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(https://www.psypost.org/are-sheriffs-easing-off-traffic-tickets-to-sway-voters-new-study-says-yes/) Are sheriffs easing off traffic tickets to sway voters? New study says yes
Apr 20th 2025, 10:00

County sheriffs in California appear to strategically reduce traffic enforcement during election years, according to new research published in the (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ajps.12866) American Journal of Political Science. The study found that counties collected about 9% less in traffic fine revenue during years when sheriffs were up for reelection, with revenues rebounding shortly afterward. The pattern was especially pronounced in highly competitive elections.
While previous research on political cycles has focused on national figures like presidents and governors, or local officials such as mayors and judges, sheriffs have received relatively little attention. This study aimed to fill that gap, exploring how electoral incentives might shape sheriffs’ discretionary enforcement of traffic laws.
“We were intrigued by how sheriff elections—an often overlooked aspect of local politics—might influence law enforcement behavior,” said study author Min Su, an associate professor at Louisiana State University.
“In 46 states, sheriffs are directly elected by voters and hold considerable discretion in setting and enforcing law enforcement policies. Traffic fines, a highly visible and easily manipulated policy tool, offered a good opportunity allowing us to examine whether electoral incentives affect how sheriffs enforce laws.”
“With increasing public scrutiny over governments’ use of fines and fees as a source of revenue, we wanted to understand whether electoral incentives might shape how sheriffs apply traffic enforcement around election time.”
Her co-author, Christian Buerger, an assistant professor at Indiana University, added: “Policing and the growing reliance on fees and fines to support local government budgets have faced increasing criticism. We were interested in whether an important event—such as sheriff elections—influences the collection of local revenues and, ultimately, the provision of policing services.”
The researchers focused on sheriff elections in California, where sheriffs are elected every four years and wield considerable autonomy over law enforcement decisions, including traffic enforcement. The researchers analyzed data from 57 counties across four election cycles, from 2003 to 2020. San Francisco was excluded due to its unique status as a combined city-county government.
The main variable of interest was per capita traffic fines revenue, which serves as a proxy for how actively traffic laws are enforced. The researchers used a panel data approach, controlling for factors like population demographics, political attitudes, fiscal conditions, and road infrastructure. By comparing election years with nonelection years, they sought to detect any consistent changes in traffic enforcement patterns.
The results revealed a clear and temporary drop in traffic fines during election years. On average, counties collected about 35 cents less per person in traffic fines compared to nonelection years. This decline represented a 9% reduction relative to the average of $3.90 in nonelection years. Notably, the decline was short-lived—revenues rebounded the following year.
“Once in office, public officials want to get re-elected,” Buerger explained. “This drive creates a strong incentive to use the resources they oversee to support their re-election. This opportunistic behavior could influence public service delivery.”
To determine whether certain conditions intensified the cycle, the researchers looked at two additional factors: whether the sheriff was an incumbent seeking reelection, and whether the election was competitive. While fines declined more sharply in elections involving incumbents, the difference was not statistically significant. In contrast, the level of competition did make a meaningful difference. In more competitive elections, traffic fine revenues dropped by about 15%, more than twice the decline observed in less competitive races.
“We were surprised by the sharpness and timing of the effect,” Su told PsyPost. “The drop in traffic fines happens only during the election year and rebounds immediately afterward. The cycle is short-lived but pronounced, especially in competitive elections. This suggests that sheriffs respond to voter sentiment quite strategically.”
To test whether the drop in traffic fines could be attributed specifically to sheriffs’ discretionary behavior, the researchers also examined other types of fines, such as court fines and delinquent property taxes, which fall outside the control of sheriff’s offices. These other sources of fine revenue did not show any election-year patterns, strengthening the case that sheriffs were directly influencing traffic enforcement based on electoral incentives.
One feature that makes traffic fines particularly ripe for manipulation is their visibility. A reduction in fines may generate goodwill among voters, especially in communities that are disproportionately affected by traffic stops. Unlike complex policies with delayed outcomes, the impact of relaxed traffic enforcement can be immediate and tangible. Voters may not know the details of a sheriff’s broader policy record, but they are likely to notice if they receive fewer tickets.
“These patterns suggest that sheriffs may intentionally scale back enforcement during election years to avoid upsetting voters,” Su explained. “This behavior points to a larger issue: electoral pressures can subtly influence public safety practices, even when the goal should be neutral enforcement of the law.”
The researchers note that their study is limited to California, and results may differ in other states with different political and institutional structures. However, the pattern they observed is consistent with broader theories of political behavior and opportunism.
They also point out that their analysis focuses on per capita fine revenue, which captures enforcement intensity but not other possible election-related changes, such as shifts in who is targeted or the types of violations enforced.
“The drop in traffic ticket revenues we observe is likely linked to opportunistic behavior by county sheriffs,” Buerger said. “However, we don’t yet know exactly how this plays out. Sheriffs could order fewer stops, issue fewer tickets, or shift officers’ time toward supporting the election campaign. More research is needed to better understand these mechanisms.”
Future research could expand on these findings by examining similar patterns in other jurisdictions or by analyzing additional discretionary tools used by sheriffs and police departments, such as asset forfeitures or arrest rates. Another area of interest is whether reduced enforcement during election years affects public safety outcomes.
“We are interested in exploring whether similar election-related incentives exist in city police departments, not just among sheriffs,” Buerger told PsyPost. “City police chiefs are appointed and do not have full control over policing strategies, so it is unclear whether mayoral elections influence how policing services are delivered. We are also examining whether a reduction in fees, fines, and forfeitures affects service outcomes, such as the number of crimes solved.”
“We’re interested in continuing to explore how financial and political incentives shape local law enforcement behavior,” Su added. “As my coauthor Christian noted, we plan to examine whether electoral incentives influence city police departments as well. We’re also interested in looking at other discretionary policy tools, such as asset forfeitures, and investigating whether changes in law enforcement practices during election years affect the quality of public service delivery—in this case, public safety outcomes.”
The study, “(https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12866) Playing politics with traffic fines: Sheriff elections and political cycles in traffic fines revenue,” was published May 8, 2024.

(https://www.psypost.org/political-conservatism-increasingly-linked-to-generalized-prejudice-in-the-united-states/) Political conservatism increasingly linked to generalized prejudice in the United States
Apr 20th 2025, 08:00

People who hold negative attitudes toward one marginalized group are increasingly likely to express prejudice toward others as well, according to a new study published in (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/19485506241305698) Social Psychological and Personality Science. The research shows that generalized prejudice in the United States has grown stronger and more politically aligned over the past two decades.
While previous research has shown that individual forms of prejudice often overlap, the assumption that this overlap—or “generalized prejudice”—is stable across time had not been formally tested. The authors wanted to investigate whether people’s attitudes toward different marginalized groups are becoming more consistent with one another and whether these patterns are increasingly tied to ideological identity.
“I’ve long had an interest in the topic of generalized prejudice, that is, the finding that specific prejudices (e.g., racism, sexism) correlate with each other. In other words, if you score relatively high in racism, then you likely score relatively high in sexism, homophobia, etc.,” said study author (http://www.hodsonlab.com/) Gordon Hodson, a distinguished professor of psychology at Brock University.
“This topic is of particular interest because this robust finding strongly supports the notion that individual differences are relevant to understanding prejudice (which is contested in some theoretical camps; see (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10463283.2015.1070018) Hodson & Dhont, 2015). But if you are prejudiced toward a range of unrelated groups, that tells us quite a bit about you as a person — that at least some of your prejudicial tendencies are due to your character.”
“It turns out that my PhD student Hanna Puffer is also interested in this topic! So we’ve been pursuing this topic together. We’re both interested in how prejudicial attitudes can generalize across groups, including as a function of intergroup contact (e.g., (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/casp.70009) Puffer & Hodson, 2024).”
To explore this question, researchers analyzed nationally representative data from the American National Election Survey, covering five presidential election years between 2004 and 2020. The total sample included nearly 22,000 participants.
In each wave of the survey, participants rated their feelings toward four groups—Black people, illegal immigrants, gay people, and feminists—using a scale from 0 (extremely unfavorable) to 100 (extremely favorable). For analysis, the researchers reversed these scores so that higher values reflected greater prejudice. Participants also reported their political orientation on a 7-point scale ranging from “extremely liberal” to “extremely conservative.”
The researchers used statistical modeling to determine whether these four types of prejudice reflected an underlying factor—generalized prejudice—and whether the structure and meaning of this factor changed over time. They also tested how closely generalized prejudice was associated with political ideology, age, sex, and education in each election year.
Across all five time points, the researchers found that people’s attitudes toward the four marginalized groups were positively correlated. In other words, someone who expressed negative views about one group was more likely to express negative views about the others.
But the strength of these associations grew over time. In 2004, the average correlation between prejudices was around .30. By 2020, this had risen to about .43, meaning that group-based prejudices had nearly doubled in their shared variance. People’s biases were becoming more tightly linked, suggesting that a more unified form of generalized prejudice was emerging.
The findings indicate that “over time, American attitudes toward marginalized groups (i.e., Black people, gay people,
feminists, ‘illegal’ immigrants) are becoming more correlated,” Hodson told PsyPost. “That is, the notion of generalized prejudice is becoming more and more important.”
Importantly, the structure of generalized prejudice itself began to change. In 2004 and 2008, a simple model that treated generalized prejudice as a single underlying factor fit the data well.
But starting in 2012, the researchers found that this model no longer captured the complexity of the relationships. They had to adjust the models to allow for extra connections between specific attitudes—for example, anti-gay and anti-feminist views were more closely linked than their relation to generalized prejudice alone could explain.
Similarly, negative attitudes toward Black people and immigrants began to share unique variance. These patterns suggest that while generalized prejudice remained a coherent concept, certain forms of prejudice were becoming even more strongly tied to each other, reflecting broader changes in social and political dynamics.
One of the most striking findings was how much more strongly generalized prejudice became linked to political conservatism over time. In 2004 and 2008, the association between generalized prejudice and conservatism was moderate, around .40. By 2016 and 2020, that correlation had risen to approximately .70.
That means people who identified as more conservative were much more likely than in the past to express a broad range of prejudicial attitudes. This trend was not mirrored for other demographic variables: the associations between generalized prejudice and factors like age, education, and sex remained relatively stable over time.
“Political ideology has long correlated with racism, sexism, etc.,” Hodson explained. “But we were surprised at how rapidly its strength of association increased. Keep in mind, these are nationally representative data, so this tells us quite a bit about the changing nature of prejudice.”
In 2020, the researchers tested a new model in which political conservatism was treated not just as a correlate of generalized prejudice, but as part of its structure. In this version—referred to as “generalized prejudice 2.0”—conservatism was included alongside the four group attitudes as an indicator of a shared factor.
This model provided the best fit to the 2020 data, suggesting that political identity had become deeply embedded in the structure of generalized prejudice. In other words, by 2020, generalized prejudice and political conservatism had become so intertwined that they were statistically difficult to separate.
“Our analyses suggest that generalized prejudice and political conservatism are becoming so highly correlated that they are on the verge of becoming redundant constructs (or, alternatively, that political conservatism might be increasingly thought of as a component of generalized prejudice, rather than a predictor of it),” Hodson said.
The study’s authors interpret this shift in part as a reflection of growing political polarization, which may be encouraging people to align their social attitudes with those of their political group. The rise in public expressions of prejudice during events like the 2016 presidential campaign, combined with broader social debates around race, gender, and immigration, may have contributed to this trend.
Future research could expand this work by examining generalized prejudice in other countries, especially those with lower levels of political polarization. It could also explore how other social identities, such as religion or class, contribute to the development of generalized prejudice.
“We’d really like researchers to study generalized prejudice in more detail,” Hodson told PsyPost. “The finding of generalized prejudice has been considered a ‘given,’ that there’s not much to know. But there clearly is more to uncover and discover. Our research here, for instance, shows that generalized prejudice is changing in terms of its structure and interconnectedness, but also in its relevance to political ideology. In what other ways might generalized prejudice be changing?”
The study, “(https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506241305698) The Evolving Nature of Generalized Prejudice Toward Marginalized Groups in the United States 2004–2020,” was authored by Gordon Hodson and Hanna Puffer.

(https://www.psypost.org/some-with-psychopathic-traits-stay-out-of-trouble-heres-what-may-explain-the-difference/) Some with psychopathic traits stay out of trouble — here’s what may explain the difference
Apr 20th 2025, 06:00

People with psychopathic personality traits are often thought to be destined for antisocial and criminal behavior. But new research published in the (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0047235225000480) Journal of Criminal Justice challenges this view. The study found that certain environmental factors—like higher socioeconomic status and strong parental monitoring—can reduce the likelihood that people high in psychopathic traits will engage in criminal activity.
Psychopathy is often associated with coldness, impulsivity, and manipulation. Because of these traits, individuals high in psychopathy are more likely to commit crimes and tend to be overrepresented in the criminal justice system. But not everyone with these traits ends up in prison. Some people with high psychopathy scores appear to function relatively well in society, holding jobs, avoiding legal trouble, and even achieving success. This study set out to examine why that might be the case.
Researchers drew on the “moderated-expression model” of psychopathy. This model suggests that the expression of psychopathic traits—and their consequences—can be shaped by environmental influences. In other words, people with similar personality traits might behave very differently depending on their upbringing and surroundings. The research team aimed to understand which factors might buffer or amplify the link between psychopathy and later criminal behavior.
“I’ve always been interested in how early life experiences shape people’s later lives,” said study author Emma Veltman, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Melbourne who conducted the new study while a postgraduate student at the University of Otago.
“It’s well established that adverse experiences in childhood can have lasting effects across the lifespan and are linked to a range of outcomes — including the development of psychopathic personality traits and involvement in criminal behavior. However, what is often overlooked is that not everyone high in psychopathic traits, or who engages in crime, has experienced adversity in childhood. This nuance is important.”
“A better understanding of this complex relationship could help inform early prevention efforts, reduce the societal harm often associated with psychopathic traits, and ultimately improve life outcomes for individuals with these traits. So, exploring this complex relationship over time felt like an opportunity to contribute to meaningful research to better understand this population.”
“While there is a lot more research to be done in this area, my hope is that this work sparks broader conversations—not only about the different ways in which psychopathy manifests, but also how we can use research to better support individuals and promote greater outcomes for society.”
The study used data from the Transitions in Amsterdam (TransAM) project, a large, longitudinal study of young adults in the Netherlands. The sample included 1,200 individuals between the ages of 18 and 21, drawn from different ethnic backgrounds, with intentional oversampling of individuals who had previous police contact.
Participants completed questionnaires over multiple waves of data collection between 2010 and 2014, with criminal records tracked through 2017. Psychopathic traits were measured using the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale, which assesses three dimensions: egocentricity, callousness, and antisociality.
The researchers focused on whether several environmental factors moderated the relationship between psychopathy and future criminal behavior. These included parental monitoring, parental absence, the quality of the parent-child relationship, exposure to adverse childhood experiences, socioeconomic status (as indexed by parental education), and neighborhood disorder. To measure criminal behavior, the researchers used both self-reports and official records of criminal offenses.
As expected, higher levels of psychopathic traits were linked to greater involvement in crime. Specifically, the egocentric and callousness dimensions of psychopathy predicted future registered offenses, even after accounting for participants’ prior self-reported delinquency.
However, the antisociality dimension—surprisingly—did not significantly predict future crimes beyond its overlap with earlier behavior. This pattern suggests that certain traits, like emotional coldness or interpersonal arrogance, may be more predictive of long-term criminal behavior than impulsive or irritable tendencies.
Importantly, the researchers found that several environmental factors influenced how psychopathic traits translated into criminal behavior. Socioeconomic status stood out as a particularly consistent protective factor. Across all facets of psychopathy, individuals from higher-status families were less likely to commit future crimes, even if they scored high on psychopathy measures.
In contrast, individuals from lower-status backgrounds were more likely to commit crimes when they had high levels of callousness or egocentricity. These results support the idea that access to resources and social stability may reduce the expression of harmful behaviors in individuals with risky personality traits.
Parental monitoring also showed a protective effect, especially in relation to overall psychopathy scores. Participants whose parents kept track of their whereabouts, asked questions, and encouraged open communication were less likely to commit crimes, even if they scored high in psychopathy. The effect of parental monitoring was strongest for the total psychopathy score, rather than for individual traits. This suggests that consistent supervision may help blunt the impact of a broad psychopathic personality pattern.
“Traditional theoretical perspectives of psychopathy have generally argued that environmental influences would be most important for the development of the behavioral aspects of psychopathy (e.g., impulsivity, irresponsibility, tendency to seek immediate gratification), and that the affective/interpersonal aspects (e.g., egocentricity, grandiosity, manipulativeness, callousness, lack of empathy and remorse) would instead be more strongly influenced by genetic predisposition,” Veltman told PsyPost.
“Our findings challenge this notion and suggest that environmental factors may also influence the manifestation of interpersonal and affective traits of psychopathy. This was a surprising finding that really highlights the importance of environmental factors in understanding psychopathy.”
Other findings were more nuanced. Parental absence, for example, did not predict criminality on its own. But it did amplify the risk associated with egocentricity. Participants who scored high in egocentric traits—such as arrogance and self-centeredness—and also lacked a parent figure were more likely to have a criminal record later.
Similarly, exposure to adverse childhood experiences—such as abuse, parental addiction, or domestic violence—strengthened the link between egocentricity and criminal behavior. These results suggest that early trauma and lack of parental presence may make it more difficult for some individuals to regulate harmful tendencies.
Interestingly, the quality of the parent-child relationship and the level of neighborhood disorder did not significantly alter the relationship between psychopathy and criminal behavior. While these factors were linked to outcomes in other research, they did not moderate the psychopathy-crime connection in this particular study. This might indicate that more proximal factors, like daily parental monitoring or material resources, play a bigger role than general perceptions of support or environmental chaos.
“The key takeaways of this study are that for those high in psychopathic personality traits, there are aspects of the environment early in life that influence the extent to which they engage in criminal behavior,” Veltman explained. “Specifically, having access to socioeconomic resources seems to reduce the risk that those high in psychopathic personality traits engage in criminal behavior.”
“Similarly, having a parent or caregiver in your life who monitors your whereabouts and behavior, and less exposure to adverse childhood experiences such as abuse or neglect may reduce proclivity toward criminal behavior. This is interesting as it highlights that those high in psychopathy are not inherently antisocial as common lore would often suggest. Instead, their behavior is the result of a complex interplay of factors that is not yet well understood.”
As with all research, there are some limitations to consider. For one, the environmental factors were assessed during late adolescence and early adulthood, rather than earlier in childhood when development may be more malleable. Additionally, psychopathy was measured through self-report, which could be influenced by biased responding. Finally, the sample was based in Amsterdam and may not generalize to other cultural contexts.
Despite these limitations, the study adds important insight to how psychopathy is understood and studied. Rather than focusing solely on punishment or control, the findings point to prevention strategies rooted in family support, education, and community resources. The researchers hope their work can shift how psychopathy is approached.
“Going forward, it will be important for future research to examine the relationship between early environment, psychopathy, and other outcomes, including those beyond criminality,” Veltman explained. “This will help us to better understand the lives of those high in psychopathy.”
“This paper is part of a body of research we have conducted that we believe will shed light on the nuances of psychopathy that help us to understand why those who share similar personality profiles can have very different lives. Long-term, we hope others can harness the learnings from this line of research to change our approach to psychopathy, namely through an increased focus on harm prevention in relation to this population.”
The study, “(https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102399) Do early environmental factors influence the relationship between psychopathy and crime: Longitudinal findings from the transitions in Amsterdam study,” was authored by Emma Veltman, Carlo Garofalo, Jessica M. Hill, Arjan Blokland, and Martin Sellbom.

(https://www.psypost.org/scientists-find-overlapping-dopamine-activity-in-cannabis-use-disorder-and-psychosis/) Scientists find overlapping dopamine activity in cannabis use disorder and psychosis
Apr 19th 2025, 16:00

People with cannabis use disorder show signs of altered dopamine activity in the brain that mirror patterns seen in psychosis, according to a new brain imaging study published in (https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2832297) JAMA Psychiatry. Using a specialized form of magnetic resonance imaging, researchers found that individuals who used cannabis heavily over time had increased dopamine-related signals in a midbrain region previously associated with psychotic symptoms.
The research aimed to understand how chronic cannabis use might influence brain systems that are also implicated in psychotic disorders. Past studies have shown a connection between frequent cannabis use and an increased risk of psychosis, but the underlying biological mechanisms have remained unclear. This study focused on the dopamine system, a network of brain structures and chemicals long linked to psychosis, particularly the positive symptoms of schizophrenia such as hallucinations and delusions.
“I’m personally interested in the neurobiological basis of schizophrenia, and there is a well-established link between cannabis use and psychosis; however, the mechanism of this relationship is unclear. Since both psychosis and cannabis use are linked to changes in dopamine activity, we were interested in investigating whether they share the same dopamine pathway,” said study author Jessica Ahrens, a PhD student in the Integrated Program in Neuroscience at McGill University.
To better understand this connection, researchers in Canada recruited 61 individuals aged 18 to 35, including people with and without cannabis use disorder. Some participants were also experiencing a first episode of schizophrenia, allowing the researchers to explore how cannabis use might relate to psychosis.
All participants completed clinical interviews, cognitive testing, and provided saliva samples to measure THC levels. Brain imaging was conducted using a technique known as neuromelanin-sensitive MRI, which indirectly reflects dopamine activity in the substantia nigra and ventral tegmental area—regions critical for motivation, reward, and the processing of salient stimuli.
Neuromelanin is a byproduct of dopamine metabolism and accumulates in these brain regions over time. The more dopamine a person produces in this part of the brain, the stronger the neuromelanin signal on the scan. In disorders like schizophrenia, higher neuromelanin signal has been observed in these same areas, suggesting long-term increases in dopamine activity. By comparing the MRI results of people with and without cannabis use disorder, the researchers were able to examine whether cannabis use is associated with similar dopamine-related changes.
The study found that individuals with cannabis use disorder had significantly higher neuromelanin-MRI signal in specific parts of the midbrain, particularly in regions previously linked to the severity of psychotic symptoms. This pattern was not observed in individuals who did not meet criteria for cannabis use disorder, even though many of them had used cannabis in the past.
Notably, the increase in signal was strongest among participants with more severe cannabis use disorder, suggesting a dose-related pattern. The findings were independent of whether a person had a diagnosis of schizophrenia, although the effect was numerically stronger among participants with both conditions.
“We found that individuals with cannabis use disorder exhibited increased neuromelanin-MRI signal in a brain region previously associated with psychosis symptoms,” Ahrens told PsyPost. “Since neuromelanin-MRI signal is considered a potential marker of dopamine function, our findings suggest that people with cannabis use disorder may have elevated dopamine activity in a brain area linked to psychosis risk. We hope this research helps inform young people about the potential risks associated with harmful cannabis use — especially those with a family history of psychosis or other factors that may increase their vulnerability.”
Interestingly, the researchers did not find any significant interaction between cannabis use disorder and schizophrenia diagnosis, meaning that having both conditions did not amplify the neuromelanin signal beyond the effect of cannabis use alone. Over the course of one year, the elevated neuromelanin signal remained stable in those with cannabis use disorder, suggesting that the change may reflect long-lasting alterations in dopamine function. This is notable because increased dopamine activity in this brain region has been consistently linked to psychotic symptoms in other studies.
The researchers also explored whether neuromelanin signal decreased over time with continued cannabis use but found no evidence of this in the one-year follow-up. One explanation is that any reduction in dopamine function from long-term cannabis use may have already occurred before the first scan and remained stable. Another possibility is that increased dopamine activity is a pre-existing vulnerability that contributes to both psychosis and problematic cannabis use, though the study was not designed to test this idea directly.
An unexpected finding was that individuals with cannabis use disorder reported fewer personal problems related to their cannabis use, despite meeting clinical criteria for the disorder and showing biological evidence of its effects on the brain.
“Something that surprised me is that when asked about their cannabis use patterns, we did not find a significant difference in self-endorsed problems (when asked the question: ‘Have you ever had problems because of your use of cannabis?’); those with a cannabis use disorder reported less frequent personal harm due to cannabis,” Ahrens explained. “This indicates that individuals with a cannabis use disorder had lower perception of harm despite the higher measured severity.”
The researchers highlighted several strengths of their approach, including the use of multiple cannabis-related measures (clinical diagnosis, THC levels, and self-report), a well-matched control group, and detailed brain imaging protocols. However, the study also had limitations. The sample size was relatively small, particularly for the follow-up scans. Women were underrepresented, limiting the generalizability of the results. Additionally, the study focused exclusively on the substantia nigra and ventral tegmental area and did not examine other neuromelanin-rich regions like the locus coeruleus, which may also play a role in psychosis.
Importantly, the study design does not allow conclusions about cause and effect. It remains unclear whether higher neuromelanin signals reflect a preexisting vulnerability to cannabis use disorder, a consequence of cannabis exposure, or some combination of both. Longitudinal studies that begin before cannabis use starts would be needed to clarify this.
“More research is needed to explore the neurobiological changes that occur before and after the development of cannabis use disorder, as well as the effects of quitting cannabis in those with a history of use,” Ahrens said. “Moving forward, our group plans to examine another neuromelanin-rich brain region, where the neuromelanin signal may be linked to a different neurotransmitter. Additionally, we aim to employ more sensitive MRI techniques to improve our understanding of neuromelanin dynamics.”
The study, “(https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2832297) Convergence of Cannabis and Psychosis on the Dopamine System,” was authored by Jessica Ahrens, Sabrina D. Ford, Betsy Schaefer, David Reese, Ali R. Khan, Philip Tibbo, Rachel Rabin, Clifford M. Cassidy, and Lena Palaniyappan.

(https://www.psypost.org/men-underestimate-each-others-willingness-to-seek-help-for-depression-study-finds/) Men underestimate each other’s willingness to seek help for depression, study finds
Apr 19th 2025, 14:00

Many men underestimate how willing other men are to seek help for depression, which may discourage them from seeking help themselves, according to a new study published in (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-025-01574-6) Sex Roles.
Despite the availability of mental health services, many people experiencing depression delay or avoid seeking help. Hege H. Bye and colleagues investigated whether one barrier might be a form of pluralistic ignorance, where individuals mistakenly believe that others in their group are less likely to seek help than they themselves are. Prior research suggests people often misjudge how others perceive mental illness, assuming stigma is more widespread than it is. These misperceptions can shape behavior and hinder treatment-seeking.
The researchers were particularly interested in how gender affects these misperceptions. Past studies have yielded mixed findings on whether men seek help less than women, but cultural stereotypes tend to portray men as less inclined to pursue psychological support.
The researchers conducted two preregistered experiments using large, population-based samples of Norwegian adults. Experiment 1 utilized a between-groups experimental design in which 2,042 participants were randomly assigned to read a vignette describing either a male (Kristian) or female (Kristine) character experiencing symptoms of depression. The vignettes were based on diagnostic criteria for a depressive episode from the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) and adapted from prior research.
After reading the vignette, participants answered two key questions. First, they rated how likely they would be to seek help from a doctor or a psychologist if they felt like the character. Then, they rated how likely they believed “most men” or “most women” would seek such help if in the same situation. Both questions were rated separately for doctor and psychologist, using a six-point scale from “highly unlikely” to “highly likely.”
Experiment 2 focused on disclosure rather than help-seeking. It used a 2 (social context: friends vs. colleagues) × 2 (vignette character gender: male vs. female) × 2 (participant gender: male vs. female) experimental design. Participants (N = 1,528) read a vignette about a character (Anne or Arne) who had sought help from a general practitioner for depression. Depending on the condition, the vignette described either a workplace or social context in which the character was in conversation with colleagues or friends.
After reading the vignette, participants answered three fixed-order questions: what the character would likely do (descriptive norm), what the character should do (personal normative belief), and what they themselves would do (behavioral intention). Each item required participants to choose between disclosing truthfully or concealing the help-seeking.
Experiment 1 revealed that men reported lower willingness to seek professional help for depression than women. Specifically, men were less likely than women to say they would contact either a doctor or a psychologist. Further, men underestimated other men’s help-seeking willingness, demonstrating pluralistic ignorance. Men believed that “most men” were less likely to seek help than they themselves were. Women also underestimated men’s willingness to seek help, and to an even greater extent than men did.
In contrast, women’s perceptions of other women were accurate—they did not systematically underestimate other women’s likelihood of seeking help. Supporting this, women’s own willingness to seek help matched their estimates of “most women.” There was also evidence that perceptions of others’ help-seeking correlated with individuals’ own reported willingness, particularly when the perceived norms were about the same gender group (e.g., men’s own help-seeking correlated strongly with what they thought other men would do). This pattern supports the idea that perceived norms shape behavior.
Experiment 2 showed that men were significantly less likely than women to say they would disclose having sought help for depression, whether to friends or colleagues. This suggests that men may contribute to a more hidden information environment around male help-seeking, which could fuel the pluralistic ignorance observed in Experiment 1.
Women rated the male character as less likely to disclose help-seeking than the female character, both in friend and workplace contexts. Men showed a similar pattern, but the difference was not statistically significant. This indicates that women held stronger misperceptions about men’s disclosure behavior.
However, contrary to expectations, both men and women believed that both male and female characters should disclose—personal normative beliefs favored openness across the board. In other words, the reluctance to disclose was not rooted in beliefs that disclosure was wrong, but likely in anticipated stigma or discomfort. This helps explain how an environment of silence around male help-seeking might persist, even if people endorse disclosure in principle.
The authors note that participants’ own mental health status was not assessed, which could influence both help-seeking and perceptions of others’ behavior.
The research, “(https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-025-01574-6) Men’s Help-Seeking Willingness and Disclosure of Depression: Experimental Evidence for the Role of Pluralistic Ignorance,” was authored by Hege H. Bye, Frida L. Måseidvåg, and Samantha M. Harris.

(https://www.psypost.org/impulsivity-and-resilience-help-explain-how-childhood-trauma-affects-coping-in-youth-with-depression/) Impulsivity and resilience help explain how childhood trauma affects coping in youth with depression
Apr 19th 2025, 12:00

A study of youths with depression in China found that resilience and impulsivity may mediate the relationship between childhood maltreatment and coping style. However, impulsivity did not play a mediating role among healthy participants. The study was published in (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-96021-7) Scientific Reports.
Depression is a common and serious mental health disorder characterized by persistent feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and a loss of interest or pleasure in previously enjoyable activities. It can affect individuals at any point in life, with symptoms that vary in severity and often impair daily functioning and overall well-being.
There are several types of depressive disorders. Two of the most prominent are major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder. Major depressive disorder involves episodes of severe depressive symptoms lasting at least two weeks, significantly disrupting daily life. Bipolar disorder, in contrast, is marked by mood swings that alternate between emotional highs (mania or hypomania) and lows (depression), leading to substantial fluctuations in mood, energy, and activity levels.
Study author Jiawei Zhou and her colleagues aimed to examine how childhood maltreatment influences coping styles in youth diagnosed with major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder, and how this relationship compares to that observed in healthy individuals. Childhood maltreatment includes a range of adverse experiences that can have lasting impacts on development and mental health, such as emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional neglect, and physical neglect.
Emotional abuse includes behaviors like verbal insults and constant criticism that undermine a child’s self-esteem. Physical abuse involves causing bodily harm, such as through hitting or burning. Sexual abuse refers to involving a child in sexual acts that they cannot understand or consent to, such as molestation or exploitation. Emotional neglect occurs when a child’s emotional needs are consistently ignored, while physical neglect refers to a failure to provide basic necessities like food, shelter, and medical care.
The study included 196 participants with major depressive disorder, 81 with bipolar disorder, and 98 healthy individuals. The average age of participants with depression was approximately 19 years, while the healthy participants had an average age of 21. Participants ranged in age from 16 to 25 years and were predominantly female. All participants were recruited from the outpatient psychiatric department of the Second Xiangya Hospital at Central South University in Changsha, China.
Participants completed several psychological assessments: the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire – Short Form (to measure childhood maltreatment), the Beck Depression Inventory (to assess depressive symptoms), the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (to measure resilience), the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11 (to assess impulsivity), and the Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire (to evaluate coping strategies).
The findings revealed that individuals with more severe childhood maltreatment experiences tended to report lower resilience, higher impulsivity, and less positive coping styles. This pattern was observed across all three groups. The researchers tested a statistical model suggesting that childhood maltreatment lowers resilience, which in turn increases impulsivity, which then negatively affects coping style. The data supported this proposed pathway, but also indicated that direct relationships exist between these variables.
When the model was analyzed separately for each group, it was fully supported among participants with major depressive disorder. In the bipolar disorder group, the model was also supported, although the effect of childhood maltreatment on coping style was entirely indirect—operating through resilience and impulsivity. Among healthy individuals, resilience was linked to more positive coping strategies, and childhood maltreatment was indirectly related to coping style through its negative effect on resilience. However, the direct link between impulsivity and coping style was not observed in this group.
“The study highlights that childhood maltreatment is directly related to coping styles in youths with depression and indirectly affects them through resilience and impulsivity. These findings suggest that improving resilience and managing impulsivity could enhance positive coping styles in this population,” the study authors concluded.
The study sheds light on the links between coping styles and childhood maltreatment experiences. However, it should be noted that the design of the study does not allow any definitive causal inferences to be derived from the results. The models proposed in the study are possible, not verified to be true as there may be other models of relationships between studied factors that are also possible.
The paper “(https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-96021-7) Childhood maltreatment influences coping in youths with major depression and bipolar depression through resilience and impulsivity” was authored by Jiawei Zhou, Zheng Zhang, Sihong Li, Hui Chen, Xianliang Chen, HuajiaTang, and Jiansong Zhou.

Forwarded by:
Michael Reeder LCPC
Baltimore, MD

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