Feature Channels: Behavioral Science

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No one knows what drives people with obsessive-compulsive disorder to do what they do, even when they’re aware that they shouldn’t do it, and when it interferes with normal life. That lack of understanding means about half can’t find effective treatment. But a new analysis of brain scans from hundreds of people with OCD, and people without it, may help. Larger than previous studies, it pinpoints brain areas and processes linked to OCD’s repetitive behaviors.

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Researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas recently examined public opinions about Black Lives Matter, an activist movement founded in 2013 that has gained national attention in subsequent years.

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Sleep deprivation can have a negative impact on ethical decision-making, says ASU professor

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Young women in China experiencing more personal independence, disposable income and exposure to Western media are also altering their views of female beauty. A new study looks into whether these factors are leading to eating disorders and weight and shape concerns.

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Researchers sampled more than 2,000 patients with advanced cancers to examine the impact of outpatient palliative care on patients’ survival and quality of life.

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A global team of researchers has found the first common genetic risk factors associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a complex condition affecting around 1 in 20 children.

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Exploring objects through touch can generate detailed, durable memories for those objects, even when we don't intend to memorize the object's details, according to findings published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

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Research by Canisius College Animal Behaviorist Christy Hoffman, PhD, shows women sleep better with their canine companions

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Losing just a couple hours of sleep makes you angrier, according to new research. While the results may seem intuitive, the study is one of the first to provide evidence that sleep loss causes anger. It also offers insight on how we adapt to irritating conditions when tired.

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Sometimes, there is no “tragedy” in the tragedy of the commons, according to a new analysis that challenges a widely accepted theory. In an analysis of eight case studies from around the world, researchers found that people can successfully share and sustainably use resources, under certain conditions.

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An international study, focused on the analysis of the genome of more than 50,000 people worldwide, has identified twelve specific fragments of DNA related to the vulnerability of the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

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"Not in front of the kids." It's an age-old plea for parents to avoid showing conflict and strong negative emotions around their children.

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Parents who force unremorseful kids to apologize to others before they're truly sorry may do more harm than good.

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  When it comes to helping infants learn to talk, it’s not just how much parents say, but how they say it. Speaking directly to the baby with a style of speech known as “parentese” — talking slowly and clearly, often with exaggerated vowels and intonation — appears to improve infant language development. A new study from the University of Washington’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences (I-LABS) shows that parents who learn how and why to speak parentese can have a direct impact on their children’s vocabulary.

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Scientists at the National Eye Institute (NEI) have found that neurons in the superior colliculus, an ancient midbrain structure found in all vertebrates, are key players in allowing us to detect visual objects and events.

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Women tend to be more conservative than men on political questions related to marijuana. A recent study finds that this gender gap appears to be driven by religion and the fact that men are more likely to have used marijuana.

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WASHINGTON -- Heterosexual men with sexist attitudes may underestimate how much power they actually have in their romantic relationships, which could lead to increased aggression toward their female partners or wives, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

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Finding suggests media bias influences the rates at which police engage black men

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A new study examining differences in the language used in nearly 40-million tweets suggests national stereotypes—Canadians tend to be polite and nice while Americans are negative and assertive—are reflected on Twitter, even if those stereotypes aren’t necessarily accurate.

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Making good decisions typically involves gathering information over at least several seconds, much longer than the time that individual brain cells take to process their inputs. However, this disparity does not reduce our ability to make accurate choices, finds a new study.

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Mount Sinai study discovers that imagining threats can weaken reactions to them by suppressing perceptual and learning neural mechanisms

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A study on an invasive ant species in the Buffalo area could explain how other invasive species thrive.

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As shoppers search for sales this season, injury prevention advocates want to raise awareness about the need to choose age-appropriate toys for young children.

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Atlanta-based company Sock Fancy – an online sock-subscription provider (sockfancy.com) that was listed on this year’s University of Georgia Alumni Association Bulldog 100 list – has been preparing for this shopping period since the end of September.

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Getting a jump on a low-income child’s education can have a positive effect on social behavior even 40 years later, researchers find.

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Adults who received early life, intensive childhood educational intervention display high levels of fairness in social interactions more than 40 years later, even if being fair comes at a high personal cost, according to Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute scientists.

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A significant proportion of suicidal teens treated in a psychiatric emergency department said that watching the Netflix series “13 Reasons Why” had increased their suicide risk, a University of Michigan study finds.

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Security tips on protecting your identity during online and in-store holiday shopping sprees.

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Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States, claiming more than 44,000 people in the country every year, similar to the number of deaths caused by the opioid epidemic. Previous studies show that suicide tracks in families independent of the effects from a shared environment. Researchers at the University of Utah Health are using resources unique to the state to identify underlying genetic factors that may increase the risk for suicide.

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The Internet Research Agency, a Russia-based group of Internet trolls, relied on local news more than it did fake news to disrupt the 2016 presidential election.

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It’s a common scenario in many emergency rooms: A man with a long history of homelessness and schizophrenia reports hallucinations and thoughts of suicide. Should the medical team admit him for hospitalization or treat him with antipsychotic drugs and release him from the ER? Lessons learned from this experience are the focus of the first article in a series of case studies that begins Nov. 15 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Spanking may be increasingly harmful for children on a more global scale than previously known, a new University of Michigan study indicates.

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A new study to be published online in the journal Sleep Health reveals that late-night social media use by NBA players is linked to poorer next-day performance on the court. The study examines more than 37,000 tweets and builds on preliminary research from 2017 about late-night tweets.

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Men and women who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual are more likely to misuse opioids when compared with those who identify as heterosexual, a new study shows.

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The site, www.childfirearmsafety.org, aims to share what’s known—and what experts still need to find out—about guns and people under age 19. The site offers free access to a trove of data on the issue, as well as training for health care providers and others.

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A new study from Florida State University finds women are more likely to catch a ride to their destination instead of driving themselves because of health concerns or the availability of other transit options.

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Automobile crashes related to driving while intoxicated (DWI) account for approximately 30 percent of fatal crashes, and 10,000 deaths annually. Social support – defined as emotional, informational, or instrumental help from individuals' social networks – can be helpful to individuals recovering from alcohol use disorders (AUDs). However, it is unclear what impact social support may have on reducing the risk of recidivism of alcohol-impaired driving. This study examined the role of social support in motivating individuals with histories of DWI arrests to reduce their alcohol use.

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Killer whales display personality traits similar to those of humans and chimpanzees, such as playfulness, cheerfulness and affection, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.

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When tragic or violent events occur, parents may wonder about how to help their kids understand the graphic images and emotional video footage that they may see. Stephanie Marcy, PhD, psychologist at Children's Hospital Los angeles suggests a few guidelines to keep in mind so parents can be better equipped to help their children handle scary news.

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Invited to share their personal stories, victims of urban gun violence describe living with violence as a "common everyday experience" and feeling abandoned by police and other societal institutions, reports a study in the November/December Journal of Trauma Nursing, official publication of the Society of Trauma Nurses. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

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Researchers have created a checklist organizations can use when developing, implementing and evaluating training programs for their employees. The checklist provides actionable guidance for practitioners at all stages of training program implementation.

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In her new book, Joseph explores how African-American women celebrities, producers and even audiences use "postracial discourse" — the thinking that American society has evolved beyond racial discrimination and strife — to refute the idea of postracialism itself.

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A new study finds that bias-based bullying does more harm to students than generalized bullying, particularly for students who are targeted because of multiple identities, such as race and gender.

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A study is the first to use qualitative research to gain deeper insight into law enforcement officers’ personal experiences and perspectives on the use of body-worn cameras in a post-Ferguson era. Based on a long and deep immersion in the field, researchers have generated insider knowledge on one of the most overt strategic changes to modern American policing.

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People living in colder regions with less sunlight consume more alcohol and experience more alcoholic liver disease.

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A new national study shows that people whose mothers had more partners – married or cohabiting – often follow the same path.Results suggest that mothers may pass on personality traits and relationship skills that make their children more or less likely to form stable relationships.

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