individuals can easily suppress their need for social connection when they feel safe and relaxed. When imagining a stressful situation, keeping up that emotional defense requires more cognitive effort. Under the mental load of a stressful scenario, their natural inclination to avoid relying on others may become harder to maintain.
“Our findings suggest that how we imagine the future may reflect our relationship patterns,” Yang and Zhang told PsyPost. “People who worry more about relationships may picture the future as more interpersonal, whether the imagined event is stressful or not. In contrast, people who tend to avoid closeness may imagine fewer social elements in ordinary, nonstressful future events, but this tendency becomes weaker when they imagine stressful situations.”
This dynamic provides a new perspective on how relationship history impacts our daily lives. “In everyday life, this means our past relationship experiences may shape not only how we relate to others now, but also how we expect support, closeness, or distance in what probably comes next,” Yang and Zhang explained.
While these studies provide new insights into how we think about the future, the research does have some limitations. One notable issue is the demographic makeup of the samples. Both studies primarily relied on young, female university students from Eastern countries.
Because relationship dynamics and social expectations can vary widely across different cultures and age groups, these findings might not apply to the broader global population. Research suggests that gender identity can influence the emotional intensity of future-oriented thinking. This means a more balanced sample of men and women is needed to confirm these patterns.
The authors also cautioned against reading too deeply into the results without considering the context. “One important caveat is that our findings do not mean attachment style rigidly determines how people imagine the future,” Yang and Zhang noted. “Our studies were based mainly on university student samples, so future research should test whether the same patterns appear in more diverse populations.”
They also emphasized that there is no right or wrong way to imagine the future. “Our findings should not be interpreted as saying that relationship-focused future thinking is always good or that less interpersonal future thinking is always bad,” the researchers said. “Rather, they show that attachment patterns may influence which aspects of possible future events become more or less salient when people imagine what may happen to them.”
Another limitation involves the controlled experimental setting. Asking participants to generate future thoughts on command in a laboratory context might not perfectly capture how people spontaneously daydream in their everyday lives. To get a more accurate picture, future research could use mobile technology to survey people about their future-oriented thoughts as they naturally occur throughout the day.
The design of the tasks also introduces the possibility of a demand effect. In both studies, participants rated how much their imagined event related to relationships immediately after their first task. Doing this might have unintentionally prompted them to focus on social connections during the subsequent four tasks.
Additionally, the fixed order of the tasks in the second study presents a potential problem. Because all participants completed the nonstressful tasks before the stressful ones, the initial tasks might have influenced how they responded to the later ones. Future studies could address this by randomizing the order of the tasks or giving participants a break between conditions to reset their minds.
The authors also noted that the second study had a relatively small sample size and was not preregistered. This means the findings from the second study should be treated as preliminary. The researchers did not account for other psychological factors, such as general anxiety levels or personality traits, which could also influence how a person envisions their future.
Moving forward, the scientists plan to explore these concepts in more naturalistic settings. “Our next step is to look more closely at how people think about the future in everyday life,” Yang and Zhang said. “The future is not just something that happens later; the way we imagine it may already shape how we feel, make decisions, and relate to others now.”
They plan to investigate how mental time travel differs depending on whether a person is looking forward or backward. “One interesting question is that imagining the future often draws on past experiences, but the future also has a unique quality: it has not happened yet, but it might,” the authors explained.
This distinction could have important implications for psychological health. “We want to examine whether this ‘possible but not yet real’ quality makes imagining the future different from remembering the past in how it affects mental health and well-being,” Yang and Zhang said. “In other words, are remembering the past and imagining the future psychologically similar processes, or do they serve different functions?”
The authors have broad goals for this expanding area of study. “More broadly, we hope to understand why some people look ahead with confidence, while others feel worry, uncertainty, or anxiety,” they noted. “In particular, Ze Zhang will continue this line of work by focusing on topics such as future anxiety.”
The study, “The Influence of Attachment Style on the Extent to Which the Content of Episodic Future Thinking Relates to Interpersonal Relationships,” was authored by Fan Yang, Ze Zhang, Nanami Sawada, and Atsushi Oshio.
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DATE: August 19, 2026 at 08:38PM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY PSYCHOLOGY FEEDTITLE: Researchers reveal deeper workings of brain’s information hub
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260819041224.htm
The brain has a remarkably flexible system for handling uncertainty and changing situations. Researchers found that the frontoparietal cortex constantly shifts how it communicates with other brain regions depending on what information is needed to make a decision. Rather than simply becoming more active when things get difficult, this network appears to reorganize itself in real time.
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260819041224.htm
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DATE: August 19, 2026 at 08:38PM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY PSYCHIATIRY FEEDTITLE: Researchers reveal deeper workings of brain’s information hub
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260819041224.htm
The brain has a remarkably flexible system for handling uncertainty and changing situations. Researchers found that the frontoparietal cortex constantly shifts how it communicates with other brain regions depending on what information is needed to make a decision. Rather than simply becoming more active when things get difficult, this network appears to reorganize itself in real time.
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260819041224.htm
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DATE: August 19, 2026 at 10:01PM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY MIND-BRAIN FEEDTITLE: AI-designed “intrabodies” could unlock new treatments for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and MND
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260819041242.htm
Researchers have developed a new way to turn ordinary antibodies into tiny disease-fighting molecules that can work inside human cells, potentially opening new paths for treating Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s disease, and motor neurone disease.
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260819041242.htm
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DATE: August 19, 2026 at 08:38PM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY MIND-BRAIN FEEDTITLE: Researchers reveal deeper workings of brain’s information hub
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260819041224.htm
The brain has a remarkably flexible system for handling uncertainty and changing situations. Researchers found that the frontoparietal cortex constantly shifts how it communicates with other brain regions depending on what information is needed to make a decision. Rather than simply becoming more active when things get difficult, this network appears to reorganize itself in real time.
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260819041224.htm
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DATE: August 19, 2026 at 04:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Morning sunlight exposure is linked to earlier sleep schedules
URL: https://www.psypost.org/morning-sunlight-exposure-is-linked-to-earlier-sleep-schedules/
Exposure to natural sunlight early in the day is associated with earlier sleep schedules and better overall rest. Researchers found that adults who spent more time in the morning sun had a more aligned internal biological clock, which can promote healthier sleep patterns. The study was published in the journal BMC Public Health.
The human body relies on an internal biological clock, known as the circadian rhythm, to manage sleep and wake cycles. This rhythm is governed by a tiny region in the brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus. When light enters the eyes, signals travel to this brain region, which then guides the release of various chemical messengers.
One major messenger is melatonin, a hormone that promotes sleepiness. When darkness falls, the body produces more melatonin. When the eyes detect bright light, melatonin production drops, promoting wakefulness.
Modern lifestyles limit how much natural light people receive. Many adults work indoors or spend their leisure time looking at screens. During the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns and remote work dramatically reduced the amount of time people spent outside.
Extended periods spent indoors can disrupt the biological clock. When a person’s biological time falls out of sync with their daily obligations, such as waking up early for work despite not feeling rested, they can experience chronic exhaustion. This misalignment is sometimes called social jetlag.
Lead researcher Luiz Antônio Alves de Menezes-Júnior, a public health and nutrition researcher at the Federal University of Ouro Preto in Brazil, and his colleagues wanted to understand how sunlight at different times of the day affects specific elements of sleep. The researchers focused heavily on a metric called the midpoint of sleep, which is the exact halfway mark between the time a person falls asleep and the time they wake up. An earlier midpoint indicates a sleep cycle that is well-synchronized with the natural progression of day and night. A delayed midpoint can mean the internal clock is out of sync with typical social and work schedules.
The researchers conducted a cross-sectional survey of 1,762 adults living in the Iron Quadrilateral region of Brazil between October and December 2020. Interviewers visited homes in two mid-sized cities, using protective measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. They randomly selected households from census data, aiming to capture a representative sample across various socioeconomic groups. The participants answered detailed questions about their general health, socioeconomic status, and daily habits.
To evaluate sleep, the participants completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, which is a validated questionnaire used to measure different dimensions of rest over the previous month. This tool helped the researchers calculate each person’s total sleep time, the amount of time it took them to fall asleep, and their sleep efficiency. Sleep efficiency is the percentage of time a person spends actually sleeping while in bed. The questionnaire also provided the data needed to calculate each participant’s midpoint of sleep and their overall sleep quality score.
Overall, the participants reported an average total sleep time of just over seven hours per night. The average sleep midpoint was around 5:18 a.m., meaning the typical participant fell asleep shortly before midnight and woke up just after 7:00 a.m.
To track light exposure, the researchers asked the participants to estimate how many days a week they spent time in the sun. The participants then estimated how many minutes they spent in the sun on those days across three specific time windows. These windows were before 10 a.m., between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., and after 3 p.m.
The research team used statistical models to look for relationships between the timing of sunlight exposure and the various sleep metrics. To analyze the results, they used a directed acyclic graph, which is a theoretical model that maps out how different variables might influence one another. This helped them select the correct factors to adjust for in their models, avoiding false associations. They factored in variables such as age, gender, education level, chronic health conditions, and levels of physical activity.
The researchers found that morning sunlight exposure had the strongest relationship with the midpoint of sleep. For every additional 30 minutes a participant spent in the sun before 10 a.m., their sleep midpoint shifted earlier by an average of 23 minutes. The findings suggest that morning light serves as a primary signal to help reset the biological clock.
Afternoon sunlight exposure also showed a relationship with the sleep midpoint, though the effect was smaller. Every 30 minutes of sun exposure after 3 p.m. was associated with a 19-minute earlier sleep midpoint. The researchers noted that afternoon sunlight might signal the approaching evening, or it might coincide with outdoor physical activity that generally aids sleep.
Sunlight exposure in the middle of the day, between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., had no statistically significant association with the midpoint of sleep. The lack of an association between midday light and sleep timing suggests that the biological clock is most responsive to light at the extremes of the day.
Beyond the sleep midpoint, morning sunlight was the only time window associated with a better overall sleep quality score on the questionnaire. People who spent more time outside before 10 a.m. reported generally better rest.
Conversely, sunlight exposure at any time of day showed no statistically significant association with total sleep time. Light exposure also had no statistically significant association with how quickly participants fell asleep or their sleep efficiency.
The study relies on observational data, meaning it can only identify patterns rather than prove that sunlight exposure directly causes sleep changes. The participants estimated their own sun exposure and sleep habits, which can introduce memory errors or biases compared to using objective tracking devices.
The researchers calculated a single average sleep midpoint for each participant for the entire week. They did not separate sleep data for workdays versus weekends. People often sleep in on their days off to catch up on rest. A broader weekly average might mask the specific effects of varying daily schedules and weekend sleep habits.
The analysis did not track exposure to artificial light or the amount of time participants spent looking at screens in the evening. Late-day screen light is known to influence sleep onset and biological rhythms, which could skew the interpreted effects of natural sunlight. Additionally, the sleep efficiency data was based entirely on self-reports. Measuring true sleep efficiency generally requires clinical tools like movement-tracking wristbands or formal sleep studies in a laboratory setting.
The data collection took place during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, a period marked by high social isolation, anxiety, and altered work routines. These unique societal conditions likely influenced the participants’ stress levels and sleep patterns in ways that are difficult to separate from their light exposure. Future research could use wearable technology to measure outdoor light exposure and sleep patterns precisely, helping clarify exactly how natural light guides the human biological clock under normal daily conditions.
The study, “The role of sunlight in sleep regulation: analysis of morning, evening and late exposure,” was authored by Luiz Antônio Alves de Menezes-Júnior, Thais da Silva Sabião, Júlia Cristina Cardoso Carraro, George Luiz Lins Machado-Coelho, and Adriana Lúcia Meireles.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/morning-sunlight-exposure-is-linked-to-earlier-sleep-schedules/
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DATE: August 19, 2026 at 02:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Childhood ADHD is linked to distinct developmental changes in brain white matter
An analysis of ABCD study data found that children with ADHD showed signs of reduced glial cellularity (measured as reduced restricted normalized isotropic diffusion) in 20 white matter tracts at 9 years of age. They also noticed signs of reduced axonal organization (measured as reduced restricted normalized directional diffusion) of nerve fibers in 16 white matter tracts between ages 9 and 14. The paper was published in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging.
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, is a neurodevelopmental condition that affects attention, impulse control, and activity levels. It usually begins in childhood, although many people continue to experience symptoms in adolescence and adulthood. Some people with ADHD mainly struggle with distractibility, forgetfulness, and organization, while others are more affected by restlessness and impulsive behavior. Many experience a combination of both patterns.
ADHD symptoms are persistent and interfere with everyday functioning. They can affect school or work performance, relationships, time management, and the ability to complete routine tasks. In fact, ADHD is frequently diagnosed when a child starts school because its symptoms often conflict with classroom expectations. It is estimated to affect approximately 3-10% of children.
Study author L. Nate Overholtzer and his colleagues note that white matter—the tissue in the brain made mainly of nerve fibers—facilitates efficient communication between brain regions, thereby supporting higher-order cognitive processes. These processes are commonly impaired in ADHD. With this in mind, they conducted a study aiming to characterize the relationship between ADHD and white matter microarchitecture across early adolescence. They also evaluated how these associations were affected by three classes of ADHD medications: amphetamine-based, methylphenidate-based, and nonstimulant medications.
They analyzed data from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study (ABCD Study). The ABCD study is a large, long-term U.S. research project following thousands of children into adulthood to understand how brain development relates to health, behavior, and life experiences.
The analyses used data collected at enrollment (2016-2018), 2 years (2018-2020), and 4 years (2020-2022) after the start of the study. The total number of participants for whom data were available at the start of the study was 9,426. In year 2, it was 6,745, and it was down to 2,483 participants in year 4. At the start of the study, 1,150 participants (12.2%) had ADHD (658 of whom were taking ADHD medication). In year 2, there were 763 participants with ADHD (11.3%), and in year 4, there were 294 (11.8%).
The researchers used advanced diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of the participants’ brains. Participants who were using non-ADHD psychiatric medications were excluded from the analysis to prevent pharmacological confounds. The study authors identified whether participants had ADHD based on caregiver responses to the computerized Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (KSADS) and the Medication Inventory Survey (MIS). The latter assessment also served to identify the type of ADHD medication participants were taking.
Results indicated that children with ADHD tended to show decreased restricted normalized isotropic diffusion in 20 white matter tracts at age 9, indicating reduced glial cellularity. The analyses also showed that ADHD was associated with enduring decreases in restricted normalized directional diffusion in 16 white matter tracts between the ages of 9 and 14, indicating reduced axonal organization. Additionally, an exploratory analysis indicated that the narrowing of isotropic diffusion differences between children with and without ADHD across early adolescence paralleled an overall age-related drop in ADHD symptoms across the participants.
Restricted normalized isotropic diffusion (RNI) and restricted normalized directional diffusion (RND) are advanced MRI measures that describe how water movement is restricted within brain tissue.
RNI reflects restriction that is similar in all directions and serves as an indicator of glial cellularity—the presence and morphology of support cells like astrocytes, microglia, and myelin-producing cells.
RND reflects restriction along a particular direction and, in brain white matter, provides information about the organization, packing, and alignment of nerve fibers (axons).
“Altogether, ADHD was robustly associated with reductions in isotropic diffusion in white matter tracts, suggestive of atypical glial cellularity during late childhood. Complementary reductions in directional diffusion of select tracts may suggest atypical axonal organization enduring across early adolescence,” the study authors concluded.
The study contributes to the scientific knowledge about the neural basis of ADHD. However, the study was limited by smaller sample sizes in later waves—partially because Year 4 data collection was still ongoing at the time of the data release, and because children with ADHD had higher exclusion rates due to factors like moving during MRI scans or taking other psychiatric medications. This could limit the generalizability of the results to the broader ADHD population.
The paper, “Developmental Differences in White Matter Microarchitecture in Youth with ADHD: Longitudinal Findings from the ABCD Study,” was authored by L. Nate Overholtzer, Katherine L. Bottenhorn, Hedyeh Ahmadi, Sarah L. Karalunas, Bradley S. Peterson, and Megan M. Herting.
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DATE: August 19, 2026 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: The complex science of positive affirmations, and why they occasionally backfire
Scroll through social media and you’ll quickly encounter phrases like “I am worthy” or “I choose happiness”.
The tantalising promise is: repeat these positive affirmations often enough and you’ll be happier, calmer and even healthier.
Given we are biologically hardwired to avoid suffering and want to feel safe and happy, no wonder it is tempting. But is it backed by science? And are there downsides?
What are positive affirmations?
Self-affirmation theory was proposed by psychologist Claude Steele in the late 1980s and remains popular today. The theory suggests we have a deep desire to craft a personal narrative that we are “adequate” and “worthy”.
But painful experiences that trigger shame or embarrassment – such as getting bad grades, making a mistake at work or going through a break-up – can threaten this self-narrative.
You may become more self-critical, and this may make you more likely to experience anxiety, depression and even self-harm.
In contrast, self-affirmation theory suggests repeating positive ideas about yourself can protect you from these negative mental health symptoms, boosting your mood and sense of self-worth.
Is there evidence positive affirmations work?
Yes – in some contexts.
A review from 2025 combined and analysed results from 67 studies. These looked at the effects on participants’ wellbeing of writing positive affirmations or repeating them out loud.
The review found positive affirmations did have a meaningful impact on how participants viewed themselves and connected with others. But the effect was small.
Some studies have found repeating positive affirmations can protect social media users’ self-esteem and boost the overall mental health of university students.
One 2025 study looked at women undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer. It found those who listened to music alongside recordings of positive affirmations felt less depressed and drowsy, compared to those who listened only to music.
Another study from 2025 examined adults with depression symptoms, but no diagnosis. It found those who wrote personal positive affirmations twice daily reported better self-esteem after 15 days, compared to those who didn’t.
One frequently cited study from 2009 found repeating positive affirmations (for example, “I am a lovable person”) boosted mood. However this was only for people who already had high self-esteem. Those with low self-esteem – in other words, those with a low level of confidence and value in themselves – reported poorer mood.
While these studies show some promise, recent studies have failed to replicate these findings. More research is needed to see exactly who might benefit, and in what context.
The downsides of positivity
But is there any harm in using positive affirmations? Here are some risks to keep in mind.
Toxic positivity
Humans are imperfect and the world is often unfair. Pretending otherwise can lead to toxic positivity, which means suppressing or even denying difficult feelings. When you feel distressed, you may feel pressure to cope and simply “reframe” your thinking. You may feel ashamed when you can’t and be less likely to seek help.
Chasing dopamine
Repeating positive affirmations might give you a quick dopamine hit. Dopamine is the hormone linked to pleasure and reward, and can help us feel in control and competent. But the desire to always feel good is not realistic. And taken to the extreme, it can trap you in a cycle where you’re constantly seeking the next dopamine hit.
Downplaying real issues
Positive self-talk is only helpful in safe environments. In unsafe or harmful situations (for example, an abusive relationship) staying positive may blind you to potential dangers. Over-reliance on positive affirmations can detach you from what’s going on, and override gut instincts it may be better to listen to.
So, what does work?
Recent research suggests how we talk to ourselves may matter more than how positive the message is. Here are two approaches worth trying.
Show yourself compassion
Research shows cultivating a compassionate relationship with yourself, especially during stress or failure, can strengthen your resilience and improve your mental health. For example, telling yourself “this is hard” or “anyone would feel this way” can be more helpful than simply repeating upbeat affirmations. Sometimes being brave enough to acknowledge you’re suffering, and speaking to yourself like a good friend, is what you need.
Create some distance
Talking to yourself in the third person – for example, “Maddie is furious, but has handled far worse” rather than “I am furious” – can help. This creates distance between you and your thoughts, and is sometimes called “non-attachment”. This approach can help regulate emotions, encouraging us to approach feelings with curiosity, observing rather than just reacting to them.
The bottom line
Very few thinking styles are always beneficial or always harmful. The key is to be flexible, not rigid. This means regularly asking yourself “is that thought helpful?” and choosing the approach most suited to your situation.
And if that’s positive self-talk, try to use compassion and understanding – not just upbeat slogans.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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DATE: August 19, 2026 at 11:00AM
SOURCE: STAT NEWS NEUROSCIENCETITLE: STAT+: Brain organoids, kept alive more than five years, matured like human brains
A little more than two years ago, a junior scientist walked into Paola Arlotta’s Harvard office with a set of mesmerizing images and asked if she wanted to see what the old brain organoids look like.
Arlotta, a developmental neurobiologist, turned in surprise. “You analyzed them?” she exclaimed.
Irene Faravelli’s face fell. She had, but now she wondered if that had been a grave mistake. Arlotta assured her everything was fine. In fact it was great. “I was actually pleased that somebody had the courage to do this,” Arlotta recalled to STAT in a recent interview.
Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…
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DATE: August 19, 2026 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: New research shows the unexpected benefits of a fixed mindset for social anxiety
Believing that people rarely change their first impressions might actually help individuals who experience high levels of social anxiety. New research published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin indicates that this fixed view of social judgments reduces the mental burden of socializing. By assuming that social evaluations are stable, anxious individuals can let their guard down, allowing them to perform better and enjoy interactions more.
People who experience high social anxiety often fear negative evaluation, mockery, and rejection. This intense fear causes them to focus inward during conversations. They constantly monitor their own behavior, looking for perceived flaws or awkwardness. This cycle of self-criticism requires immense mental energy and acts like a distracting background noise, leaving fewer resources to simply engage naturally in a social setting.
Psychological research often looks at mindsets to understand how people handle challenges. A mindset is a person’s underlying belief about whether human traits can change. A growth mindset assumes traits are malleable and can be improved, while a fixed mindset assumes they are stable and unchangeable. Past therapeutic efforts have sometimes tried teaching anxious individuals that their own personality or anxiety levels can change over time.
Bar-Ilan University researcher Liad Uziel approached the problem from a different angle. Instead of focusing on a person’s beliefs about their own internal traits, Uziel investigated their beliefs about how other people form impressions. In daily life, we try to shape how others perceive us, a process known as impression management.
Uziel hypothesized that if socially anxious individuals believe impressions are relatively fixed, social situations might feel more predictable. If people form an opinion and stick to it, the pressure to constantly manage one’s public image drops. This predictability could reduce the need to obsessively monitor one’s own behavior, freeing up mental energy to focus on the conversation itself.
To test this idea, Uziel conducted a preliminary online study with 182 participants from the United Kingdom. The participants completed questionnaires measuring their levels of social anxiety, their beliefs about how people form impressions, and the extent to which they feel drained by managing their public image. The goal was to see how these factors naturally align in the general public.
The results showed that higher social anxiety was heavily linked to feeling depleted by social interactions. Yet, for participants who naturally leaned toward a fixed mindset regarding impression formation, this draining effect was noticeably weaker. Believing that social judgments are stable seemed to buffer against the exhaustion of socializing.
Uziel then conducted a laboratory experiment with 200 undergraduate students in Israel to see if manipulating these mindsets could change actual behavior. The students were randomly assigned to read and agree with statements promoting either a fixed mindset or a growth mindset about impression formation. A fixed mindset prompt suggested that people form durable impressions, while a growth mindset prompt suggested that opinions are constantly updated.
Next, the participants were asked to write a thorough self-introduction, under the premise that they would soon meet another student for a joint task. Independent judges, who did not know which experimental group the students were in, rated these written introductions. They evaluated the text based on traits like friendliness and dominance, which indicate a confident and appealing social presence.
Among students primed with a growth mindset, higher social anxiety resulted in a less appealing self-presentation. They appeared more hesitant and less engaging. For those primed with a fixed mindset, higher social anxiety was not associated with a worse impression. The simple belief that impressions are stable allowed anxious participants to present a more desirable version of themselves.
A second experiment raised the stakes by introducing a more stressful social task. A new group of 155 undergraduate students underwent the same mindset manipulation. Afterward, they had to talk about themselves for two minutes while being recorded by a video camera. Presenting oneself on camera is a well-known method for inducing social stress in laboratory settings.
Objective observers watched the videos and rated the participants on their eye contact, vocal clarity, comfort, and conversational flow. The findings mirrored the previous experiment. Students with high social anxiety who adopted a growth mindset appeared more anxious and less comfortable on camera. Conversely, those who adopted a fixed mindset performed just as well as their less anxious peers.
A final study tracked 158 students over several days to measure real-world social experiences. Participants were again assigned to adopt either a fixed or a growth mindset. This time, they also wrote about a personal memory that aligned with that specific belief, an exercise designed to reinforce the manipulated mindset.
Three days later, the students reported on the quality, stress levels, and satisfaction of their recent social interactions. In the real world, the mindset shift made a noticeable difference. Participants with higher social anxiety reported having better and more satisfying social experiences over the three-day period if they had been primed with a fixed mindset. Those primed with a growth mindset reported worse social experiences.
A growth mindset about social judgments means believing that you are constantly being evaluated and reevaluated. For someone who is already socially anxious, this belief likely turns every conversation into a high-stakes performance. A fixed mindset takes away that pressure, allowing the person to relax after the initial introduction.
While these findings offer a new way to cope with social stress, the research was conducted using general student and online populations. The study did not specifically test individuals who have been clinically diagnosed with a social anxiety disorder. The observed behavioral changes in the laboratory were also relatively brief. Future research will need to determine if teaching a fixed mindset about impression formation can provide long-term relief in clinical therapeutic settings.
The study, “The Soothing Effect of a Stable World: Social Behavior of Individuals Varying on Social Anxiety Under Fixed and Growth Mindsets About Impression Formation,” was authored by Liad Uziel.
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DATE: August 19, 2026 at 10:11AM
SOURCE: PSYCHIATRIC TIMESDirect article link at end of text block below.
🧠 Neuropsych in the News: Today, the FDA has moved forward 2 different potential treatments for Parkinson's and Tourette syndrome, respectively.
Read the news here: https://t.co/dZTqPWzSJ8
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Articles can be found by scrolling down the page at Articles can be found at https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/news".
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DATE: August 19, 2026 at 08:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: How the use of artificial intelligence harms college students’ ability to learn
College students who copy answers from artificial intelligence tools without verifying the information experience declines in their ability to learn independently. These unreflective habits are associated with a weaker belief in students’ own capabilities and a reduced motivation to learn. The findings were published in Scientific Reports.
Generative artificial intelligence programs can quickly write essays, generate computer code, and solve advanced mathematical equations. These tools have become common academic aids on college campuses across the globe. When students use these systems to seek explanations or brainstorm new ideas, the technology can expand their academic perspectives and improve their studying efficiency.
But reliance on automated answers carries potential academic risks. Hui Zhao and Huijuan Gu, researchers at Zhoukou Normal University, designed a study to examine what happens when students use artificial intelligence thoughtlessly. The researchers define thoughtless use as a pattern in which users blindly adopt machine-generated text without critically evaluating, verifying, or deeply understanding the outputs.
The researchers wanted to know how this specific habit affects self-directed learning. Self-directed learning is a core educational skill in higher education. It refers to a student’s capacity to independently set goals, apply study strategies, and monitor their own academic progress. Students with high self-directed learning abilities can manage their time and actively evaluate what they do and do not understand.
To understand the relationship between technology habits and study skills, the researchers looked at two psychological factors. The first is self-efficacy, which is a person’s internal belief in their capacity to successfully complete tasks and overcome challenges. The second factor is learning motivation, which encompasses the psychological drives that push a student to initiate and persist in their coursework. The researchers based their investigation on the idea that a student’s environment, personal beliefs, and daily behaviors all shape one another in a continuous, reciprocal cycle.
Zhao and Gu recruited 487 undergraduate students from four universities in Henan Province, China, to complete an online survey. The participants answered a series of questions assessing their study habits on a five-point scale. The respondents ranged from college freshmen to seniors and represented a variety of academic disciplines, including the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.
The survey measured four distinct categories using established psychological scales. First, it assessed how often students engaged in thoughtless artificial intelligence use. Participants rated their agreement with statements such as “I copy learning tasks or problem statements into generative AI to seek answers or ideas” and “I feel that generative AI is more capable than I am in learning and problem-solving.”
Second, the survey measured the students’ academic self-efficacy. This section asked participants to reflect on their confidence when facing difficult materials, using prompts like “I believe that I can independently master complex learning content.”
Third, the researchers measured the students’ overall motivation to learn. This included questions about their curiosity, their desire to master new skills, and the satisfaction they gained from overcoming academic hurdles. Finally, the survey evaluated the students’ capacity for self-directed learning by asking how often they actively checked their own understanding of the material or created knowledge frameworks like mind maps.
The researchers used a statistical technique called structural equation modeling to analyze the survey responses. This analytical method allows scientists to observe complex networks of relationships between multiple different variables at the same time, rather than just looking at two variables in isolation.
The analysis revealed that the thoughtless use of artificial intelligence is strongly associated with lower levels of self-directed learning. Students who habitually relied on automated answers reported worse self-management skills and lower cognitive engagement in their coursework.
The researchers identified a specific psychological pathway explaining this decline. The authors suggest that an unreflective reliance on technology deprives students of the opportunity to struggle through complex problems. Without the experience of overcoming academic challenges through their own hard work, students reported lower levels of self-efficacy.
This lower confidence in their own abilities was in turn linked to a reduced motivation to learn. When individuals do not believe they can succeed on their own, their willingness to invest effort naturally declines. With less motivation and lower self-confidence, the students became less capable of managing their own educational progress, acting instead as dependent users of external tools.
The researchers also conducted a multi-group analysis to see if these patterns differed between men and women. This statistical test allowed the authors to compare the strength of the psychological relationships across the two demographic groups.
The analysis uncovered distinct gender differences in how thoughtless technology use relates to psychological well-being. For male students, unreflective use showed a stronger negative association with learning motivation. The researchers suggest that male students often view technology primarily as a tool for efficiency, meaning that immediate automated answers quickly replace their internal drive to engage deeply with the material.
For female students, thoughtless use was associated with steeper declines in self-efficacy and self-directed learning. The researchers note that female students tend to adopt more reflective and evaluative study strategies in their traditional coursework. When they bypass these reflective processes by copying automated answers, they miss out on the mastery experiences that traditionally build their academic confidence.
The study relies on cross-sectional data, meaning all the information was collected at a single point in time. Because the researchers did not track the students over a long period, the statistical results highlight relationships between behaviors and beliefs but cannot definitively prove cause and effect. It is possible that students who already have low self-efficacy are simply more likely to use artificial intelligence thoughtlessly.
The demographic makeup of the sample also presents some limitations. The participants were drawn exclusively from universities in a single Chinese province, and nearly eighty percent of the respondents were female. Expanding future surveys to include a more balanced demographic distribution across different regions would help verify if these patterns hold true for other student populations.
Additionally, the survey measured motivation as a single, unified concept. Future research could split this category into intrinsic motivation, such as natural curiosity, and extrinsic motivation, such as a desire for good grades. Separating these concepts would provide a more detailed picture of how automated tools influence a student’s inner drive to succeed. Future studies might also track students over an entire semester to see how their habits and self-confidence evolve as they face different types of academic challenges.
The study, “Thoughtless Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence and College Students’ Self-Directed Learning: A Multi-Group SEM Analysis of Gender Differences,” was authored by Hui Zhao and Huijuan Gu.
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DATE: August 18, 2026 at 12:40PM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY MIND-BRAIN FEEDTITLE: Mysterious waves sweeping across your brain may help turn sensory chaos into what you see
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260816044827.htm
Traveling electrical waves sweeping across the brain may help determine what we notice, predict what comes next, and construct our internal picture of the world. Researchers now argue that these waves aren't just background activity—they could be a core computational engine behind perception and memory.
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260816044827.htm
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DATE: August 19, 2026 at 06:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Emotional intelligence predicts whether envy leads to self-improvement or hostility
A recent study published in Personality and Individual Differences suggests that a person’s ability to regulate their emotions predicts how they experience envy. The findings indicate that higher emotion regulation skills are linked to benign envy, which motivates self-improvement, rather than malicious envy, which breeds hostility. This provides evidence that emotional intelligence may help channel uncomfortable feelings into constructive actions.
Envy is a common emotion that occurs when an individual lacks a desired advantage held by someone else. Christophe Haag, a professor of organizational behavior at emlyon business school in France and author of the book Le Petit Guide illustré de l’intelligence émotionnelle, designed the study to investigate how distinct forms of this emotion operate.
“A major goal of my research is to understand emotions at a fine-grained level, particularly unpleasant emotions and the very different consequences they can have,” Haag said. “I actually try to avoid describing emotions themselves as ‘positive’ or ‘negative,’ as is still often done. I think it is more accurate to describe emotions in terms of their valence—as pleasant or unpleasant—and to reserve ‘positive’ or ‘negative’ for the consequences they may have for ourselves or for others.”
Although often viewed as entirely negative, psychological research separates envy into two distinct types. Benign envy is an unpleasant but motivating feeling that pushes a person toward upward striving and self-improvement. Malicious envy is characterized by hostility and a desire to pull the other person down.
“Envy is a fascinating example,” Haag said. “Like its close cousin jealousy, it is pervasive in our social lives, yet its unpleasantness does not tell us whether its consequences will be constructive or destructive. Envy can motivate us to improve ourselves, but it can also lead us to hostility and to wanting to bring someone else down. I wanted to understand whether emotional intelligence—and particularly the ability to regulate emotions—might help explain these very different motivational trajectories.”
Both states feel uncomfortable, but they lead to very different behavioral outcomes. The reason for this divergence in motivational direction remains an open question in affective science. The way people interpret and manage emotional signals might determine whether they treat an upward social comparison as actionable information or a threat to their self-worth. Emotional intelligence provides a framework to understand this process.
Emotional intelligence encompasses several cognitive abilities related to perceiving, understanding, and managing emotions. Many previous studies on the topic have relied on self-report questionnaires, which measure how individuals perceive their own skills. Self-perceived competence often overlaps with general confidence. To get a more accurate picture, scientists increasingly use ability-based tests, which measure actual performance on emotional reasoning tasks.
Within this ability-based framework, emotion regulation is the specific capacity to select and apply the most effective strategy to achieve a desired emotional state. The current research focuses on this regulatory stage. The capacity to handle emotional responses after they are activated might shift the trajectory of envy. The researcher designed the study to test whether emotion regulation ability predicts a tendency toward constructive self-improvement rather than destructive interpersonal responses.
The researcher surveyed 442 French-speaking adults who were recruited online through social media platforms. The sample consisted of 88.5 percent women. Participants ranged in age from 18 to 72 years, with an average age of about 40.
Participants completed a performance-based assessment of emotion regulation ability rather than a self-report questionnaire. This measure required participants to read four emotionally demanding situations, such as coping with guilt or fostering trust. For each scenario, they had to select the most effective strategy for managing the emotion. Scores on this regulation test were calculated as the proportion of correct answers, ranging from 0 to 1, with the sample scoring an average of 0.539, or roughly 54 percent correct.
Participants also completed a 10-item survey rating their tendencies to experience benign and malicious envy on a scale from 1 to 6. The average score for benign envy was 3.74, suggesting a moderate presence of self-improvement motives. The average score for malicious envy was much lower at 1.66. To isolate the specific role of emotion regulation, the researcher measured and controlled for several other variables known to influence emotional responses.
These control variables included global self-esteem, attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance, age, and gender. Attachment anxiety, for example, involves a heightened fear of rejection, which can amplify defensive reactions in social situations. Incorporating these measures allowed the analysis to account for baseline differences in how people process interpersonal threats.
The statistical analysis indicated that higher emotion regulation ability positively predicted benign envy. A standard deviation increase in emotion regulation ability was associated with a 0.165 standard deviation increase in benign envy scores. In contrast, the association between emotion regulation ability and malicious envy was not statistically significant. A mathematical comparison of the two pathways showed that the relationship with benign envy was stronger than the relationship with malicious envy.
Alongside the main analysis, the researcher also conducted exploratory tests using a broader assessment that measured seven distinct emotional abilities.
“What I found particularly interesting was that emotion-regulation ability was associated specifically with benign envy rather than simply with lower levels of envy,” Haag told PsyPost. “That distinction matters. Emotional intelligence does not appear here as a mechanism that suppresses an unpleasant emotion; rather, it may be associated with the direction that emotion takes.”
Haag noted that emotion regulation was the emotional ability most strongly associated with benign envy among the seven abilities measured.
“This result should be interpreted cautiously, but it is consistent with the idea that regulation may be particularly relevant to what happens after an emotion has been activated,” Haag said.
The control variables also provided context for how envy unfolds. Participants with higher self-esteem reported higher levels of benign envy and lower levels of malicious envy. Attachment anxiety was strongly linked to higher levels of malicious envy. Older participants reported lower levels of both types of envy compared to younger participants.
Even when accounting for these personality and demographic factors, emotion regulation ability maintained its unique association with benign envy.
“The main takeaway is that an unpleasant emotion is not necessarily a ‘negative’ emotion in terms of its consequences,” Haag said. “What matters is not only what we feel, but what that emotion leads us to think and do. In our study, people with greater emotion-regulation ability were more likely to report benign envy—the form of envy that motivates self-improvement—whereas emotion-regulation ability was not significantly associated with malicious envy, which involves hostility and the desire to reduce another person’s advantage.”
The pattern suggests that the cognitive capacity to manage emotions effectively operates independently of a person’s general self-worth or relationship insecurities.
“So emotional intelligence may not make unpleasant emotions disappear—and that is not necessarily what we should want it to do,” Haag said. “Instead, it may help orient their consequences. In the case of envy, the useful question may therefore be less ‘How do I stop feeling this?’ and more ‘What is this emotion going to make me do?'”
The cross-sectional design of the survey means that the data represent a single snapshot in time. “The most important caveat is that this is a cross-sectional study, so we cannot establish causality,” Haag said. “We cannot conclude from these data that greater emotion-regulation ability causes envy to become constructive.”
It is possible that repeatedly engaging in constructive self-improvement over time enhances a person’s regulatory reasoning skills, rather than the other direction. The demographics of the participant pool also present certain constraints. “The sample was also predominantly female, and our performance-based measure of emotion regulation was relatively brief,” Haag said.
Testing more diverse, gender-balanced samples would help clarify whether these emotional pathways operate uniformly across different populations. “Replication with more diverse samples, broader measures, and longitudinal or experimental designs will therefore be important,” Haag said.
“One interpretation I would particularly like to avoid is that emotionally intelligent people experience ‘positive emotions’ rather than ‘negative emotions,'” Haag said. “That is not what our findings suggest. An emotionally intelligent person can experience an intensely unpleasant emotion. The important question is what that emotion subsequently produces—for the person and for others.”
Future experimental research could observe individuals in real time to see how they manage induced episodes of envy. “I would like to continue examining emotions at this finer level, particularly unpleasant emotions such as envy, jealousy, anger, fear, or guilt,” Haag said. “Rather than asking whether these emotions are inherently ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ I am interested in identifying the conditions under which they produce adaptive or maladaptive consequences.”
Such real-time observations could map out how specific mental abilities redirect uncomfortable social comparisons. “One important next step would be to induce envy experimentally and observe, in real time, how people with different levels of emotion-regulation ability respond to it,” Haag said. “More broadly, I want to better understand when emotional intelligence helps transform an unpleasant emotional signal into useful information and constructive action—and when that process fails.”
“I think the broader message extends well beyond envy,” Haag said. “Emotions themselves are not intrinsically positive or negative. They can be pleasant or unpleasant; what can become positive or negative are their consequences for ourselves and for others.”
Envy provides a vivid example of how the same underlying feeling can motivate vastly different behaviors. “Envy illustrates this particularly well,” Haag said. “Faced with someone who has something we desire, the discomfort can push us in two radically different directions: ‘I want to bring that person down’ or ‘I want to raise myself up.'”
“The emotion is unpleasant in both cases,” Haag said. “What changes is where it takes us. Understanding what determines that direction is, to me, one of the most interesting questions in the science of emotions.”
The study, “Emotional intelligence shapes the motivational direction of envy,” was authored by Christophe Haag.
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DATE: August 19, 2026 at 05:02AM
SOURCE:
NEW YORK TIMES PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGISTS FEEDTITLE: Feeling Lonely? These 8 Books Might Help.
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/19/well/loneliness-books.html
Psychologists, therapists and other experts share the works they recommend to people who are struggling to connect.
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/19/well/loneliness-books.html
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