Feature Channels: Behavioral Science

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While school lunches in the UK are subject to food standards, the contents of packed lunches are not as closely scrutinized, and studies have raised concern regarding the nutritional quality of packed lunches. A new study published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior found that children, not their parents, are often the primary decision maker of whether they will eat a school lunch or what is packed for their lunch.

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All children have moments of moodiness, but family medicine doctors and pediatricians may doubt their abilities to tell the difference between normal irritability and possibly bigger issues, according to Penn State researchers.

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Researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and colleagues have discovered how two brain regions work together to maintain attention, and how discordance between the regions could lead to attention deficit disorders, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression.

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For consumers looking to reduce their consumption of meat — particularly due to a greater understanding of the ethical treatment of animals — researchers have analyzed the leading cookbooks of 26 celebrity chefs to offer insight and guidance. Their findings show that not all chefs are what they appear: while some offer recipes that align with their public personas, others show great dissonance in what is said, and what is cooked.

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It’s hard enough for parents to have “the talk” about sexual health with their kids, but parents of LGBTQ children feel especially uncomfortable and unequipped when they try to educate them about sex and dating, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study.The study examined parents’ attitudes toward talking about sexual health with their lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer teens (LGBTQ).

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A blood test may have the potential to speed accurate diagnosis – and proper treatment – of bipolar disorder in children, new research suggests. Researchers found that children with bipolar disorder had higher blood levels of a protein associated with vitamin D compared to children without mood disorders.

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Four months after Hurricane Harvey soaked the Houston area and displaced more than a third of the population, an alarming 52 percent of Harris County residents said they were still struggling to recover, according to a new report from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) School of Public Health.

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Findings suggest humans’ talent for relational learning doesn’t depend on language

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People have a 50 percent higher risk of death if they suffer a shocking financial loss

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A mother’s “basic instinct” to grab her wandering offspring and return them to the nest depends on a specific set of brain cell signals, a new study in mice finds.

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Tweeting praise or criticism gives you more power - and can pose a greater potential threat - than you may know, according to Michigan State University research. Researchers looked at the "GamerGate" controversy to uncover how one angry social media user inspired thousands to join its movement, amplify its messages, cyberbully innocent users and ultimately get thousands more to participate … without the users even knowing it.

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Obesity is concentrated in “high-risk communities, where residents have limited access to healthy foods, limited open/green space, a lack of quality and accessible health care,” the report states, a so-called “ecology of disadvantage.”

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A new FAU study shows that expatriates’ personality characteristics have a lot to do with how well they adjust and whether they succeed and provide a return on a company’s considerable investment in an individual.

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Alcohol use in social settings can have both desirable and undesirable effects – ranging from better mood and less anxiety to verbal and physical aggression, including violence. These outcomes often reflect the interplay of factors that are both internal and external to an individual. Intra-individual differences in alcohol reactions contribute to the various internal responses to drinking that a person may have; for example, alcohol can induce both positive and negative effects in the same person at different times. However, how that person acts upon impulses that he or she may have can depend on inter-individual differences, such as the individual’s frequency or intensity of drinking in comparison to others. This study examined the influence of inter-individual differences in alcohol use on intra-individual perceptions of drinking during real-world social interactions.

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We’ll pay more for unhealthy foods when we crave them, new neuroscience research finds. The study also shows that we’re willing to pay disproportionately more for higher portion sizes of craved food items.

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Click here for the latest research and features on Children's Health.

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A majority of Republicans believe professional athletes and celebrities should stay out of politics and causes, with a sizable portion saying it is completely inappropriate for them to do so, according to a new national poll conducted for the University of Delaware’s Center for Political Communication.

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Baylor Scott & White McLane Children’s Medical Center and Clinics care for children and their families with compassion and quality care, and the newest four-legged staff member, Lorenzo, plans to do the same by motivating and supporting patients with gentle snuggles and a warm heart. Lorenzo, a certified facility dog from Canine Companions for Independence (CCI), who will assist the medical center’s Child Life Program and becomes the first facility dog from CCI to join a Texas pediatric (children's) hospital.

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In a new book, Lee Humphreys, associate professor of communication at Cornell University, argues that the act of documenting and sharing one’s everyday life is not new – nor is it particularly narcissistic.

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Scientists have previously shown that when one animal watches another performing a motor task, such as reaching for food, mirror neurons in the motor cortex of the observer's brain start firing as though the observer were also reaching for food. New Duke research appearing March 29 in the journal Scientific Reports suggests mirroring in monkeys is also influenced by social factors, such as proximity to other animals, social hierarchy and competition for food.

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Couples in Mali who spoke to one another about family planning were significantly more likely not only to use modern contraception, but to adopt a series of healthy behaviors ranging from being tested for HIV during pre-natal care visits to seeking treatment for a child’s cough, new research suggests.

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Narcissists aren’t necessarily on the hunt for partners who are already in a relationship – but that doesn’t appear to stand in their way, either, new research suggests.

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A new study from the University of Iowa finds that people are more likely to suffer from insomnia on days when they do not behave well at work because they lie awake at night thinking about what they did.

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People who choose to get alternative treatments for cancer tend to have everything else going for them - being happier, younger, wealthier, and more educated.

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An international research team, led by Washington University in St. Louis, studied vocal expressions uttered by people in the United States, Australia, India, Kenya and Singapore, and found that people were better at judging emotions from fellow countrymen.In a separate study, researchers discovered that Aussies and Indians could read each other pretty well despite cultural barriers.

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We tend to think of heroes in terms of a psychological profile: brave, altruistic, strong.But a new study suggests that for at least one kind of heroism, it takes a village to save a life.

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An algorithm can predict which passengers survived the sinking of the Titanic in April 1912 and can do so with 97 percent accuracy—a result that both demonstrates the power of artificial intelligence and, more subtly, points to its shortcomings. AI may get things right, this finding shows, but for all the wrong reasons.

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Click here to go directly to Newswise's Obesity News Source

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In 1919, one of the deadliest racial conflicts in the country occurred in Elaine, Arkansas. Historians still do not know how many people died during the Elaine Massacre. Barclay Key, associate professor of history at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and students in his “Age of Reform” class searched U.S. census records during to try to identify potential victims of the Elaine Massacre.

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#MeToo founder Tarana Burke will speak at Michigan State University at 7:30 p.m. April 19 in Wharton Center’s Cobb Great Hall as part of the Transformative Justice Speaker Series.

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UCLA psychiatrist Jamie Feusner describes what intensive psychotherapy for OCD looks like

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WASHINGTON – The American Psychological Association commended congressional leaders for crafting a budget that puts public health over politics.

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Millions of how-to videos on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram have given people unprecedented access to the skilled performances of experts. Nevertheless, learning a new skill by watching a video on social media can also lead people to become overconfident in their own abilities, according to new research from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

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Stopping exercise can result in increased depressive symptoms, according to new mental health research from the University of Adelaide.

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Online gift-giving is spreading in social networks and causing people to give more gifts – online and in person – according to a new study led by René Kizilcec, Cornell University assistant professor of information science. About half of these gifts were unlikely to have occurred offline or via another online channel.

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A University of Vermont mathematician has developed a new tool to identify gerrymandered voting districts. The research shows Pennsylvania, Ohio and North Carolina strongly gerrymandered for Republicans, while Maryland’s and California’s voting districts have been strongly tipped in favor of Democrats. The new tool could be important in the wake of two Supreme Court cases now being considered that might outlaw certain partisan gerrymanders.

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A new CU Boulder study found that two-thirds of Twitter users are unaware their data can be used for science. Many think this would be against their terms of service agreement. It's not.

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While Americans debate the rising cost of health care, a new study of 30 countries over 27 years found that medical expansion has improved overall health – with one major exception. Researchers found that increased spending on health care and increases in specialized care were both associated with longer life expectancy and less mortality in the countries studied. But pharmaceutical industry expansion was linked to negative health effects.

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The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is among the very few universities in the country with a team and projects dedicated to researching blogs. Blogtrackers, a tool designed to track and analyze blogs and gain insights from the blogosphere, is being developed for public use.

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A new book analyzes how online communities and social media can provide stress relief for families and individuals with an autism spectrum disorder.

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In a striking new finding, researchers at the UC Davis MIND Institute found that typically-developing children gain more neurons in a region of the brain that governs social and emotional behavior, the amygdala, as they become adults. This phenomenon does not happen in people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Instead, children with ASD have too many neurons early on and then appear to lose those neurons as they become adults. The findings were published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

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Moral philosophers are in agreement that shame is a natural and valuable emotion that occurs most often when someone does not live up to their ideals or standards.

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Eating disorders affect individuals worldwide, can be lethal, and represent an enormous cost in healthcare treatment and lost productivity. Scientists are beginning to understand how the gut microbiome—the bacteria that reside in the gastrointestinal tract—play a role in the development and treatment of eating disorders. The 2018 International Conference on Eating Disorders (ICED), hosted by the Academy for Eating Disorders April 19-21, 2018, at the Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile, will address this important issue.

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Jonathon Schuldt, assistant professor of communication at Cornell University, says it is possible to make faraway climate impacts feel closer. But that doesn’t automatically inspire the American public to express greater support for policies that address it. The paper appeared in the Journal of Environmental Psychology.