#psychologystudy — Public Fediverse posts
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DATE: August 19, 2026 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: New research shows the unexpected benefits of a fixed mindset for social anxiety
Believing that people rarely change their first impressions might actually help individuals who experience high levels of social anxiety. New research published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin indicates that this fixed view of social judgments reduces the mental burden of socializing. By assuming that social evaluations are stable, anxious individuals can let their guard down, allowing them to perform better and enjoy interactions more.
People who experience high social anxiety often fear negative evaluation, mockery, and rejection. This intense fear causes them to focus inward during conversations. They constantly monitor their own behavior, looking for perceived flaws or awkwardness. This cycle of self-criticism requires immense mental energy and acts like a distracting background noise, leaving fewer resources to simply engage naturally in a social setting.
Psychological research often looks at mindsets to understand how people handle challenges. A mindset is a person’s underlying belief about whether human traits can change. A growth mindset assumes traits are malleable and can be improved, while a fixed mindset assumes they are stable and unchangeable. Past therapeutic efforts have sometimes tried teaching anxious individuals that their own personality or anxiety levels can change over time.
Bar-Ilan University researcher Liad Uziel approached the problem from a different angle. Instead of focusing on a person’s beliefs about their own internal traits, Uziel investigated their beliefs about how other people form impressions. In daily life, we try to shape how others perceive us, a process known as impression management.
Uziel hypothesized that if socially anxious individuals believe impressions are relatively fixed, social situations might feel more predictable. If people form an opinion and stick to it, the pressure to constantly manage one’s public image drops. This predictability could reduce the need to obsessively monitor one’s own behavior, freeing up mental energy to focus on the conversation itself.
To test this idea, Uziel conducted a preliminary online study with 182 participants from the United Kingdom. The participants completed questionnaires measuring their levels of social anxiety, their beliefs about how people form impressions, and the extent to which they feel drained by managing their public image. The goal was to see how these factors naturally align in the general public.
The results showed that higher social anxiety was heavily linked to feeling depleted by social interactions. Yet, for participants who naturally leaned toward a fixed mindset regarding impression formation, this draining effect was noticeably weaker. Believing that social judgments are stable seemed to buffer against the exhaustion of socializing.
Uziel then conducted a laboratory experiment with 200 undergraduate students in Israel to see if manipulating these mindsets could change actual behavior. The students were randomly assigned to read and agree with statements promoting either a fixed mindset or a growth mindset about impression formation. A fixed mindset prompt suggested that people form durable impressions, while a growth mindset prompt suggested that opinions are constantly updated.
Next, the participants were asked to write a thorough self-introduction, under the premise that they would soon meet another student for a joint task. Independent judges, who did not know which experimental group the students were in, rated these written introductions. They evaluated the text based on traits like friendliness and dominance, which indicate a confident and appealing social presence.
Among students primed with a growth mindset, higher social anxiety resulted in a less appealing self-presentation. They appeared more hesitant and less engaging. For those primed with a fixed mindset, higher social anxiety was not associated with a worse impression. The simple belief that impressions are stable allowed anxious participants to present a more desirable version of themselves.
A second experiment raised the stakes by introducing a more stressful social task. A new group of 155 undergraduate students underwent the same mindset manipulation. Afterward, they had to talk about themselves for two minutes while being recorded by a video camera. Presenting oneself on camera is a well-known method for inducing social stress in laboratory settings.
Objective observers watched the videos and rated the participants on their eye contact, vocal clarity, comfort, and conversational flow. The findings mirrored the previous experiment. Students with high social anxiety who adopted a growth mindset appeared more anxious and less comfortable on camera. Conversely, those who adopted a fixed mindset performed just as well as their less anxious peers.
A final study tracked 158 students over several days to measure real-world social experiences. Participants were again assigned to adopt either a fixed or a growth mindset. This time, they also wrote about a personal memory that aligned with that specific belief, an exercise designed to reinforce the manipulated mindset.
Three days later, the students reported on the quality, stress levels, and satisfaction of their recent social interactions. In the real world, the mindset shift made a noticeable difference. Participants with higher social anxiety reported having better and more satisfying social experiences over the three-day period if they had been primed with a fixed mindset. Those primed with a growth mindset reported worse social experiences.
A growth mindset about social judgments means believing that you are constantly being evaluated and reevaluated. For someone who is already socially anxious, this belief likely turns every conversation into a high-stakes performance. A fixed mindset takes away that pressure, allowing the person to relax after the initial introduction.
While these findings offer a new way to cope with social stress, the research was conducted using general student and online populations. The study did not specifically test individuals who have been clinically diagnosed with a social anxiety disorder. The observed behavioral changes in the laboratory were also relatively brief. Future research will need to determine if teaching a fixed mindset about impression formation can provide long-term relief in clinical therapeutic settings.
The study, “The Soothing Effect of a Stable World: Social Behavior of Individuals Varying on Social Anxiety Under Fixed and Growth Mindsets About Impression Formation,” was authored by Liad Uziel.
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #SocialAnxiety #FixedMindset #ImpressionFormation #MindsetResearch #SocialBehavior #ImpressionManagement #PsychologyStudy #MentalEnergy #SocialInteractions #GrowthVsFixed
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DATE: August 18, 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: Trichotillomania: Boredom and tiredness outpace negative emotions as predictors of hair pulling
People with hair-pulling disorder often cite negative emotions as a trigger, but new research suggests boredom and tiredness may play a more consistent role in preceding the behavior over time. A recent study published in Comprehensive Psychiatry found that while negative feelings accompany the urge to pull hair, they do not reliably predict future pulling episodes. The findings challenge the traditional view that hair pulling serves primarily to regulate emotional distress.
Trichotillomania is a condition where people repeatedly pull out their own hair, resulting in hair loss and psychological distress. It is classified as an obsessive-compulsive related disorder. Historically, clinical models have framed this behavior as a maladaptive coping mechanism. This idea, known as the emotion regulation model, assumes that individuals pull their hair to alleviate negative feelings like tension, anxiety, or sadness.
Studies testing the emotion regulation model have yielded mixed results. It remains debated whether hair pulling serves a general emotion-regulating function or if other factors are at play. Changes in diagnostic guidelines reflect this ongoing scientific uncertainty. Older psychiatric manuals required individuals to feel a sense of tension before pulling and relief afterward to receive a diagnosis. The newest guidelines removed these criteria because many people pull their hair automatically or out of boredom, rather than in response to rising tension.
Most previous research into these patterns has relied on retrospective surveys. These surveys ask participants to recall their emotions and behaviors over past weeks. Human memory is prone to biases, making it difficult to accurately capture fleeting emotional states and momentary urges. Traditional survey designs are not suited to detect subtle, moment-to-moment interactions between internal feelings and physical actions.
To get a more accurate picture, clinical psychologist Christina Gallinat and her colleagues at Heidelberg University Hospital designed a study to track people in real time. They wanted to see exactly how emotional states, the urge to pull, and the actual pulling behavior interact on a daily basis in a natural environment.
The researchers used a technique called ecological momentary assessment. This methodology involves prompting participants on their smartphones multiple times throughout the day to answer brief questions about their current state. The study included 61 adults diagnosed with trichotillomania. Over a ten-day period, the participants received seven daily text messages linking to a short survey.
The survey asked participants to rate their current urge to pull hair on a scale from one to five. It also asked if they had pulled their hair since the last prompt. Participants then rated various emotional states, including negative emotions, positive emotions, boredom, tiredness, and rumination. Rumination refers to a pattern of repetitive, unhelpful thinking about one’s distress or personal problems.
The researchers analyzed the collected data in two distinct ways to capture different timeframes. First, they looked at prospective associations, which involves testing whether a person’s state at one moment predicted their behavior at the next assessment hours later. Second, they looked at concurrent associations, checking which emotions and urges occurred at the exact same time as a pulling episode.
In their prospective analysis of pulling behavior, the researchers found that earlier urges strongly predicted whether a person would pull their hair at the next check-in. Having a prior pulling episode also predicted future episodes, showing that the behavior tends to cluster in specific parts of the day. Among the emotional states, only boredom predicted a subsequent hair-pulling episode. Negative emotions were not statistically significant predictors of future hair pulling.
When analyzing the data concurrently, the researchers observed a slightly different pattern. The intensity of the urge to pull was strongly associated with hair pulling happening at that very moment. Boredom was also linked to a higher likelihood of current pulling. Negative emotions, once again, showed no statistical relationship with the actual occurrence of pulling episodes in the moment.
The researchers then shifted their focus to the urge itself, testing whether earlier emotional states predicted how strong the urge to pull would be at the next assessment. Previous urge intensity was a strong predictor of current urge intensity. Additionally, tiredness predicted an increase in future urges. Negative emotions, boredom, and rumination did not reliably predict later surges in the urge to pull.
Finally, the team looked at what factors accompanied the urge to pull in real time. Here, emotional states showed a distinct relationship. Higher levels of negative emotions, boredom, and rumination were all associated with a stronger current urge to pull hair. Conversely, higher positive emotions were associated with a lower concurrent urge.
The results suggest that while negative emotions can accompany the desire to pull hair, they are not the primary predictors of the behavior over the course of a day. Instead, boredom and tiredness appear to be more reliable indicators of future pulling. This points to an alternative explanation where repetitive behaviors might serve to regulate a person’s level of stimulation. The behavior may act as a way to counteract under-arousal rather than simply soothing emotional distress.
The study features several limitations regarding its timeline that contextually shape these findings. The assessments were spaced up to four hours apart. Human emotions can fluctuate rapidly, and a person might experience a surge of anxiety, pull their hair, and feel relief entirely between the survey prompts. The methodology might miss these brief, rapid changes in emotional states.
The surveys also did not track environmental or social contexts. Factors such as being alone, working at a computer, or sitting in a specific room likely influence both boredom and hair pulling. Without tracking these situational triggers, the exact conditions that accompany the transition from an internal urge to a physical episode remain partially obscured. The findings are also based on a group of volunteers, which means individuals with lower motivation or insight might be underrepresented.
Future studies will need to incorporate shorter time intervals between assessments to capture faster emotional shifts. Including data on a person’s physical surroundings and activities could also help uncover the mechanisms behind the disorder. Such research could eventually guide clinical therapies, helping patients manage environmental triggers and regulate their daily stimulation levels instead of focusing exclusively on emotion regulation.
The study, “Trichotillomania: The interplay between emotional states, urges and hair pulling episodes,” was authored by Christina Gallinat, Maximilian Wilhelm, Markus Moessner, and Stephanie Bauer.
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #Trichotillomania #HairPulling #BoredomTrigger #UnderarousalTheory #EcologicalMomentaryAssessment #EmotionRegulationDebate #MentalHealthResearch #OCDRelatedDisorder #HairLossAwareness #PsychologyStudy
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Thank you to the 20 participants that have taken part so far. Still need another 80 participants 🙏🏻 let's see if we can reach that target.
Participants must be #UK residents and be aged between 18-64.Link: https://mmu.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_es6NsOuhpxXYYtM
Please share if you can, would be greatly appreciated.
#researchstudy #ParticipantsWanted #Psychology #MentalHealth #Research #PsychologyStudy #MentalHealthResearch #DigitalWellbeing #UKResearch
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As part of my MSc Psychology at Manchester Met University, I’m studying how social media use relates to wellbeing in UK adults (18–64, active users). 10–15 min survey on active vs passive use, mood and wellbeing.
Do not participate if currently experiencing mental health problems.
https://mmu.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_es6NsOuhpxXYYtM#CallForParticipants #PsychologyStudy #ResearchStudy #MentalHealthResearch #DigitalWellbeing #SocialMediaUse #UKParticipants #Wellbeing #SurveyParticipants #MScPsychology
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Altruistic behavior as a mating signal: Evidence from online interactions https://www.psypost.org/altruistic-behavior-as-a-mating-signal-evidence-from-online-interactions/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #AltruismInRomance #EvolutionaryBehavior #OnlineInteractions #MatingSignal #PsychologyStudy
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New psychology study examines how sadness and fear sharpen self-control https://www.psypost.org/new-psychology-study-examines-how-sadness-and-fear-sharpen-self-control/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #psychologystudy #sadness #fear #selfcontrol #inhibitorybehavior
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Phubbing linked to dehumanization and aggression in new psychology study https://www.psypost.org/phubbing-linked-to-dehumanization-and-aggression-in-new-psychology-study/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #Phubbing #Dehumanization #Aggression #PsychologyStudy #PhoneAddiction