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(https://www.psypost.org/night-owls-show-higher-cognitive-performance-in-new-sleep-study/) ‘Night owls’ show higher cognitive performance in new sleep study
Jul 31st 2024, 10:00

A recent study published in (https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjph-2024-001000) BMJ Public Health has shed light on the connection between sleep patterns and cognitive performance. Researchers at Imperial College London found that older individuals who identify as ‘night owls’ tend to have higher cognitive scores compared to those who prefer morning activities. This finding offers new insights into how our internal biological clocks may influence brain function.
“Our interest in this topic stemmed from a broader curiosity about how lifestyle factors, particularly sleep, influence brain health. Given the ageing population and the rising prevalence of cognitive decline, understanding the relationship between sleep patterns and cognitive function could help develop better interventions and health guidelines to maintain cognitive health in older adults,” explained study authors (https://profiles.imperial.ac.uk/r.west21) Raha West (a NIHR Doctoral Research Fellow) and (https://profiles.imperial.ac.uk/d.ma) Daqing Ma (a professor of anaesthesia).
The study leveraged data from the UK Biobank, a large-scale prospective study involving over half a million participants aged 40 and above across the UK. Specifically, the analysis included 26,820 participants who had completed all necessary surveys and cognitive assessments.
Participants provided detailed information about their sleep habits, including sleep duration, chronotype, and sleep quality, through self-report questionnaires. Sleep duration was categorized into short (<7 hours), normal (7-9 hours), and long (>9 hours). Chronotype was assessed based on participants’ self-identification as either a morning person, intermediate, or evening person. Sleep quality was measured by the frequency of experiencing sleeplessness or insomnia.
The cognitive performance of participants was evaluated using a series of tests designed to assess various aspects of cognition, such as reasoning, memory, and reaction time. These tests included Fluid Intelligence (verbal and numerical questions), Pairs Matching (a memory game), Reaction Time (measured through a card game), and Prospective Memory (a task involving memory recall).
The participants were divided into two cohorts: Cohort 1 (10,067 participants) completed all four cognitive tests (Fluid Intelligence, Pairs Matching, Reaction Time, and Prospective Memory), while Cohort 2 (16,753 participants) completed only two cognitive tests (Pairs Matching and Reaction Time).
One of the key findings was the significant association between chronotype and cognitive performance. Participants who identified as evening types, or ‘night owls,’ scored higher on cognitive tests than those who identified as morning types. Intermediate types also showed better cognitive performance than morning types.
“We were particularly intrigued by the chronotype findings, which found that evening types performed better on cognitive tests in older adults, in contrast with younger populations, where morning types typically have better outcomes,” the researchers told PsyPost. “This suggests that the relationship between chronotype and cognitive function may change with age.”
Regarding sleep duration, the researchers found that normal sleep duration (7-9 hours) was associated with slightly higher cognitive scores in Cohort 1. On the other hand, long sleep duration (more than 9 hours) was linked to significantly lower cognitive scores across both cohorts. This result supports previous research indicating a U-shaped relationship between sleep duration and cognitive performance, where both insufficient and excessive sleep are associated with worse cognitive health.
“The key takeaway is that getting 7-9 hours of quality sleep per night is crucial for maintaining cognitive function,” West and Ma said. “Additionally, individuals should recognise and work with their natural sleep patterns, whether they are morning or evening types, to optimise their cognitive performance.”
Jessica Chelekis, a senior lecturer at Brunel University London (who was not involved in the study), told the (https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-study-on-sleep-chronotype-and-cognition/) Science Media Centre: “In my expert opinion, the main takeaway should be that the cultural belief that early risers are more productive than ‘night owls’ does not hold up to scientific scrutiny. While everyone should aim to get good-quality sleep each night, we should also try to be aware of what time of day we are at our (cognitive) best and work in ways that suit us. Night owls, in particular, should not be shamed into fitting a stereotype that favours an ‘early to bed, early to rise’ practice.”
While the study provides valuable insights into the relationship between sleep patterns and cognitive performance, it has several limitations. For instance, the cross-sectional design of the study prevents establishing causality.
“Without a detailed picture of what is going on in the brain we don’t know if being a ‘morning’ or ‘evening’ person affects memory and thinking, or if a decline in cognition is causing changes to sleeping patterns,” explained Jacqui Hanley of Alzheimer’s Research UK (who was not involved in the study).
Additionally, reliance on self-reported data for sleep parameters may introduce biases, and the study did not adjust for educational attainment due to incomplete data. The lack of control for the time of day during cognitive assessments and the exclusion of participants with unclear chronotypes may also affect the generalizability of the findings.
To enhance future research, it would be beneficial to include more diverse populations from different geographical locations and incorporate objective sleep measures. Longitudinal studies could provide a clearer understanding of the causal relationships between sleep patterns and cognitive performance. Furthermore, future research could explore the biological mechanisms linking sleep duration with cognitive deterioration.
“In the long term, we might explore the mechanisms behind how different chronotypes affect cognitive performance and extend this research to more diverse populations,” West and Ma said. “Understanding these mechanisms could lead to personalised sleep and health recommendations to optimise cognitive health.”
Interestingly, the study did not find a significant relationship between sleep quality, measured by the frequency of sleeplessness or insomnia, and cognitive performance. This finding contrasts with some prior studies that have shown poor sleep quality to be associated with lower cognitive functioning.
“We would like to emphasize the importance of considering both sleep duration and quality,” West and Ma noted. “While our study found significant associations with sleep duration and chronotype, the impact of sleep quality needs further investigation. Future research should also look into the effects of physical activity, diet, and social engagement on sleep and cognitive health.”
The study, “(https://bmjpublichealth.bmj.com/content/2/1/e001000) Sleep duration, chronotype, health and lifestyle factors affect cognition: a UK Biobank cross-sectional study,” was published July 10, 2024.

(https://www.psypost.org/both-men-and-women-tend-to-work-more-hours-if-their-partner-is-a-woman/) Both men and women tend to work more hours if their partner is a woman
Jul 31st 2024, 08:00

A recent study published in the (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00031224241252079) American Sociological Review has found that both men and women tend to work more hours if their romantic partner is a woman. The research also revealed that women reduce their work hours when caring for a child, but this reduction is smaller if their partner is also a woman. These findings provide new insights into how gender dynamics within relationships influence labor market behavior.
Probably since the dawn of humanity, males and females tended to have different roles in their households and to engage in different types of work. Traditionally, men undertook tasks requiring greater physical strength and performed them outside the household, while women specialized in childcare and domestic tasks. In modern times, this division evolved, with men primarily engaging in paid labor outside the home and women focusing on domestic work.
Over the past century, women’s participation in the labor force has significantly increased. Despite this progress, studies continue to show that women, on average, still do a greater share of housework and spend less time in the labor market compared to men. Interestingly, single men and women tend to spend similar amounts of time in paid work, but this changes when they form partnerships. Maintaining a family and household necessitates both financial and domestic contributions, leading couples to often specialize in different roles.
Study author Eva Jaspers and her colleagues wanted to explore how much time women and men spend in paid labor depending on whether their partner is a male or a female. Their hypotheses were that both men and women will spend more time in paid labor if their partner is a woman and that they will work less if they have children, but that the reduction will be less if their partner is a woman. They also expected that individuals who spend more time in paid work will tend to have partners who also spend more time doing paid work, but that this association will be weaker if the partner is a woman.
The researchers analyzed data collected by Statistics Netherlands from 1995 to 2020. Each individual in the dataset was assigned a unique identification number, allowing the researchers to link information from various administrative registers. This included legal data indicating a committed relationship, demographic data, and labor market engagement data. Indicators of being in a committed relationship included being partners in a pension plan, having a joint legal child, being tax partners, and having a notarial cohabitation agreement.
The study focused on individuals who had both a male and a female partner during the study period (not simultaneously) and lived with each of them for at least a year. The researchers also noted whether a person first had a male partner and then switched to a female one, or vice versa.
The analysis was restricted to people who were between 25 and 29 years old in January 2006 (so that they were between 40 and 44 by the end of the study period) and who resided in the Netherlands throughout the entire period. The age range was chosen because most people have entered the labor market by age 25, while the upper limit was selected due to data availability. The researchers also excluded any years in which a person was at least partially self-employed, as they could not accurately determine work hours in such cases. This resulted in a final sample of 2,871 men and 2,101 women, totaling 4,972 individuals.
The results showed that these individuals spent most of the study period in different-sex relationships. Men were partnered with women 75% of the observed months, while women had male partners 63% of the observed months.
Both men and women worked more hours when their partner was a woman. On average, women worked 7 hours more per month when their partner was a woman, and men worked 21 hours more per month in the same scenario.
There was an association between the hours worked by partners in a relationship. However, this association was weaker for men with female partners. Individuals who worked more hours tended to have partners who also worked more hours per month. Women reduced their work hours more significantly when caring for a child compared to men, but this reduction was smaller if their partner was a woman. Men’s working hours were not significantly affected by having a child, regardless of their partner’s gender.
“Our study consistently showed that it is not only an individual’s own gender but also their partner’s gender that contributes to labor supply. We have shown that individuals who have committed relationships with both women and men display systematically different behavior with their female than with their male partners. We theorized that this pattern is due to an orientation toward producing not only one’s own gender identity by performing gender typed tasks, but also to the partner’s gender identity by protecting their production of gender-typed tasks,” the study authors concluded.
The study sheds light on the potential effects of partners on labor market participation. However, the design does not allow for definitive cause-and-effect conclusions. Additionally, since all participants are likely bisexual, results might differ for individuals of other sexual orientations. Future research could further explore these dynamics in different cultural and labor market contexts to enhance our understanding of how partner’s gender influences labor market behavior.
The research, “(https://doi.org/10.1177/00031224241252079) Doing Genders: Partner’s Gender and Labor Market Behavior,” was authored by Eva Jaspers, Deni Mazrekaj, and Weverthon Machado.

(https://www.psypost.org/neuroscientists-find-sex-and-gender-map-onto-different-parts-of-the-brain-in-children/) Neuroscientists find sex and gender map onto different parts of the brain in children
Jul 31st 2024, 06:00

A recent study found that brain connectivity patterns in children are strongly associated with their sex assigned at birth, particularly within the somatomotor, visual, control, and limbic networks, while gender-related connectivity patterns were more dispersed and less pronounced. These findings, published in (https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adn4202) Science Advances, provide evidence that sex and gender are distinct concepts that are each associated with different patterns of brain connectivity.
Notably, however, while these patterns aligned with parent-reported gender behaviors, they did not reliably correspond to self-reported gender identity, highlighting the complexity of gender as a construct.
The motivation behind this study stemmed from the need to better understand how sex and gender uniquely influence brain development and organization. Sex refers to the biological attributes assigned at birth, such as anatomy and chromosomes, while gender encompasses the roles, behaviors, and identities that society attributes to individuals.
Previous research has often conflated these two concepts, treating them as interchangeable, which potentially obscures their relationship to brain structure and function.
“Sex and gender are fundamental aspects of who we are as people. In my research, I’m interested in understanding how sex and gender, in terms of how we experience and perceive them, shape who we are as individuals, both in terms of biology and behavior,” said study author (https://elvisha.com/) Elvisha Dhamala, an assistant professor and director of the (https://bpmlab.org/) Brain-Based Predictive Modeling (BPM) lab at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research.
The researchers utilized data from (https://abcdstudy.org/) the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, a large-scale research project that assessed a diverse sample of children and adolescents on various neuroimaging, behavioral, developmental, and psychiatric measures. The final sample for this particular study included 4,757 children aged 9 to 10, with nearly equal representation of those assigned female at birth and assigned male at birth.
Participants underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans to capture detailed images of their brain structures and functional connectivity patterns. Functional connectivity refers to the coordinated activity between different regions of the brain, which can be measured while participants are at rest. These images were collected using standardized protocols across multiple sites in the United States to ensure consistency and reliability.
In addition to the brain scans, both the children and their parents completed gender surveys. The self-reported surveys for the children included questions about their felt gender identity, gender expression, and overall contentedness with their gender. Parents were asked to complete surveys that assessed their child’s sex-typed behaviors during play and any signs of gender dysphoria. These combined measures provided a comprehensive view of each child’s gender experience from both personal and external perspectives.
To analyze the relationship between brain connectivity patterns and sex and gender, the researchers used machine learning techniques, specifically linear ridge regression models. These models are designed to predict outcomes based on input data while avoiding overfitting, which can lead to inaccurate results. The models were trained and tested using a cross-validation approach, where the data was split into multiple subsets to ensure that the findings were robust and not dependent on any particular subset of the data.
The researchers created separate models to predict sex and gender based on the functional connectivity data. For sex predictions, the models included all participants, while for gender predictions, the models were trained separately for female and male children. This allowed the researchers to examine whether the brain connectivity patterns associated with gender were influenced by sex.
“The paper uses a type of artificial intelligence called machine learning to build a computer model that can predict a child’s sex at birth or self-reported and parent reported gender from their brain scan. In this way, they can determine which type of functional connectivity are associated with sex and gender,” explained Derek Hill, a professor at University College London who was not involved in the study.
The analysis revealed that certain brain networks are strongly associated with the sex assigned at birth. Specifically, the somatomotor, visual, control, and limbic networks exhibited significant functional connectivity patterns related to sex. These networks are crucial for various fundamental processes, including sensory and motor functions, visual processing, and emotional regulation. The strong association between these networks and sex suggests that biological sex has a pronounced influence on specific brain regions’ functional organization.
In contrast to the relatively localized sex-associated networks, the brain connectivity patterns associated with parent-reported gender were found to be more dispersed throughout the cortex. This dispersion indicates that gender, as reported by parents, involves a broader range of brain areas.
“We weren’t sure what to expect when we started looking at the associations between brain networks and gender,” Dhamala told PsyPost. “We thought there would be some sort of relationship but we didn’t know what that relationship would be given the limited prior research on this topic, so it was really exciting when we found that gender mapped onto such a dispersed set of brain networks. This tells us that the influences of gender are widespread throughout the brain, further emphasizing the need to really understand them.”
The study also highlighted notable differences in how gender-related brain connectivity manifested in children assigned female at birth versus those assigned male at birth. For female children, the strongest associations with parent-reported gender were observed in the temporal parietal and attention networks. These areas are involved in processing social information and attentional control, suggesting that gender identity and expression in female children might be closely tied to these cognitive processes.
In male children, the associations with parent-reported gender were more widespread, involving several networks including the default mode, limbic, dorsal and ventral attention, somatomotor, and visual networks. This broader distribution of gender-related connectivity patterns indicates that gender identity and expression in male children might be influenced by a wider array of brain functions, possibly reflecting different socialization experiences and expectations.
Another key finding was that male children exhibited greater alignment between their sex and gender compared to female children. This sex congruence refers to the extent to which an individual’s gender identity aligns with their assigned sex at birth. The study found that parent-reported gender scores were more closely aligned with the assigned sex in male children than in female children. This finding aligns with existing literature suggesting that societal pressures might lead male children to conform more strongly to traditional gender norms.
“In this study, we show that sex and gender map onto different brain networks,” Dhamala summarized. “This tells us that sex and gender are distinct not only in society, but also in biology. More broadly, moving forward in biomedical research, it’s critical that we differentiate between sex and gender in how we collect, analyze, and interpret our data and our research findings.”
The research also highlights the complexity of studying gender. “Sex is not binary,” Dhamala said. “However, because the participants in the dataset for whom we had complete imaging, sex ,and gender data either reported female or male assigned sex at birth, we treated sex as a binary. In the future, we hope to understand how other sexes also influence the brain.”
“Additionally, in terms of gender, although we considered it on a continuum, we only considered a single snapshot of a few aspects of gender. More work needs to be done to look at the associations between the brain and different aspects of gender (e.g., how you describe your own gender versus how others perceive your gender). We also need to acknowledge the fluid nature of gender and consider how that fluidity may also influence the brain throughout the lifespan.”
These findings have significant implications for understanding the neurobiological bases of sex and gender differences in behavior and health. By revealing the distinct brain networks associated with sex and gender, the study lays the groundwork for future research to explore how these influences interact and change over time, particularly through critical developmental periods such as puberty.
“This work opens a new line of research focusing on gender influences on brain and behavior, beyond just the influences of sex, with substantial implication for how people express themselves in the world and experience the world around them,” Dhamala explained. “In my own research laboratory, I’m really excited to look at how gender drives individual differences in our brains and our behavioral traits, with a particular focus on mental illnesses which have a distinct gender component to them.”
However, there is an important caveats to consider. The models failed to predict self-reported gender scores accurately in either children assigned female at birth or children assigned male at birth. In other words, while brain connectivity patterns were associated with parent-reported gender behaviors, they did not reliably correspond to the children’s own perceptions of their gender identity.
“This study reports relatively weak brain functional connectivity associations with parent-reported ‘gender’ over and above sex assigned at birth,” said Anne-Lise Goddings, an honorary senior clinical lecturer at Imperial College London (who was not involved in the study), in an statement to (https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-study-looking-at-sex-gender-and-brain-network-patterns-using-brain-imaging-in-children/) the Science Media Centre.
“It’s crucial when interpreting this study to contextualise that this ‘gender’ measure focuses mainly on how much parents report their children engaged in stereotypical ‘gendered’ play. Parents answered questions including about how much their child plays with ‘girl-type dolls such as Barbie,’ ‘boy-type dolls such as GI-Joe,’ ‘how much they play sports with girls (but not boys)’ and ‘with boys (but not girls),’ and how much they ‘imitate male and female TV and movie characters.'”
“This measure of gender doesn’t capture the broader concept of gender identity which incorporates an individual’s own feelings and perceptions of their identity,” Goddings continued. “In the absence of clear hypotheses or accounting for confounders, the findings of the study are of limited impact and should be interpreted with caution. Later Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development project (ABCD) study waves and other cohort studies may help to improve understanding of this complex topic.”
The study, “(https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adn4202) Functional brain networks are associated with both sex and gender in children,” was authored by Elvisha Dhamala, Dani S. Bassett, B.T. Thomas Yeo, and Avram J. Holmes.

(https://www.psypost.org/drivers-of-heavier-vehicles-are-more-prone-to-reckless-driving-study-finds/) Drivers of heavier vehicles are more prone to reckless driving, study finds
Jul 30th 2024, 16:00

A recent study published in (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-024-09733-7) Marketing Letters reveals a connection between the size of a vehicle and the driving habits of its owner. The study, conducted using national data from Israel, found that drivers of larger, heavier vehicles are more likely to receive speeding tickets, suggesting a tendency towards riskier driving behavior.
The research was sparked by the ongoing trend towards larger, heavier vehicles, such as SUVs and pickups, on the roads. While these vehicles are generally perceived to be safer for their occupants in the event of a crash, they pose a greater risk to pedestrians and other road users. The researchers wanted to understand if the increased sense of safety that comes with driving a larger vehicle could lead to more reckless driving habits.
The study leveraged comprehensive national data from the Ministry of Transport and Road Safety in Israel, encompassing all active passenger vehicles and police-issued speeding tickets over the course of 2018. This extensive dataset provided detailed information on each vehicle’s characteristics, such as mass, horsepower, fuel type, and the number of speeding tickets issued. The data represented 2,162,525 vehicles across 3,095 unique configurations, providing a robust foundation for the analysis.
To accurately determine the relationship between vehicle mass and speeding behavior, the researchers employed a two-stage least-squares (2SLS) regression model. This model was chosen to control for potential endogeneity, where riskier drivers might be more likely to purchase larger vehicles.
In the first stage, vehicle mass was predicted using an instrumental variable, the weighted average price of each vehicle configuration. In the second stage, the predicted vehicle mass was used to estimate its effect on the number of speeding tickets. This approach allowed the researchers to isolate the impact of vehicle size on speeding behavior while controlling for various other vehicle attributes such as horsepower, gear type, fuel type, and safety features.
The study revealed a significant positive association between vehicle mass and the number of speeding tickets. Specifically, the results indicated that for every one percent increase in vehicle mass, the expected number of speeding tickets per vehicle increased by 0.024. This suggests that drivers of larger, heavier vehicles are more prone to speeding violations.
Further analysis showed that this relationship held true across different types of traffic violations, not just speeding. This consistency across various infractions supports the notion that the perceived safety of larger vehicles leads to a broader increase in reckless driving behavior. For example, violations such as phone usage while driving, failure to fasten seatbelts, and disobeying traffic signals were also positively associated with vehicle mass.
To ensure robustness, the researchers conducted additional tests. They examined speeding tickets issued by both police cars and traffic enforcement cameras, finding consistent results across these different enforcement methods.
They also segmented the data by vehicle category and transmission type, observing the positive association between vehicle mass and speeding tickets in most segments. Moreover, an alternative instrumental variable, the vehicle’s towing capacity, was used in the analysis, and the findings remained consistent, further validating the robustness of the results.
The study, “(https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11002-024-09733-7) Is vehicle weight associated with risky driving behavior? Analysis of complete national records,” was authored by Aviv Steren, Stav Rosenzweig, and Ofir D. Rubin.

(https://www.psypost.org/this-common-mental-health-condition-increases-the-risk-of-dementia-by-74-study-linds/) This common mental health condition increases the risk of dementia by 74%, study finds
Jul 30th 2024, 14:00

A recent study published in the(https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/gps.6121)  International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry reveals a significant link between depression and an increased risk of developing dementia. Conducted over 15 years, the study found that people with depression at the start of the study were 74% more likely to develop dementia than those without depression. Additionally, the onset of dementia occurred about two years earlier in individuals with depression. These findings underscore the importance of early detection and treatment of depression to potentially prevent future cognitive decline.
The global population is aging rapidly, with the number of people aged 65 and older projected to double from 703 million in 2019 to 1.5 billion by 2050. This demographic shift is expected to lead to a significant increase in the number of people with dementia, from 47.5 million in 2015 to an estimated 135.46 million by 2050. With approximately 7.7 million new cases of dementia anticipated each year, understanding and mitigating risk factors for dementia has become a public health priority.
Dementia is a general term for a decline in cognitive function severe enough to interfere with daily life. It encompasses a range of symptoms, including memory loss, difficulty with problem-solving, language issues, and impaired reasoning and judgment.
Dementia is caused by damage to brain cells and can result from various diseases or conditions, with Alzheimer’s disease being the most common cause. While it primarily affects older adults, it is not a normal part of aging.
Previous research has suggested a possible link between depression and dementia, but the exact nature of this relationship has been debated. Some studies suggest that depression could be an early symptom of dementia, while others propose that it might be a risk factor or a complication of dementia. The current study aimed to clarify this relationship by examining whether depression at baseline increases the risk of developing dementia over a long-term follow-up period.
“I have been a geriatrician for about 10 years. I believe that to confirm in a large population study that depression could be a risk factor for dementia and mild cognitive impairment is of importance,” said study author Nicola Veronese, an associate professor at the University of Palermo.
“Depression, in fact, differently from dementia, is a condition sensitive to pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments. I hope that our study encourages further research in checking if to reverse depression is able to decrease the risk of dementia.”
The study utilized data from the (https://share-eric.eu/) Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), a large, multidisciplinary, cross-national panel study. The SHARE study includes a representative sample of individuals aged 50 and older from 27 European countries and Israel. The data was collected through multiple waves of the survey, beginning between 2004 and 2006 and continuing until 2019/2020.
Participants were assessed for depressive symptoms using the EURO-D scale, a 12-item questionnaire that measures various aspects of depression, including pessimism, sleep quality, and concentration. A score of 4 or higher on the EURO-D scale was indicative of depression.
The onset of dementia was determined through self-reports or reports from caregivers or family members, who were asked whether a doctor had diagnosed the participant with Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, or senility. Cognitive impairment was assessed using a combination of memory recall and verbal fluency tasks, with participants who performed significantly below age-graded norms being classified as cognitively impaired.
Among the 22,789 participants included in the study, 24.9% were identified as having depression at baseline. These participants were generally older, more likely to be female, less likely to be married or educated, and had higher rates of chronic diseases and limitations in daily activities.
Over the 15-year follow-up period, 1,419 participants developed dementia, corresponding to an incidence rate of 7.31 per 1,000 person-years. The study found that the presence of depression at baseline significantly increased the risk of dementia by 74%. This association was particularly strong in younger participants, with those under 60 years old being twice as likely to develop dementia if they had depression.
“The main take-home message is that depression has cognitive aspects that must be considered every time that we approach a person affected by this condition,” Veronese told PsyPost.
Interestingly, the study also found that specific symptoms of depression, such as loss of concentration, were strong predictors of dementia. Other symptoms, like pessimism and fatigue, were also associated with an increased risk, while poor sleep was not.
“I was surprised that not only depression, but also specific items of the tool used for the detection of depression may predict the onset of dementia,” Veronese said.
Despite its large sample size and long follow-up period, the study has some limitations. Firstly, the assessment of depression was based on self-reported symptoms rather than clinical diagnoses, which could introduce bias. Similarly, the diagnosis of dementia was also self-reported, which might not capture all cases accurately. The study did not distinguish between different types of dementia, which could have different risk profiles related to depression.
“The SHARE study was not designed to specifically explore the relationship between depression and dementia: their diagnoses are only based on tools or self-reported information that can introduce a bias in our findings,” Veronese explained.
Another limitation is the potential for reverse causation, where early symptoms of dementia could be mistaken for depression. Although the study attempted to address this by excluding cases of dementia diagnosed within the first five years of follow-up, this remains a possibility.
Future research should focus on confirming these findings in other populations and exploring whether treating depression can reduce the risk of dementia, Veronese said. Studies could also aim to identify the biological mechanisms linking depression and dementia. For example, examining the role of inflammation, hormonal changes, and genetic predispositions could provide insights into how these conditions are connected.
The study, “(https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.6121) Association between depression and incident dementia: Longitudinal findings from the share study,” was authored by Nicola Veronese, Lee Smith, Ai Koyanagi, Pinar Soysal, Christoph Mueller, Chiara Maria Errera, Giusy Vassallo, Laura Vernuccio, Giuseppina Catanese, Marco Solmi, Ligia J. Dominguez, and Mario Barbagallo.

(https://www.psypost.org/polyphenols-from-coffee-ameliorate-cognitive-deficits-caused-by-stress/) Polyphenols from coffee ameliorate cognitive deficits caused by stress
Jul 30th 2024, 12:00

A recent study published in (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352289524000377) Neurobiology of Stress found that chronic early-life stress can lead to neuroinflammation and reduce the capacity of the hippocampus to create new neurons, resulting in cognitive deficits. However, supplementing the diet with 0.02% chlorogenic acid and 0.02% caffeic acid—both coffee polyphenols—can mitigate these adverse effects in mice.
Coffee polyphenols are bioactive compounds with antioxidant properties found in coffee, including chlorogenic acids, flavonoids, and lignans. These compounds help protect cells from oxidative stress and reduce inflammation, which can lower the risk of chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Studies have also shown that coffee polyphenols can improve metabolic health by enhancing insulin sensitivity and reducing blood glucose levels. Additionally, they support cognitive function and may protect against neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Two key polyphenolic compounds in coffee are chlorogenic acid and caffeic acid. Chlorogenic acid is particularly abundant and has been linked to improved glucose metabolism and a reduced risk of chronic diseases. Caffeic acid, while less prevalent, also contributes to coffee’s health benefits by protecting cells from oxidative stress.
Study author Jorine Geertsema and her colleagues aimed to determine whether supplementing the diet of growing mice with chlorogenic and caffeic acid could protect against cognitive deficits induced by chronic early-life stress. Previous studies have shown that early stress can reduce the brain’s ability to produce new neurons (a process called hippocampal neurogenesis) and increase inflammation, leading to cognitive decline in adulthood. This study sought to explore the protective potential of coffee polyphenols against these adverse effects.
The study involved 47 male mice divided into four groups. Two groups were fed a standard grain-based diet, while the other two groups were given the same diet supplemented with 0.02% chlorogenic acid and 0.02% caffeic acid from the second to the forty-second day after birth. The mice were weaned at 21 days and continued on their respective diets until day 42, after which all groups were switched to a standard diet.
Within each pair of dietary groups, one group was exposed to early-life stress. This stress was induced by limiting the bedding material available to the mice and placing a steel grid mesh 1 cm above the bedding.
At four months of age, the mice underwent behavioral tests to assess their cognitive function. These tests included the object recognition task (ORT), the object location task (OLT), and the Morris water maze (MWM). After the behavioral tests, the researchers analyzed the mice’s brain tissue to determine the quantities of microglia cells (the brain’s immune cells) and the effectiveness of hippocampal neurogenesis.
The results showed that mice exposed to early-life stress gained less weight in the initial days of life. However, those that received the polyphenol-supplemented diet gained more weight during this period compared to those on the standard diet. By day 42, these weight differences had disappeared.
Behavioral tests conducted in adulthood confirmed that early-life stress led to cognitive deficits and a reduction in microglia cells in the hippocampus. However, this was only true for mice that were fed the standard diet. The mice on the polyphenol-supplemented diet did not exhibit these cognitive deficits or reductions in microglia cells.
The study authors believe that the coffee polyphenols protected the mice from cognitive deficits by supporting the survival of microglia cells in the brain. The protective effects could also be attributed to other mechanisms related to the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of chlorogenic and caffeic acids.
“The supplementation of polyphenols in a diet emerges as a promising avenue for nutritional intervention in the context of mitigating the detrimental cognitive effects of ES [early stress] in males which are associated with microglial changes,” the study authors concluded.
The study sheds light on the effects of two coffee polyphenols on ameliorating cognitive decline caused by early-life stress. However, this study was done on mice and not on humans. Although mice share many physiological similarities with humans, they are different species, and the effects on humans may not be identical.
Future research should investigate whether these findings can be replicated in humans and explore the precise mechanisms through which coffee polyphenols exert their protective effects. Additionally, it would be valuable to study the potential benefits of these compounds in females and their effects when administered at different life stages.
The paper, “(https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ynstr.2024.100641) Coffee polyphenols ameliorate early-life stress-induced cognitive deficits in male mice,” was authored by J. Geertsema, M. Kratochvil, R. González-Domínguez, S. Lefèvre-Arbogast, D.Y. Low, A. Du Preez, H. Lee, M. Urpi-Sarda, A. Sánchez-Pla, L. Aigner, C. Samieri, C. Andres-Lacueva, C. Manach, S. Thuret, P.J. Lucassen, and A. Korosi.

(https://www.psypost.org/do-voters-judge-candidates-by-race-heres-what-the-data-says/) Do voters judge candidates by race? Here’s what the data says
Jul 30th 2024, 10:00

Do voters assess political candidates differently based on their race or ethnicity? A recent meta-analysis, published in (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41269-022-00279-y) Acta Politica, sought to answer this by pooling data from 43 experiments conducted over the past decade. The findings reveal that, generally, voters do not assess racial or ethnic minority candidates differently from their white counterparts. These results challenge the notion that racial bias significantly impacts the electoral prospects of minority candidates.
The study, spearheaded by (https://equalstrength.eu/team/sanne-van-oosten/) Sanne van Oosten, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford specializing in voting behavior and diversity in politics, aimed to shed light on how voters perceive candidates of different racial and ethnic backgrounds. Previous studies had shown mixed results, with some suggesting that racial and ethnic minority candidates face discrimination, while others indicated that such candidates might benefit from positive stereotyping. The researchers sought to clarify these conflicting findings by pooling data from multiple experiments and conducting a comprehensive meta-analysis.
A meta-analysis is a statistical method that combines the results of multiple studies to derive a more comprehensive understanding of a particular research question. It is used to increase the overall sample size and statistical power, thereby providing more robust and generalizable findings than any single study alone. Meta-analyses are particularly useful for resolving inconsistencies across different studies and for identifying patterns and overall effects that might not be apparent in individual research projects.
To compile a robust dataset, the researchers conducted a systematic search of political science journals for candidate experiments published between 2012 and 2022. These experiments involved presenting respondents with profiles of fictional political candidates, with their race or ethnicity being randomly varied. Respondents were then asked about their voting preferences and their evaluations of the candidates.
The final selection included 43 studies, with data from over 305,000 observations. The researchers obtained original datasets from the majority of these studies and standardized the results for consistent analysis. For studies where datasets were unavailable, they used the published results. Most of the studies had been conducted in the United States.
The researchers found that, on average, voters did not significantly differentiate between racial or ethnic minority candidates and white candidates. The overall effect size of 0.235 percentage points in favor of minority candidates was not statistically significant, suggesting that race and ethnicity do not play a major role in voter assessments for most minority groups.
“I had expected major discrimination from voters. These outcomes were very surprising to me,” van Oosten told PsyPost.
When examining specific racial and ethnic groups separately, a more nuanced picture emerged. For instance, Asian candidates in the United States were evaluated slightly more positively than their white counterparts, with an effect size of 0.76 percentage points. Although this effect was statistically significant, it was substantively small, indicating only a marginal preference for Asian candidates.
The findings also highlighted the importance of shared racial or ethnic identity between voters and candidates. Voters tended to evaluate candidates of the same race or ethnicity 7.9 percentage points higher than candidates of different racial or ethnic backgrounds. This significant positive effect underscores the role of in-group favoritism in voter behavior, suggesting that voters feel a stronger connection to and preference for candidates who share their racial or ethnic identity.
“Don’t worry about nominating a woman or person of color, voters actually like that,” van Oosten said.
So why is there an underrepresentation of racial/ethnic minorities in politics? The researchers pointed to supply-side factors as a potential explanation for the underrepresentation of racial and ethnic minorities in politics. Despite the lack of significant voter bias against minority candidates, there might be fewer minority candidates available or selected for political office, which could contribute to their lower representation.
While the study provides comprehensive insights into how race and ethnicity influence voter evaluations, it is important to consider potential caveats. One significant limitation is the possibility of social desirability bias, where participants may underreport their biases to appear more socially acceptable, thereby skewing the results. Additionally, the study primarily measures first impressions of hypothetical candidates rather than actual voting behavior, which may not fully capture the complexities and dynamics of real-world elections.
Nevertheless, the findings challenge the notion that racial bias significantly disadvantages minority candidates in the eyes of voters. Instead, the slight preference for Asian candidates and the significant effect of shared identity suggest a more complex interplay of factors influencing voter behavior.
The study, “(https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41269-022-00279-y) Race/Ethnicity in Candidate Experiments: a Meta-Analysis and the Case for Shared Identification,” was authored by Sanne van Oosten, Liza Mügge, and Daphne van der Pas.

(https://www.psypost.org/scientists-prove-alfred-hitchcock-right-shedding-light-on-a-fundamental-aspect-of-anxiety/) Scientists prove Alfred Hitchcock right, shedding light on a fundamental aspect of anxiety
Jul 30th 2024, 08:00

Anticipation can be more terrifying than the actual event. This idea, famously captured by filmmaker and “master of suspense” Alfred Hitchcock, has now been scientifically explored by researchers at the University of California, Davis. Their recent study, published in the journal (https://doi.org/10.5334/cpsy.105) Computational Psychiatry, reveals that the hazard rate—the increasing likelihood that a negative event will occur as time passes—intensifies anxiety more than the actual probability of the event itself.
The motivation behind this study stemmed from a fundamental need to understand the mechanics of anxiety, a condition that affects a substantial portion of the global population. Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental health issues, often leading to significant distress and impairment in daily functioning.
Despite their prevalence, the underlying mechanisms, particularly how uncertainty exacerbates anxiety, remain poorly understood. This gap in knowledge inspired researchers at the University of California, Davis, to investigate how different aspects of uncertainty contribute to the intensity of anticipatory fear.
The researchers were particularly interested in the concept of hazard rate — the perceived likelihood of an adverse event occurring as time progresses. Traditional studies on anxiety often focused on the probability of an event, but the UC Davis researchers hypothesized that the timing of the uncertainty could play a crucial role in the intensity of anxiety experienced.
The study involved 42 volunteers who participated in a virtual environment. In this environment, they could receive mild electric shocks at unpredictable times. Participants were incentivized to stay in the environment with a small cash reward, earning one cent per second, but they had the option to leave at any time to avoid the shock.
To isolate the effect of hazard rate, the researchers created two distinct scenarios. In the first scenario, the shock could occur at any moment within a ten-second window, making the hazard rate high because the likelihood of the shock increased as time passed.
“If you know something is going to happen, as time goes on the hazard rate goes up because you know it didn’t happen earlier,” said senior author Andrew S. Fox, an associate professor of psychology at UC Davis. “The hazard rate is always going to be higher if you don’t know when it is going to happen.”
In the second scenario, there was a countdown to the shock, so participants knew exactly when the shock would occur, making the hazard rate low until the countdown ended. Both scenarios had the same overall probability of receiving a shock, but the perceived timing of the threat differed.
Participants’ behavior and self-reported anxiety levels were monitored throughout the experiment. The researchers measured how often participants chose to leave the environment to avoid the shock and collected subjective anxiety ratings at various points during the experiment. This allowed the researchers to compare the impact of high and low hazard rates on both the decision to avoid the shock and the experienced level of anxiety.
The researchers discovered that participants’ anxiety levels were more strongly influenced by the hazard rate than by the actual probability of receiving a shock. In the scenario where the shock could occur at any moment (high hazard rate), participants reported significantly higher levels of anxiety compared to the scenario with a countdown (low hazard rate). This was evident from both their self-reported anxiety ratings and their behavior.
Participants were more likely to opt out of the high hazard rate scenario to avoid the shock, despite the overall probability of receiving a shock being the same in both scenarios. This behavior indicated that the anticipation of a potential threat, when its timing was uncertain, was more anxiety-inducing than the certainty of an impending threat. The data showed that as the perceived likelihood of the shock increased over time, so did the participants’ anxiety, leading them to forgo the potential monetary reward to avoid the anticipated shock.
“At each experimental time point, the threat hazard rate mapped almost perfectly to our participants’ behavior, whereas the momentary threat probabilities had no predictive value whatsoever,” explained co-author Dan Holley, a graduate student. “The volunteers also reported feeling significantly more anxious in the higher hazard rate environment.”
These results suggest that our brains are wired to track hazard rates as a survival mechanism. This tracking likely evolved to help us anticipate and avoid threats in our environment, even if those threats are not immediate.
“Imagine a gazelle on the Serengeti,” Holley explained. “As a matter of survival, it could keep its head down and graze a little longer, but the tradeoff is that it’s a bit more likely to be attacked by a lion.”
The longer the gazelle grazes, the more the hazard rate increases. “Something in its mind must be tracking the hazard rate and guiding its behavior accordingly,” Holley said.
The study’s findings provide a clearer understanding of how uncertainty and the perception of increasing threat contribute to anxiety. By focusing on hazard rates, the researchers were able to pinpoint a specific aspect of uncertainty that drives anxiety, offering new insights that could inform more effective treatments for anxiety disorders.
“Our model echoes Hitchcock’s insight: Sustained anticipation of a negative event can lead to mounting anxiety as the hazard rate increases,” the researchers concluded. “Anxious psychopathology is often characterized by emotional distress in putatively safe contexts, leading to avoidance and missed opportunities. Our model suggests hazard rate estimates can disproportionately increase in response to imagined or exceptionally rare threats.”
“This opens the door to identifying the precise mechanisms that lead to maladaptive avoidance and emotional distress characteristic of pathological anxiety by dissociating the probability of threat, hazard rate computations, and uncertainty per se. This computational re-imagining of uncertainty—a transdiagnostic marker of anxiety—provides a tractable framework for basic and clinical research aimed at understanding, preventing, and treating these conditions.”
The study, “(https://cpsyjournal.org/articles/10.5334/cpsy.105) Temporal Dynamics of Uncertainty Cause Anxiety and Avoidance,” was authored by Dan Holley, Erica A. Varga, Erie D. Boorman, and Andrew S. Fox.

(https://www.psypost.org/public-display-of-offensive-political-products-linked-to-heightened-psychopathy/) Public display of offensive political products linked to heightened psychopathy
Jul 30th 2024, 06:00

Political tensions in the United States have brought to light a behavior known as “ideological poking.” This term refers to the public display of products that carry messages designed to offend political opponents. Recent research published in the (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2024.104516) Journal of Research in Personality has found a link between this behavior and one of the so-called Dark Triad personality traits: psychopathy.
Given the intense negative feelings and distrust between political groups in the United States, understanding why some individuals actively choose to display offensive political messages became a pertinent question. The researchers particularly focused on the Dark Triad traits — Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy — due to their known associations with aggressive and manipulative behaviors.
“Political polarization and the outgroup animosity it engenders are on the rise in the U.S. and abroad. Though individuals with darker personality traits have always existed, it’s important to understand whether and what role they play in contributing to current political tensions,” explained study author (https://www.linkedin.com/in/matejas-mackin-900a47149/) Matejas Mackin, a PhD student at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
To examine ideological poking, the researchers conducted two studies. They recruited participants from Prolific, an online platform, to ensure a diverse sample of U.S. residents. In the first study, 299 participants were surveyed, with a balanced representation of political affiliations (45% identified as Democrats and 48% as Republicans), gender (76% female and 24% male), and ethnic backgrounds.
To measure the Dark Triad traits, the researchers used the Dark Triad Dirty Dozen scale. This 12-item scale captures individual differences in these traits through statements such as “I tend to manipulate others to get my way” for Machiavellianism, “I tend to want others to admire me” for narcissism, and “I tend to be unconcerned with the morality of my actions” for psychopathy.
For the ideological poking measure, participants viewed eight bumper stickers with messages insulting political opponents. They were asked to rate their willingness to display each sticker in public using a seven-point scale. The stimuli were adjusted based on the participant’s political orientation to ensure relevance; Republicans saw bumper stickers insulting Democrats and vice versa (e.g. “Trump 2020: Make Liberals Cry Again,” “Against All Enemies; Foreign and Republican.”)
In the second study, 200 participants were again recruited from Prolific, maintaining a balanced political affiliation and demographic diversity. This study aimed to replicate and extend the findings of the first study with several improvements. Instead of using the Dirty Dozen scale, the researchers used the P7 and M7 scales for psychopathy and Machiavellianism, respectively, addressing concerns that the previous measures conflated the two constructs.
Participants also rated different types of ideological poking products, such as t-shirts, hats, and buttons, and indicated their willingness to display these products in various contexts, including in front of political ingroup members, outgroup members, and in private.
The findings from both studies revealed a consistent pattern. In the first study, psychopathy was the only Dark Triad trait that significantly predicted the willingness to display offensive political bumper stickers. This suggests that individuals with higher levels of psychopathy are more likely to engage in ideological poking.
“Dark dispositions are associated with more offensive forms of political expression,” Mackin told PsyPost. “In other words, while there are certainly social and political factors that contribute to more polarized forms of expression, the dispositions people bring to the table are also relevant”
The second study confirmed and extended these findings. Psychopathy again emerged as the strongest predictor of ideological poking, regardless of the audience context. Machiavellianism showed a weaker but still positive association with the willingness to display offensive products, hinting at some involvement. Narcissism, however, remained unrelated to ideological poking across all contexts.
“We found that psychopathy predicted the public display of offensive political products around both ingroup and outgroup members, suggesting that individuals with darker personality traits may use such products both to derogate political opponents and to affirm their ingroup,” Mackin noted.
Despite the insightful findings, there are some caveats to consider. For instance, the sample was limited to U.S. residents, raising questions about whether these findings are applicable to other cultural contexts. Future research could explore whether these patterns hold in different countries with varying levels of political tension. Researchers might also investigate other factors that could interact with personality traits to influence ideological poking, such as media consumption or social network influences.
“The ultimate goal of my work is to understand why we are polarized and develop interventions to address political polarization and the outgroup animosity it engenders,” Mackin said. “To be sure, disagreeing with and disliking the other side is often reasonable, but at the extreme it can fray the fabric of democratic society. Thus, understanding the social and dispositional factors that contribute to polarization is increasingly relevant and necessary.”
The study, “(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092656624000643) The Dark Triad predicts public display of offensive political products,” was authored by Matejas Mackin and Neal J. Roese.

(https://www.psypost.org/increased-brain-connectivity-in-male-cocaine-users-revealed-by-recent-neuroimaging-study/) Increased brain connectivity in male cocaine users revealed by recent neuroimaging study
Jul 29th 2024, 16:00

A recent study published in the (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2024.06.012) Journal of Psychiatric Research has unveiled disruptions in the brain connectivity of males with cocaine use disorder. This study found that male individuals with cocaine use disorder exhibit increased and more persistent brain connectivity in specific states, particularly within the default mode network, cognitive control network, and sensorimotor network. This heightened connectivity is linked to greater impulsivity and borderline personality traits, suggesting disruptions in self-regulation and emotional processing.
Cocaine use disorder affects millions globally, leading to severe health and societal consequences. Despite its prevalence, effective treatments are limited, partly due to insufficient understanding of the disorder’s neurological underpinnings.
Previous studies have explored static brain connectivity, but this research aimed to investigate the dynamic, time-varying patterns of brain connectivity in individuals with cocaine use disorder. By identifying these patterns, researchers hope to uncover specific neural mechanisms that could inform better treatments and interventions for this challenging condition.
They used data from the SUDMEX CONN dataset, which includes resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) scans of patients diagnosed with cocaine use disorder. The study involved 69 right-handed male participants: 38 with cocaine use disorder and 31 healthy controls. The participants with cocaine use disorder were selected based on stringent criteria, such as recent and regular cocaine use, ensuring a clear differentiation from casual users.
To process the MRI data, the researchers employed advanced techniques to enhance the quality and accuracy of the measurements. Functional connectivity was analyzed using group spatial independent component analysis (ICA), which helps identify independent networks within the brain. The dynamic nature of FC was captured through a sliding window technique, which examines changes in connectivity over time, rather than assuming it remains constant. This approach allowed the researchers to identify distinct connectivity states that the brain cycles through during the scanning period.
The study uncovered two primary connectivity states: a strongly-connected state and a weakly-connected state. In participants with cocaine use disorder, the strongly-connected state was more prevalent and lasted longer compared to healthy controls. This state exhibited increased connectivity within and between several brain networks, including the default mode network (DMN), cognitive control network (CCN), and sensorimotor network (SMN). This heightened connectivity, particularly within the DMN, suggested disruptions in processes such as self-referential thinking and emotion regulation, which are crucial in understanding the compulsive nature of cocaine addiction.
Further, the study revealed that increased connectivity between the CCN and SMN might indicate a reorganization of brain functions related to cognitive control and motor responses. This reorganization could impair decision-making and self-regulation, contributing to the heightened impulsivity observed in individuals with cocaine use disorder. The researchers also found enhanced connectivity between the visual network (VIS) and other networks, suggesting increased sensitivity to visual stimuli. This could lead to stronger drug cue reactivity, further exacerbating the addiction cycle.
In addition to these state-dependent changes, the study found correlations between the abnormal connectivity patterns and clinical measures of impulsivity and borderline personality traits. For instance, in the strongly-connected state, connectivity between the orbital part of the inferior frontal gyrus and the fusiform gyrus/middle occipital gyrus was negatively correlated with motor impulsiveness scores. This finding supports previous research indicating that disruptions in these brain regions contribute to impulse control deficits in substance use disorders.
While this study provides valuable insights into the dynamic brain connectivity of individuals with cocaine use disorder, several limitations should be noted. The study focused exclusively on male participants, limiting the generalizability of the findings to females. Additionally, the cross-sectional design of the study prevents causal inferences about the observed connectivity patterns. Longitudinal studies are needed to determine whether these connectivity changes precede or result from cocaine use.
The study, “(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S002239562400339X) Disrupted dynamic brain functional connectivity in male cocaine use disorder: Hyperconnectivity, strongly-connected state tendency, and links to impulsivity and borderline traits,” was authored by Zhaoyang Cong, Lin Yang, Ziyang Zhao, Guowei Zheng, Cong Bao, Pengfei Zhang, Jun Wang, Weihao Zheng, Zhijun Yao, and Bin Hu.

(https://www.psypost.org/attitudes-toward-womens-masturbation-linked-to-sexual-satisfaction-in-couples/) Attitudes toward women’s masturbation linked to sexual satisfaction in couples
Jul 29th 2024, 14:00

A new study published in (https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2024.2370943) The Journal of Sex Research sheds light on attitudes toward women’s masturbation within romantic relationships and its implications for sexual satisfaction. Researchers found that both women and their partners generally held positive views about women’s masturbation. For women, these positive attitudes were linked to higher sexual satisfaction for both themselves and their partners.
“Masturbation is a sexual activity that brings pleasure and can help women with orgasm difficulties. However, a stigma still exists around women’s masturbation, especially for those in relationships,” explained study author Dilan Kılıç Onar. “Although there has been more research on women’s masturbation recently, it is still not well-studied in the context of relationships. Traditional sexual norms that prioritize penetrative sex between partners often overshadow the importance of solo sexual activities.”
“Self-pleasure through masturbation is often seen as a normal, enjoyable, and healthy sexual activity. However, if it clashes with one’s and/or one’s sexual partner’s values (or society’s standards), it might bring feelings of guilt, shame, confusion, or conflict. These negative emotions can be even stronger in relationships due to the common beliefs that only single people masturbate and masturbation being acceptable only for boys and men.”
“How men in relationships with women view and feel about women’s solo masturbation is understudied but may influence women’s experiences and disclosure regarding their masturbation experience,” Kılıç Onar said. “Briefly, these are the main reasons why I wanted to explore the similarities and differences between partners’ attitudes about women’s solo masturbation and associations between each partner’s attitudes and sexual satisfaction.”
For their study, the researchers recruited 104 couples aged 18 to 65 years through social media and the online platform Prolific. Most participants were in relationships lasting between one to five years, predominantly White, and highly educated. Both partners in each couple completed a comprehensive online survey independently, ensuring privacy and minimizing potential bias in responses.
In addition to collecting demographic information, the survey included several key measures. First, participants completed the Revised Attitudes Toward Women’s Solo Masturbation Inventory (R-AWMI), which consisted of 27 items assessing beliefs and attitudes toward women’s solo masturbation. Responses were rated on a scale from 1 (not at all true) to 5 (extremely true), with higher scores indicating more positive attitudes. Additionally, the New Sexual Satisfaction Scale – Short Form (NSSS-S) was used to measure sexual satisfaction. This scale includes items related to self-related and partner-related sexual satisfaction, with higher scores denoting greater satisfaction.
To analyze the data, the researchers employed the Actor Partner Interdependence Model (APIM), a statistical approach that examines how each partner’s attitudes affect their own and their partner’s sexual satisfaction. This model accounts for the interdependence between partners, recognizing that one partner’s experiences and attitudes can influence the other’s.
The researchers found that both women and their partners reported similar and predominantly positive attitudes toward women’s solo masturbation. The average scores for attitudes toward women’s masturbation did not significantly differ between women and their partners, suggesting a shared perspective within couples.
“Most women and their partners (44%) in our study reported similar and positive attitudes about women’s solo masturbation,” Kılıç Onar told PsyPost. “Further, in 28% of the couples included in our study, the male partner reported more positive attitudes toward women’s solo masturbation compared to the female partner.
“We find these findings noteworthy because (https://doi.org/10.1080/0092623X.2020.1781722) a previous systematic review we conducted earlier highlighted some changes in women’s masturbation habits due to partner-related concerns when in relationships. The review showed that some women report shame and/or concerns regarding their partners’ reactions to, or perceptions of, women’s masturbation and a tendency to hide their solo self-pleasure experiences from their partner. However, our new findings suggest that by breaking down stigmas and promoting open communication about self-pleasure, couples can enjoy more fulfilling and satisfying sexual experiences.”
One of the key findings was the association between women’s positive attitudes toward their own masturbation and higher sexual satisfaction for both themselves and their partners. Women who had more favorable views on their solo masturbation reported greater sexual satisfaction, which in turn was associated with higher sexual satisfaction in their partners. This highlights the importance of women’s self-perception and acceptance of their own sexual behaviors in enhancing the overall sexual satisfaction within the relationship.
“Everyone deserves pleasure, whether alone or with a partner,” Kılıç Onar said. “Masturbation is not just a sexual activity for singles; it is actually very common among people in relationships. Incorporating women’s self-pleasure into the sexual narrative of relationships holds significant potential for enhancing sexual pleasure and satisfaction for both women and their partners.”
“Challenging the stigma and common misbeliefs around female masturbation is crucial because it plays an important role in sexual health. By fostering positive attitudes toward sexual self-care, we can build a more inclusive and sex-positive culture. The key to achieving this may lie in openly discussing pleasure and normalizing masturbation for everyone, in every context regardless of relationship status.”
“In a nutshell, embracing women’s self-pleasure is not only helping to break down old stigmas but also improving sexual satisfaction for both individuals and couples,” Kılıç Onar explained. “This approach encourages continuous exploration and adaptation within the sexual relationship, ensuring that both partners remain engaged and satisfied.”
“So, let’s continue to encourage and normalize women’s self-pleasure in relationships. Your body, your rules, your pleasure! Remember, sexual health is a crucial part of overall well-being. Let’s keep the conversation going and spread the love (and pleasure)!”
But the study, like all research, has limitations. The sample was predominantly White, well-educated, and recruited primarily through online platforms, which may limit the generalizability of the findings to more diverse populations. Additionally, the cross-sectional nature of the study means that it cannot establish causality, only associations.
Future research should aim to include more diverse and representative samples to better understand how attitudes toward women’s solo masturbation might vary across different demographic groups. Longitudinal studies would also be beneficial to explore how these attitudes and their effects on sexual satisfaction evolve over time.
“I plan to continue researching women’s sexual pleasure and couples’ sexual satisfaction, this time in Turkey as I will be starting a position as a Research and Teaching Fellow at Manisa Celal Bayar University in Turkey,” Kılıç Onar said.
The study, “(https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00224499.2024.2370943) (Dis)Similarities in Attitudes Between Partners About Women’s Solo Masturbation: A Dyadic Approach to Solo Masturbation and Its Associations with Sexual Satisfaction,” was authored by Dilan Kılıç, Heather L. Armstrong, and Cynthia A. Graham.

(https://www.psypost.org/virtual-reality-embodiment-illusions-may-help-the-skewed-perceptions-behind-body-image-disturbances/) Virtual reality ’embodiment illusions’ may help the skewed perceptions behind body image disturbances
Jul 29th 2024, 12:00

Most of the time, our brains are very good at blending together input from all our senses into a seamless, unified conscious experience of “my body”. When this process of integrating different sensory signals goes wrong, (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2017.08.006) according to one theory, it can give a person an inaccurate and distressing sense of their body called “body image disturbance”.
There are many kinds of body image disturbance, including dissatisfaction with our bodies or inaccurate perceptions of them. We don’t know a lot about how many people experience body misperceptions, but we do know body dissatisfaction is very common. A (https://butterfly.org.au/news/more-than-90-of-young-people-in-australia-have-some-concern-about-their-body-image/) survey of more than 1,600 Australians aged 12–18 carried out last year found almost half experienced dissatisfaction with their own appearance.
Body image disturbance is strongly linked to (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2019.101771) eating disorders and (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2022.07.006) body dysmorphic disorder (which involves perceived flaws in one’s appearance). Existing treatments for these disorders have high relapse rates.
In (https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2024-99093-001.html) our latest paper, my colleagues and I reviewed the evidence that a surprising approach may be able to help address the root cause of these disorders and potentially improve symptoms: “embodiment illusions”, which use virtual reality or other methods to trick the mind into feeling it inhabits a different body or body part.
Malleable body image
Perhaps the best-known embodiment illusion is the “rubber hand illusion”. If you show a person a rubber hand being stroked while simultaneously stroking their hand (which they cannot see), the combined visual and tactile sensations usually make the person feel like they “own” the rubber hand.
Using virtual reality, this illusion can also be extended to other body parts or even an entire body.
In our (https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2024-99093-001.html) systematic review of 32 earlier studies, we found compelling evidence that people with higher levels of body image disturbance tend to be more susceptible to such embodiment illusions compared to others.
Their greater malleability in remapping body image is consistent with theories suggesting body image disturbances involve impaired multisensory integration.
For example, reliance on vision over touch might lead a person to place more weight on seeing a thin reflection in the mirror than on feeling their own protruding ribs. This may be combined with expectations (such as “my body should be thinner”) overriding accurate sensory inputs.
Positive effects
We also found most studies showed tricking your brain into experiencing these illusions had some positive effects. Participants improved their perceptual distortions and distressing thoughts and emotions about body size and shape.
The idea is to experience an artificial body as one’s own, especially if that body appears to have a desirable shape or size. This can “update” an individual’s stubborn distorted mental representation about their actual physical appearance.
(https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0163921) One study involved women with anorexia nervosa using a healthy-weight virtual reality avatar. Afterward, they overestimated the size of their own (real) bodies less than before the experiment.
(https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0085773) Another study reported that healthy women felt thinner and less dissatisfied with their bodies after identifying with a thin virtual body.
New treatments needed
Treating conditions related to body image, such as eating disorders and body dysmorphic disorder, can be highly challenging. (https://theconversation.com/why-eating-disorder-treatments-only-work-half-the-time-according-to-a-psychologist-207322) Recovery can take a long time.
The first line of treatment for many such disorders is (https://doi.org/10.1111/imj.14691) cognitive behavioural therapy, which mainly targets negative thoughts, emotions and behaviours related to the body. However, relapse rates are high.
This is one reason to seek new supplementary treatments that directly address body misperception. This is where embodiment illusions that can shift distorted perceptions may be helpful.
Many questions remain
There are still many things we don’t know about how embodiment illusions may affect people with body misperceptions, such as how long potential treatments should last or how long their effects will persist. We also need better ways to measure body image disturbances. Another limitation of existing research is a bias towards participants from Western cultures.
Future research may also study “enfacement illusions”, which induce a sense of ownership over another face. These may help us understand and improve facial misperception, particularly in people with body dysmorphic disorders.
Messing with a person’s perception of their physical self is inherently risky. Research is also needed into potential adverse effects of these illusions, such as increases in misperception of body size or shape.
Ethical concerns exist, too. Could experiencing a “healthy-weight” body reduce an anorexic person’s motivation for gaining weight, even if they are dangerously underweight?
Despite these questions, the use of immersive illusions to temporarily remap body image shows promise. It may offer an innovative complementary approach for understanding and treating distressing body image distortions, alongside current treatments.
 
This article is republished from (https://theconversation.com) The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the (https://theconversation.com/virtual-reality-embodiment-illusions-may-help-the-skewed-perceptions-behind-body-image-disturbances-230867) original article.

(https://www.psypost.org/pulling-off-the-mask-of-sanity-psychopathic-patients-exhibit-reduced-mimicry-of-happy-facial-expressions/) Pulling off the ‘mask of sanity’: Psychopathic patients exhibit reduced mimicry of happy facial expressions
Jul 29th 2024, 10:00

Researchers from the Netherlands have uncovered new insights into the emotional processing deficits in psychopathic individuals. The study, published in the (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2024.06.032) Journal of Psychiatric Research, reveals that psychopathic patients exhibit significantly weaker short-latency facial muscle responses to happy expressions compared to non-psychopathic individuals. This impairment in mimicking emotional facial expressions may contribute to the well-documented empathy deficits observed in psychopathy, suggesting a potential biomarker for this personality disorder.
Psychopathy, a personality disorder characterized by a lack of affective empathy, poses significant challenges in both diagnosis and treatment. Given its association with a substantial proportion of violent crimes, understanding the roots of these empathy deficits is critical for developing effective interventions. One promising area of investigation is emotional mimicry, the automatic imitation of another person’s facial expressions, which is believed to play a foundational role in the empathy process.
Emotional mimicry is an essential component of human social interaction, facilitating emotional resonance and understanding between individuals. Previous research has suggested that deficits in emotional mimicry may be linked to empathy impairments in psychopathy. By studying the facial mimicry responses to emotional expressions, the researchers aimed to uncover specific deficits in the automatic processing of emotional cues among psychopathic individuals.
The study involved 24 male psychopathic patients and 21 male non-psychopathic controls, all from high-security forensic psychiatric hospitals in the Netherlands. The psychopathic patients were diagnosed using the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, a widely accepted diagnostic tool for assessing psychopathy. Participants were required to be in good physical health, between 18 and 60 years old, and have a minimum IQ of 80.
Participants were shown dynamic morphed pictures of happy and angry facial expressions while their facial muscle activity was recorded using electromyography (EMG). This technique measures muscle responses by detecting electrical activity, providing insights into the participants’ facial mimicry responses. The EMG recordings focused on two facial muscles: the zygomaticus major, which is responsible for smiling, and the corrugator supercilii, responsible for frowning.
The study followed a within-subject, double-blind, counterbalanced, cross-over design for the psychopathic patients. Each patient participated in two sessions, receiving either a dose of oxytocin or a placebo in the form of a nasal spray. The control group, however, did not receive any treatment and was tested in a single session.
The primary goal was to observe early facial mimicry responses within the first 600 milliseconds after exposure to the emotional stimuli. This period was chosen to capture the automatic, preconscious responses thought to be involved in emotional processing.
The study found significant differences in the facial mimicry responses between psychopathic patients and non-psychopathic controls. Specifically, psychopathic patients showed significantly weaker zygomaticus responses to happy faces compared to the control group. This difference was observed consistently within the first 600 milliseconds of exposure to the emotional stimuli, indicating a deficit in the automatic mimicry of positive emotional expressions.
The results for angry faces were less conclusive. While psychopathic patients exhibited weaker corrugator responses to angry faces, the difference did not reach statistical significance. This trend suggests that psychopathic individuals might also have impairments in processing negative emotions, but further research is needed to confirm this finding.
When examining the effects of oxytocin, the researchers found no significant differences in mimicry responses between the oxytocin and placebo conditions in the psychopathic patients. This result contradicted the hypothesis that oxytocin would enhance facial mimicry in psychopathic individuals. Although there was a trend toward stronger corrugator inhibition (i.e., relaxation) when viewing happy faces in the oxytocin condition, this difference was not statistically significant.
The study had some limitations that could be addressed in future research. First, the sample size was relatively small, which may limit the generalizability of the findings. Larger studies are needed to confirm these results. Additionally, the use of morphed facial expressions, which may appear less natural than real facial movements, could have influenced the participants’ mimicry responses. Future studies should consider using video recordings of natural facial expressions to assess mimicry more accurately.
“Notwithstanding these limitations, the current study provides several valuable insights into the relationship between psychopathy and facial mimicry,” the researchers concluded. “A unique point of this study is that we investigated a clinically identified and PCL-R confirmed group of forensic psychopathic patients who were not treated with medication like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, selective noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors, antipsychotics, or hormonal libido inhibitors. This study showed reduced mimicry of corrugator and zygomaticus of angry and happy expressions, respectively. This finding is consistent with the results obtained in a study with male adolescents with disruptive behavior disorders and high [conduct disorder] traits (van Boxtel et al., 2022), which leads us to posit a lifetime developmental deficit in short-latency mimicry in psychopathy…”
“Cleckley (1941) originally described the psychopath’s severe deficits in the behavioral, emotional, and interpersonal domains. He stated that psychopathic individuals have a ‘convincing mask of sanity’ and are unable to attribute genuine affective meaning to important experiences, despite their intact rational processes. Although further research is warranted, we assume that our study of short-latency facial mimicry has revealed some insight behind the masks of our group of psychopathic patients. One might also ask whether deficiencies in short-latency facial mimicry are a biomarker of psychopathy. EMG is an interesting parameter in that regard and we advocate future research on that application.”
The study, “(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022395624003595) Revealed masks: Facial mimicry after oxytocin administration in forensic psychopathic patients,” was authored by Ronald J.P. Rijnders, Anton van Boxtel, Minet de Wied, Jack van Honk, Maaike M. Kempes, and Peter A. Bos.

(https://www.psypost.org/223779-2/) Majority of men with alcohol dependence suffer sexual dysfunction, study finds
Jul 29th 2024, 08:00

A study of men in India with alcohol dependence showed that 67% of them also suffer from sexual dysfunction. Loss or lack of sexual desire was the most common issue, followed by erectile dysfunction. The paper was published in the (https://doi.org/10.1177/26318318241255801) Journal of Psychosexual Health.
Alcohol dependence syndrome, also known as alcohol use disorder, is a medical condition characterized by an inability to control or stop alcohol consumption despite adverse consequences. Individuals with alcohol use disorder experience a strong craving for alcohol, increased tolerance, and withdrawal symptoms when not drinking. This disorder can lead to significant impairments in daily functioning, including difficulties in personal relationships, work, and health. Chronic alcohol use can result in severe physical health issues such as liver disease, cardiovascular problems, and neurological damage.
Alcohol use has a complex relationship with sexual functioning. Some studies suggest that alcohol use can enhance the desire for sexual activity. However, long-term consumption of high amounts of alcohol tends to be associated with sexual dysfunction, as many studies report. Men with sexual dysfunction are often found to be chronically dependent on alcohol.
Study author Parth A. Soni and his colleagues wanted to examine how prevalent sexual dysfunctions are among male patients with alcohol dependence syndrome. They were also interested in the impact of the severity of alcohol dependence on the severity of sexual dysfunction. These authors note that studies report between 40% and 95% of men with alcohol dependence suffer from sexual dysfunction, but very few such studies have been done on the Indian population.
Participants in their study were 170 male patients with alcohol dependence recruited from the outpatient Department of Psychiatry at K. J. Somaiya Medical College, Hospital, and Research Centre, Sion, Mumbai. Their average age was 36 years. Around 50% of patients had only primary education, and 35% had secondary education. Over 85% were employed, and all patients were married.
These individuals completed assessments of alcohol dependence (the Alcohol Dependence Scale) and sexual functioning (the Arizona Sexual Experience Scale and the Sexual Dysfunction Checklist).
Results showed that 67% of patients had suffered from alcohol dependence for between 6-10 years, and 21% for more than 10 years. Additionally, 67% of participating patients had sexual dysfunction. Among sexual dysfunctions, loss or lack of sexual desire was the most frequent (45.88%), closely followed by erectile dysfunction, which was reported by approximately 40% of participants. The prevalence of premature ejaculation was 31.76%.
Furthermore, 35% of participants were dissatisfied with the frequency of sex they had, 23% with their own sexual function, and 10% were dissatisfied with their sexual relationship with their partners. The severity of alcohol dependence was not associated with the type of sexual dysfunction.
“Alcohol use was found to be associated with sexual dysfunctions, and lack of sexual desire was the most common sexual dysfunction,” the study authors concluded.
The study confirms the links between alcohol dependence and sexual functioning in a sample of Indian men treated at a psychiatric hospital for alcohol dependence. However, it should be noted that many individuals with alcohol dependence do not progress to clinical treatment and that sexual functioning data was self-reported. This leaves quite a bit of room for reporting bias to affect the results.
The paper, “(https://doi.org/10.1177/26318318241255801) Study of Sexual Dysfunctions in Male Patients with Alcohol Dependence Syndrome,” was authored by Parth A. Soni, Bindoo S. Jadhav, and Rishab Verma.

(https://www.psypost.org/stimulant-medications-normalize-brain-structure-in-children-with-adhd-study-suggests/) Stimulant medications normalize brain structure in children with ADHD, study suggests
Jul 29th 2024, 06:00

Researchers have found evidence that children with high levels of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms show structural brain abnormalities, but treatment with stimulant medications can normalize these differences. This study, published in (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-024-01831-4) Neuropsychopharmacology, compared brain structures among children with varying levels of ADHD symptoms and medication use, offering insights into how these medications may help beyond symptom management.
ADHD is a prevalent neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity, affecting about 5.3% of children worldwide. Children with ADHD often face significant challenges in social and academic settings, leading to a lower quality of life. Stimulant medications, which increase dopamine levels in the brain, are commonly prescribed to manage these symptoms.
Previous studies using structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have identified brain structural abnormalities in children with ADHD, particularly in regions related to saliency detection and reward processing, such as the insula and nucleus accumbens. However, the results of these studies have been inconsistent, with some suggesting that stimulant medications can normalize these brain abnormalities, while others find no significant changes. Many of these earlier studies had small sample sizes and limited reproducibility, which made it difficult to draw definitive conclusions.
The current study aimed to overcome these limitations by utilizing a large, diverse sample from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. By analyzing a more substantial and representative cohort of children, the researchers hoped to clarify whether stimulant medications can indeed normalize the brain structures associated with ADHD.
“It is a team effort for this project,” said study author (https://web.xidian.edu.cn/zhangyi/) Yi Zhang, a professor at Xidian University. “Our co-authors, Drs. Nora Volkow and Gene-Jack Wang, have used brain imaging methods to study the effect of psychostimulants (methylphenidate, Ritalin) on drug-naïve adult ADHD subjects since early 2000.”
“In this project, we take advantage of brain MRI data from the NIH-supported ABCD (Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development) database from 21 medical centers in the United States. The database includes brain imaging, clinical characteristics and behavioral data of children collected starting from about 9 years old. The ABCD project will follow up these children for 10 years. Our project used data from the early year (9-10 years old) of these children.​”
The sample consisted of 7,126 children aged 9-10 years, who were divided into three groups based on their ADHD symptoms and medication status:

Stim Low-ADHD: This group included 273 children with low ADHD symptoms who were receiving stimulant medication.
No-Med ADHD: This group comprised 1,002 children with high ADHD symptoms who were not receiving any medication.
Typically Developing Controls (TDC): This group consisted of 5,378 children with low ADHD symptoms who were not receiving any medication.

The researchers employed latent class analysis (LCA) to categorize the children based on their ADHD symptoms, using the Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (K-SADS) criteria. This method allowed the researchers to identify distinct subgroups of children with similar symptom patterns.
They also used linear mixed-effects models to analyze differences in brain structure among the three groups, while controlling for variables such as age, sex, race, socioeconomic status, body mass index, and family background. High-resolution structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to assess brain structures.
The study found significant differences in brain structures between the No-Med ADHD group and the other two groups. Specifically, children with high ADHD symptoms who were not on medication (No-Med ADHD) exhibited lower cortical thickness in the right insula and smaller subcortical volume in the left nucleus accumbens compared to both the stimulant-treated children (Stim Low-ADHD) and typically developing controls (TDC). These findings suggest that children with untreated ADHD have structural abnormalities in brain regions associated with saliency and reward processing.
In contrast, there were no significant differences in brain structures between the Stim Low-ADHD group and the TDC group. This indicates that stimulant medications may normalize the brain structural abnormalities associated with ADHD. The stimulant-treated children showed brain structures that were similar to those of typically developing children, suggesting that the medications not only alleviate ADHD symptoms but also potentially address underlying neurobiological deficits.
“We found children with ADHD appeared to have structural abnormalities in brain regions associated with saliency and reward processing,” Zhang told PsyPost. “Treatment with stimulant medications not only improved the ADHD symptoms but also normalized these brain structural abnormalities.​”
While these findings are promising, the study has some limitations. Firstly, it is cross-sectional, meaning it captures a snapshot in time and cannot definitively establish causation. Longitudinal studies following children over time are needed to confirm the long-term effects of stimulant medications on brain development.
Secondly, the study did not account for the dosage and duration of stimulant medication use, which could influence the extent of brain changes. Future research should consider these factors to better understand how different treatment regimens impact brain structure.
Additionally, the study only included children aged 9-10 years, so the findings may not apply to older children or adults with ADHD. Further research is needed to explore how these brain changes evolve with age and continued medication use.
“We shall follow up these children in next few years to understand their brain development,” Zhang said.
The study, “(https://www.nature.com/articles/s41386-024-01831-4) Stimulant medications in children with ADHD normalize the structure of brain regions associated with attention and reward,” was authored by Feifei Wu, Wenchao Zhang, Weibin Ji, Yaqi Zhang, Fukun Jiang, Guanya Li, Yang Hu, Xiaorong Wei, Haoyi Wang, Szu-Yung (Ariel) Wang, Peter Manza, Dardo Tomasi, Nora D. Volkow, Xinbo Gao, Gene-Jack Wang, and Yi Zhang.

(https://www.psypost.org/new-research-sheds-light-on-the-psychological-benefits-of-the-great-reconnection/) New research sheds light on the psychological benefits of the “Great Reconnection”
Jul 28th 2024, 16:00

The COVID-19 pandemic not only brought unprecedented challenges but also sparked a “great reconnection,” where individuals reached out to long-dormant connections using technology. A study published in the (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/02654075231222945) Journal of Social and Personal Relationships explored the diverse motivations behind these reconnections and their socioemotional benefits. The findings indicate that people who rekindled old relationships reported lower levels of depression and loneliness, particularly when they engaged in both deep and broad self-disclosure.
The early months of the COVID-19 pandemic were characterized by strict stay-at-home orders, leading to significant social isolation. The authors of the new study were interested in how this unique situation affected relational and communicative practices. They sought to understand why people decided to reconnect with past acquaintances and how these reconnections impacted their mental well-being.
“Stuck at home in the early days of the pandemic, our research team wanted to understand some of the social phenomena we were experiencing as a result of the stay-at-home orders at the time,” said study author Nicholas Brody, a professor of communication at the University of Puget Sound.
“As scholars of communication and technology, we were particularly interested in how and why people were reaching out to reconnect with old friends and loved ones with whom they had not reconnected in quite some time. Other researchers had studied this process of relational reconnection, and we thought it would be interesting to extend their research to see if there were mental health-related benefits to reaching out to old friends in a moment in which people were struggling due to disconnection.
“As a team, we had been studying communication and technology in relationships for a decade, and suddenly faced with a moment in which people were more or less forced to use technology to stay connected, it was an opportune time to examine these sorts of questions. ”
For their study, the researchers recruited 254 participants via Amazon Mechanical Turk, an online platform that allows for rapid data collection from a diverse sample. The participants averaged 34.72 years of age, with a nearly even split between males and females. They were asked whether they had reconnected with someone from their past using communication technologies such as social media, text messaging, video calls, or email during the pandemic.
Participants who reported reconnecting with someone were asked to focus on the most significant reconnection they had experienced. They provided detailed narratives about their motivations for reaching out, the nature of their relationship with the reconnected person, and the communication methods they used. To measure the socioemotional outcomes of these reconnections, the researchers assessed the breadth (number of topics) and depth (intensity) of their conversations, as well as their levels of depression and loneliness.
The researchers identified several primary motivations for why individuals chose to reconnect with others during the pandemic. The most frequent motive was addressing relational dormancy, where participants sought to revive friendships or familial ties that had become inactive over time. Many participants expressed a desire to check in on old friends and catch up on their lives, reflecting a need to rebuild and maintain these relationships.
Another significant motivation was health-related concerns. Given the health risks associated with COVID-19, many participants reached out to ensure the well-being of friends and family members. This health check motive was driven by genuine concern for others’ safety and mental health during the pandemic.
Nostalgia also played a crucial role in motivating reconnections. Participants often reminisced about positive past experiences and found comfort in reconnecting with individuals who were part of these cherished memories. This nostalgic drive helped alleviate the isolation and stress associated with the pandemic.
Other motives included seeking support—whether emotional, financial, or professional—and making amends for past conflicts. Some participants sought advice or assistance from their reconnected contacts, while others aimed to resolve lingering issues and heal relational rifts. Additionally, a few participants reconnected to share significant life events or changes, such as births, marriages, or job changes.
The researchers found that the most commonly used platform for initiating reconnections was Facebook, including its messenger service. This platform’s extensive reach and user-friendly interface made it a popular choice for rekindling old relationships. Other frequently used channels included text messaging, phone calls, other social media platforms like Instagram, and video calls. The choice of communication channel often reflected the level of intimacy and the ease of initiating contact.
Importantly, Brody and his colleagues found significant socioemotional benefits associated with reconnecting during the pandemic. Participants who engaged in both deep and broad self-disclosure with their reconnected contacts reported lower levels of depression and loneliness. Depth of self-disclosure involved sharing intimate, personal information, while breadth covered a wide range of topics. These comprehensive and meaningful conversations contributed to better mental health outcomes.
Furthermore, the researchers found that participants who engaged in extensive self-disclosure were more likely to anticipate future interactions with their reconnected contacts. This positive outlook on maintaining the rekindled relationships suggests that these reconnections were not just temporary measures during the pandemic but had the potential for long-term relational benefits.
“We found that in the early days of the pandemic when individuals reached out to people from their past with whom they had not talked to in some time, they tended to report lower levels of depression and loneliness,” Brody told PsyPost. “This was true of engaging in both in-depth, intimate conversations and broad, topical conversations. Important to note is that, due to stay-at-home guidance, these conversations were almost exclusively carried out through technology such as social media, text messaging, video calls, and email.”
“Further, we investigated the motivations for reconnecting with people, and the primary reasons related to a desire to rekindle an important relationship from the past that had become dormant, to do a health check because of the pandemic, or for reasons of nostalgia.”
“Overall, these findings underscore the potential mental health benefits of communication technology usage, especially during stressful times. Further, most theories and research on self-disclosure focus on face to face conversations and investigate new friendships and relationships. This study demonstrated that the same processes largely hold when rekindling a lapsed relationship.”
However, the unique circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic may limit the generalizability of the findings to other contexts. Reconnection during a global crisis might differ from reconnection in more typical times.
“Of course, these findings are somewhat limited because data was gathered during the early days of COVID-19, which was a once-in-a-generation type of event that required people to remain largely socially distant,” Brody said. “It was also cross-sectional. Future research should examine these processes in a longitudinal manner.”
The study, “(https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075231222945) The great reconnection: Examining motives for relational reconnection and investigating social penetration as a predictor of well-being,” was authored by Nicholas Brody, (https://www.kateblackburn.us/) Kate Blackburn, and (https://news.ua.edu/ua-theme-expert/leah-e-lefebvre/) Leah LeFebvre.

(https://www.psypost.org/authentic-ayahuasca-rituals-sought-by-tourists-often-ignore-indigenous-practices-and-spiritual-grounding/) ‘Authentic’ ayahuasca rituals sought by tourists often ignore Indigenous practices and spiritual grounding
Jul 28th 2024, 14:00

Ayahuasca, a (https://daily.jstor.org/the-colonization-of-the-ayahuasca-experience/) sacred drink made from the stem and leaves of a tree vine, has many names: psychedelic brew, hallucinogenic tea, mood medicine and more. It is even known as a teacher or a healer for its reported ability to help a person turn inward and come into alignment with past traumas.
The plant and the rituals associated with it have deep roots in South American shamanic traditions. But in the past few decades, stories about the spiritually enhancing magic of ayahuasca have made their way to Europe and North America.
Lauded for its transcendent healing powers by celebrities such as (https://www.today.com/health/what-ayahuasca-lindsay-lohans-cleanse-probably-illegal-causes-vomiting-1d79574411) Lindsay Lohan, athletes such as (https://www.menshealth.com/fitness/a42192219/aaron-rodgers-ayahuasca-interview/) Aaron Rodgers and successful businessmen such as (https://www.iflscience.com/elon-musk-says-people-should-open-psychedelics-61138) Elon Musk, the psychotropic allure of the plant now calls to hundreds of thousands of non-Indigenous consciousness-seekers globally. More and more ayahuasca retreats are popping up around the world.
Indigenous peoples in South America – primarily in Peru, Brazil and other parts of what is considered the Upper Amazon – have been using ayahuasca for medicinal and religious purposes since at least 900 B.C.E. (https://www.academia.edu/44799913/4P_9a_Drink_enema_rituals_in_ancient_Maya_art_Part_one_text) Hieroglyphic paintings depict the use of the sacred brew in a ceremony from the period of 900-250 B.C.E. Western interest in ayahuasca, however, has created some challenges for local Indigenous communities.
As a medical anthropologist, (http://www.pardismahdavi.com/) I have spent the past quarter century studying the ways in which culture affects how people view and make decisions about their bodies.
Through researching the connections between sexuality, drugs and cultures, I have come to understand the role of plant medicines like ayahuasca for individuals and communities.
Dying to awaken
Anthropologist of shamanism (https://michaelwinkelman.com/) Michael Winkelman (https://doi.org/10.5040/9798216014133) describes ayahuasca as a “psychoindicator,” a substance that integrates emotion and thought processes.
According to Western scientific interpretations, the primary function of the substance allows a stripping away of a person’s egocentric, conscious understanding of the world. Seekers “die unto themselves,” is what a shaman told me.
In an altered state of consciousness, it is believed that the person can tap into their true wants and experiences and begin the process of deeper healing, awakening or spiritual cleansing.
Traditionally, anthropologists (https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/ayahuasca-shamanism-shared-across-cultures) note that ayahuasca has been used in South America to unlock information coming from unseen realms. Specifically, it was often called upon for divination, artistic inspiration, strategic insights, healing and shamanic journeys.
Plant medicine
While thousands of tourists flock to South America from all over the world each year in search of an “authentic” ayahuasca ritual, the exact tenets of the ritual today are somewhat under debate, though a few common themes do emerge.
Most (https://www.ayahuascafoundation.org/ayahuasca-ceremony) scholars and Indigenous and non-Indigenous healers agree that the plant should be cared for and treated by a plant expert called an “ayahuascero,” who after a lengthy eight- to 10-hour brewing process prepares a mudlike tea for consumption.
The medicine is brought to the seekers during a ceremony, typically held in the evening around a sacred fire. A healer called a “curandero” calls to the spirit worlds for protection at the start of the ceremony. The healer then faces the four directions of north, east, south and west and uses a branch of the vine along with a rattle made of the ayahuasca tree to sing the “icaros,” or healing songs.
Typically, purging begins after 20 minutes to an hour. For some people, this purging takes the form of vomiting or bowel voiding. The purging of energy that some experience physically, others experience emotionally in the form of laughter, crying, shaking or screaming into the wind. This is then sometimes followed by a movement into hallucination or a connection with the inner self where the outer world starts to fall away.
And while each person describes slightly different experiences, recurring themes include ego death – wherein people see themselves without attachment to material things or status – visions of past selves and lives, waves of healing energy, and painful moments of reckoning with past wounds.
Cultural quagmire
In the spring of 2018, a (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/29/peru-double-murders-ayahuasca-tourism-sebastian-woodroffe) double murder in the Peruvian Amazon rocked the ayahuasca shamanic community and cast a dark shadow on the hallucinogenic brew. Olivia Arevalo, a beloved 95-year-old curandero, was killed by a Canadian ayahuasca tourist named Sebastian Woodroffe. The death of Arevalo, heralded as the grandmother of the Shipibo-Kobibo tribe, caused outrage among the community, (https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/sebastian-woodroffe-death-ayahuasca-peru/) and Woodroffe was lynched by a mob.
These incidents sparked (https://www.sapiens.org/culture/ayahuasca-tourism-amazon/) widespread debates about non-Indigenous tourists flocking to the Amazon to imbibe the psychedelic tea: Spiritual seekers don’t always respect boundaries and processes set by local healers – the above incident being an extreme example.
Namely, as anthropologist (https://www.monmouth.edu/directory/profiles/veronica-davidov/) Veronica Davidov (https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137355386_7) points out, as the use of ayahuasca increases among non-Indigenous individuals, the creation of “entheogen tourism” – travel for the purposes of spiritual awakenings – raises questions about the importance of spiritual contexts in these ceremonies.
As Peruvian archaeologist and healer (https://www.shamanicspace.com/who-we-are) Ruben Orellana argues, ayahuasca rituals were developed within particular cultural contexts for Indigenous peoples. Without context, non-Indigenous seekers can veer into the territory of cultural appropriation at best, while also exposing themselves to the mental and physical health risks of the psychedelic brew.
(https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2016/jun/07/peru-ayahuasca-drink-boom-amazon-spirituality-healing) Spiritual tourism critics also note that many of the lodges are not owned by locals and that the influx of tourists has had a negative effect on the ecosystem. Local economies don’t always benefit from the capital flowing into the area when outsiders become the middle man, even while local resources are being consumed.
Not only are the intricacies of the cultural experience not always respected or appreciated, but the ecosystem suffers from this entheogen tourism when demand for the plant results in overharvesting of the Banisteriopisis caapi vines of the ayahuasca trees.
Harmonizing and healing
While worries about cultural appropriation are not necessarily misplaced, scholars such as (https://daily.jstor.org/the-colonization-of-the-ayahuasca-experience/) Mark Hay note that none of this means that Westerners need to avoid the plant medicine altogether.
Hay and others note that the mental health benefits of the plant are many and can (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-61169-x) be combined with Western approaches to illnesses such as treatment-resistant depression. Similarly, the healing powers of ayahuasca can be harmonized with Western approaches to mental health treatment and spirituality.
This harmonization is not unlike the many urban Catholic Brazilians who combined Indigenous rituals with Christianity. In the early 20th century, at least (https://newhumanist.org.uk/articles/5509/the-rise-of-brazils-santo-daime-religion) three new and distinct ayahuasca religions were born in Brazil: The Santo Daime, the Barquinha and the Uniao do Vegetal came to areas where shamans had been practicing ayahuasca rituals for hundreds of years before Christianity arrived. These religions fused Christianity with earth-based spirituality as they emphasized the role of the Holy Trinity in giving humans healing plants.
Church leaders (https://chacruna.net/santo-daime-ayahuasca-christianity-mestre-irineu/) also emphasized that the plants allowed them to get closer to God, noting that Christ spoke to them through the psychedelic brew. As a result, the practices took root with Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities living in South America.
These adaptations can provide a road map to approach ayahuasca with the appropriate reverence for its cultural and spiritual grounding.
 
This article is republished from (https://theconversation.com) The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the (https://theconversation.com/authentic-ayahuasca-rituals-sought-by-tourists-often-ignore-indigenous-practices-and-spiritual-grounding-231907) original article.

(https://www.psypost.org/dutch-women-but-not-men-in-same-sex-relationships-are-more-likely-to-commit-crime-study-finds/) Dutch women, but not men, in same-sex relationships are more likely to commit crime, study finds
Jul 28th 2024, 12:00

A study in the Netherlands found that women in same-sex relationships have 56% higher odds of being suspected of committing crimes compared to their peers in opposite-sex relationships. In contrast, men in same-sex relationships had 32% lower odds of being suspected of committing crimes compared to men in opposite-sex relationships. The paper was published in the (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-024-02902-9) Archives of Sexual Behavior.
Sexual minority groups generally face an elevated risk of various types of adversity. Studies show that they are more likely to have been abused in childhood, to have been victims of crime, and to suffer from substance use disorders and other psychiatric disorders. They are also more likely to commit suicide.
Individuals prone to crime and antisocial behaviors also tend to have increased odds of these same adverse outcomes. This suggests an association between being a sexual minority and being involved in crime or antisocial behavior.
Study author Steve G. A. van de Weijer and his colleagues wanted to explore the links between having a same-sex relationship and being involved in crime. They also wanted to know whether this link is general or specific to certain crimes. In other words, are individuals in same-sex relationships more (or less) prone to committing specific types of crimes compared to their heterosexual peers?
Starting from a theory that sexual minority individuals are exposed to more stress as they grow up, the study authors hypothesized that these individuals would be more likely to have committed criminal offenses compared to their heterosexual peers. Also, based on theories explaining the social and behavioral specificities of sexual minorities as effects of sexual hormones (mainly testosterone), the study authors hypothesized that women in same-sex relationships would be more likely to commit crimes, but that this likelihood would be lower for men in same-sex relationships.
The authors analyzed data from Statistics Netherlands, a Dutch governmental institution that gathers statistical information about the Netherlands. Data about whether a person is in a same-sex or opposite-sex relationship and about criminal behavior also came from government databases. In total, the study used data from over 3.5 million individuals, 2% of whom were in a same-sex relationship at least once (around 75,000 people). 15% of these participants were suspected of committing a crime at least once between 1996 and 2020. 90% of those accused were also found guilty by a judge or paid a fine.
Results showed that 22% of men in opposite-sex relationships were suspected of committing a crime at least once. This was the case with only 14% of men in same-sex relationships. In contrast, 7% of women in opposite-sex relationships were crime suspects at least once in their lives, while this was the case with just below 9% of women in same-sex relationships.
This pattern was found for all types of crime except drug offenses. 0.5% of women in both heterosexual and same-sex relationships were accused of this type of crime.
“The results of the study suggested that men in opposite-sex relationships were more often suspected of crime than were men in same-sex relationships, while women in opposite-sex relationships were less often suspected of crime than women in same-sex relationships,” the study authors concluded.
The study sheds light on the links between crime and sexual orientation. However, these links probably also depend on the cultural context and the status of sexual minorities in a society. Therefore, statistics might be different in other cultures. Additionally, not all criminal behaviors result in legal prosecution. This difference between crimes actually committed and those which were prosecuted and for which a suspect has been identified could have produced a certain bias.
The paper, “(https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-024-02902-9) Same‑Sex Relationships and Criminal Behavior: A Total Population Study in The Netherlands,” was authored by Steve G. A. van de Weijer, Sjoukje van Deuren, and Brian B. Boutwell.
(Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that women in same-sex relationships “have 69% higher odds” of committing crimes compared to their peers in opposite-sex relationships. The correct percentage is 56% higher odds, based on the multivariate analysis.)

(https://www.psypost.org/misophonia-linked-to-alterations-in-attentional-processing/) Misophonia linked to alterations in attentional processing
Jul 28th 2024, 10:00

Misophonia, a condition characterized by extreme reactions to specific sounds, affects many individuals, causing significant distress. A new study published in the (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2023.11.088) Journal of Affective Disorders sheds light on this poorly understood condition, revealing that young people with misophonia exhibit heightened attentional processing. This finding supports the idea that misophonia is linked to an increased state of vigilance, making affected individuals more aware of environmental stimuli.
Misophonia often begins in childhood or adolescence, severely impacting daily life and well-being. Despite its prevalence, there is no consensus on whether it should be classified as a psychological, neurological, or audiological condition. With no effective pharmacological treatments available, and only emerging psychological therapies, this study sought to identify the neurocognitive aspects of misophonia to help develop targeted interventions.
The study involved 161 children and adolescents, split into two groups: 72 with misophonia and 89 with anxiety disorders. The participants completed the Immediate Memory Task (IMT), designed to measure attentional processes. This task required participants to determine if a five-digit target sequence matched a previously shown cue sequence. Four types of trials were used: matching sequences, near matches (one digit difference), completely different sequences, and sequences that were parts of a longer ten-digit number.
Additionally, the study collected data on clinical and behavioral measures, such as misophonia and anxiety scales, to assess the influence of symptoms on task performance. Researchers analyzed response accuracy, reaction times, and the participants’ ability to discriminate between target and non-target stimuli using signal detection theory.
The results showed that participants with misophonia had a higher rate of accurate detections (hits) compared to false alarms, indicating better stimulus discriminability than those with anxiety disorders. This heightened sensitivity aligns with the theory that misophonia involves an increased state of vigilance.
Interestingly, while response sensitivity was higher in the misophonia group, there were no significant differences in other performance metrics, such as reaction times or general accuracy, between the two groups. This suggests that the heightened vigilance in misophonia specifically affects the ability to detect subtle differences in stimuli, rather than overall attentional performance.
The study also found a positive correlation between the number of misophonic triggers reported by participants and their response sensitivity. This supports the idea that individuals with misophonia are more attuned to their environment in an attempt to avoid triggering sounds.
Despite its insightful findings, the study had several limitations. Firstly, the absence of a healthy control group makes it difficult to draw definitive conclusions about the unique effects of misophonia compared to other conditions. Additionally, the study used numerical stimuli for the IMT, which may not fully capture the broader perceptual processes involved in misophonia, which often relates to auditory triggers.
Future studies should also explore the developmental trajectory of misophonia, examining how attentional processes evolve from childhood into adulthood. Longitudinal studies could help determine whether heightened vigilance precedes the onset of misophonia or develops as a result of living with the condition.
Finally, there is a need to investigate how attentional processes interact with other cognitive functions and how these interactions contribute to the distress and impairment seen in misophonia. Understanding these relationships could inform the development of more effective treatments.
Nevertheless, the study highlights the role of heightened vigilance in misophonia, providing valuable insights into the condition’s neurocognitive underpinnings. By demonstrating that young people with misophonia exhibit increased attentional sensitivity to environmental stimuli, the findings support the need for targeted interventions that address these specific cognitive processes.
The study, “(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165032723014544) Alterations in attentional processing in youth with misophonia: A phenotypical cross-comparison with anxiety patients,” was authored by Nicholas Murphy, Marijn Lijffijt, Andrew G. Guzick, Matti Cervin, Jane Clinger, Eleanor E.A. Smith, Isabel Draper, Catherine E. Rast, Wayne K. Goodman, Sophie Schneider, and Eric A. Storch.

(https://www.psypost.org/new-study-on-ai-assisted-creativity-reveals-an-interesting-social-dilemma/) New study on AI-assisted creativity reveals an interesting social dilemma
Jul 28th 2024, 08:00

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing many aspects of our lives, from customer support to artistic creation. A new study published in (https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adn5290) Science Advances provides insight into how these AI systems, specifically large language models, impact human creativity in writing. The findings suggest that AI can enhance the perceived creativity and quality of short stories, particularly for less inherently creative writers, but it also raises concerns about the potential homogenization of creative outputs.
Creativity is a cornerstone of human expression and innovation, yet the advent of generative AI technologies has begun to challenge traditional views on the uniqueness of human-created content. In their new study, (http://www.anilrdoshi.com) Anil Doshi (an assistant professor at UCL School of Management) and (http://www.oliverhauser.org) Oliver Hauser (a professor and deputy director of the Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at University of Exeter) aimed to investigate how generative AI affects individuals’ ability to produce creative written content, specifically focusing on short fiction.
“We were both excited by the potential of generative AI,” the researchers told PsyPost. “We both thought there would be an opportunity to work in an area of common interest. Why we focused on the question of creativity: because generative AI is such a new and potentially transformative technology, we wanted to focus on a core characteristic of being human—that is, our ability to be creative and express new ideas and output.”
The researchers recruited 500 participants from the Prolific platform, an online research participant pool. They ensured a reliable sample by including only participants with a high approval rating and based in the United Kingdom. After accounting for dropouts and exclusions, 293 participants completed the study.
Participants were randomly assigned one of three writing topics: an adventure on the open seas, an adventure in the jungle, or an adventure on a different planet. They were instructed to write an eight-sentence story suitable for a teenage and young adult audience. The participants were further divided into three groups based on the availability of AI assistance:

Human-only group: This group wrote their stories without any AI input.
Human with one AI idea group: Participants could request a single, three-sentence story idea from OpenAI’s GPT-4 model.
Human with five AI ideas group: Participants could request up to five story ideas from the same AI model.

After completing their stories, participants rated their own work on various stylistic attributes, including creativity and enjoyability. The stories were then evaluated by a separate group of 600 individuals from the same online platform. These evaluators assessed the creativity, quality, and originality of the stories without knowing whether the stories were written with AI assistance.
The researchers found that stories written with access to AI-generated ideas were rated higher in creativity, quality, and enjoyability compared to those written without AI assistance. This enhancement was particularly notable among participants with lower inherent creativity. For these less creative writers, having access to multiple AI ideas resulted in substantial improvements in both the novelty of their stories. These improvements brought their work to a level comparable to that of more inherently creative participants.
“We find that getting ideas from generative AI improves the creativity of a story,” Doshi and Hauser told PsyPost. “What surprised us was that almost all of the increase in creativity was experienced by the least creative writers in our sample. Not only that, but getting multiple AI ideas put the assessed creativity of their stories on par with those who are the most creative in our sample. We saw a clear ‘level the playing field’ effect of getting AI ideas on the creativity of the story.”
A downside of using AI-generated ideas, however, was the increased similarity among the stories. The researchers found that stories from the AI-assisted groups were more alike both to each other and to the AI-generated ideas. This raises concerns about the potential homogenization of creative outputs if AI tools become widely used. The increased similarity suggests that while AI can enhance individual creativity, it might do so at the expense of collective diversity and novelty in creative works.
Another interesting finding was the discrepancy between participants’ self-assessments and the external evaluations of their stories. Participants who used AI assistance did not rate their own stories as more creative or enjoyable compared to those who did not use AI. However, external evaluators consistently rated the AI-assisted stories higher. This suggests that individuals might not fully recognize the enhancements provided by AI to their creative outputs.
“Generative AI tools, like ChatGPT, improve the average creativity of a writer’s story, but collectively, stories that had AI ideas looked more like one another than those that did not receive AI assistance,” Doshi and Hauser said. “So there are potentially significant implications — both positive and negative—for individuals and society as a whole.”
The researchers added that the findings point to a social dilemma: “Individual stories are evaluated as being more creative, so people looking to improve their writing might turn to AI. But, if we all do so, then the collective novelty of ideas decreases, which may not be desirable from society’s viewpoint.”
The study highlights both the potential benefits and risks of AI-assisted creativity. But as with all research, there are some caveats to note.
“Our study included a specific use of AI in order for us to better control the experiment,” the researchers explained. “We controlled the prompt and we did not allow for participants to interact with the AI. We did so because we did not want to create a situation where, say, better writers can provide better prompts to elicit better ideas from AI and they write better stories. That would ‘break’ our goal of identifying a causal effect of AI ideas on creativity. So, there is opportunity to build on our work and understand how different prompts and interactions play a role in the creative process.”
“We are developing a research agenda around generative AI to understand how it might be use in a broad array of economic activities,” Doshi and Hauser added. “For example, we are thinking working on a project to look at how AI assists with creation of new ideas in different settings, such as the development of a company’s strategy. We are also looking at how different types of people might respond differently to generative AI. Overall, our goal is to provide research that organizational and societal leaders can use when considering their own AI policies and strategies.”
The study, “(https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adn5290) Generative AI enhances individual creativity but reduces the collective diversity of novel content,” was published July 12, 2024.

Forwarded by:
Michael Reeder LCPC
Baltimore, MD

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