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<td><span style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:20px;font-weight:bold;">PsyPost – Psychology News Daily Digest (Unofficial)</span></td>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/want-less-conflict-in-your-relationship-try-this-simple-perspective-shift/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Want less conflict in your relationship? Try this simple perspective shift</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Feb 11th 2025, 08:00</div>
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<p><p>Consciously channeling the perspective of a neutral third party can defuse romantic conflict and prevent future disputes, according to a study of 716 Americans my colleagues and I <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/cfp0000173">published in the journal <em>Couple and Family Psychology: Research and Practice</em></a>.</p>
<p>We surveyed men and women across the U.S. who were living at home with their romantic partner in May 2020 – at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. We asked them to identify a recent disagreement with their partner. Then we randomly assigned them to briefly write about that recent relationship conflict.</p>
<p>We asked half the participants to write about the disagreement from their own perspective. The other half we asked to assume the point of view of an imaginary neutral third party, such as a mutual friend, who had the best intentions for both members of the couple. We also asked them to take this neutral perspective in future disagreements with their partner.</p>
<p>People wrote about a variety of topics, including arguments over money, disagreements about parenting and remote schooling and differences in ways to handle COVID-19 safety precautions.</p>
<p>When we followed up with them 14 days later, those who considered the disagreement from a neutral third party’s perspective reported greater reductions in romantic conflict and aggression than those who continued to view conflict through their own eyes. For example, those who took the new perspective said they had 30% fewer disagreements and 51.3% fewer incidents of relationship aggression – such as yelling or hitting – over the previous two weeks compared with those who thought about the event from their own perspective.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.56">quality of your close relationships</a> is among the strongest predictors of happiness with your life, and even <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316">how long you live</a>. Disagreements and disputes are inevitable given how deeply romantic partners’ lives become intertwined as they navigate daily life together. The fact that conflict exists is less important than how the couple manages it.</p>
<p>Whereas resolving conflicts collaboratively allows couples to live together harmoniously, communicating about disagreements in a combative way can hurt relationships and take a toll on both partners’ mental and physical health.</p>
<p>Romantic conflict, including domestic violence, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/vio0000395">escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic</a> because of fear and uncertainty about health, jobs and finances as well as orders to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp2024046">stay home</a> as much as possible.</p>
<p>Given the importance of constructively resolving conflict, researchers are seeking ways to help people reduce stress, feel better and live together harmoniously.</p>
<p>We believe that our finding that shifting your perspective about a recent disagreement reduced the frequency, severity and intensity of romantic conflict during an especially challenging time is important. It’s an effective, free exercise that couples can easily implement in everyday life.</p>
<p>We suspect that seeing disagreements in a new light helps people take a step back, let go of their ego or pride and appreciate both sides of the issue, often culminating in identifying a solution that satisfies everyone. Taking a neutral perspective seems to open doors for more understanding and more empathy, and less anxiety and anger.</p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>This is just one example of work our team is doing to show that taking a neutral perspective on conflict with others can improve <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/08870446.2019.1711090">mental</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/adb0000509">behavioral</a> health as well as the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612474938">quality of relationships</a>.</p>
<p>Now we are experimenting with how to improve the instructions we give the people who participate in our studies about how to reframe their perspectives to see if there are alternatives that work better and last longer. We are also testing downstream effects on partners – that is, whether asking one person in a couple to modify their perspective can affect how their partner approaches conflicts as well.</p>
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<p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/thinking-objectively-about-romantic-conflicts-could-lead-to-fewer-future-disagreements-165790">original article</a>.</em></p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/new-psychology-research-links-psychopathy-and-narcissism-to-antisemitism/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">New psychology research links psychopathy and narcissism to antisemitism</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Feb 11th 2025, 07:00</div>
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<p><p>Individuals with traits like narcissism and psychopathy may be drawn to antisemitic ideologies, according to a new study published in the journal <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12144-024-07120-z"><em>Current Psychology</em></a>. Researchers found that people who score higher on measures of these dark personality traits also tend to express stronger antisemitic views, suggesting these ideologies can serve as a way for them to satisfy their selfish needs. This research sheds light on the psychological underpinnings of antisemitism and offers a novel perspective on why some individuals are attracted to this form of prejudice.</p>
<p>The new research was grounded in a psychological concept known as the dark-ego-vehicle principle. This idea suggests that individuals who display dark personality traits, such as certain forms of narcissism and psychopathy, are inclined to adopt ideologies that help them meet their inner needs. In other words, these personality characteristics may lead people to embrace beliefs that allow them to express aggression, assert dominance, and seek attention—all while appearing to stand for a moral or righteous cause.</p>
<p>“Consistently, we have found dark personality traits (especially narcissism and psychopathy) to be related to different forms of prosocial activism,” explained study authors <a href="https://www.edu.unibe.ch/ueber_uns/personen_a___z/educational_psychology_lab_abteilung_paedagogische_psychologie_app/dr_dr_krispenz_ann/index_ger.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ann Krispenz</a>, a postdoctoral associate, and <a href="https://www.edu.unibe.ch/ueber_uns/personen_a___z/educational_psychology_lab_abteilung_paedagogische_psychologie_app/prof_dr_bertrams_alexander/index_ger.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Alex Bertrams</a>, the head of the Educational Psychology Lab at the University of Bern.</p>
<p>“In our previous studies, higher grandiose narcissism was related to <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12144-024-06575-4">environmental activism</a>, <a href="https://www.psypost.org/narcissists-may-engage-in-feminist-activism-to-satisfy-their-grandiose-tendencies-study-suggests/">feminist activism</a>, <a href="https://www.psypost.org/narcissistic-grandiosity-predicts-greater-involvement-in-lgbtq-activism/">LGBQ activism</a> , and <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12144-023-04591-4">anti-sexual assault activism</a>. We are interpreting these findings to show that prosocial movements are being hijacked by people with dark personalities who use them as a vehicle to act out their selfish dark needs (e.g., moralistic self-exaltation, virtue signaling).”</p>
<p>“From a theoretical point of view, it was reasonable to assume that antisemitism may also be a dark-ego vehicle and should be associated with dark personality styles; however, what mainly motivated us to apply the dark-ego-vehicle principle to antisemitism was the terror of October 7, 2023,” the researchers continued. “Since then, there has been an increase in directly observable antisemitism in countries such as the USA, UK, Germany, and Switzerland. The fact that a horrific massacre became the basis for protests in favor of the perpetrators and the aggressive behaviors at these protests indicated to us that emotionally dark motives are at work.”</p>
<p>“We had the opportunity here to test the dark-ego-vehicle principle on a very serious current situation. We consider our study on the one hand as a test of our theoretical approach and on the other hand as our entry into psychological research for a better understanding of antisemitism.”</p>
<p>To investigate this idea, researchers conducted a longitudinal study, meaning they looked at data collected from the same individuals over time. They invited participants from 14 previous studies, focusing on political attitudes and the dark-ego-vehicle principle, to participate in a new study. This resulted in a large sample of 3,981 individuals from the United States and the United Kingdom.</p>
<p>In these earlier studies, participants had already completed questionnaires measuring various aspects of their personality, including dark personality traits like different forms of narcissism (grandiose and antagonistic narcissism), psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and sadism. They also assessed indicators of dark personality needs, such as aggression, the desire to dominate others, sensation seeking, virtue signaling (publicly displaying moral virtue without genuine moral conviction), and selfishness (measured as low altruism).</p>
<p>In the new study, these same participants were asked to complete questionnaires designed to measure antisemitic attitudes. One questionnaire, called the Generalised Antisemitism Scale, measured both general antisemitism and two specific types: Judeophobic antisemitism, which reflects traditional stereotypes about Jewish people related to dishonesty and greed, and antizionist antisemitism, which focuses on prejudice directed towards the state of Israel as a Jewish entity.</p>
<p>Another questionnaire, called the “Pro-Palestinism” Scale, was also used to assess antisemitism. Despite its name, the scale was included to focus on radical antizionist views, even those that might condone violence.</p>
<p>“We must emphasize that political pro-Palestinian attitudes exist that do not fall under the definition of antisemitism,” the researchers explained. “The measure of ‘pro-Palestinism’ in our study <a href="https://spb.psychopen.eu/index.php/spb/article/view/2419" target="_blank" rel="noopener">comes from a previous research</a> paper in which the authors used this term regarding this measure. We did not want to change the given term because whatever name we would choose ourselves could be perceived as biased.”</p>
<p>“We therefore decided to keep the term but to put it in quotation marks. We included this measure because, according to the previous research mentioned above, it captures antisemitism rather than pro-Palestinianism. It has complemented our other antisemitism measures as it also includes very explicit aggressive attitudes such as the approval of terrorist attacks. We wanted to include this aspect.”</p>
<p>The study’s findings largely supported the idea that dark personality traits are linked to antisemitism. The vast majority of the relationships examined – over 94% – showed a positive direction, meaning that higher scores on dark personality measures were associated with higher scores on antisemitism measures.</p>
<p>Specifically, when looking at the pre-registered hypothesis, the researchers found that antagonistic narcissism and psychopathy showed particularly strong positive relationships with antizionist antisemitism. This suggests that individuals with these more hostile and manipulative personality traits were more likely to endorse antisemitic views targeting Israel. Grandiose narcissism, characterized by an inflated sense of self-importance, also showed a positive association with antizionist antisemitism, although the relationships were generally weaker than those seen with antagonistic narcissism and psychopathy.</p>
<p>The researchers were surprised to find that these dark personality traits were linked not only to antizionist antisemitism but also to Judeophobic antisemitism, the more traditional form of prejudice against Jewish people. This suggests that dark personalities may be drawn to antisemitism in general, regardless of its specific form.</p>
<p>“Prior to analyzing the data, we assumed that Judeophobic antisemitism was not as suitable as a dark-ego vehicle because it may be less easy to justify with moralism and rationalize than antizionist antisemitism,” Bertrams and Krispenz told PsyPost. “In the future, we will have to examine Judeophobia more closely regarding dark needs.”</p>
<p>Furthermore, the researchers found that indicators like aggression, dominance, sensation seeking, virtue signaling, and selfishness were also generally associated with higher levels of antisemitism. While some of these relationships were weaker than others, the overall pattern indicated that individuals driven by these dark needs were more likely to express antisemitic attitudes.</p>
<p>“Our research focuses on psychological incentives and rewards of being antisemitic,” the researchers said. “Such incentives and rewards may arise only for certain individuals but not for others—depending on individuals’ personalities. One implication of this view is that some antisemitic individuals may actually not be cognitively convinced by antisemitic content but may see the expression of antisemitic sentiment as an opportunity to live out dark needs and to receive the positive affect that arises when such needs are currently met.”</p>
<p>“In the context of the DEVP, we basically think that any ideology, prejudice, and activism that can help satisfy dark needs is attractive to individuals high in dark personality variables. For instance, studies have found that <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12144-023-04463-x" target="_blank" rel="noopener">both left-</a> and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15298868.2020.1779118" target="_blank" rel="noopener">right- wing authoritarianism</a> are related to dark personality variables. Which specific ideological vehicles dark-ego individuals use may depend on which ideas and narratives they come into contact with in their specific life contexts and whether they recognize the opportunity of dark needs satisfaction.”</p>
<p>“In the case of left- and right-wing authoritarianism, one comes additionally into contact with the prejudices against certain social groups that are common in the respective political sphere,” Bertrams and Krispenz told PsyPost. “Regarding authoritarianism and antisemitism, <a href="https://www.psypost.org/left-wing-anti-hierarchical-aggression-emerges-as-the-strongest-predictor-of-antisemitism-study-finds/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">there is empirical evidence</a> that on the left-wing authoritarian side one is more likely to endorse antizionist antisemitism while on the right-wing authoritarian side one is more likely to endorse Judeophobic antisemitism.”</p>
<p>As with all research, there are limitations to consider. Firstly, the study relied on self-report questionnaires to measure both personality traits and antisemitic attitudes. While these are standard tools in psychology, they are subject to potential biases, as individuals may not always accurately report their own traits or beliefs. Future research could benefit from using a wider range of methods, including observing actual behaviors, to gain a more complete picture. Secondly, the study primarily focused on samples from the US and the UK. Antisemitism is a global issue, and its expression and underlying motivations may vary across different cultures and countries.</p>
<p>Looking ahead, researchers are interested in investigating the question of cause and effect more directly. Longitudinal studies that track individuals over time and experimental designs could help to determine if these traits actually lead to the adoption of antisemitic beliefs.</p>
<p>“To investigate the causal relationship between dark personality traits such as psychopathy and antisemitism, a longitudinal study with several measurement points and a large sample will be needed,” Bertrams and Krispenz said. “At the moment we are trying to acquire funds for such an extensive study.”</p>
<p>The researchers argue that it is less important to study every possible ideology associated with dark personality traits and more valuable to understand how individuals with these traits shift between different belief systems over time.</p>
<p>“From our point of view, it seems not as useful to continue researching the multitude of ideologies with more and more studies,” they explained. “The attraction of certain ideologies and forms of activism for individuals with dark personalities is likely to change again and again depending on societal processes anyway. That is why we call it a vehicle; as individuals with dark egos can hop from one to the other when the old one has had its day, or another one better meets their dark needs.”</p>
<p>“It appears therefore not so important to ask which are all the ideologies that are related to dark personality traits at present. A more important research question may be whether the described vehicle leaps exist. If one looks at climate activism, it now seems to be less widely represented on the streets and in social media, whereas antisemitic protests are very present now. It is possible that some activists have switched from the topic of climate change to manifest antisemitism.”</p>
<p>The researchers also addressed the pushback they experienced from exploring the links between dark personality traits, activism, and ideology.</p>
<p>“Prior to our study, there was a case at our own university where an academic employee openly celebrated the October 7 massacre in an X-tweet,” Bertrams and Krispenz told PsyPost. “When the public and the university leadership became aware of this, he was dismissed and the structures of the institute he was employed at were investigated and changed. We are therefore aware that antisemitism also exists here in Switzerland and even very close to us, but that it is not tolerated at our university. Therefore, when we began our research on antisemitism, we felt largely protected from inappropriate attacks against our research in our immediate environment.”</p>
<p>“However, we know that antisemitism exists in certain parts of the academic system. Therefore, we expected attempts to cancel our research within the anonymous review process and, in our personal experience, this expectation was realistic. Since starting the DEVP research, it has become normal for us to sometimes receive clearly unscientific reviews or rejections without any substantive justification—as it was the case with our antisemitism study; however, it is then also easy to raise an objection because it is so blatantly unscientific. Nevertheless, we also experience a lot of approval and encouragement from colleagues.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-07120-z" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Antisemitism as a dark-ego vehicle</a>,” was published December 26, 2024.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/depression-might-unlock-a-more-independent-mind-at-the-ballot-box/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Depression might unlock a more independent mind at the ballot box</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Feb 11th 2025, 06:00</div>
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<p><p>People experiencing symptoms of depression may be less likely to vote strictly along party lines, according to new research published in the journal <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.13064"><em>Political Psychology</em></a>. The study found that as depressive symptoms increased, the influence of a voter’s usual party loyalty on their vote choice decreased. This suggests that individuals with higher levels of depressive symptoms might base their voting decisions on factors beyond their long-held political preferences.</p>
<p>Political scientists have long observed that many voters tend to consistently support the same party, following well-established habits and loyalties. Traditionally, strong attachment to a political party has been seen as a reliable predictor of voting behavior. However, researchers began to wonder whether a person’s emotional state might influence this connection.</p>
<p>While <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/pops.12837">previous studies</a> have examined whether depression affects voter turnout, the new study aimed to understand how depression might alter the choices voters make. Psychological research indicates that depression can change the way people process information, potentially leading to more careful and less automatic thinking. The researchers hypothesized that this shift in thinking style could weaken the link between a person’s party loyalty and their actual vote.</p>
<p>“We were interested in understanding how symptoms of depression play out in voter decision making,” said study author <a href="https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/people/luca-bernardi">Luca Bernardi</a>, an associate professor of politics at the University of Liverpool. “On the one hand, some literature on depression explores the benefits of depressed mood, especially when depression is mild. This literature finds evidence that depressed mood, much like a sad mood, encourages more analytic and careful information processing.”</p>
<p>“On the other hand, political psychologists have shown that anxiety, as an emotion related to political issues, can facilitate more effortful cognition and encourage citizens to rely less on habitual voting patterns. However, no research has tested these ideas with depression.”</p>
<p>To investigate this, the researchers analyzed data from surveys conducted in three European countries: Britain, Spain, and the Netherlands. The British data came from an online survey conducted in May and June of 2022 with over 1,400 participants. The Spanish data originated from an online survey carried out in October 2018, involving more than 3,000 participants. For the Netherlands, the researchers utilized the Dutch Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences—a long-term panel survey. They used ten waves of data collected annually from 2011 to 2021, with an average of nearly 6,600 participants per wave. These surveys were designed to be representative of the national populations in each country, employing quotas based on age, gender, education, and region to ensure that the samples reflected the broader population.</p>
<p>In each survey, participants were asked questions designed to measure several key factors. First, to determine vote choice consistency, participants were asked which political party they felt closest to and which party they intended to vote for if an election were held soon. The researchers then created a measure of “defection,” indicating whether a person’s intended vote was inconsistent with their stated party affiliation.</p>
<p>Second, to measure the strength of partisanship, participants rated how close they felt to their preferred party on scales ranging from “not at all close” to “very close.” Finally, to assess depressive symptoms, the surveys employed established mental health scales. The British survey used the nine-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, which asks about feelings of depression, sadness, and energy levels. The Spanish and Dutch surveys used similar scales that included items related to depressive symptoms such as feeling down, sad, or lacking energy.</p>
<p>In addition to these core measures, the surveys also collected demographic information—such as age, gender, and education—as well as data on political interest, which served as control variables in the analysis.</p>
<p>After analyzing the data, the researchers found a consistent pattern across all three countries. They observed that for individuals with lower levels of depressive symptoms, a stronger attachment to a political party was associated with a higher likelihood of voting for that party. In other words, strong partisans with few depressive symptoms tended to vote along party lines.</p>
<p>However, as the level of depressive symptoms increased, this relationship weakened. For individuals with higher levels of depressive symptoms, the strength of their party attachment had less impact on their vote choice. Statistically, the interaction between partisanship strength and depressive symptoms was significant, indicating that depressive symptoms moderate the effect of partisanship on voting decisions.</p>
<p>“The Normal Vote Model posits that in normal circumstances citizens vote according to their partisan attachments,” Bernardi told PsyPost. “However, that model did not consider the role played by negative affect. In particular, as Affective Intelligence Theory suggested: (1) experiencing anxiety about the in-party candidate should trigger individuals to become more vigilant and to base their judgments on more relevant and diagnostic information; (2) the end result of such a process is that anxious voters are more likely to defect from their party when voting, particularly when they perceive their parties’ candidate to endorse policies incongruent with their own (Redlawsk and Pierce 2017, pp. 417-418). Therefore, under Affective Intelligence Theory, anxiety is conceived as an emotion and its origin is external (i.e. associated to political candidates or parties).”</p>
<p>“The key message of our paper is that when depression is mild, it may trigger the same kind of effect we have seen with anxiety as an emotional reaction,” Bernardi explained. “More precisely, we find that the association between the strength of party attachment and the consistency between the party you identify with and the party you actually vote for is moderated by symptoms of depression. In other words, depression encourages defection from your party when voting, but this effect is statistically significant only at mild levels of depression. If so, the origin of depression need not be solely external, as Affective Intelligence Theory would suggest.”</p>
<p>“When survey questionnaires used to detect depression in the general population ask people how they have been feeling in recent weeks, they do not reference politics,” Bernardi continued. “This doesn’t mean that politics cannot be a vulnerability for mental health. In other research, we have found evidence that feeling stressed because of politics increases symptoms of depression. However, our findings suggest that partisan defection may also be driven by one’s internal circumstances.”</p>
<p>To illustrate the size of this effect, the researchers noted that in Britain, the predicted probability of voting against one’s party preference differed by 23 percentage points between those with low and moderate levels of depressive symptoms. In Spain, this difference was about 8 percentage points. These findings suggest that the influence of party loyalty on vote choice is not fixed, but can diminish when individuals experience symptoms of depression.</p>
<p>The results imply that when people experience symptoms of depression, their usual political preferences may become less of a driving force in their voting decisions. Instead of voting solely based on ingrained party loyalty, these individuals may engage in a more thoughtful, less automatic decision-making process. This idea aligns with the concept of depressive realism in psychology, which posits that in some situations, individuals experiencing depression may perceive reality more accurately—or at least with fewer of the optimistic biases that most people exhibit. In the context of voting, this could mean that someone with depressive symptoms is less likely to follow party lines blindly.</p>
<p>“Depressed mood might confer benefits to thinking and decision making, perhaps due to successful adaptation under certain circumstances, as psychologist Jon Rottenberg would argue,” Bernardi explained. “In this respect, depressive symptoms may act as an alternative mechanism leading to partisan defection, and in future research we want to explore this possibility further.”</p>
<p>“The majority of research focuses on the negative implications of depression. Our paper speaks to the minority of studies that examine the potential benefits of depressed mood. In that light, it is not surprising to see that similar ideas are emerging in other fields, including politics.”</p>
<p>Importantly, the researchers investigated whether anxiety could account for their findings by including measures of anxious feelings in their analysis. They discovered that even after controlling for anxiety, the influence of depressive symptoms on voting behavior remained significant. This result indicates that depression plays an independent role in shaping how individuals vote.</p>
<p>However, as with all research, there are limitations. One important consideration is that the study relied on self-reported information. Participants were asked to rate their own feelings and political preferences, meaning that the results depend on how accurately individuals can report their internal states. Responses may be influenced by a desire to present oneself in a certain light or by other personal biases. Similarly, the instruments used to measure depression are based on self-perceptions rather than clinical diagnoses. While these surveys can identify depressive symptoms, they do not capture the full complexity of a clinical condition.</p>
<p>The study also did not explore in depth why depression might lead to less reliance on habitual political choices. While the researchers propose that more thoughtful processing could be one explanation, other factors—such as reduced confidence in one’s political judgments—might also play a role. Future work will need to investigate these underlying reasons in greater detail.</p>
<p>“In the future, we want to study the effect of depression on political information processing more directly,” Bernardi said. “We also want to determine whether our findings can be replicated among individuals with general anxiety disorder.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.13064" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Not in the mood for party: Symptoms of depression reduce the weight of partisanship on vote choice</a>,” was authored by Luca Bernardi, Guillem Rico, and Eva Anduiza.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/phubbing-linked-to-increased-aggression-in-romantic-relationships/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Phubbing linked to increased aggression in romantic relationships</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Feb 10th 2025, 18:00</div>
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<p><p>A recent study published in <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1470175" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Frontiers in Psychology</a></em> suggests that when one partner is distracted by their smartphone during time spent together, it is linked to harmful behaviors that can damage the quality of a romantic relationship. The study found that when one partner frequently ‘phubs’ the other, it is associated with increased relational aggression in the relationship for both men and women. Furthermore, the researchers discovered that the level of support individuals feel they receive from their partner and the gap between the support they desire and what they actually get helps explain this link, particularly for women.</p>
<p>The researchers set out to explore the effects of what is known as “partner phubbing”—a term that describes the behavior of snubbing one’s significant other by focusing on one’s phone during shared moments—on relational aggression. Relational aggression refers to actions that are intended to harm a partner by damaging their social connections or feelings of belonging, rather than using physical force.</p>
<p>Previous studies have looked at aggression in relationships, but there was very little understanding of how everyday habits like checking a phone might trigger these negative behaviors. The new study was designed to answer whether being ignored because of phone use is linked to more aggressive actions within a relationship and to examine whether changes in the support partners provide each other could explain this connection. The researchers were also interested in discovering if men and women might react differently to such situations.</p>
<p>To answer these questions, the researchers recruited young unmarried adults from China who were currently involved in a romantic relationship. Participants ranged in age from 18 to 35 years old and all used smartphones on a daily basis. In February 2021, the researchers collected data through an online survey distributed via popular social networking channels in China. Potential participants received invitations through widely used messaging groups, and the survey was hosted on a well-known Chinese web-based survey platform. Out of 833 responses received, 772 were deemed usable after the research team removed responses that did not meet quality control checks.</p>
<p>The survey itself was organized into several sections. One section focused on partner phubbing and asked participants to report how often their romantic partner ignored them by using a mobile phone during interactions. This measure was based on a nine-item scale, where respondents rated the frequency of such behaviors on a five-point scale ranging from “never” to “all the time.” Another part of the survey examined the level of social support that participants received from their partner. Social support was measured in two ways: first, by asking about the actual help and care that participants felt they received, and second, by asking what they expected to receive in an ideal situation. The researchers then calculated the gap between these two sets of responses to capture what they called the support discrepancy—the difference between ideal support and actual support.</p>
<p>Finally, the survey included questions on relational aggression. Participants were asked about experiences over the past three months that related both to aggressive behaviors they may have perpetrated and to instances when they felt hurt by their partner’s actions. Each item on this measure was rated on a five-point scale, so that higher overall scores indicated higher levels of aggressive behavior within the relationship.</p>
<p>When the researchers analyzed the data, they found that partner phubbing was linked with relational aggression. In other words, the more a partner was distracted by their smartphone, the more likely it was that the other partner would engage in behaviors meant to undermine the relationship.</p>
<p>The study revealed that this connection was not simply a direct reaction but was also partly explained by changes in the level of social support. Specifically, when one partner frequently used their phone during moments that were meant for togetherness, the other partner received less of the support they needed. This lack of tangible support from the partner was associated with a greater likelihood of engaging in relational aggression.</p>
<p>At the same time, the gap between what support a person ideally expected and what they actually received also played a role. A larger difference between these two types of support was found to influence the link between phone distraction and aggressive behavior, although this effect was more subtle.</p>
<p>The study also examined whether these patterns differed between men and women. For female participants, both the reduction in actual support and the increase in the gap between ideal and actual support were important in explaining why partner phubbing led to higher levels of relational aggression. Women who felt that their partner was distracted by their phone reported receiving less support in day-to-day interactions, and this decrease in support was linked to more aggressive behaviors aimed at hurting or excluding their partner.</p>
<p>In contrast, for male participants, while partner phubbing was still directly associated with higher relational aggression, the measures of support did not significantly explain this connection. This suggests that women might be more sensitive to the supportive aspects of a relationship, and that when these supportive interactions are disrupted by phone distraction, it can lead to a stronger negative reaction. For men, the link between being ignored by a partner and acting aggressively seems to be less dependent on changes in support, pointing to the possibility that other factors may influence their responses.</p>
<p>But there are limitations to consider. Because the survey relied on self-reported data, there is always a risk that participants might have underreported or overreported their behaviors due to social desirability or personal biases. In addition, the study used a cross-sectional design, meaning that all the data were collected at one time. This makes it difficult to determine cause and effect; for example, it is unclear whether phone distraction leads to aggression or if aggressive behavior might also contribute to less supportive interactions that encourage phubbing.</p>
<p>Despite these limitations, the study offers new information about how everyday behaviors in the digital age might affect romantic relationships. The findings suggest that the act of being distracted by a smartphone during moments that should be devoted to a partner can lead to a breakdown in the quality of support within the relationship, which in turn can lead to harmful behaviors intended to damage the social bond.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1470175" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Partner phubbing and relational aggression in romantic relationships among young adults in China: the roles of social support and gender</a>,” was authored by</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/can-acacia-catechu-and-scutellaria-baicalensis-extracts-enhance-brain-function/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Can Acacia catechu and Scutellaria baicalensis extracts enhance brain function?</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Feb 10th 2025, 16:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study published in <em><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1028415X.2024.2442425" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nutritional Neuroscience</a></em> has investigated whether a daily herbal supplement made from extracts of two traditional medicinal plants can boost brain function in healthy adults. Over a four-week period, participants taking the supplement showed improvements in their cognitive test scores; however, these gains were similar to those observed in individuals taking a placebo. The study also found that the supplement was safe and well tolerated, with no significant changes in blood markers or serious side effects reported.</p>
<p>Acacia catechu is a type of tree native to parts of Asia that has been used for centuries in traditional medicine. The heartwood of this tree is rich in polyphenols, which are natural compounds that help protect cells from damage caused by free radicals. These polyphenols, including compounds like catechins, are known for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Because of these benefits, extracts from Acacia catechu have been explored for their potential to support overall health and protect nerve cells.</p>
<p>Scutellaria baicalensis, commonly known as Chinese skullcap, is a flowering plant long used in traditional Chinese medicine. This plant’s roots and stems also contain high levels of polyphenols, such as baicalin, which exhibit antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. The polyphenols found in Scutellaria baicalensis are thought to help shield brain cells from oxidative stress and inflammation, which are factors that can negatively impact cognitive function.</p>
<p>The motivation behind the study was to investigate if combining these two herbal extracts could offer a safe and natural way to support brain health. As people age, even healthy individuals can experience slight declines in cognitive abilities like memory, focus, and information processing. Previous research, particularly in animal studies, suggested that the flavonoids in these plants might protect the brain against damage caused by stress and inflammation.</p>
<p>With the idea that natural substances might help to maintain or improve cognitive performance before more noticeable declines occur, the researchers designed a study to test whether a blend of Acacia catechu and Scutellaria baicalensis could have positive effects on thinking and memory in healthy adults.</p>
<p>“Our lab primarily focuses on nutritional supplements and exercise performance, but we’re always eager to explore new frontiers,” said study author Joesi Morey, the research coordinator for the <a href="https://www.lindenwood.edu/academics/centers-institutes/exercise-and-performance-nutrition-lab-epnl/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Exercise and Performance Nutrition Laboratory (EPNL)</a> at Lindenwood University.</p>
<p>“This project was a perfect opportunity to do just that. While polyphenols have shown various health benefits, the impact of this specific herbal extract combination on cognition was largely unexplored. It’s an area with huge potential to benefit the public. As a researcher passionate about using exercise to improve overall health, I was excited to venture into the realm of cognitive wellness. This study allowed us to expand our expertise beyond physical performance and contribute to the broader landscape of health research.”</p>
<p>A total of 100 healthy adults, between the ages of 30 and 60, were initially recruited for the study. These individuals underwent a thorough screening process to ensure they were in good health and were not taking any medications or supplements that might affect cognition. After screening, the participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups. One group received the test product—a capsule containing a blend of two standardized extracts (240 milligrams of bioflavonoids from the stems of Scutellaria baicalensis and 51 milligrams of bioflavonoids from the heartwood of Acacia catechu, with a small amount of maltodextrin to fill the capsule)—and the other group received a placebo capsule that contained an inactive substance.</p>
<p>Both types of capsules were identical in appearance, and neither the participants nor the study staff knew which group an individual was assigned to. This type of arrangement, known as a double-blind design, helps ensure that the outcomes are not influenced by expectations.</p>
<p>Participants were instructed to take two capsules daily—one in the morning and one in the evening—with food and water. The four-week intervention was monitored through in-person visits that occurred at the start, midway, and at the end of the study period. At each visit, the researchers collected detailed information about the participants’ physical health, which included measurements of height, weight, body composition, resting heart rate, and blood pressure.</p>
<p>In addition, blood samples were taken to analyze various markers that can indicate inflammation, overall body health, and brain health. For example, the researchers measured levels of substances that signal inflammation in the body, as well as markers associated with the growth and maintenance of brain cells. These laboratory tests helped ensure that the supplement did not have any adverse effects on the body.</p>
<p>To assess cognitive performance, participants completed a series of tests using electronic tablets. These tests evaluated several areas of cognitive function, including attention, the speed at which information is processed, the ability to switch between tasks, and problem-solving skills. The tests were administered three times during the study—at the beginning, midway through, and at the end—to track any changes over time.</p>
<p>Over the four weeks, both groups of participants showed an overall improvement in their scores on various cognitive tests. The researchers observed that measures of attention, processing speed, and task flexibility increased over time regardless of whether the participants took the herbal supplement or the placebo. This pattern suggests that the act of taking the tests more than once may have helped the participants perform better as they became more comfortable with the tasks, a phenomenon sometimes called a learning effect.</p>
<p>Importantly, when the researchers compared the performance between the two groups, there was no statistically significant difference. In other words, the enhancements in cognitive scores could not be attributed to the herbal supplement because similar improvements occurred in the placebo group.</p>
<p>“The noticeable improvements in both supplement and placebo groups were interesting,” Morey told PsyPost. “It really emphasizes the importance of placebo-controlled studies in this field. It also highlights how factors like learning effects can significantly impact cognitive performance assessments.”</p>
<p>In addition to tracking cognitive performance, the study closely monitored safety parameters. Participants underwent regular blood tests to measure markers that indicate liver function, blood cell counts, and other important aspects of health. While there were some minor differences observed—such as a slight increase in one type of white blood cell (basophils) in the supplement group—these changes remained within the normal ranges for healthy adults. A few participants reported mild to moderate side effects, such as headaches or minor gastrointestinal discomfort. None of these events were serious, and overall the supplement was considered safe for consumption over the four-week period.</p>
<p>“The key takeaway is that we observed improvements in cognitive function in participants who took this supplement for four weeks,” Morey explained. “However, we saw similar improvements in the placebo group as well. The supplement proved to be safe and well-tolerated, which is always positive. While we can’t definitively attribute the cognitive improvements solely to the supplement, our results do suggest potential benefits This study underscores both the complexity of cognitive function and the need for more research to fully grasp how these herbal extracts affect brain health.”</p>
<p>Even though the study was thorough, there were several factors that may have limited the ability to detect an effect of the supplement on cognitive function. One significant limitation was the short duration of the study. Four weeks may not have been enough time to see meaningful changes in brain function, especially in a group of healthy individuals who already had normal cognitive abilities. Another point to consider is that the participants were generally healthy and free from significant inflammation or cognitive decline. In such a population, there may be less room for improvement.</p>
<p>“Future research in this area should focus on larger-scale, longer-duration studies,” Morey said. “It would be valuable to investigate whether this supplement could have preventive effects or potentially slow cognitive decline over time. Exploring its impact on specific populations at higher risk for cognitive issues could also yield important insights.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1028415X.2024.2442425" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Effects of Acacia catechu and Scutellaria baicalensis extract on cognitive function in a healthy adult population: a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial</a>,” was authored by Joesi M. Krieger, Anthony M. Hagele, Petey W. Mumford, Diego De Gregorio, Connor J. Gaige, Ethan R. Hoffman, Kristen N. Gross, Kevin F. Holley, Leah E. Allen, and Chad M. Kerksick.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/sexy-or-off-putting-women-weigh-in-on-their-male-partners-scent-in-bed/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Sexy or off-putting? Women weigh in on their male partner’s scent in bed</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Feb 10th 2025, 14:00</div>
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<p><p>A recent qualitative study explored women’s perceptions of their partner’s odor in intimate and sexual situations. The results revealed that women’s perception of odor often depended on context, such that even odors generally perceived as unpleasant were often accepted as part of a sexual encounter. The paper was published in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-024-02925-2"><em>Archives of Sexual Behavior</em></a>.</p>
<p>Human body odor plays a significant role in social interactions, influencing attraction, bonding, and communication. Natural body scent conveys information about genetic compatibility, emotional states, and even health status. Research suggests that people can subconsciously detect fear, stress, or happiness through body odor, which can, in turn, affect their perceptions of others. In social settings, a pleasant or familiar body odor can enhance trust and positive interactions, while unpleasant odors may lead to avoidance or negative judgments.</p>
<p>Odor may be particularly important in women’s sexuality. One study found that women reported body odor as being sexually arousing during sexual activity more often than men did. Another study indicated that women with higher olfactory sensitivity tended to report more pleasant sexual experiences and higher frequencies of orgasm. Conversely, individuals with smell-related disorders have reported decreased sexual desire after their sense of smell was disrupted.</p>
<p>Study author Anna Fišerová and her colleagues sought to explore the types of partner odors perceived by women in intimate and sexual contexts. They also aimed to understand how these odors influence women’s perceptions and whether they are specific to particular situations. Additionally, they examined whether these perceptions differed between single women and those in committed relationships.</p>
<p>The study involved 20 women in committed relationships and 20 single women. Among the women in relationships, 13 were dating, while 7 were married. Their ages ranged from 18 to 40 years, with varying lengths of relationship duration for the partnered participants, ensuring a diverse representation of experiences in romantic dynamics.</p>
<p>The researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with the participants. The interviews consisted of four parts, with one section exclusive to single women. The first part focused on women’s perceptions of their partner’s odor during the early stages of the relationship, the second on their perception of odor during the relationship, the third on odor perception following a breakup (only single women participated in this section), and the final part assessed participants’ general level of odor sensitivity.</p>
<p>The researchers identified four primary natural odor types—body odor, sweat, genital odor, and semen odor—and three key fragrance categories—cologne, shower gel, and laundry agents. These odors were perceived in various intimate contexts, such as hugging, kissing, and cuddling, as well as in sexual encounters like intercourse, oral sex, and ejaculation. Women’s reactions to these odors varied widely, with some finding them pleasant, arousing, or comforting, while others reported feelings of disgust or avoidance. Notably, women in relationships were more likely to associate their partner’s natural body odor with feelings of security and home.</p>
<p>Women’s perception of odor frequently depended on context. Certain odors, such as genital and semen odors, were often accepted as natural parts of sexual activity despite being perceived negatively in other contexts. Similarly, sweat produced during physical exertion was sometimes considered arousing, whereas sweat accumulated after a workday was frequently reported as unpleasant.</p>
<p>This suggests that sexual arousal may temporarily override disgust responses, a phenomenon supported by previous research indicating that sexual arousal can reduce sensitivity to negative stimuli. On the other hand, negative odor experiences in non-sexual contexts, such as hugging or cuddling, might suppress sexual desire, potentially affecting relationship dynamics.</p>
<p>The results also highlighted the role of external factors in odor perception. Women reported that their partners’ odors could be influenced negatively by excessive or insufficient hygiene, illness, cigarette smoke, alcohol, or certain foods. For instance, some respondents noted that the scent of semen became less tolerable after their partner consumed spicy or aromatic foods, leading them to modify sexual behaviors accordingly.</p>
<p>Another intriguing finding was the significant variability in how women responded to the same types of odors. One woman’s arousing and intoxicating scent was another’s source of disgust and avoidance. Some women actively sought out their partner’s genital odor, finding it sexually stimulating, while others avoided oral sex due to an aversion to the same scent. Similarly, while some women found their partner’s body odor comforting, others found it off-putting and even relationship-straining.</p>
<p>“Our results highlight the complexity and interindividual variability of partner’s odor perception. The same type of odor could be perceived by different respondents in different ways or even with the opposite valence,” the study authors concluded.</p>
<p>The study sheds light on women’s perceptions of odors in intimate and sexual situations. However, this was a small qualitative study and authors reported pronounced differences between participants in how they perceived specific odors.</p>
<p>The paper, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-024-02925-2">The Context Matters: Women’s Experiences of Their Partner’s Odor in Intimate and Sexual Encounters,</a>” was authored by Anna Fišerová, Žaneta Pátková, Dagmar Schwambergová, Lucie Jelínková, and Jan Havlíček.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/stalled-protein-processing-may-underlie-alzheimers-disease/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Stalled protein processing may underlie Alzheimer’s disease</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Feb 10th 2025, 12:00</div>
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<p><p>A recent study published in <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.102274.2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">eLife</a></em> offers a new perspective on the development of Alzheimer’s disease, suggesting that the condition may be triggered by disruptions in how the brain processes proteins. Researchers found that mutations in a specific gene can cause protein processing to stall, potentially leading to the brain changes associated with Alzheimer’s. This finding could pave the way for the development of new treatments focused on correcting these protein processing issues.</p>
<p>For many years, scientists have been trying to understand what causes Alzheimer’s disease, a devastating condition that robs people of their memory and thinking abilities. One of the main ideas guiding research has been the amyloid cascade hypothesis. This idea proposes that the disease begins with the buildup of a protein called amyloid beta in the brain. It is thought that this buildup starts a chain of events that ultimately damages brain cells and leads to dementia.</p>
<p>While much research has focused on this amyloid beta protein, the precise ways in which it becomes harmful and how to effectively target it with treatments remain unclear. Many clinical trials aimed at reducing amyloid beta or preventing its buildup have had limited success. This has led scientists to reconsider whether amyloid beta is truly the primary cause of Alzheimer’s disease and to explore other potential mechanisms.</p>
<p>In this new study, researchers turned their attention to the process that creates amyloid beta in the first place. This process, called proteolysis, involves an enzyme known as gamma-secretase. Gamma-secretase acts like a pair of molecular scissors, trimming a larger protein, called amyloid precursor protein, into smaller pieces, one of which is amyloid beta.</p>
<p>Previous work by the research team had indicated that mutations in a gene called presenilin-1, which is linked to early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, might disrupt the normal trimming action of gamma-secretase. They discovered that these mutations seemed to prevent gamma-secretase from efficiently cutting amyloid precursor protein. This led to a buildup of incompletely processed protein fragments. Furthermore, in a simple laboratory model using worms, they found that these stalled protein complexes could cause brain cell damage even when amyloid beta was not present.</p>
<p>“Given the problems with the long-standing amyloid hypothesis of the cause of Alzheimer’s disease, we sought an alternative explanation,” said senior author<a href="https://medchem.ku.edu/people/michael-wolfe" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Michael Wolfe</a>, the Mathias P. Mertes Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Kansas.</p>
<p>“We focused on rare mutations that cause early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. These mutations are found in the genes that encode the enzyme and substrate that produce the amyloid beta-peptide, so there must be something about this process that is triggering neurodegeneration. In a previous report last year, we showed that it’s the stalled process, not the amyloid products that can cause degeneration of neural connections in a simple genetic animal model system.”</p>
<p>Building on this earlier work, the scientists wanted to investigate further how different mutations in the presenilin-1 gene affect the entire protein processing pathway. They focused on six additional mutations known to cause early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, which strikes people at a younger age, typically between their late twenties and fifties. These mutations are of particular interest because they are studied by a large research network called the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network, which focuses on inherited forms of the disease.</p>
<p>To examine the effects of these mutations, the researchers first created different versions of the gamma-secretase enzyme in the laboratory, each carrying one of the six mutations. They then purified these mutant enzymes and mixed them with fragments of amyloid precursor protein. This allowed them to observe how each mutated enzyme processed the precursor protein.</p>
<p>To measure the results of this protein processing, they used a technique called mass spectrometry. This method allowed them to identify and precisely measure the amounts of different protein fragments produced by each mutated enzyme. By analyzing these fragments, the team could determine exactly how each mutation altered the way gamma-secretase trimmed the amyloid precursor protein.</p>
<p>The researchers discovered that all six mutations disrupted the normal protein processing carried out by gamma-secretase. However, the specific nature of these disruptions varied depending on the particular mutation. They found that all the mutations caused problems at multiple steps in the trimming process. This indicated that the mutations were not simply stopping the process entirely but rather causing it to become inefficient and error-prone.</p>
<p>“The enzyme that produces amyloid does so through a series of cleavage reactions on the precursor protein,” Wolfe told PsyPost. “We were surprised that disease-causing mutations can disrupt distinct cleavage steps. It apparently doesn’t matter which of these steps are stalled. Stalling at any stage may be sufficient to trigger loss of neuronal connections.”</p>
<p>In addition to analyzing the protein fragments, the researchers also wanted to understand how these mutations affected the interaction between the gamma-secretase enzyme and the amyloid precursor protein. They hypothesized that the mutations might be causing the enzyme to get ‘stuck’ to the precursor protein, leading to the stalled processing they had observed.</p>
<p>To test this idea, they used a technique involving fluorescently labeled antibodies. They attached fluorescent tags to antibodies that would bind to both the amyloid precursor protein fragment and the gamma-secretase enzyme. By measuring the fluorescent signal, they could determine when the enzyme and the precursor protein were in close proximity, indicating that they were bound together.</p>
<p>The researchers found that for all the mutations they tested, the fluorescent signal was reduced compared to the normal, functional enzyme. This reduction in signal suggested that the mutations were indeed causing the enzyme and the precursor protein to bind together more tightly and for a longer duration. In other words, the enzyme-substrate complexes were more stable in the mutated versions.</p>
<p>This finding supported their idea that the mutations were causing protein processing to stall. The enzyme was binding to the precursor protein but not efficiently completing the trimming process, resulting in a ‘stuck’ or stalled complex.</p>
<p>According to the researchers, these results align with their ‘stalled complex’ hypothesis. They suggest that it is not just the amyloid beta protein itself, but these stalled enzyme-substrate complexes that may be triggering the brain cell damage seen in Alzheimer’s disease. Even if amyloid beta protein production is reduced, the presence of these stuck protein processing complexes could still initiate the disease process.</p>
<p>“Amyloid may be coincidental with the true cause of the disease,” Wolfe said. “Our evidence suggests that the stalled process of trying to make amyloid, rather than amyloid itself, may initiate the degeneration of neuronal connections.”</p>
<p>Future research will need to confirm these findings in more complex systems, such as animal models that more closely mimic human Alzheimer’s disease. It will also be important to investigate whether similar mechanisms are involved in the more common, late-onset form of Alzheimer’s disease, which is not directly caused by these specific genetic mutations.</p>
<p>Looking ahead, the researchers aim to continue exploring this ‘stalled complex’ hypothesis and to identify potential drug candidates that can help restore normal protein processing in Alzheimer’s disease. They hope that this new direction in research will lead to truly effective treatments for this devastating condition.</p>
<p>“We hope to identify a therapeutic strategy that is truly effective, unlike the currently approved drugs for Alzheimer’s disease,” Wolfe said. “We have already begun this search to find drug candidates that rescue stalled enzymes.”</p>
<p>“This field of investigation has been long invested in the amyloid hypothesis. It will take many more studies to turn the direction of research toward this new amyloid-independent hypothesis.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.102274.2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Alzheimer-mutant γ-secretase complexes stall amyloid β-peptide production</a>,” was authored by Parnian Arafi, Sujan Devkota, Emily Williams, Masato Maesako, and Michael S. Wolfe.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/stronger-men-have-more-partners-and-so-do-stronger-women-new-study-finds/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Stronger men have more partners—and so do stronger women, new study finds</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Feb 10th 2025, 11:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2024.106647"><em>Evolution and Human Behavior</em></a> shows that being physically strong may be linked to a greater number of sexual partners and an increased chance of long-term relationships. Researchers found that men with stronger upper bodies were more likely to be in committed relationships, while both men and women with higher upper-body strength tended to have more sexual partners over their lifetimes. The results add a surprising twist to long-held ideas about the role of physical strength in human mating behavior.</p>
<p>The research team set out to test ideas about how physical strength might have helped our ancestors succeed in attracting and keeping mates. <a href="https://www.psypost.org/exclusive/evolutionary-psychology/">Evolutionary theories</a> have long proposed that men evolved to be stronger because physical strength provided advantages in male competition and mate guarding. However, most previous studies focused on men, and few had examined whether similar relationships exist for women. The investigators wanted to explore whether upper-body strength could also be related to mating behavior in women and to understand how these physical attributes might have influenced relationship formation in the distant past.</p>
<p>“We were investigating the relationship between sex differences in physical strength and sex differences in depression, and we realized that our dataset could also address the longstanding hypothesis that sex differences in strength evolved due to sexual selection: men with higher physical strength were better able to physically compete other men for access to mates, thereby leading to greater number of sexual partners,” explained senior author <a href="https://anthro.vancouver.wsu.edu/people/hagen/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Edward H. Hagen</a>, a professor of anthropology at Washington State University.</p>
<p>To investigate these questions, the researchers analyzed data gathered from a nationally representative sample of more than 4,300 adults in the United States. This information was collected as part of a long-running national health survey carried out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Participants in the survey, ranging in age from 18 to 60 years, provided information about their physical health, including a measure of upper-body strength. In this study, the team used hand grip strength as an easily obtained proxy for overall upper-body power. Each person’s grip strength was measured by taking three readings from each hand with a device that quantifies how hard they could squeeze.</p>
<p>In addition to the strength measurements, participants completed a computer-based questionnaire that asked about various aspects of their sexual behavior. They reported the number of sexual partners they had had over the course of their lives as well as in the past year. They also provided the age at which they first had sex and described their current relationship status by indicating whether they were married or living with a partner. The researchers also incorporated a wide range of other information such as age, body size, self-reported health, mood, education level, race, and even aspects of physical activity. By including all of these factors in their analyses, the team hoped to separate the effect of upper-body strength from other factors that might also influence sexual and relationship outcomes.</p>
<p>The results showed a clear connection between upper-body strength and aspects of mating success. For men, higher strength was associated with a greater likelihood of being in a long-term relationship. In other words, men who were stronger compared to other men were more often found in committed partnerships. The data also revealed that, on average, stronger men reported having had more sexual partners over their lives than their less strong peers.</p>
<p>“We found that higher upper body strength was indeed associated with more sexual partners, but also that it was associated with a greater likelihood of being in a long term relationship,” Hagen told PsyPost. “This means that higher upper body strength might have evolved, at least in part, because stronger men were better to provide benefits to women and their families, such as more food and protection, rather than simply because they were better able to physically compete with other men.”</p>
<p>“People have assumptions about men’s sexual behavior and how that’s related to evolution. Besides acquiring more sexual partners, establishing long-term relationships was likely also important for men in evolutionary history,” said lead author Caroline Smith, a recent PhD graduate.</p>
<p>One of the more surprising outcomes of the study was that women with higher upper-body strength reported more lifetime sexual partners than their less strong counterparts. “This is contrary to the sexual selection hypothesis based on within-sex competition,” Hagen noted. “But strength was still more strongly associated with having a long term relationship for men than it was for women, consistent with evolutionary theories of sexual selection based on female choice.”</p>
<p>The researchers speculate that there may be several reasons behind this pattern. For example, it is possible that stronger women might be more selective about the men they choose as long-term partners, which in turn could be related to a greater willingness to explore a variety of mating opportunities. Alternatively, stronger women might be more likely to pair with men who are also physically strong, and if those men tend to have more partners, this might influence the overall number of partners reported by these women. Another possibility is that women who invest in maintaining a higher level of physical strength may also lead lifestyles that promote active social and sexual behaviors.</p>
<p>Further analysis showed that strength did not consistently predict the number of sexual partners people reported in the past year or the age at which they first had sex. It appears that the relationship between strength and mating behavior may be more related to overall patterns across one’s lifetime rather than to very recent sexual activity or the timing of sexual initiation.</p>
<p>The researchers controlled for factors like body mass index, education, race, health status, hormone levels, and activity level, among others. But the study still had some limitations to consider. One issue is that in modern industrialized societies, the number of sexual partners reported by an individual does not necessarily reflect reproductive success. With the widespread use of contraception, the number of partners a person has is not directly linked to the number of children they may eventually have.</p>
<p>Another limitation was that the data included a small number of individuals reporting extremely high numbers of lifetime sexual partners. The team decided to exclude those outliers from the main analyses to prevent them from skewing the results. Additionally, the researchers noted that the study could not account for some biological factors that might influence both strength and sexual behavior, such as hormone levels during early development or conditions that affect hormone balance later in life.</p>
<p>Looking ahead, one important goal is to design studies that can determine whether increased strength actually leads to more success in establishing long-term relationships. It is one thing to find a correlation between upper-body strength and relationship status, but another to show that being stronger causes this success.</p>
<p>“Our study could only show correlation, not causation,” Hagen said. “It would be important to design studies that could test if higher strength <em>caused</em> an increase in establishing long-term relationships. It would also be important to determine if the patterns we found were also found across cultures, especially in those cultures where men’s physical strength was important to putting food on the table and providing other benefits to their families. Finally, we don’t have a good explanation for why women with higher upper body strength also had more lifetime sexual partners, so that would be another issue to investigate in future studies.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2024.106647">Strength, mating success, and immune and nutritional costs in a population sample of US women and men: A registered report</a>,” was authored by Caroline B. Smith and Edward H. Hagen.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/calling-time-alone-me-time-boosts-positive-feelings-and-improves-perceptions-unlike-labeling-it-isolation/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Calling time alone “me-time” boosts positive feelings and improves perceptions, unlike labeling it “isolation”</a>
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<p><p>Framing time alone as “me-time” rather than “isolation” enhances emotional well-being, increases positive affect, and improves beliefs about solitude, according to a new study published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2024.2445080"><em>Cognition & Emotion</em></a>.</p>
<p>Spending time alone is a common experience that can be beneficial or detrimental to well-being, depending on how it is perceived. While solitude can provide opportunities for relaxation and self-reflection, it may also lead to feelings of loneliness and discomfort.</p>
<p>How individuals frame their experiences plays a crucial role in shaping emotions, decision-making, and social interactions. For instance, <a href="https://www.psypost.org/expressions-such-as-all-for-one-one-for-all-are-perceived-as-more-accurate-compared-to-paraphrases-that-break-the-a-b-b-a-pattern/">linguistic choices</a> have been found to <a href="https://www.psypost.org/euphemistic-language-can-sway-opinions-while-avoiding-the-reputational-costs-of-outright-lying-study-finds/">influence perception</a> and emotional responses in various contexts, from stress management to consumer behavior. However, little research has examined whether language can shape how people experience time alone.</p>
<p>Micaela Rodriguez and Scott W. Campbell examined how different terms used to describe time alone—such as “me-time” and “isolation”—affect individuals’ perceptions, emotions, and behaviors during solitary experiences.</p>
<p>In Study 1, 500 U.S. adults were randomly assigned to evaluate one of five labels describing time alone: me-time, time alone, solitude, being alone, or isolation. They rated their assigned term on several dimensions, including how positive or negative it felt, its perceived impact on well-being, and whether they actively sought or avoided that type of solitude. Additionally, participants provided open-ended descriptions of their experiences and associations with their assigned term.</p>
<p>In Study 2, 176 undergraduate students were randomly assigned to a 30-minute solitude period framed as either me-time or isolation. Several days before the session, they completed a survey measuring baseline beliefs about solitude, loneliness, self-esteem, and social support. During the session, they remained in a self-selected location, avoiding all social interactions, including digital communication, but could engage in non-social activities like reading or writing. Afterward, they rated their emotions, described their thoughts and behaviors, and reassessed their beliefs about being alone. Thirty-one participants were excluded for noncompliance, leaving 145 in the final analysis.</p>
<p>Study 1 revealed significant differences in how people evaluated different labels for time alone. “Me-time” was consistently rated as the most positive and desirable, with participants perceiving it as beneficial for well-being and something they actively sought out. In contrast, “isolation” was perceived as the least desirable, although it was not viewed as inherently negative. The other labels—time alone, solitude, and being alone—fell somewhere in between, with “solitude” being generally seen as neutral to positive, while “being alone” was slightly less appealing. The qualitative responses further reinforced these findings, with participants associating “me-time” with self-care, relaxation, and enjoyment, whereas “isolation” carried connotations of social exclusion and loneliness.</p>
<p>In Study 2, the linguistic framing of solitude had a measurable impact on participants’ emotional experiences. Those who spent 30 minutes alone after being told they were having “me-time” reported an increase in positive affect, while those who were told they were in “isolation” experienced a decline in positive emotions. Both groups showed a reduction in negative affect after the solitude period, but the decrease was significantly larger in the “me-time” condition. Additionally, participants in the “me-time” condition reported more positive beliefs about being alone after the session compared to their baseline beliefs, while those in the “isolation” condition showed no significant change.</p>
<p>Interestingly, linguistic framing did not significantly influence the activities participants engaged in during their alone time. However, it did appear to shape thought content, with those in the “isolation” condition being more likely to think about schoolwork, while those in the “me-time” condition were more likely to reflect on personal growth.</p>
<p>One limitation is that the sample consisted primarily of U.S. adults and undergraduate students, limiting the generalizability of the findings across diverse populations.</p>
<p>These findings highlight the power of language in shaping psychological experiences and offer a simple, practical intervention for improving solitary experiences.</p>
<p>The research, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2024.2445080">From ‘isolation’ to ‘me-time’: Linguistic shifts enhance solitary experiences</a>,” was authored by Micaela Rodriguez and Scott W. Campbell.</p></p>
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<p><strong>Forwarded by:<br />
Michael Reeder LCPC<br />
Baltimore, MD</strong></p>
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