Feature Channels: Behavioral Science

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Moms are not more likely than other women to support gun control efforts. In fact, a new study finds that parenthood doesn’t have a substantial effect on the gun control views of men or women.

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New research shows people who pursue meaningful activities - things they enjoy doing - during lockdown feel more satisfied than those who simply keep themselves busy.

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Children and adolescents with a family history of suicide attempts have lower executive functioning, shorter attention spans, and poorer language reasoning than those without a family history, according to a new study by researchers from the Lifespan Brain Institute (LiBI) of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the University of Pennsylvania. The study is the largest to date to examine the neurocognitive functioning of youth who have a biological relative who made a suicide attempt.

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We show that facial recognition algorithms can expose people’s political views from their social media profile pictures, posing dramatic risks to privacy and civil liberties.

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In the early decades of televised news, Americans turned to the stern faces of newsmen like Walter Cronkite, Tom Brokaw, and Dan Rather as trusted sources for news of the important events in America and around the world, delivered with gravitas and measured voices.

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As the first doses of COVID-19 vaccines are being rolled out, it is still unclear whether enough Americans are willing to be vaccinated to allow the nation to return to normalcy.

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A new study has found that spending time outdoors and switching off our devices is associated with higher levels of happiness during a period of COVID-19 restrictions.

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Findings from a recent study of individuals with depression suggest that Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) can improve how patients feel about themselves in difficult situations in ways that may help protect against relapse of depressive symptoms.

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Behavioral health issues like depression and bipolar disorder don’t often manifest with the kinds of clear, outward symptoms that presage the common cold. But technologies such as smartphones and smartwatches could be used to detect subtle changes in behavior and help willing individuals – in coordination with their doctors – better monitor and manage their conditions.

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Practicing gratitude and looking to the future will help safeguard our mental wellbeing during Covid-19 lockdowns, a new study in the Journal of Positive Psychology reports.

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A forthcoming research paper by Johns Hopkins Carey Business School Assistant Professor Robert Mislavsky, a marketing expert, looks at a little-examined area of probability forecasting.

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Researchers at Case Western Reserve University find that focusing on diversion—instead of detention—yields positive results for youth with behavioral health issues

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People dreaming of travel post-COVID-19 now have some scientific data to support their wanderlust.

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Integrating public health efforts and clinical care will address emerging global health challenges and ever-growing health disparities, according to a new Rutgers article.

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Based on a large body of existing research, four leading researchers of self-determination theory have crystallised 13 communication principles to foster voluntary compliance in a crisis such as COVID-19. The Communication Principles have been approved for publication in the prestigious European Review of Social Psychology.

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The introduction of computer simulation to the identification of symptoms in children with ADHD could provide an additional objective tool to gauge the presence and severity of behavioral problems, researchers suggest in a new publication.

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Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a complex psychiatric disorder brought on by physical and/or psychological trauma.

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Researchers at the University of Turku have discovered what type of neural mechanisms are the basis for emotional responses to music.

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The proliferation of face coverings to keep COVID-19 in check isn’t keeping kids from understanding facial expressions, according to a new study by University of Wisconsin–Madison psychologists.

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While acknowledging that many aspects of daily life were dramatically altered in 2020, a mental health expert with The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) shares that reminiscing on the moments that brought joy in this last year can help with both mental and physical wellbeing.

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Gun safety policies, including universal background checks and mandatory waiting periods, receive wide support among American gun owners, yet most Americans fail to recognize this fact, a new study suggests.

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In the midst of the raging coronavirus pandemic, we’re faced with agonizing decisions about whether to forgo treasured holiday rituals.

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Through small, neighborhood classes, researchers at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and Promundo-US significantly reduced sexual violence among teenage boys living in areas of concentrated disadvantage. The study appears in JAMA.

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In a new study, University of California San Diego School of Medicine and UC San Diego Health researchers report that the rate of firearm use by female nurses who die by suicide increased between 2014 to 2017. Published December 21, 2020 in the journal Nursing Forum, the study examined more than 2,000 nurse suicides that occurred in the United States from 2003 to 2017 and found a distinct shift from using pharmacological poisoning to firearms, beginning in 2014.

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The identification of people wearing masks has often presented a unique challenge during the pandemic. A new study by researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) in Israel and York University in Canada reveals the impact of this predicament and its potentially significant repercussions.

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A University of Sheffield-led research programme finds Local Authorities and the Voluntary and Community Sector are best placed to support the response to the Covid-19 crisis locally

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In this podcast, with Profs. Lisa Bowleg (AJPH & GWU), Skyler Jackson, (Yale) and Jennifer Nazareno (Brown), we discuss what is intersectionality and why early career public health researchers are attracted by a framework that is premised on the interplay of science and society and on the heterogeneity of people’s lived experiences.

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New research suggests that cannabis use by people in care for opioid addiction might improve their treatment outcomes and reduce their risk of being exposed to fentanyl in the contaminated unregulated drug supply.

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In the latest issue of Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a team of researchers recommends ways that psychological and behavioral sciences can help decrease the negative consequences of Internet use. These recommendations emphasize helping people gain greater control over their digital environments.

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It’s no secret that grandparents love being around their grandchildren, which is one reason why the COVID-19 pandemic is so hard on them. Here is some advice from other grandparents on how to make the best of it.

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For so many, 2020 has posed some of the greatest challenges of our lifetime. Turning the calendar page to 2021 is a time to remind yourself to take good care of YOU in the New Year. The faculty at Palo Alto University, which is dedicated to psychology and counseling, curated this list of 21 meaningful ways to make 2021 a more balanced year for you and other people in your life.

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Preschoolers living in impoverished communities who have access to a nurturing home environment have significantly higher intelligence quotient (IQ) scores in adolescence compared to those raised without nurturing care.

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Social holidays improve holiday makers' overall satisfaction with life, as well as satisfaction with the quantity and quality of their leisure time, and social life, according to a new study from the University of Eastern Finland.

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In a recent survey, people who said social distancing and COVID-safety guidelines violated their personal freedoms responded more positively to these ideas when they felt a loved one might be at risk of severe illness for COVID-19.

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Whether at a birthday party in Brazil, a funeral in Kenya or protests in Hong Kong, humans all use variations of the same facial expressions in similar social contexts, such as smiles, frowns, grimaces and scowls, a new study from the University of California, Berkeley, shows.

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What does it take to get some people to go outside and experience nature? For some urban dwellers, it took the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers say. The new study finds that 26% of people visiting parks during early months of the COVID-19 pandemic had rarely – or never – visited nature in the previous year. The study is one of the first to explore how COVID-19 has changed Americans’ relationship with nature. The research will appear in PLOS ONE journal.

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People may cheer the demise of evil villains in fiction, but the deaths we most remember are the meaningful and sad endings of the characters we loved, research suggests.

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Although schizophrenia is increasingly understood as a neurodevelopmental disorder, environmental factors are known to play an important role in the disease onset and progression.

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A new study offers strong evidence that kids who use e-cigarettes are more likely to take up smoking or smokeless tobacco, researchers say. Teen boys who vaped were almost three times as likely to start smoking as other teen boys with similar risk profiles and more than two times as likely to try smokeless tobacco, the study from The Ohio State University found.

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Having hope for the future could protect people from risky behaviours such as drinking and gambling - according to new research from the University of East Anglia.

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A team of European researchers working on a project about public transport as public space have recently completed a study on the perception and use of public transport during the first wave of COVID-19.

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One of the first studies on Americans' relationship with nature during COVID finds significant increases in outdoor activity, especially among women. Women were 1.7 (gardening) to 2.9 (walking) times more likely to report increasing their activity compared to men. In general, outdoor activities seeing the largest increases were: watching wildlife, gardening, photos or art in nature, relaxing alone outside, and walking.

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