#psychology — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #psychology, aggregated by home.social.
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Do check out this post: Fundamental Attribution Error: Biases That Make Us Judge Others Differently Than We Judge Ourselves
#fundamentalAttributionError #cognitivebias #cognitivepsychology #psychology #bias
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Do check out this post: Fundamental Attribution Error: Biases That Make Us Judge Others Differently Than We Judge Ourselves
#fundamentalAttributionError #cognitivebias #cognitivepsychology #psychology #bias
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Do check out this post: Fundamental Attribution Error: Biases That Make Us Judge Others Differently Than We Judge Ourselves
#fundamentalAttributionError #cognitivebias #cognitivepsychology #psychology #bias
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Do check out this post: Fundamental Attribution Error: Biases That Make Us Judge Others Differently Than We Judge Ourselves
#fundamentalAttributionError #cognitivebias #cognitivepsychology #psychology #bias
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Do check out this post: Fundamental Attribution Error: Biases That Make Us Judge Others Differently Than We Judge Ourselves
#fundamentalAttributionError #cognitivebias #cognitivepsychology #psychology #bias
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DATE: May 14, 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: Women score higher than men on fluid intelligence tests when allowed to express uncertainty
Traditional tests of intelligence and literacy may be fundamentally flawed because they force test-takers to choose a single answer rather than allowing them to express their level of confidence in different options. When people are given financial incentives and allowed to distribute their answers based on how sure they are, women actually score higher than men. The research was published in the Journal of Political Economy.
For decades, psychologists and economists have measured cognitive ability using multiple-choice tests. These assessments score responses as strictly right or wrong. Glenn W. Harrison of Georgia State University, Don Ross of University College Cork, and J. Todd Swarthout of Georgia State University suspected this format misses a vital component of human cognition. Knowing how strongly to believe in an answer is a skill in itself.
The researchers note that the standard format forces people to mask their thought processes. If someone is somewhat confident in an answer but still perceives some risk of being wrong, the rigid format does not capture that nuance. The test format demands absolute certainty even when a person possesses healthy skepticism.
To address this, the team examined the Raven Advanced Progressive Matrices test. This assessment presents a grid of shapes with one missing piece and asks the test-taker to identify the pattern. It is widely used to measure fluid intelligence, which is the ability to solve new logic problems without relying on prior knowledge.
The researchers wrote that, “The measurement of intelligence should identify and measure an individual’s subjective confidence that a response to a test question is correct.” They noted that existing tests completely fail to achieve this goal.
The standard version of this puzzle allows test-takers unlimited time and offers no financial motivation. The researchers created a computerized version that offered monetary rewards for correct answers. They divided participants into different groups to test how the structure of the task changed their performance.
In the baseline group, participants took a traditional version for a flat fee of five dollars. In another group, participants were paid based on their accuracy but were still forced to pick just one answer. A third group experienced a radically different test structure.
These participants were given eighty digital tokens to allocate across eight possible answers. If they were completely sure, they could place all eighty tokens on a single choice for a maximum reward of two dollars per puzzle. If they were unsure, they could spread their tokens out over multiple likely answers to guarantee a smaller payout.
This token system measures what the researchers refer to as confidence. In this context, confidence does not mean optimism. It refers to the precision of a person’s belief. A person who places ten tokens on every single answer is safely guarding against risk because they have no idea which shape is correct.
When financial incentives were combined with the ability to express varying degrees of confidence, the results shifted dramatically. In the traditional format, female participants scored lower than male participants. When participants could assign tokens based on their confidence, women outperformed men.
The data showed that female participants were better at calculating the risk of their answers and distributing their tokens efficiently. Knowing when you are unsure is a core part of cognition. The researchers consider this risk assessment to be a fundamental element of fluid intelligence.
The researchers also altered the order of the puzzles. The standard test starts with easy puzzles and gradually progresses to difficult ones. The researchers call this sequence a structured progression, meaning it is an environmental clue that helps a person think.
When the researchers scrambled the order of the puzzles so that difficulty varied randomly, overall performance dropped. The gap in performance between the group forced to pick one answer and the group allowed to use tokens widened even further. This confirmed that the ability to express uncertainty is a distinct cognitive advantage when facing unpredictable problems.
This discovery regarding gender prompted the researchers to revisit other areas where men possess a supposed advantage. They looked at studies regarding competitiveness. Past behavioral studies suggest that women back away from competitive environments, such as workplace tournaments, in favor of flat payment schedules.
The researchers recreated these experiments using the token system and discovered that women were making the mathematically correct risk management choices. Participants had to solve logic problems under a time limit, choosing either a guaranteed payment per correct answer or a tournament style where only the top performer received a large payout.
Men tended to choose the competitive tournament even when it resulted in a monetary loss for them. Men proved to be overly optimistic about their chances of winning. Women evaluated the risk accurately and chose the safer compensation structure, which resulted in better financial outcomes.
The team also looked at financial literacy tests. Standard surveys report that women choose the “do not know” option much more often than men when asked financial questions. This has led to the assumption that women possess lower financial literacy.
The researchers presented participants with a standard question about calculating purchasing power based on interest and inflation rates. When the researchers allowed subjects to use tokens to answer the question, they found that women were just more open about their lack of complete certainty. The bias in their actual knowledge was tiny and not statistically significant.
Many women distributed their tokens broadly, meaning they were aware that they lacked the exact knowledge and guarded their bets accordingly. This behavior signals an intellectual awareness of uncertainty. Someone who knows they are guessing is more likely to seek out a financial advisor or a textbook to learn the correct answer.
Individuals who place all their tokens on a highly incorrect answer represent a much larger danger. The researchers noted that these individuals are completely confident in their incorrect knowledge. These are the people most likely to make catastrophic financial decisions without consulting outside help.
The authors specify that their findings on motivation might involve variables that are difficult to isolate. Participants might bring personal motivations into the laboratory that interact with the monetary incentives offered by the experimenters.
Future studies could attempt to separate these personal drives from the financial rewards to see how they impact token distribution. The research team also plans to further investigate data suggesting that Black participants similarly perform drastically better when allowed to express their confidence through the token system.
The study, “Gender, Confidence, and the Mismeasure of Intelligence, Competitiveness, and Literacy,” was authored by Glenn W. Harrison, Don Ross, and J. Todd Swarthout.
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Since 1991 The National Psychologist has focused on keeping practicing psychologists current with news, information and items of interest. Check them out for more free articles, resources, and subscription information: https://www.nationalpsychologist.com
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #FluidIntelligence #ConfidenceInAssessment #TokenBasedTesting #GenderDifferences #RiskAssessment #UncertaintyExpression #CognitiveMeasurement #EconomicIncentives #FinancialLiteracy #RavenMatrices
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LIVE, Dammit Bluesky Blog
#Reasonsforhope...
https://www.meditationsinanemergency.com/we-are-crashing-into-the-future/?ref=meditations-in-an-emergency-newsletter
LINK: https://bsky.app/profile/livedammit.bsky.social/post/3mltdmba73s2s
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LIVEdammit is a mental health support site with stories, tools, free e-course, bookstore & inspiring wearables — for stubborn souls doing the work to stay here, stay human, & stay strong.
WEBSITE: https://LIVEdammit.com
This robot is not affiliated with LIVEdammit.
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #livedammit #suicide -
May is Mental Health Awareness Month in the USA
May is Mental Health Awareness Month in the USA and I have mixed feelings about it. My beliefs about mental health, mental illness, treatment, freewill, and legal agency have changed a lot over the years as a result of my reading, observations, and experience as a family caregiver for three adults with what some refer to as “mental health issues.” In my family they are schizophrenia, major depression, and bipolar-II. I will get to the “issues” rhetoric in a bit. (1/10)
#MentalHealth #Psychology #Psychiatry #MentalIllness #Caregiving
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DATE: May 14, 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: Brain cells store competing memories that drive or suppress alcohol relapse
URL: https://www.psypost.org/brain-cells-store-competing-memories-that-drive-or-suppress-alcohol-relapse/
A new study published in the journal Neuron provides evidence that the brain stores competing memories of alcohol use and the recovery from it within distinct networks of the same type of brain cell. The research suggests that the memory driving a return to drinking and the memory suppressing it exist side by side, competing for control over a person’s behavior. These findings offer a nuanced understanding of how addiction persists and point toward potential new ways to improve treatments for alcohol use disorder.
Addiction occurs when addictive substances hijack normal learning processes, leading to the formation of powerful memories that link certain actions and environments with the drug. Behavioral therapies, such as extinction training, attempt to reduce the urge to seek alcohol by repeatedly exposing individuals to drug-related cues without providing the alcohol reward. However, the clinical impact of these therapies tends to be limited because scientists do not fully understand the physical cellular structures that hold these opposing memories.
“Relapse is one of the most difficult challenges in alcohol use disorder, even after long periods of abstinence or treatment,” said Jun Wang, a professor in the Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics at the Texas AM University Health Science Center’s College of Medicine. “Alcohol-associated cues and contexts can trigger powerful memories that drive renewed alcohol seeking. We wanted to understand where relapse-related memories are stored in the brain, and how extinction training reduces alcohol-seeking behavior by erasing the original alcohol memory or by creating a competing memory that suppresses relapse.”
Memories are thought to be physically stored in the brain through specific groups of cells called engrams. An engram is a physical change in the brain that represents a memory. It consists of a specific network of brain cells that activate together when an experience happens, and when the brain recalls that memory, the same group of cells fires again. Past research on engrams has mostly focused on fear learning in other parts of the brain, meaning less is known about the engrams that store habits and voluntary actions related to addictive substances.
The researchers designed the study to test whether the memories for alcohol use and the memories for extinction are stored in separate areas or within the same cell populations. They focused on a brain region called the dorsomedial striatum, which helps control goal-directed behaviors. Within this region, they examined a specific type of cell known as direct-pathway medium spiny neurons.
“We were surprised to find that these opposing memories were encoded within the same genetically defined cell type, direct-pathway medium spiny neurons, rather than being separated simply by different neuron types,” Wang said. “Traditionally, many models emphasize broad distinctions between direct- and indirect-pathway neurons, but our findings show that even within one cell type, distinct neuronal ensembles can have very different, even opposite, behavioral functions.”
The scientists conducted a series of experiments using genetically modified mice. They placed the mice in specialized testing boxes equipped with levers and lights. The mice learned that pressing an active lever three times would deliver a small amount of a twenty percent alcohol solution, which was accompanied by a specific tone and a yellow light. After several weeks of this training, the mice underwent nine days of extinction training, where pressing the lever no longer provided the alcohol or the cues.
To track the memory cells, the researchers used a specialized genetic tagging technique. They injected a drug that allowed them to permanently label the specific brain cells that were active either during the initial alcohol learning or during the later extinction training. Following the training phases, the researchers tested groups of four to seven mice to see which memory cells were reactivated during a simulated relapse event.
They found that the brain cells tagged during the initial alcohol learning were highly reactivated when the mice experienced the cues associated with alcohol. The cells tagged during extinction training were not reactivated during this simulated relapse, which provides evidence that alcohol use and extinction training recruit different sets of the same type of brain cell.
The researchers then looked at where these specific cell groups were located within the dorsomedial striatum. This brain region is divided into two distinct areas: the matrix, which generally promotes action, and the striosome, which generally discourages action. By analyzing brain tissue samples, the scientists found that the cells linked to extinction memories were heavily clustered in the striosome areas. These extinction-related cells strongly inhibited dopamine-producing neurons, which helps suppress the urge to seek alcohol. In contrast, the cells linked to alcohol use were spread broadly across the matrix and promoted reward-seeking behavior.
To test whether these distinct groups of cells actively control behavior, the researchers used a technique that allows them to turn specific neurons on or off using custom-made chemicals. They injected viral vectors into the brains of the mice, which safely delivered genetic instructions causing the tagged memory cells to produce specialized receptors. The researchers then injected a chemical that binds to these receptors to either turn the cells on or off.
In tests involving groups of seven to sixteen mice, the authors found that turning off the alcohol-learning cells successfully suppressed the simulated relapse. Activating the extinction-learning cells also reduced the animals’ attempts to seek alcohol. The scientists repeated these tests using sucrose instead of alcohol and found no effect. This suggests these particular memory cells are specific to alcohol and do not generalize to natural rewards.
The authors also wanted to understand exactly how the brain physicalizes the memory of alcohol use. Learning changes the brain by strengthening the synapses, which are the connections between different brain cells. The researchers focused on the connections coming from the medial prefrontal cortex, a brain area involved in complex decision-making. By taking electrical recordings from dozens of individual neurons across multiple mice, they found that alcohol use caused a long-lasting strengthening of the synapses connecting the medial prefrontal cortex to the specific cells involved in alcohol learning.
To see if this strengthened connection was the actual memory, the scientists used a technique that controls brain cells with light. They introduced light-sensitive proteins into the brain cells of a new group of mice, numbering seven to eleven per group, that had never consumed alcohol. By shining a specific wavelength of light into the brain through tiny optical fibers, the scientists forced the neurons to fire and strengthened their connections artificially.
This artificial stimulation was paired with specific lights and sounds in the testing chamber. Later, when the researchers played the lights and sounds again, the mice began pressing the lever as if they were seeking alcohol. This suggests that the researchers successfully created an artificial memory of alcohol relapse simply by strengthening a specific brain connection. The authors also replicated these behavioral findings in a small group of rats to ensure the results were not unique to mice.
“One important aspect of the study is that we were able to identify not only the neurons associated with alcohol relapse and extinction, but also a synaptic mechanism that helps store relapse-related memory,” Wang said. “Specifically, we found that communication from the medial prefrontal cortex to striatal neurons was strengthened after alcohol self-administration, and experimentally mimicking this strengthening was sufficient to drive relapse-like behavior. This provides evidence that alcohol-related memories can be physically embedded in specific brain connections.”
“The main takeaway is that relapse and recovery-related learning are not only abstract psychological processes; they are represented by specific groups of neurons in the brain,” Wang explained. “We found that two opposing alcohol-related memories, one that promotes relapse and one that suppresses alcohol seeking after extinction, can be encoded within the same broad type of striatal neuron. This suggests that recovery may depend not only on weakening relapse-driving circuits, but also on strengthening the brain circuits that support extinction and behavioral control.”
While the study provides a detailed look at how the brain stores alcohol-related memories, there are some limitations to consider. The timeline of alcohol exposure in the study was relatively short compared to human addiction, which tends to develop over years. It is possible that the physical nature of these memories changes over longer periods of chronic alcohol use.
“An important caveat is that this study was conducted in mouse models of alcohol self-administration, extinction, and relapse-like behavior,” Wang noted. “These models capture important aspects of alcohol seeking and relapse, but they do not fully reproduce the complexity of human alcohol use disorder. We also do not want readers to interpret the findings as meaning that relapse is controlled by a single brain region or a simple ‘on/off switch.’ Rather, our study identifies one specific circuit and cellular mechanism that contributes to alcohol-related memory and relapse-like behavior.”
Current medical treatments cannot selectively erase or enhance specific memory cells in human patients. However, understanding that recovery involves strengthening a competing extinction memory gives researchers a new conceptual target. Future therapeutic strategies might focus on finding medications or brain stimulation techniques that specifically boost the extinction memory network to help prevent relapse.
“Our long-term goal is to understand how maladaptive alcohol memories are formed, stored, retrieved, and suppressed at the level of specific brain circuits,” Wang said. “We are particularly interested in identifying mechanisms that could selectively weaken relapse-promoting memory circuits or strengthen extinction-related circuits. In the long run, this type of work may help guide new strategies to improve the durability of behavioral therapies and reduce relapse risk.”
The study, “Dual-engram architecture within a single striatal cell type distinctly controls alcohol relapse and extinction,” was authored by Xueyi Xie, Yufei Huang, Ruifeng Chen, Zhenbo Huang, Himanshu Gangal, Ziyi Li, Jiayi Lu, Adelis M. Cruz, Anita Chaiprasert, Emily Yu, Nicholas Hernandez, Valerie Vierkant, Runmin Wang, Xuehua Wang, Rachel J. Smith, and Jun Wang.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/brain-cells-store-competing-memories-that-drive-or-suppress-alcohol-relapse/
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #AlcoholRelapse #ExtinctionMemory #EngramScience #NeuralCircuits #DorsomedialStriatum #DirectPathwayMSNs #AddictionResearch #BrainMemory #RelapsePrevention #NeuroscienceStudies
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DATE: May 14, 2026 at 11:30AM
SOURCE: PSYCHIATRIC TIMESDirect article link at end of text block below.
Our Schizophrenia Special Report starts releasing today.
Read the introduction by Special Report Chair Peter F. Buckley, MD, now: https://t.co/eqRcZR1SG4 https://t.co/eQ0YLqHabO
Here are any URLs found in the article text:
Articles can be found by scrolling down the page at Articles can be found at https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/news".
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #psychotherapist #Schizophrenia #SpecialReport #PeterBuckley #MentalHealthNews #MedicalResearch
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The Placebo Button
The elevator in my building has a door-close button that does nothing. I learned this the way everyone learns it, which is to say I pressed it for years under the impression that it was speeding up my departure. The button lights up. It makes a small click when pressed. It provides every sensory signal of function. What it does not do is close the door any faster than the door was going to close on its own. The elevators in most American buildings installed since 1990 have door-close buttons wired to nothing, because the Americans with Disabilities Act requires the door to stay open long enough for a person using a wheelchair or walker to enter, and the button that overrides that requirement is accessible only to the fire department with a key.
The elevator industry has not hidden this. A 2016 New York Times piece by Christopher Mele quoted Karen Penafiel of the National Elevator Industry confirming that the buttons in non-emergency elevators do not function for ordinary passengers. The buttons remain on the panels because removing them would require rewiring, because passengers expect them, and because a button that does nothing costs less to leave in place than a button that does something. The fire department button works; the button passengers press does not. Both are labeled the same way.
The phenomenon extends well beyond elevators. A 2004 New York Times piece by Michael Luo reported that of the approximately three thousand crosswalk buttons in New York City at the time, only a few hundred still functioned. The rest were deactivated when the city moved to computerized signal timing in the decades after 1980, and the buttons were kept in place rather than removed because removing them costs more than leaving them attached to nothing. A pedestrian pressing a crosswalk button on Sixth Avenue at Thirty-Fourth Street is performing a gesture. The gesture has no effect on when the light changes. The light changes on a fixed timer that does not know the pedestrian pressed anything.
Office thermostats are the third common case. HVAC contractors working in large commercial buildings have for decades installed decoy thermostats in zones where the actual temperature is controlled from a central building management system. A January 2003 Wall Street Journal piece by Jared Sandberg reported that a significant share of office thermostats were non-functional decoys, installed because building operators had discovered that employees who had a thermostat to adjust reported feeling more comfortable than employees who did not, regardless of whether the thermostat was connected to anything. The decoy thermostat was cheaper than the actual climate complaint.
What unites these three cases is that the placebo button is engineered to produce the sensation of causation without the mechanism of causation. The Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer spent much of her career documenting what she called the illusion of control, the human tendency to overestimate personal influence over outcomes that are actually random or automatic. Her 1975 paper on the subject in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology remains the source text, and the elevator button has become an unintended memorial to her findings. The button is a compliance device. It gets the passenger through fifteen seconds of waiting without becoming the kind of passenger who kicks the door. The crosswalk button operates the same way. The thermostat operates the same way.
The object lesson is small. A button that does nothing is a minor embarrassment in the built environment. The interesting question is where else this logic operates, and the answer is most of civic life.
Public comment periods on federal rulemaking accept submissions from citizens by the hundreds of thousands. Agencies are required to read those submissions and consider them. In the vast majority of cases, the final rule reflects the draft rule. The comment did not change the outcome. Its filing was registered. Citizens who submit receive an acknowledgment. That acknowledgment was the point.
City council meetings in most American municipalities include a public comment segment during which residents address the council for two or three minutes each on matters of local governance. Council members are not required to respond. A council member is also not required to incorporate the comment into deliberation. Votes that follow get decided in committee or caucus before the comment begins. The resident goes home having pressed the button. Its light comes on. That door closes on the timer it was going to close on anyway.
Surveys distributed by employers after reorganizations, by airlines after delays, by hospitals after treatment, by universities after lectures, arrive with the implicit promise that the responses will influence future decisions. Response data gets aggregated and presented in quarterly reports to executives who have already made the next round of decisions. The survey is a button that lights up. No door closes any faster.
Electoral systems with gerrymandered district lines produce outcomes pre-determined by the shape of the district rather than the preferences of the voters. A voter in a district drawn to favor a party by twenty points is pressing a button connected to a timer set six years before the election. Ballots get counted. The vote does not change the outcome. An illusion of control persists, and the citizen who pressed the button walks out of the polling place with the civic sensation of participation.
The placebo button is not a conspiracy. No central authority installed these systems to deceive. An elevator button represents a cost-benefit decision by building owners. A crosswalk button persists as legacy infrastructure nobody retired. Public comment periods exist as procedural requirements written into administrative law in 1946. Gerrymandered districts result from partisan legislatures drawing maps within a legal framework the Supreme Court has repeatedly declined to revise. Each placebo button got there through a defensible local decision. The pattern they form together is a democracy where the buttons light up reliably and the doors close on the schedule they were always going to close on.
The dangerous version of this pattern is the one where citizens learn the buttons do nothing and continue pressing them. Compliance does not require belief. The door-close button still gets pressed by passengers who know it does nothing, because pressing it is what one does in an elevator, and because the alternative is standing silent in a small box with a stranger for fifteen seconds. Voting in a gerrymandered district still gets done by voters who know the district will produce the predetermined outcome, because voting is what one does as a citizen, and because the alternative is admitting the system is closed.
The recognition that matters is the one that separates the buttons that work from the buttons that do not, and the organizing that follows is the organizing that rewires the boxes rather than the gesture of pressing. Ballot initiatives that establish independent redistricting commissions are rewiring. Lawsuits that force agencies to respond substantively to public comments are rewiring. Municipal charters that require council members to respond to comment on the record are rewiring. The door-close button in the elevator is a lost cause and not worth the fight. A crosswalk button at Thirty-Fourth Street is not worth the fight either. Ballots and comment periods and council meetings are worth every fight we can bring, because the apparatus behind those buttons is still capable of connection, and the difference between a democracy and an elevator panel is whether the wires on the other side of the panel still reach the doors.
#button #fakery #harvard #intention #nyc #placebo #psychology #tech #thermostats #wire #wires -
DATE: May 14, 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: Real-world evidence shows generative AI is making human creative output more uniform
Using artificial intelligence for creative tasks tends to make human output more uniform on a collective level. A recent preprint study provides evidence that while these tools might boost individual performance, they contribute to an overall reduction in the diversity of ideas across different users. This widespread reliance on automated assistance could lead to a narrower range of concepts in collaborative environments.
Generative artificial intelligence refers to computer programs capable of creating new text, images, or other media based on user instructions. The most common of these tools rely on large language models. Developers build these models by feeding them billions of sentences from the internet, allowing the software to recognize patterns and predict how words should follow one another.
Since many users interact with similar systems trained on overlapping data, scientists have raised concerns about how this technology shapes human thought. Researchers Alwin de Rooij, assistant professor in creativity research at Tilburg University and associate professor at Avans University of Applied Sciences, and Michael Mose Biskjaer, associate professor in design creativity and innovation at Aarhus University, designed a new study to assess these concerns. They noticed that previous research often focused on how these tools help individuals work faster or overcome temporary mental blocks.
They wanted to know if this individual assistance comes at a collective cost. “There are growing concerns that using Generative AI may lead people toward similar creative ideas,” the authors explained. “While AI can enhance creativity at the individual level, these benefits might come at a cost for creativity at a collective, or even societal, level.”
The authors sought to answer whether generative software makes people think alike. “We sought to address this by conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis of 19 empirical studies,” they noted. “More concretely, we wanted to examine whether and to what extent generative AI use is associated with convergence at the level of creative output, such as people’s ideas, designs, and creative writing.”
A meta-analysis is a statistical technique that combines the results of multiple independent studies to find common patterns or overall trends. By pooling data from various experiments, scientists can draw more robust conclusions than they could from a single test. The authors searched academic databases for studies published between 2022 and early 2026.
This time frame covers the period following the public release of popular chatbots, capturing the first wave of empirical research on this topic. The researchers selected 18 eligible articles containing 19 distinct experimental studies. These studies provided a total of 61 individual effect sizes, which are mathematical values indicating the strength of a specific phenomenon.
To be included in the analysis, the original experiments had to compare humans working with generative software against humans working alone. The original studies measured homogenization using several techniques. Many relied on advanced text analysis tools that translate written responses into mathematical coordinates.
This process allows computers to measure the semantic distance between words, essentially calculating how closely related different ideas are to one another. Other studies used human experts to rate the variety of meanings produced by participants. The analysis revealed a statistically significant homogenization effect associated with the use of artificial intelligence.
When people co-created with these systems, their final products tended to be more similar to the work of other users. “The meta-analysis shows that using generative AI can indeed lead people to think alike,” the authors noted. “Across individuals, AI use tends to make ideas, designs, and creative texts more similar to one another.”
“This suggests that AI may contribute to a form of homogenization of creative thought at the collective level,” they continued. “Importantly, this does not necessarily reflect a failure of human-AI co-creation but may instead be an inherent feature of how these systems currently support creative work at scale.”
The scientists also evaluated whether the type of task influenced the degree of uniformity. They categorized the experiments into four groups, which included divergent thinking, idea generation, writing, and visual art. Divergent thinking tasks are highly open-ended exercises, such as asking someone to list creative uses for a paperclip.
Idea generation tasks provide more specific constraints, such as asking for solutions to improve public transportation. The analysis showed that the homogenization effect was strongest in the idea generation tasks. Because these exercises require specific solutions to defined problems, users likely rely more heavily on the predictable suggestions provided by the computer algorithms.
The researchers did not find strong statistical evidence for differences among the other three categories, suggesting that open-ended tasks lead to less convergence. They also checked if these patterns only happen in highly controlled laboratory settings. The authors compared traditional laboratory experiments with real-world scenarios, such as analyzing published essays and visual artworks created before and after the widespread adoption of automated writing tools.
The analysis of these real-world conditions showed a small but significant reduction in idea diversity. “In many ways, the findings resemble classic fixation effects from the psychology literature, where exposure to examples constrains later thinking, but here they appear amplified by the scale and synchronicity of generative AI model use,” the researchers stated. “This homogenization effect was observed not only in controlled lab studies but also in real-world quasi-experiments. This suggests that it is not merely a lab-based phenomenon, but a practical concern affecting concrete creative processes and practices.”
De Rooij and Biskjaer also investigated whether this narrowing of ideas persists after a person stops using the software. They isolated a subset of studies that tested participants on new creative tasks after their initial interaction with the computer models. The results suggest that the homogenization effect carries over into these subsequent activities.
“The findings also provide preliminary evidence that homogenization effects may persist beyond moments of direct AI use,” the researchers told PsyPost. “In other words, interacting with these generative AI systems may shape how people think and generate ideas even after the interaction has ended. This potential ‘rub-off’ effect on creative cognition warrants further research and is something we would like to explore in more depth.”
These results closely align with another recent study published in the journal PNAS Nexus. Scientists Emily Wenger and Yoed N. Kenett tested how large language models affect human creativity by evaluating 22 different commercial chatbots. They recruited 102 human participants to complete a series of verbal creativity tests, including the alternative uses task, and then asked the chatbots to complete the exact same assignments.
Wenger and Kenett found that individual language models performed at or slightly above the level of the average human on most exercises. When viewed in isolation, a single chatbot provided highly original and creative responses. However, when the scientists compared all the responses from the different models, a stark pattern of similarity emerged.
Across all tasks, the computer programs produced answers that were significantly more alike than the answers provided by the human participants. Both sets of researchers point to similar underlying mechanisms for this phenomenon. Because the major technology companies train their models on massive, overlapping datasets scraped from the internet, the programs naturally gravitate toward the most statistically common word associations.
When thousands of people use these tools to generate ideas, the software acts as a semantic anchor. The models pull human users toward a shared set of typical concepts, reducing the overall variety of ideas. Wenger and Kenett attempted to fix this issue by adjusting the internal settings of the chatbots to force more random text generation, but this caused the models to produce nonsensical sentences.
Readers should avoid interpreting these findings as proof that human beings are becoming entirely uncreative. De Rooij and Biskjaer note that the reduction in collective diversity does not equal a total loss of individual ability. “A key point is that our findings do not show that using AI reduces creativity,” the researchers emphasized.
“Rather, they point to a shift in where and how creative diversity occurs, and where it may be constrained,” the authors said. “Individual output can improve in creative quality while becoming more similar across people. While these effects are often subtle in single instances, they may become meaningful when considered at the scale at which generative AI is now being used.”
The authors point out some limitations to their current analysis. The review primarily focuses on text-based tools and large language models, meaning the findings might not apply to other types of computer systems. For instance, adaptive machine learning programs or tools used for music composition were not adequately represented in the available data.
This restricts how broadly the scientific community can apply these conclusions across different artistic domains. Additionally, the analyses regarding long-term persistence and real-world applications relied on relatively small groups of studies. The limited data makes these specific conclusions tentative and open to revision.
Future research should explore different forms of human and machine collaboration over extended periods of time. “An important next step is rethinking how generative AI systems are designed and used in creative contexts to mitigate homogenization effects,” the authors noted. “This includes exploring alternative workflows, interaction designs, and creative strategies that sustain diversity rather than encourage early convergence.”
“One step in this direction has already been taken by mapping creative strategies for working with generative AI and machine learning, based on analyses of AI art practices,” they added, referencing a recently published article outlining this approach. “We believe these strategies can transfer to other creative domains.”
The preprint study, “Does Generative AI Make Us Think Alike? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Homogenization Effects in Human-AI Co-Creation,” was authored by Alwin de Rooij and Michael Mose Biskjaer.
-------------------------------------------------
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-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #GenerativeAI #CreativityDiversity #AICoCreation #Homogenization #CreativeThinking #AIImpact #CreativeDiversity #LLMs #TechEthics #InnovationScience
-
DATE: May 14, 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: Real-world evidence shows generative AI is making human creative output more uniform
Using artificial intelligence for creative tasks tends to make human output more uniform on a collective level. A recent preprint study provides evidence that while these tools might boost individual performance, they contribute to an overall reduction in the diversity of ideas across different users. This widespread reliance on automated assistance could lead to a narrower range of concepts in collaborative environments.
Generative artificial intelligence refers to computer programs capable of creating new text, images, or other media based on user instructions. The most common of these tools rely on large language models. Developers build these models by feeding them billions of sentences from the internet, allowing the software to recognize patterns and predict how words should follow one another.
Since many users interact with similar systems trained on overlapping data, scientists have raised concerns about how this technology shapes human thought. Researchers Alwin de Rooij, assistant professor in creativity research at Tilburg University and associate professor at Avans University of Applied Sciences, and Michael Mose Biskjaer, associate professor in design creativity and innovation at Aarhus University, designed a new study to assess these concerns. They noticed that previous research often focused on how these tools help individuals work faster or overcome temporary mental blocks.
They wanted to know if this individual assistance comes at a collective cost. “There are growing concerns that using Generative AI may lead people toward similar creative ideas,” the authors explained. “While AI can enhance creativity at the individual level, these benefits might come at a cost for creativity at a collective, or even societal, level.”
The authors sought to answer whether generative software makes people think alike. “We sought to address this by conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis of 19 empirical studies,” they noted. “More concretely, we wanted to examine whether and to what extent generative AI use is associated with convergence at the level of creative output, such as people’s ideas, designs, and creative writing.”
A meta-analysis is a statistical technique that combines the results of multiple independent studies to find common patterns or overall trends. By pooling data from various experiments, scientists can draw more robust conclusions than they could from a single test. The authors searched academic databases for studies published between 2022 and early 2026.
This time frame covers the period following the public release of popular chatbots, capturing the first wave of empirical research on this topic. The researchers selected 18 eligible articles containing 19 distinct experimental studies. These studies provided a total of 61 individual effect sizes, which are mathematical values indicating the strength of a specific phenomenon.
To be included in the analysis, the original experiments had to compare humans working with generative software against humans working alone. The original studies measured homogenization using several techniques. Many relied on advanced text analysis tools that translate written responses into mathematical coordinates.
This process allows computers to measure the semantic distance between words, essentially calculating how closely related different ideas are to one another. Other studies used human experts to rate the variety of meanings produced by participants. The analysis revealed a statistically significant homogenization effect associated with the use of artificial intelligence.
When people co-created with these systems, their final products tended to be more similar to the work of other users. “The meta-analysis shows that using generative AI can indeed lead people to think alike,” the authors noted. “Across individuals, AI use tends to make ideas, designs, and creative texts more similar to one another.”
“This suggests that AI may contribute to a form of homogenization of creative thought at the collective level,” they continued. “Importantly, this does not necessarily reflect a failure of human-AI co-creation but may instead be an inherent feature of how these systems currently support creative work at scale.”
The scientists also evaluated whether the type of task influenced the degree of uniformity. They categorized the experiments into four groups, which included divergent thinking, idea generation, writing, and visual art. Divergent thinking tasks are highly open-ended exercises, such as asking someone to list creative uses for a paperclip.
Idea generation tasks provide more specific constraints, such as asking for solutions to improve public transportation. The analysis showed that the homogenization effect was strongest in the idea generation tasks. Because these exercises require specific solutions to defined problems, users likely rely more heavily on the predictable suggestions provided by the computer algorithms.
The researchers did not find strong statistical evidence for differences among the other three categories, suggesting that open-ended tasks lead to less convergence. They also checked if these patterns only happen in highly controlled laboratory settings. The authors compared traditional laboratory experiments with real-world scenarios, such as analyzing published essays and visual artworks created before and after the widespread adoption of automated writing tools.
The analysis of these real-world conditions showed a small but significant reduction in idea diversity. “In many ways, the findings resemble classic fixation effects from the psychology literature, where exposure to examples constrains later thinking, but here they appear amplified by the scale and synchronicity of generative AI model use,” the researchers stated. “This homogenization effect was observed not only in controlled lab studies but also in real-world quasi-experiments. This suggests that it is not merely a lab-based phenomenon, but a practical concern affecting concrete creative processes and practices.”
De Rooij and Biskjaer also investigated whether this narrowing of ideas persists after a person stops using the software. They isolated a subset of studies that tested participants on new creative tasks after their initial interaction with the computer models. The results suggest that the homogenization effect carries over into these subsequent activities.
“The findings also provide preliminary evidence that homogenization effects may persist beyond moments of direct AI use,” the researchers told PsyPost. “In other words, interacting with these generative AI systems may shape how people think and generate ideas even after the interaction has ended. This potential ‘rub-off’ effect on creative cognition warrants further research and is something we would like to explore in more depth.”
These results closely align with another recent study published in the journal PNAS Nexus. Scientists Emily Wenger and Yoed N. Kenett tested how large language models affect human creativity by evaluating 22 different commercial chatbots. They recruited 102 human participants to complete a series of verbal creativity tests, including the alternative uses task, and then asked the chatbots to complete the exact same assignments.
Wenger and Kenett found that individual language models performed at or slightly above the level of the average human on most exercises. When viewed in isolation, a single chatbot provided highly original and creative responses. However, when the scientists compared all the responses from the different models, a stark pattern of similarity emerged.
Across all tasks, the computer programs produced answers that were significantly more alike than the answers provided by the human participants. Both sets of researchers point to similar underlying mechanisms for this phenomenon. Because the major technology companies train their models on massive, overlapping datasets scraped from the internet, the programs naturally gravitate toward the most statistically common word associations.
When thousands of people use these tools to generate ideas, the software acts as a semantic anchor. The models pull human users toward a shared set of typical concepts, reducing the overall variety of ideas. Wenger and Kenett attempted to fix this issue by adjusting the internal settings of the chatbots to force more random text generation, but this caused the models to produce nonsensical sentences.
Readers should avoid interpreting these findings as proof that human beings are becoming entirely uncreative. De Rooij and Biskjaer note that the reduction in collective diversity does not equal a total loss of individual ability. “A key point is that our findings do not show that using AI reduces creativity,” the researchers emphasized.
“Rather, they point to a shift in where and how creative diversity occurs, and where it may be constrained,” the authors said. “Individual output can improve in creative quality while becoming more similar across people. While these effects are often subtle in single instances, they may become meaningful when considered at the scale at which generative AI is now being used.”
The authors point out some limitations to their current analysis. The review primarily focuses on text-based tools and large language models, meaning the findings might not apply to other types of computer systems. For instance, adaptive machine learning programs or tools used for music composition were not adequately represented in the available data.
This restricts how broadly the scientific community can apply these conclusions across different artistic domains. Additionally, the analyses regarding long-term persistence and real-world applications relied on relatively small groups of studies. The limited data makes these specific conclusions tentative and open to revision.
Future research should explore different forms of human and machine collaboration over extended periods of time. “An important next step is rethinking how generative AI systems are designed and used in creative contexts to mitigate homogenization effects,” the authors noted. “This includes exploring alternative workflows, interaction designs, and creative strategies that sustain diversity rather than encourage early convergence.”
“One step in this direction has already been taken by mapping creative strategies for working with generative AI and machine learning, based on analyses of AI art practices,” they added, referencing a recently published article outlining this approach. “We believe these strategies can transfer to other creative domains.”
The preprint study, “Does Generative AI Make Us Think Alike? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Homogenization Effects in Human-AI Co-Creation,” was authored by Alwin de Rooij and Michael Mose Biskjaer.
-------------------------------------------------
DAILY EMAIL DIGEST: Email [email protected] -- no subject or message needed.
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NYU Information for Practice puts out 400-500 good quality health-related research posts per week but its too much for many people, so that bot is limited to just subscribers. You can read it or subscribe at @PsychResearchBot
Since 1991 The National Psychologist has focused on keeping practicing psychologists current with news, information and items of interest. Check them out for more free articles, resources, and subscription information: https://www.nationalpsychologist.com
EMAIL DAILY DIGEST OF RSS FEEDS -- SUBSCRIBE: http://subscribe-article-digests.clinicians-exchange.org
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It's primitive... but it works... mostly...
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #GenerativeAI #CreativityDiversity #AICoCreation #Homogenization #CreativeThinking #AIImpact #CreativeDiversity #LLMs #TechEthics #InnovationScience
-
DATE: May 14, 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: Real-world evidence shows generative AI is making human creative output more uniform
Using artificial intelligence for creative tasks tends to make human output more uniform on a collective level. A recent preprint study provides evidence that while these tools might boost individual performance, they contribute to an overall reduction in the diversity of ideas across different users. This widespread reliance on automated assistance could lead to a narrower range of concepts in collaborative environments.
Generative artificial intelligence refers to computer programs capable of creating new text, images, or other media based on user instructions. The most common of these tools rely on large language models. Developers build these models by feeding them billions of sentences from the internet, allowing the software to recognize patterns and predict how words should follow one another.
Since many users interact with similar systems trained on overlapping data, scientists have raised concerns about how this technology shapes human thought. Researchers Alwin de Rooij, assistant professor in creativity research at Tilburg University and associate professor at Avans University of Applied Sciences, and Michael Mose Biskjaer, associate professor in design creativity and innovation at Aarhus University, designed a new study to assess these concerns. They noticed that previous research often focused on how these tools help individuals work faster or overcome temporary mental blocks.
They wanted to know if this individual assistance comes at a collective cost. “There are growing concerns that using Generative AI may lead people toward similar creative ideas,” the authors explained. “While AI can enhance creativity at the individual level, these benefits might come at a cost for creativity at a collective, or even societal, level.”
The authors sought to answer whether generative software makes people think alike. “We sought to address this by conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis of 19 empirical studies,” they noted. “More concretely, we wanted to examine whether and to what extent generative AI use is associated with convergence at the level of creative output, such as people’s ideas, designs, and creative writing.”
A meta-analysis is a statistical technique that combines the results of multiple independent studies to find common patterns or overall trends. By pooling data from various experiments, scientists can draw more robust conclusions than they could from a single test. The authors searched academic databases for studies published between 2022 and early 2026.
This time frame covers the period following the public release of popular chatbots, capturing the first wave of empirical research on this topic. The researchers selected 18 eligible articles containing 19 distinct experimental studies. These studies provided a total of 61 individual effect sizes, which are mathematical values indicating the strength of a specific phenomenon.
To be included in the analysis, the original experiments had to compare humans working with generative software against humans working alone. The original studies measured homogenization using several techniques. Many relied on advanced text analysis tools that translate written responses into mathematical coordinates.
This process allows computers to measure the semantic distance between words, essentially calculating how closely related different ideas are to one another. Other studies used human experts to rate the variety of meanings produced by participants. The analysis revealed a statistically significant homogenization effect associated with the use of artificial intelligence.
When people co-created with these systems, their final products tended to be more similar to the work of other users. “The meta-analysis shows that using generative AI can indeed lead people to think alike,” the authors noted. “Across individuals, AI use tends to make ideas, designs, and creative texts more similar to one another.”
“This suggests that AI may contribute to a form of homogenization of creative thought at the collective level,” they continued. “Importantly, this does not necessarily reflect a failure of human-AI co-creation but may instead be an inherent feature of how these systems currently support creative work at scale.”
The scientists also evaluated whether the type of task influenced the degree of uniformity. They categorized the experiments into four groups, which included divergent thinking, idea generation, writing, and visual art. Divergent thinking tasks are highly open-ended exercises, such as asking someone to list creative uses for a paperclip.
Idea generation tasks provide more specific constraints, such as asking for solutions to improve public transportation. The analysis showed that the homogenization effect was strongest in the idea generation tasks. Because these exercises require specific solutions to defined problems, users likely rely more heavily on the predictable suggestions provided by the computer algorithms.
The researchers did not find strong statistical evidence for differences among the other three categories, suggesting that open-ended tasks lead to less convergence. They also checked if these patterns only happen in highly controlled laboratory settings. The authors compared traditional laboratory experiments with real-world scenarios, such as analyzing published essays and visual artworks created before and after the widespread adoption of automated writing tools.
The analysis of these real-world conditions showed a small but significant reduction in idea diversity. “In many ways, the findings resemble classic fixation effects from the psychology literature, where exposure to examples constrains later thinking, but here they appear amplified by the scale and synchronicity of generative AI model use,” the researchers stated. “This homogenization effect was observed not only in controlled lab studies but also in real-world quasi-experiments. This suggests that it is not merely a lab-based phenomenon, but a practical concern affecting concrete creative processes and practices.”
De Rooij and Biskjaer also investigated whether this narrowing of ideas persists after a person stops using the software. They isolated a subset of studies that tested participants on new creative tasks after their initial interaction with the computer models. The results suggest that the homogenization effect carries over into these subsequent activities.
“The findings also provide preliminary evidence that homogenization effects may persist beyond moments of direct AI use,” the researchers told PsyPost. “In other words, interacting with these generative AI systems may shape how people think and generate ideas even after the interaction has ended. This potential ‘rub-off’ effect on creative cognition warrants further research and is something we would like to explore in more depth.”
These results closely align with another recent study published in the journal PNAS Nexus. Scientists Emily Wenger and Yoed N. Kenett tested how large language models affect human creativity by evaluating 22 different commercial chatbots. They recruited 102 human participants to complete a series of verbal creativity tests, including the alternative uses task, and then asked the chatbots to complete the exact same assignments.
Wenger and Kenett found that individual language models performed at or slightly above the level of the average human on most exercises. When viewed in isolation, a single chatbot provided highly original and creative responses. However, when the scientists compared all the responses from the different models, a stark pattern of similarity emerged.
Across all tasks, the computer programs produced answers that were significantly more alike than the answers provided by the human participants. Both sets of researchers point to similar underlying mechanisms for this phenomenon. Because the major technology companies train their models on massive, overlapping datasets scraped from the internet, the programs naturally gravitate toward the most statistically common word associations.
When thousands of people use these tools to generate ideas, the software acts as a semantic anchor. The models pull human users toward a shared set of typical concepts, reducing the overall variety of ideas. Wenger and Kenett attempted to fix this issue by adjusting the internal settings of the chatbots to force more random text generation, but this caused the models to produce nonsensical sentences.
Readers should avoid interpreting these findings as proof that human beings are becoming entirely uncreative. De Rooij and Biskjaer note that the reduction in collective diversity does not equal a total loss of individual ability. “A key point is that our findings do not show that using AI reduces creativity,” the researchers emphasized.
“Rather, they point to a shift in where and how creative diversity occurs, and where it may be constrained,” the authors said. “Individual output can improve in creative quality while becoming more similar across people. While these effects are often subtle in single instances, they may become meaningful when considered at the scale at which generative AI is now being used.”
The authors point out some limitations to their current analysis. The review primarily focuses on text-based tools and large language models, meaning the findings might not apply to other types of computer systems. For instance, adaptive machine learning programs or tools used for music composition were not adequately represented in the available data.
This restricts how broadly the scientific community can apply these conclusions across different artistic domains. Additionally, the analyses regarding long-term persistence and real-world applications relied on relatively small groups of studies. The limited data makes these specific conclusions tentative and open to revision.
Future research should explore different forms of human and machine collaboration over extended periods of time. “An important next step is rethinking how generative AI systems are designed and used in creative contexts to mitigate homogenization effects,” the authors noted. “This includes exploring alternative workflows, interaction designs, and creative strategies that sustain diversity rather than encourage early convergence.”
“One step in this direction has already been taken by mapping creative strategies for working with generative AI and machine learning, based on analyses of AI art practices,” they added, referencing a recently published article outlining this approach. “We believe these strategies can transfer to other creative domains.”
The preprint study, “Does Generative AI Make Us Think Alike? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Homogenization Effects in Human-AI Co-Creation,” was authored by Alwin de Rooij and Michael Mose Biskjaer.
-------------------------------------------------
DAILY EMAIL DIGEST: Email [email protected] -- no subject or message needed.
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
NYU Information for Practice puts out 400-500 good quality health-related research posts per week but its too much for many people, so that bot is limited to just subscribers. You can read it or subscribe at @PsychResearchBot
Since 1991 The National Psychologist has focused on keeping practicing psychologists current with news, information and items of interest. Check them out for more free articles, resources, and subscription information: https://www.nationalpsychologist.com
EMAIL DAILY DIGEST OF RSS FEEDS -- SUBSCRIBE: http://subscribe-article-digests.clinicians-exchange.org
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It's primitive... but it works... mostly...
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #GenerativeAI #CreativityDiversity #AICoCreation #Homogenization #CreativeThinking #AIImpact #CreativeDiversity #LLMs #TechEthics #InnovationScience
-
DATE: May 14, 2026 at 09:00AM
SOURCE: PSYCHIATRIC TIMESDirect article link at end of text block below.
An estimated 77,000 individuals with psychotic disorders are in US jails and prisons at any given time.
This could, in part, be driven by the neurological deficit anosognosia, in which an affected individual is unable to perceive their own illness. https://t.co/TwTHBjeP99
Here are any URLs found in the article text:
Articles can be found by scrolling down the page at Articles can be found at https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/news".
-------------------------------------------------
DAILY EMAIL DIGEST: Email [email protected] -- no subject or message needed.
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
NYU Information for Practice puts out 400-500 good quality health-related research posts per week but its too much for many people, so that bot is limited to just subscribers. You can read it or subscribe at @PsychResearchBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #psychotherapist #MentalHealth #CriminalJustice #Anosognosia #PsychoticDisorders #DetentionReform
-
DATE: May 14, 2026 at 09:00AM
SOURCE: PSYCHIATRIC TIMESDirect article link at end of text block below.
An estimated 77,000 individuals with psychotic disorders are in US jails and prisons at any given time.
This could, in part, be driven by the neurological deficit anosognosia, in which an affected individual is unable to perceive their own illness. https://t.co/TwTHBjeP99
Here are any URLs found in the article text:
Articles can be found by scrolling down the page at Articles can be found at https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/news".
-------------------------------------------------
DAILY EMAIL DIGEST: Email [email protected] -- no subject or message needed.
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
NYU Information for Practice puts out 400-500 good quality health-related research posts per week but its too much for many people, so that bot is limited to just subscribers. You can read it or subscribe at @PsychResearchBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #psychotherapist #MentalHealth #CriminalJustice #Anosognosia #PsychoticDisorders #DetentionReform
-
DATE: May 14, 2026 at 09:00AM
SOURCE: PSYCHIATRIC TIMESDirect article link at end of text block below.
An estimated 77,000 individuals with psychotic disorders are in US jails and prisons at any given time.
This could, in part, be driven by the neurological deficit anosognosia, in which an affected individual is unable to perceive their own illness. https://t.co/TwTHBjeP99
Here are any URLs found in the article text:
Articles can be found by scrolling down the page at Articles can be found at https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/news".
-------------------------------------------------
DAILY EMAIL DIGEST: Email [email protected] -- no subject or message needed.
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
NYU Information for Practice puts out 400-500 good quality health-related research posts per week but its too much for many people, so that bot is limited to just subscribers. You can read it or subscribe at @PsychResearchBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #psychotherapist #MentalHealth #CriminalJustice #Anosognosia #PsychoticDisorders #DetentionReform
-
[P] I know it might be terifying, but voting shows that the moral are a tiny minority. A thousand moral voices on social media might seem like an infinite number, but it's a speck compared to the allistic tribal hyperconforming majority who're hungry for some atrocity.
We live in a world of mostly monsters. I'd love to be wrong. But the slayers are hungry for their meat, and it'll be worse than anything I can imagine.
#psychology #actuallyautistic #racism #reform #reformuk #politics #uk
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How I Rewired My Brain With These 4 Habits —
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.
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#writing #writerscommunity #reading #writerscommunity #running #writers #psychology #life #lifelessons -
How I Rewired My Brain With These 4 Habits —
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.
.
#writing #writerscommunity #reading #writerscommunity #running #writers #psychology #life #lifelessons #mediumwriters #MediumCommunity -
[P] Atrocity is around the corner. And it's going to be the worst yet. Gaza is just an appetiser.
Let's see if I'm wrong.
#psychology #actuallyautistic #racism #reform #reformuk #politics #uk
-5
-
[P] You're delusional. Atrocity is the end-point. It's only once the monsters have had their fill of out-group meat, and they feel sated, does the allistic tribal hyoerconformist majority back off. History repeats this over & over. I'm scared for LGBTQ+ people, neurodivergent people, disabled people, and obviously minority ethnicities. Right now the allistic majority is building to critical mass, they're hungry for meat.
#psychology #actuallyautistic #racism #reform #reformuk #politics #uk
-4
-
[P] Every. Single. Fucking. Time. It's happened, because the tribal hyperconformist allistic majority wants it to happen. I see monsters, I call monster. Tribal hyperconformity can only lead to atrocity. If it isn't gas chambers, it'll be bioweapons, or they'll actually find a way to melt people. There's no excuses to be made. If you don't think allistic tribal hyperconformity won't result in gas chambers or worse?
#psychology #actuallyautistic #racism #reform #reformuk #politics #uk
-3
-
[P] They all want ICE. The allistic majority wants thugs pulling legal immigrants and long-time citizens of other ethnicities out of their homes, to shove them in squalid detention camps where they're treated as non-human. Where the fuck do you think that escalates to? If you know your history, it's fuxking gas chambers. "That'll nsver hapoen!" has been said repeatedly about this racist rise, and guess what?
#psychology #actuallyautistic #racism #reform #reformuk #politics #uk
-2
-
DATE: May 14, 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: Americans systematically overestimate how many social media users contribute to harmful online behavior
A set of three studies in the U.S. revealed that Americans believe that 43% of Reddit users post severely toxic comments, while 47% of Facebook users share false news online. However, in reality, such content is produced by only 3-8.5% of users. The paper was published in PNAS Nexus.
Social media contains many posts sharing misleading or completely untrue content. There are also users who post toxic comments to other people’s posts. These are comments that are insulting, hateful, or aggressive. These two types of behavior—sharing false news and posting toxic comments—are an important issue because they hurt real people, damage reputations, and create fear or anger.
False news can spread very quickly because people often share dramatic information before checking whether it is true. Toxic comments can make online spaces hostile and discourage reasonable discussion. This behavior can also deepen conflicts between groups, because people begin to see others as enemies rather than as human beings.
What is interesting is that studies indicate that both of these types of behaviors are produced by a very small minority of users who are highly active and post prolifically. A recent study found that 1% of conflict-seeking Reddit communities produced 74% of all conflict content across the platform. Similarly, another study found that 60% of hateful speech on Twitter came from a small community of users. These findings reflect what seems to be a broader pattern across social media platforms—the majority of problematic content is produced by a small, but vocal, minority of users.
Study author Angela Y. Lee and her colleagues investigated Americans’ beliefs about how many social media users contribute to harmful content and examined the consequences of such beliefs. They hypothesized that people would overestimate the prevalence of harmful users on social media. In turn, this misperception might foster excessive cynicism about their fellow citizens. These authors suggest that when people believe that many of their fellow Americans are posting harmful content, they may develop more negative views of society and perceive greater moral decline than actually exists.
To explore this further, study authors conducted three surveys of U.S.-American adults via CloudResearch Connect, matched to national quotas on age, gender, race, and ethnicity. The total number of participants across the three surveys was 1,090.
The first study asked participants to read about two research studies that identified how many Reddit accounts had posted toxic content and how many Facebook users had posted false news on the platform. Participants then provided their estimates regarding how many social media users produced such content.
In study 2, participants read about a Google system used to detect toxic language. They also viewed 20 comments from actual Reddit users, half of which were severely toxic, and half were not. They were then asked to identify the comments the Google system would classify as toxic.
Study 3 was an experiment where participants in one condition read a text explaining how scientists found that most people never share toxic content online. This was the misperception correction condition. The other experimental condition was a control condition, where they read about how Reddit was founded. The text the control group read did not mention online toxicity. After this, participants in both conditions completed measures of social media use, cynicism, generalized trust, perceptions of moral decline, and beliefs about the kinds of content that should go viral on social media.
Results showed that, on average, participants believed that 43% of all Reddit users posted severely toxic comments and that 47% of Facebook users shared false news online. In reality, platform-level data shows that most of these forms of harmful content come from 3-8.5% of users—a small, but highly active, group.
The experiment revealed that participants in the misperception correction condition tended to see their fellow U.S. citizens as being in less moral decline compared to participants in the control condition. They also felt more positive and were more likely to understand that others do not desire harmful online content. However, there were no differences between the two groups in cynicism and generalized trust in human nature.
“Our results reveal people do not realize that most harmful content on social media is produced by a small, prolific group of users. Instead, they believe that the amount of harmful content on social media is the result of many users participating in harmful behaviors,” study authors concluded.
The study contributes to the scientific knowledge about Americans’ perceptions of social media and their users. However, it should be noted that the study only involved U.S. participants and focused on only two types of harmful behaviors on two platforms. Because of this, the findings may not fully generalize to other countries, other cultures, and other social media platforms.
The paper, “Americans overestimate how many social media users post harmful content,” was authored by Angela Y. Lee, Eric Neumann, Jamil Zaki, and Jeffrey Hancock.
-------------------------------------------------
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-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #AmericansOverestimateSocialMedia #HarmfulContentPerception #ToxicComments #FalseNewsOnline #SmallProlificMinority #SocialMediaMyth #MisperceptionCorrection #CynicismAndTrust #OnlineDiscourse #RedditFacebookInsights
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[P] If there's one thing the past decade has made clear—with the rose of Reform, MAGA, and the rest of the far-right—it's how tribal, cruel, selfish, greedy, hyperconformist, and actually stupid the allistic majority is. This majority is voting FOR rape, FOR abuse, FOR genocide, FOR fucking melting people. They're always secretly hoping for gas chambers to kill the out-groups with. Stop making excuses for monsters.
#psychology #actuallyautistic #racism #reform #reformuk #politics #uk
-1
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[P] "Turkeys voting for Christmas" is tbe best, most apt and on-the-nose description of Reform voters I've ever seen.
"Ugg! Me Mr. Ugg! Me racist 'cuz da imm'gunts make prublems, make Ugg poor."
No, Ugg, all of those problems will only get worse under Farage. Your problems are caused by the very rich, not "the browns," but you're a stupid caveman and you don't know anythig. You're about to get refuk'd like the rest of us.
#psychology #actuallyautistic #racism #reform #reformuk #politics #uk
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"Do you know how hard you need to abuse a mammal to make them not to have children?"
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DATE: May 14, 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: Scientists discover a new gut-brain-heart connection that regulates blood pressure
Recent research published in Circulation Research provides evidence that a specific molecule produced by gut bacteria can protect the heart from stiffness and dysfunction by communicating directly with the brain. The study suggests that restoring this bacterial by-product might offer a new way to approach high blood pressure and related heart conditions.
Hypertension and related cardiovascular conditions involve a complex interaction among the digestive, nervous, and cardiovascular systems. High blood pressure tends to force the heart muscle to become stiff and lose its ability to relax properly between beats, a condition known as diastolic dysfunction. This stiffness represents a major physiological cause of heart failure, but the biological signals that initiate this structural change remain poorly understood.
To understand this process, researchers aimed to identify the chemical messengers that link these physiological systems. “Hypertension is a systemic condition driven by complex interactions between the gut, brain, kidneys, and cardiovascular system,” said study author Suphansa Sawamiphak, a principal investigator at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association in Berlin, Germany.
“While we knew that high blood pressure is associated with gut dysbiosis and often compromises the heart’s ability to relax, the precise molecular signals linking these systems were missing. We wanted to bridge this gap and identify the specific microbial metabolites that mediate this interorgan communication during hypertensive stress.”
To study this biological connection, the scientists used a specialized zebrafish model. Zebrafish larvae are largely transparent, allowing researchers to observe their beating hearts and circulating blood in real time using high-speed microscopes. The team induced high blood pressure in the larvae by rearing them in water with progressively lower salt concentrations over five days. This low-ion environment forced the fish to activate internal hormonal mechanisms to retain sodium, which in turn increased their blood pressure and caused their heart muscles to stiffen.
The researchers first analyzed the gut bacteria of the zebrafish after the five-day hypertensive challenge. By sequencing the genetic material of the bacteria in the digestive tracts of ten treated groups and eleven control groups, they found a marked decrease in overall bacterial diversity. The stressed fish lost specific bacteria responsible for breaking down tryptophan, an amino acid found in food, into indole molecules.
The team then tested whether the presence of gut bacteria was necessary to protect the heart. They raised groups of eight to twelve germ-free zebrafish, meaning the fish completely lacked any gut microbes. When exposed to the same low-salt stress, these germ-free fish exhibited more severe blood pressure spikes and worsened heart stiffness compared to fish with normal gut bacteria. This finding provides evidence that a healthy microbial community helps shield the cardiovascular system from damage.
Next, the researchers examined the specific chemical by-products produced by the gut bacteria. Using mass spectrometry, a specialized laboratory technique that measures the mass and concentration of different molecules, they analyzed the intestines of the fish. They found that the stressed fish had significantly lower levels of indole-3 acetic acid, a specific byproduct of tryptophan metabolism, compared to healthy fish.
This depletion of beneficial molecules has a cascading effect on the body’s stress response. “Our gut microbiome actively protects the heart during hypertensive challenges by producing specific molecules, notably Indole-3 Acetic Acid (IAA), derived from dietary tryptophan,” Sawamiphak explained. “When high blood pressure disrupts the microbiome, the resulting loss of IAA removes a brake on the brain’s stress signaling, specifically within hypocretin-producing neurons. This missing brake leads to sympathetic overdrive, compromising the heart muscle’s ability to properly relax between beats (diastolic dysfunction).”
To see if replacing this missing molecule could help, the scientists administered indole-3 acetic acid directly into the digestive tracts of the fish. Fish that received this supplement maintained normal blood pressure and healthy heart function, even when exposed to the low-salt stress. The treatment prevented the individual heart muscle cells from enlarging and kept the main pumping chambers of the heart relaxing normally between beats.
The researchers then looked at the brain to understand how a gut molecule could protect the heart. They focused on hypocretin neurons, a specialized group of brain cells in the hypothalamus that help regulate involuntary functions like heart rate and blood vessel constriction. Using special fluorescent markers that light up when neurons are active, they observed that the hypocretin neurons became highly overactive during the hypertensive stress. Giving the fish indole-3 acetic acid quieted these brain cells back to normal baseline levels.
Further experiments revealed exactly how the molecule influenced the brain. The scientists found that hypocretin neurons possess a specific chemical sensor called the aryl hydrocarbon receptor. When they injected indole-3 acetic acid directly into the brain cavities of the fish, it activated this receptor and protected the heart from stiffening. If they blocked the receptor with a chemical inhibitor, the protective effects completely disappeared.
By preventing the hypocretin neurons from becoming overactive, the indole-3 acetic acid stopped an excessive cascade of nervous system signals from reaching the heart. Using a technique called calcium imaging to monitor nerve activity in live fish, the team saw that the treatment calmed the sympathetic nervous system, which is the network responsible for the body’s physical responses to stress. The treatment also lowered the systemic levels of hormones that constrict blood vessels, acting on multiple fronts to protect the cardiovascular system.
To determine if these findings translate to humans, the researchers analyzed blood samples from a cohort of 194 individuals under the age of fifty. This group included 97 patients with high blood pressure and 97 healthy individuals, matched for age, sex, and body mass index. The scientists found that the patients with hypertension had significantly lower levels of indole-3 acetic acid in their blood.
This clinical data strongly mirrored the physiological changes observed in the animal models. “We were struck by how potently a single microbial metabolite, IAA, could act centrally in the brain to simultaneously prevent both neurogenic (sympathetic overdrive) and hormonal (renin-angiotensin system) drivers of hypertension,” Sawamiphak said. “Furthermore, finding that this specific depletion of circulating IAA is strongly conserved in a human hypertensive cohort, with a particularly pronounced sex-specific reduction in female patients, was a remarkable validation of our zebrafish model.”
While the study provides substantial evidence for a gut-brain-heart connection, it has some limitations. Zebrafish models offer a simplified view of biology and do not capture the full complexity of human aging or metabolic diseases that often accompany heart problems. The human data used in the study is observational, meaning it shows a link between low indole-3 acetic acid and high blood pressure but does not prove that one causes the other in people.
The authors caution against viewing these results as an immediate clinical treatment. “It is important not to misinterpret these findings as evidence that simply taking an over-the-counter IAA or tryptophan supplement is a standalone cure for high blood pressure,” Sawamiphak noted. “While we established a direct cause-and-effect mechanism in our animal models, the human data we analyzed is currently correlational. Hypertension is a highly complex, multifactorial disease, and IAA deficiency represents one component of a much broader systemic dysregulation.”
Future studies are needed to determine if restoring this molecule can safely and effectively treat or prevent heart disease in human patients. “Our immediate next step is to understand exactly how microbial metabolites like IAA regulate neuronal activity at a molecular level,” Sawamiphak said. “Beyond IAA, we are also examining a broader range of microbial metabolites that shift during disease states, particularly those known to regulate the immune system.”
The long-term objective is to map out these complex biological interactions to pave the way for medical advancements. “Ultimately, our overarching goal is to decode this complex, system-wide communication network between the gut, the brain, the immune system, and the heart,” Sawamiphak explained.
“While our laboratory focuses on fundamental biological discovery rather than conducting human clinical trials, pinpointing these precise disease mechanisms and molecular targets provides the essential foundation. It allows clinical researchers to eventually develop targeted therapies, such as postbiotics that deliver the exact missing beneficial molecules, to restore balance in cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.”
The study, “Indole-3 Acetate Limits Dysbiosis-Driven Diastolic Failure via Hcrt Neurons,” was authored by Bhakti I. Zakarauskas-Seth, Giovanni Forcari, Harithaa Anandakumar, Ilan Kotlar-Goldaper, Clara M. Barraud, Nina Jovanovic, Ulrike Brüning, Jennifer A. Kirwan, Nicola Wilck, Sofia K. Forslund, Dominik N. Müller, Alessandro Filosa, and Suphansa Sawamiphak.
-------------------------------------------------
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-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #GutBrainHeart #Indole3AceticAcid #IAA #HypertensionResearch #DiastolicDysfunction #GutMicrobiome #HeartHealth #Hypocretin #GutBrainAxis #Postbiotics
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Listen and learn: the hidden secret to spotting a liar https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/may/14/hidden-secret-to-spotting-a-liar-voice-inflections #Psychology #Society #Health #Evolution #Science #TheTraitors
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Menschen vereinfachen, um mit Komplexität umgehen zu können. Problematisch wird es dort, wo die Reduktion vergisst, dass sie reduziert.
👉 https://whisper7.substack.com/p/der-reduktion-ihr-widerspruch
#Philosophie #Psychologie #Gesellschaft #Technologie
---
People simplify in order to survive complexity. The problem begins where reduction forgets that it reduced.
👉 https://whisper7.substack.com/p/the-contradiction-of-reduction
#Philosophy #Psychology #Society #Technology -
Menschen vereinfachen, um mit Komplexität umgehen zu können. Problematisch wird es dort, wo die Reduktion vergisst, dass sie reduziert.
👉 https://whisper7.substack.com/p/der-reduktion-ihr-widerspruch
#Philosophie #Psychologie #Gesellschaft #Technologie
---
People simplify in order to survive complexity. The problem begins where reduction forgets that it reduced.
👉 https://whisper7.substack.com/p/the-contradiction-of-reduction
#Philosophy #Psychology #Society #Technology -
Menschen vereinfachen, um mit Komplexität umgehen zu können. Problematisch wird es dort, wo die Reduktion vergisst, dass sie reduziert.
👉 https://whisper7.substack.com/p/der-reduktion-ihr-widerspruch
#Philosophie #Psychologie #Gesellschaft #Technologie
---
People simplify in order to survive complexity. The problem begins where reduction forgets that it reduced.
👉 https://whisper7.substack.com/p/the-contradiction-of-reduction
#Philosophy #Psychology #Society #Technology -
Menschen vereinfachen, um mit Komplexität umgehen zu können. Problematisch wird es dort, wo die Reduktion vergisst, dass sie reduziert.
👉 https://whisper7.substack.com/p/der-reduktion-ihr-widerspruch
#Philosophie #Psychologie #Gesellschaft #Technologie
---
People simplify in order to survive complexity. The problem begins where reduction forgets that it reduced.
👉 https://whisper7.substack.com/p/the-contradiction-of-reduction
#Philosophy #Psychology #Society #Technology -
Menschen vereinfachen, um mit Komplexität umgehen zu können. Problematisch wird es dort, wo die Reduktion vergisst, dass sie reduziert.
👉 https://whisper7.substack.com/p/der-reduktion-ihr-widerspruch
#Philosophie #Psychologie #Gesellschaft #Technologie
---
People simplify in order to survive complexity. The problem begins where reduction forgets that it reduced.
👉 https://whisper7.substack.com/p/the-contradiction-of-reduction
#Philosophy #Psychology #Society #Technology -
Ascension sociale pour toutes
Former sex workers are training to be nurses at re-education center Havana, Photo © Marc Riboud, 1963
tags : élévation, #Cuba #work #societe #psychology #photography #education
-
Ascension sociale pour toutes
Former sex workers are training to be nurses at re-education center Havana, Photo © Marc Riboud, 1963
tags : élévation, #Cuba #work #societe #psychology #photography #education
-
Ascension sociale pour toutes
Former sex workers are training to be nurses at re-education center Havana, Photo © Marc Riboud, 1963
tags : élévation, #Cuba #work #societe #psychology #photography #education
-
Ascension sociale pour toutes
Former sex workers are training to be nurses at re-education center Havana, Photo © Marc Riboud, 1963
tags : élévation, #Cuba #work #societe #psychology #photography #education
-
Ascension sociale pour toutes
Former sex workers are training to be nurses at re-education center Havana, Photo © Marc Riboud, 1963
tags : élévation, #Cuba #work #societe #psychology #photography #education
-
I... can't disagree with any of that, admittedly.
-
I... can't disagree with any of that, admittedly.
-
I... can't disagree with any of that, admittedly.
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I... can't disagree with any of that, admittedly.
-
DATE: May 13, 2026 at 09:07PM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY PSYCHOLOGY FEEDTITLE: New psychedelic-like drugs could treat depression without making you trip
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/05/260512202325.htm
UC Davis researchers created brand-new psychedelic-like compounds by shining UV light on amino acid-based molecules. These compounds activated key serotonin receptors tied to brain plasticity and mental health benefits, but surprisingly did not cause hallucination-like behavior in animal tests. Scientists say the discovery could lead to future treatments for depression, PTSD, and addiction without the intense psychedelic experience.
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/05/260512202325.htm
-------------------------------------------------
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-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #PsychedelicLikeDrugs #DepressionTreatment #SerotoninReceptors #BrainPlasticity #MentalHealthResearch #NonPsychedelicTherapy #UC DavisScience #NovelTherapies #PTSDTreatment #AddictionRecovery
-
DATE: May 13, 2026 at 09:07PM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY PSYCHOLOGY FEEDTITLE: New psychedelic-like drugs could treat depression without making you trip
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/05/260512202325.htm
UC Davis researchers created brand-new psychedelic-like compounds by shining UV light on amino acid-based molecules. These compounds activated key serotonin receptors tied to brain plasticity and mental health benefits, but surprisingly did not cause hallucination-like behavior in animal tests. Scientists say the discovery could lead to future treatments for depression, PTSD, and addiction without the intense psychedelic experience.
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/05/260512202325.htm
-------------------------------------------------
DAILY EMAIL DIGEST: Email [email protected] -- no subject or message needed.
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
NYU Information for Practice puts out 400-500 good quality health-related research posts per week but its too much for many people, so that bot is limited to just subscribers. You can read it or subscribe at @PsychResearchBot
Since 1991 The National Psychologist has focused on keeping practicing psychologists current with news, information and items of interest. Check them out for more free articles, resources, and subscription information: https://www.nationalpsychologist.com
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It's primitive... but it works... mostly...
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #PsychedelicLikeDrugs #DepressionTreatment #SerotoninReceptors #BrainPlasticity #MentalHealthResearch #NonPsychedelicTherapy #UC DavisScience #NovelTherapies #PTSDTreatment #AddictionRecovery
-
DATE: May 13, 2026 at 09:07PM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY PSYCHOLOGY FEEDTITLE: New psychedelic-like drugs could treat depression without making you trip
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/05/260512202325.htm
UC Davis researchers created brand-new psychedelic-like compounds by shining UV light on amino acid-based molecules. These compounds activated key serotonin receptors tied to brain plasticity and mental health benefits, but surprisingly did not cause hallucination-like behavior in animal tests. Scientists say the discovery could lead to future treatments for depression, PTSD, and addiction without the intense psychedelic experience.
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/05/260512202325.htm
-------------------------------------------------
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It's primitive... but it works... mostly...
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #PsychedelicLikeDrugs #DepressionTreatment #SerotoninReceptors #BrainPlasticity #MentalHealthResearch #NonPsychedelicTherapy #UC DavisScience #NovelTherapies #PTSDTreatment #AddictionRecovery
-
DATE: May 13, 2026 at 08:00PM
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: Study reveals the key ingredients for successful social media mental health interventions
A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials testing the effects of social-media-based mental health interventions found that they lead to moderate-high reductions in stress symptoms and low-moderate reductions in depression and anxiety symptom severity. The interventions were more effective when participants were more than 70% female, when the programs were human-guided, social-oriented, and when effects were compared to groups that received care as usual. The paper was published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.
More than 1 in 8 adults and adolescents worldwide live with a mental disorder. The two most common types of mental health disorders are anxiety disorders and depression. However, estimates state that only a small fraction of individuals suffering from mental health disorders receive a treatment that results in the remission of symptoms. That is why scientists are looking for new ways to provide mental health treatments at scale to people who need them.
One prospective type of treatment that can be delivered at scale are online mental health interventions, particularly interventions delivered through social-media-based programs. These interventions represent organized efforts to provide psychological support, education, coping skills, or behavior-change strategies through platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, Reddit, or other online communities.
They include therapist-led groups, peer-support communities, psychoeducational posts, chat-based guidance, mood tracking, crisis resources, or structured activities based on approaches such as cognitive-behavioral therapy or mindfulness. These programs can make support more accessible because many people already use social media regularly and may find it easier to engage online than in traditional services. However, their quality, privacy protections, safety procedures, and effectiveness vary, with studies reporting inconsistent results about their effectiveness.
Study author Qiyang Zhang and her colleagues wanted to integrate the findings of rigorously designed randomized controlled trials examining the effectiveness of social-media-based mental health interventions in reducing mental health symptoms. They were interested in the overall impact of these treatments on symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress, negative affect, and psychological distress. These researchers also wanted to know how much these effects depend on the methodological specificities of studies and programs, such as program duration, program focus, or the control group the treatment was compared with.
They conducted a meta-analysis. The first author of this study conducted a search of databases of published scientific reports that included the Education Resources Information Center, PsychINFO, Scopus, PsychArticles, Communication and Mass Media Complete, PubMed, and Proquest databases. She also searched for studies through Paperfetcher across journals in the field the study authors considered reputable, and examined the reference lists of the papers they found.
Study authors looked for studies that reported results of randomized controlled trials with at least 30 participants per experimental condition. The intervention examined in the study needed to be delivered through social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and WeChat), and the difference in mental health symptoms between groups undergoing different treatments needed to be small at the start. Additionally, the interventions needed to be delivered by nonresearchers to better reflect how these programs would function in the real world.
They also required the difference between the number of participants who did not finish the study (the attrition rate) in the compared treatment conditions to be less than 15%. In this way, they wanted to reduce the risk that the observed treatment differences were caused by different dropout rates. For example, if participants who benefited least, or those who experienced the strongest effects or adverse experiences, left one condition more often than the other, the remaining participants could become systematically different, biasing the results.
In the end, after screening over 11,000 published studies, 17 studies met all the criteria the study authors defined. These studies reported the effects of 22 distinct intervention programs, comprising 5,624 total participants. Of these programs, 7 were conducted on adolescents, 7 on people in early adulthood, 7 included middle adulthood participants, while 1 study was of older individuals.
Twelve studies had more than 70% female participants. In 9 studies, participants were recruited based on a specific clinical condition.
Overall, the results showed that the examined studies had a low-moderate beneficial effect on mental health symptoms. The symptom reduction was the strongest for stress symptoms and it was moderate-high in size. Effects on reducing anxiety and depression symptoms were low-moderate.
Further analyses found that the examined social-media-based interventions tended to be more effective when the studies were conducted on groups that were more than 70% female, when the programs were human-guided (i.e., guided by humans including therapists, coaches, or research assistants), social-oriented (i.e., programs that provide mainly social interaction, emotional support, or companionship), and when control groups were people who received care as usual (i.e., where control group participants received standard care as opposed to waitlist groups). Interestingly, the researchers found that a participant’s age did not significantly affect the outcomes of the intervention.
“This meta-analysis synthesized the best evidence on this topic and found that, overall, high-quality social-media-based RCTs [randomized controlled trials] were effective in reducing depression, anxiety, stress, negative affect, and psychological distress. Given the benefits of scalability and cost-effectiveness of social-media-based approaches, mental health services should consider integrating online interventions into routine practice,” the study authors concluded.
The study contributes to the scientific understanding of the mental health effects of social-media-based mental health interventions. However, the study authors note that the statistical power of their review was limited by the small sample size of available, high-quality studies. Furthermore, the reported effects are not generalizable to all social-media-based mental health interventions. In each case, the effects of a specific intervention depend on its particular characteristics and on its appropriateness for the mental health condition or difficulties that individuals undergoing the intervention are experiencing.
The paper, “Social-Media-Based Mental Health Interventions: Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials,” was authored by Qiyang Zhang, Zixuan Huang, Yuan Sui, Fu-Hung Lin, Hongjie Guan, Li Li, Ke Wang, and Amanda Neitzel.
-------------------------------------------------
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Since 1991 The National Psychologist has focused on keeping practicing psychologists current with news, information and items of interest. Check them out for more free articles, resources, and subscription information: https://www.nationalpsychologist.com
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It's primitive... but it works... mostly...
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #SocialMediaMentalHealth #MentalHealthInterventions #OnlineTherapy #SocialSupportOnline #CBT #Mindfulness #DigitalHealth #StressReduction #AnxietyHelp #DepressionSupport
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DATE: May 13, 2026 at 08:00PM
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: Study reveals the key ingredients for successful social media mental health interventions
A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials testing the effects of social-media-based mental health interventions found that they lead to moderate-high reductions in stress symptoms and low-moderate reductions in depression and anxiety symptom severity. The interventions were more effective when participants were more than 70% female, when the programs were human-guided, social-oriented, and when effects were compared to groups that received care as usual. The paper was published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.
More than 1 in 8 adults and adolescents worldwide live with a mental disorder. The two most common types of mental health disorders are anxiety disorders and depression. However, estimates state that only a small fraction of individuals suffering from mental health disorders receive a treatment that results in the remission of symptoms. That is why scientists are looking for new ways to provide mental health treatments at scale to people who need them.
One prospective type of treatment that can be delivered at scale are online mental health interventions, particularly interventions delivered through social-media-based programs. These interventions represent organized efforts to provide psychological support, education, coping skills, or behavior-change strategies through platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, Reddit, or other online communities.
They include therapist-led groups, peer-support communities, psychoeducational posts, chat-based guidance, mood tracking, crisis resources, or structured activities based on approaches such as cognitive-behavioral therapy or mindfulness. These programs can make support more accessible because many people already use social media regularly and may find it easier to engage online than in traditional services. However, their quality, privacy protections, safety procedures, and effectiveness vary, with studies reporting inconsistent results about their effectiveness.
Study author Qiyang Zhang and her colleagues wanted to integrate the findings of rigorously designed randomized controlled trials examining the effectiveness of social-media-based mental health interventions in reducing mental health symptoms. They were interested in the overall impact of these treatments on symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress, negative affect, and psychological distress. These researchers also wanted to know how much these effects depend on the methodological specificities of studies and programs, such as program duration, program focus, or the control group the treatment was compared with.
They conducted a meta-analysis. The first author of this study conducted a search of databases of published scientific reports that included the Education Resources Information Center, PsychINFO, Scopus, PsychArticles, Communication and Mass Media Complete, PubMed, and Proquest databases. She also searched for studies through Paperfetcher across journals in the field the study authors considered reputable, and examined the reference lists of the papers they found.
Study authors looked for studies that reported results of randomized controlled trials with at least 30 participants per experimental condition. The intervention examined in the study needed to be delivered through social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and WeChat), and the difference in mental health symptoms between groups undergoing different treatments needed to be small at the start. Additionally, the interventions needed to be delivered by nonresearchers to better reflect how these programs would function in the real world.
They also required the difference between the number of participants who did not finish the study (the attrition rate) in the compared treatment conditions to be less than 15%. In this way, they wanted to reduce the risk that the observed treatment differences were caused by different dropout rates. For example, if participants who benefited least, or those who experienced the strongest effects or adverse experiences, left one condition more often than the other, the remaining participants could become systematically different, biasing the results.
In the end, after screening over 11,000 published studies, 17 studies met all the criteria the study authors defined. These studies reported the effects of 22 distinct intervention programs, comprising 5,624 total participants. Of these programs, 7 were conducted on adolescents, 7 on people in early adulthood, 7 included middle adulthood participants, while 1 study was of older individuals.
Twelve studies had more than 70% female participants. In 9 studies, participants were recruited based on a specific clinical condition.
Overall, the results showed that the examined studies had a low-moderate beneficial effect on mental health symptoms. The symptom reduction was the strongest for stress symptoms and it was moderate-high in size. Effects on reducing anxiety and depression symptoms were low-moderate.
Further analyses found that the examined social-media-based interventions tended to be more effective when the studies were conducted on groups that were more than 70% female, when the programs were human-guided (i.e., guided by humans including therapists, coaches, or research assistants), social-oriented (i.e., programs that provide mainly social interaction, emotional support, or companionship), and when control groups were people who received care as usual (i.e., where control group participants received standard care as opposed to waitlist groups). Interestingly, the researchers found that a participant’s age did not significantly affect the outcomes of the intervention.
“This meta-analysis synthesized the best evidence on this topic and found that, overall, high-quality social-media-based RCTs [randomized controlled trials] were effective in reducing depression, anxiety, stress, negative affect, and psychological distress. Given the benefits of scalability and cost-effectiveness of social-media-based approaches, mental health services should consider integrating online interventions into routine practice,” the study authors concluded.
The study contributes to the scientific understanding of the mental health effects of social-media-based mental health interventions. However, the study authors note that the statistical power of their review was limited by the small sample size of available, high-quality studies. Furthermore, the reported effects are not generalizable to all social-media-based mental health interventions. In each case, the effects of a specific intervention depend on its particular characteristics and on its appropriateness for the mental health condition or difficulties that individuals undergoing the intervention are experiencing.
The paper, “Social-Media-Based Mental Health Interventions: Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials,” was authored by Qiyang Zhang, Zixuan Huang, Yuan Sui, Fu-Hung Lin, Hongjie Guan, Li Li, Ke Wang, and Amanda Neitzel.
-------------------------------------------------
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-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #SocialMediaMentalHealth #MentalHealthInterventions #OnlineTherapy #SocialSupportOnline #CBT #Mindfulness #DigitalHealth #StressReduction #AnxietyHelp #DepressionSupport
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DATE: May 13, 2026 at 08:00PM
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: Study reveals the key ingredients for successful social media mental health interventions
A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials testing the effects of social-media-based mental health interventions found that they lead to moderate-high reductions in stress symptoms and low-moderate reductions in depression and anxiety symptom severity. The interventions were more effective when participants were more than 70% female, when the programs were human-guided, social-oriented, and when effects were compared to groups that received care as usual. The paper was published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.
More than 1 in 8 adults and adolescents worldwide live with a mental disorder. The two most common types of mental health disorders are anxiety disorders and depression. However, estimates state that only a small fraction of individuals suffering from mental health disorders receive a treatment that results in the remission of symptoms. That is why scientists are looking for new ways to provide mental health treatments at scale to people who need them.
One prospective type of treatment that can be delivered at scale are online mental health interventions, particularly interventions delivered through social-media-based programs. These interventions represent organized efforts to provide psychological support, education, coping skills, or behavior-change strategies through platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, Reddit, or other online communities.
They include therapist-led groups, peer-support communities, psychoeducational posts, chat-based guidance, mood tracking, crisis resources, or structured activities based on approaches such as cognitive-behavioral therapy or mindfulness. These programs can make support more accessible because many people already use social media regularly and may find it easier to engage online than in traditional services. However, their quality, privacy protections, safety procedures, and effectiveness vary, with studies reporting inconsistent results about their effectiveness.
Study author Qiyang Zhang and her colleagues wanted to integrate the findings of rigorously designed randomized controlled trials examining the effectiveness of social-media-based mental health interventions in reducing mental health symptoms. They were interested in the overall impact of these treatments on symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress, negative affect, and psychological distress. These researchers also wanted to know how much these effects depend on the methodological specificities of studies and programs, such as program duration, program focus, or the control group the treatment was compared with.
They conducted a meta-analysis. The first author of this study conducted a search of databases of published scientific reports that included the Education Resources Information Center, PsychINFO, Scopus, PsychArticles, Communication and Mass Media Complete, PubMed, and Proquest databases. She also searched for studies through Paperfetcher across journals in the field the study authors considered reputable, and examined the reference lists of the papers they found.
Study authors looked for studies that reported results of randomized controlled trials with at least 30 participants per experimental condition. The intervention examined in the study needed to be delivered through social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and WeChat), and the difference in mental health symptoms between groups undergoing different treatments needed to be small at the start. Additionally, the interventions needed to be delivered by nonresearchers to better reflect how these programs would function in the real world.
They also required the difference between the number of participants who did not finish the study (the attrition rate) in the compared treatment conditions to be less than 15%. In this way, they wanted to reduce the risk that the observed treatment differences were caused by different dropout rates. For example, if participants who benefited least, or those who experienced the strongest effects or adverse experiences, left one condition more often than the other, the remaining participants could become systematically different, biasing the results.
In the end, after screening over 11,000 published studies, 17 studies met all the criteria the study authors defined. These studies reported the effects of 22 distinct intervention programs, comprising 5,624 total participants. Of these programs, 7 were conducted on adolescents, 7 on people in early adulthood, 7 included middle adulthood participants, while 1 study was of older individuals.
Twelve studies had more than 70% female participants. In 9 studies, participants were recruited based on a specific clinical condition.
Overall, the results showed that the examined studies had a low-moderate beneficial effect on mental health symptoms. The symptom reduction was the strongest for stress symptoms and it was moderate-high in size. Effects on reducing anxiety and depression symptoms were low-moderate.
Further analyses found that the examined social-media-based interventions tended to be more effective when the studies were conducted on groups that were more than 70% female, when the programs were human-guided (i.e., guided by humans including therapists, coaches, or research assistants), social-oriented (i.e., programs that provide mainly social interaction, emotional support, or companionship), and when control groups were people who received care as usual (i.e., where control group participants received standard care as opposed to waitlist groups). Interestingly, the researchers found that a participant’s age did not significantly affect the outcomes of the intervention.
“This meta-analysis synthesized the best evidence on this topic and found that, overall, high-quality social-media-based RCTs [randomized controlled trials] were effective in reducing depression, anxiety, stress, negative affect, and psychological distress. Given the benefits of scalability and cost-effectiveness of social-media-based approaches, mental health services should consider integrating online interventions into routine practice,” the study authors concluded.
The study contributes to the scientific understanding of the mental health effects of social-media-based mental health interventions. However, the study authors note that the statistical power of their review was limited by the small sample size of available, high-quality studies. Furthermore, the reported effects are not generalizable to all social-media-based mental health interventions. In each case, the effects of a specific intervention depend on its particular characteristics and on its appropriateness for the mental health condition or difficulties that individuals undergoing the intervention are experiencing.
The paper, “Social-Media-Based Mental Health Interventions: Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials,” was authored by Qiyang Zhang, Zixuan Huang, Yuan Sui, Fu-Hung Lin, Hongjie Guan, Li Li, Ke Wang, and Amanda Neitzel.
-------------------------------------------------
DAILY EMAIL DIGEST: Email [email protected] -- no subject or message needed.
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
NYU Information for Practice puts out 400-500 good quality health-related research posts per week but its too much for many people, so that bot is limited to just subscribers. You can read it or subscribe at @PsychResearchBot
Since 1991 The National Psychologist has focused on keeping practicing psychologists current with news, information and items of interest. Check them out for more free articles, resources, and subscription information: https://www.nationalpsychologist.com
EMAIL DAILY DIGEST OF RSS FEEDS -- SUBSCRIBE: http://subscribe-article-digests.clinicians-exchange.org
READ ONLINE: http://read-the-rss-mega-archive.clinicians-exchange.org
It's primitive... but it works... mostly...
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #SocialMediaMentalHealth #MentalHealthInterventions #OnlineTherapy #SocialSupportOnline #CBT #Mindfulness #DigitalHealth #StressReduction #AnxietyHelp #DepressionSupport