Feature Channels: Behavioral Science

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When they must act quickly, selfish people are likely to act more selfishly than usual, while pro-social people behave even more pro-socially, a new study found.

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Prior research has shown that alcohol use disorders and eating disorders such as bulimia nervosa – binge eating often followed by self-induced vomiting – may have a shared genetic risk. It is unclear, however, whether this risk extends to eating-disorder symptoms other than those associated with bulimia nervosa. This study examined several measures of alcohol use and drive for thinness and body dissatisfaction, which are core eating-disorder symptoms, in adolescent female and male twins.

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Professor of Psychology Melinda Green is greatly expanding her research on eating disorders with the notification that she’s been awarded a grant for nearly $400,000 from the National Institute of Mental Health.

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American workers’ occupational status reflects that of their parents more than previously known, reaffirming more starkly that the lack of mobility in the United States is in large part due to the occupation of our parents, finds a new study.

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A research study in the works for more than two years documents bias and discrimination against women seeking CEO jobs ion the workforce.

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The latest research and features on ecology and wildlife.

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Providing "targeted" social support to other people in need activates regions of the brain involved in parental care – which may help researchers understand the positive health effects of social ties, reports a study in Psychosomatic Medicine: Journal of Biobehavioral Medicine, the official journal of the American Psychosomatic Society. The journal is published in the Lippincott Portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

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Researchers at The University of Alabama are bringing together their expertise in geography, modeling and criminal activity to better understand how enforcement activity influences drug trafficking in Central America.

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Teens are more prone to addiction because it’s a form of learning. Just as it’s easier for a younger brain to pick up new languages, athletic techniques, or musical instruments, it’s easier for them to pick up addictions.

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Religious people who lack friends and purpose in life turn to God to fill those voids, according to new University of Michigan research.

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Temple Grandin, a renowned expert on animal behavior and activist for people with autism, is coming to Iowa State University on Sept. 13.

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Psychology researchers have developed a new personality test that is both faster to take and much harder to manipulate by those attempting to control the outcome.

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Independence in mobility is the single most important factor affecting quality of life in patients with traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI), reports a study in the American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, the official journal of the Association of Academic Physiatrists. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.

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Regardless of whether or not they have had a prior mental health diagnosis, risk factors were still similar among soldiers who attempted suicide, according to a new JAMA Psychiatry study published Aug. 29.

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In 1992, former Vice President Dan Quayle criticized the sitcom character Murphy Brown's decision to have a child out of wedlock. That ignited discussions that continue today about whether celebrities might be contributing to the demise of the nuclear family, yet 40 years of data from one reputable celebrity news source suggests that celebrities in fact have fewer out-of-wedlock childbirths compared to the rest of the U.S. population.

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Routine oral care to treat gum disease (periodontitis) may play a role in reducing inflammation and toxins in the blood (endotoxemia) and improving cognitive function in people with liver cirrhosis. The study is published ahead of print in the American Journal of Physiology—Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology.

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Little is known about how brief yet acute stressors – such as war, natural disasters and terror attacks – affect those exposed to them, though human experience suggests they have long-term impacts. Two recent studies of tree swallows uncover long-term consequences of such passing but major stressful events. Both studies provide information on how major stressful events have lasting effects and why some individuals are more susceptible to those impacts than others.

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Fathers play a key role in helping their young daughters overcome loneliness, a new study has found.

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Since 2010, the U.S. government has invested more than $20 million into understanding all forms of radicalization to violence, as well as effective prevention and intervention measures. Federal agencies such as the DHS Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) and the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) are at the forefront of this work.

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Researchers at the University of New Hampshire have found that youth living in chaotic households, characterized by confusion, disorganization and lack of routines, were more likely to be depressed, have poorer physical health and engage in problematic substance use.

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Across the county, many adolescents struggle with disruptive behavior ranging from aggression or rage toward others to outbursts in the classroom. These behaviors appear similar, but a recent brain-imaging study at Boys Town National Research Hospital suggests a youth's prior exposure to abuse or neglect may impact the way that youth emotionally responds to the pain of others.

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In 2013, UNC School of Medicine researchers were first to show an association between variants in gene FKBP5 and posttraumatic chronic pain. Now a new study by the same research group has confirmed this association in a cohort of more than 1,500 people of both European American and African American descent who experienced motor vehicle collision trauma.

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About one in five children regularly use prescription medications, and nearly one in 12 of those children are at risk for experiencing a harmful drug-drug interaction. Adolescent girls are at highest risk.

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Women may need a more nutrient-rich diet to support a positive emotional well-being, according to new research from Binghamton University, State University at New York.

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By the time toddlers are forming two-word sentences, they are already aware that they may be judged by others, behavior that previously wasn’t believed to emerge until years later, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

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We make snap judgments of others based not only on their facial appearance, but also on our pre-existing beliefs about how others’ personalities work.

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This September, Sports Broadcaster Terry Bradshaw is teaming up once again with the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) to share important information about rheumatic diseases in a new public service announcement (PSA) airing nationwide this fall.

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In this issue, find research on school shootings and long gun age restrictions, Russian anti-vaccine trolls, smoke-free colleges and more.

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Bilingual children from immigrant families are not two monolinguals in one. They develop each language at a slower pace because their learning is spread across two languages. A researcher shows strong evidence that the rate of language growth is influenced by the quantity of language input. She challenges the belief, held in and out of scientific circles that children are linguistic sponges who quickly absorb the language or languages they hear and become proficient speakers of both languages.

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Latinos are the largest racial/ethnic minority group in the United States, representing 16.3 percent of the population and growing — coming from more than 25 countries in the Caribbean, Central America and South America.Each Latino group has a unique sociopolitical history and different demographic, socioeconomic, acculturation and settlement patterns that contribute to within-group variations in their health outcomes.

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A new book argues that entertainment media like Game of Thrones shape our beliefs, in way we aren't aware of, about social justice, crime and terrorism, tolerance and diversity, the benefits or dangers of technology, and the characteristics of leadership. The author, a political science professor at the University of Vermont, based his conclusions on 13 separate studies and experiments.

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The American Psychological Association has produced a video entitled “Racism in America” aimed at promoting dialogue on the complex issues associated with race-related stress.

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ASU psychologists and legal scholars have identified a novel influence for death penalty beliefs: the availability of resources in the environment. Most research on death penalty attitudes focuses on cultural, political or religious influences. A series of four experiments using archival and experimental methods consistently found actual and perceived resource availability in the environment predicted the endorsement of the death penalty.

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A research team headed by Elizabeth McAninch, MD, a assistant professor in the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, found higher cholesterol levels in the blood of hypothyroid patients treated with appropriate doses of levothyroxine (LT4)—a synthetic version of the human thyroid hormone that is the standard treatment for hypothyroidism—than in healthy control subjects.

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The National Institutes of Health announced a $6,341,419 grant to support the Play and Learning Across a Year (PLAY) project— a large-scale, sharable, searchable, fully transcribed, annotated, and curated corpus of video data of human behavior.

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CEOs who are paid less than their peers are four times more likely to engage in layoffs, according to research led by faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York.

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Participants are now being sought for a new study, Stepping Forward in Grief, which was motivated by key findings from USU’s National Military Family Bereavement Study (NMFBS), the first large scientific study on the impact of U.S. service member death on surviving family members. NMFBS findings suggest that surviving family members who have experienced the loss of a service member may benefit from help managing their loss and grief with programs that recognize their unique experience as military family members.

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A study examined anxiety, depression, social withdrawal, and submissiveness to predict the end of teen friendships. Do friendships end because of one child’s mental health problems or do they end because of differences between friends on the degree to which each friend suffers from these problems? A key finding shows that children’s personal struggles need not adversely impact their social relationships, and mental health issues do not necessarily ruin their chances of making and maintaining worthwhile friendships.

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If you can’t remember the last time you saw a teenager reading a book, newspaper or magazine, you’re not alone. In recent years, less than 20 percent of U.S. teens report reading a book, magazine or newspaper daily for pleasure, while more than 80 percent say they use social media every day, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

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Concerned about an unfolding effort on the part of several fraternities to withdraw from West Virginia University governance, President Gordon Gee sent a letter Sunday to all students’ parents decrying the actions and warning that joining these organizations should not be an option for their students.

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Gender stereotypes and biases still influence voters, especially in elections with more than one woman on the ballot, according to new research from Iowa State University. Researchers found gender had the greatest effect on down-ballot races.

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Alcohol use disorders (AUDs) are known to adversely impact brain structure and function. Although recovery of brain morphology and function has been reported following abstinence from long-term alcohol use, some structural (e.g., brain area volumes and connections) and functional (e.g., cognitive) abnormalities due to long-term effects of AUDs may persist even after abstinence from alcohol. To further our understanding, scientists assessed the consequences of long-term alcohol use on brain circuitry, structural impairment patterns, and the impact of these impairments on cognitive function among individuals with AUDs who were abstinent.

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Two year-old children were taught novel words in predictable and unpredictable situations. Children learned words significantly better in predictable situations.

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The first study to evaluate videos on facial plastic surgery procedures finds most are misleading

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Babies whose mothers experience interpersonal violence during pregnancy are more likely to exhibit aggression and defiance toward their mothers in toddlerhood, according to new research by Laura Miller-Graff and Jennifer Burke Lefever.

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If you think you’re helping someone by lying, you may want to think again. Telling a lie in order to help or protect someone—a practice known as prosocial lying—backfires if the person being lied to perceives the lie as paternalistic, according to new research from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

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Married people who fight nastily are more likely to suffer from leaky guts – a problem that unleashes bacteria into the blood and can drive up disease-causing inflammation, new research suggests.