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<td><span style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:20px;font-weight:bold;">PsyPost – Psychology News</span></td>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/adhd-symptoms-are-associated-with-personality-traits-in-10-15-year-olds-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;">ADHD symptoms are associated with personality traits in 10-15-year-olds, study finds</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Sep 1st 2025, 10:00</div>
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<p><p>A study of children aged 10 to 15 in Serbia found that the severity of ADHD symptoms is associated with personality traits. Specifically, children with higher levels of Aggressiveness, Neuroticism, and Negative Valence tended to have more severe ADHD symptoms, while children with higher levels of Conscientiousness tended to have fewer symptoms. The research was published in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000437"><em>Journal of Individual Differences</em></a>.</p>
<p>Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by persistent patterns of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that interfere with daily functioning. It typically begins in childhood, though symptoms often continue into adolescence and adulthood.</p>
<p>The exact causes are not fully understood, but research suggests a strong genetic component, with heritability estimates of around 70–80%. Environmental influences, such as prenatal exposure to alcohol, nicotine, or stress, can also increase risk. Early childhood factors like low birth weight or lead exposure may contribute to its development. Without recognition, ADHD can lead to academic underachievement, strained relationships, and emotional difficulties. With support, many individuals learn strategies to manage symptoms effectively.</p>
<p>Study author Tatjana Krstić and her colleagues sought to evaluate the relationships between personality traits and the severity of ADHD symptoms in middle school children. In particular, they wanted to see whether personality traits are linked to specific ADHD symptoms such as inattention, hyperactivity, or impulsivity.</p>
<p>The study included 402 parents of children aged 10 to 15 years, with an average child age of 13. About 51% of the children were boys. Parents ranged in age from 29 to 63, with an average age of 43. Children were recruited from six schools in Serbia located in both urban and rural areas.</p>
<p>Parents rated their children’s ADHD symptom severity and personality traits. For ADHD symptoms, the researchers used the Swanson, Nolan, and Pelham Rating Scale – version IV (SNAP-IV), which includes items such as “Often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly.” To assess personality, they used the parent version of the Big Five Plus Two for children.</p>
<p>The personality assessment measured the five widely studied personality traits—Neuroticism (e.g., “Often has the jitters”), Extraversion (e.g., “Has many friends”), Aggressiveness (e.g., “Often yells at others when provoked”), Conscientiousness (e.g., “Always fulfills his/her obligations”), and Openness (e.g., “Likes new and interesting things”). It also included two additional traits: Positive Valence (e.g., “Has a big influence in a peer group”) and Negative Valence (e.g., “Thinks that he/she is no good”).</p>
<p>The results indicated that children with more severe ADHD symptoms tended to show higher levels of Aggressiveness, Neuroticism, and Negative Valence. They tended to score lower on Conscientiousness, Extraversion, and Openness. The severity of ADHD symptoms was not associated with Positive Valence. When the researchers examined the unique contributions of personality traits in predicting ADHD severity, the association with Extraversion was no longer significant.</p>
<p>“Our findings supported the conclusion that personality traits in children are predictors of ADHD symptoms,” the study authors concluded.</p>
<p>The study contributes to the scientific knowledge about the links between personality and ADHD. However, it should be noted that all the data in this study came from parents, leaving room for reporting bias and common method bias to have affected the results.</p>
<p>The paper, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000437">The Relationship Between Personality Traits and ADHD Symptoms in 10- to 15-Year-Old Children: Parent Ratings,</a>” was authored by Tatjana Krstić, Ilija Milovanović, Aleksandra Stojadinović, Vojislava Bugarski Ignjatović, and Željka Nikolašević.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/online-hate-speech-mirrors-language-in-cluster-b-personality-disorder-forums/" 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;">Online hate speech mirrors language in Cluster B personality disorder forums</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Sep 1st 2025, 08:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study published in <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000935" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PLOS Digital Health</a></em> suggests that hate speech and misinformation on Reddit may reflect language patterns similar to those found in online communities centered around certain psychiatric disorders, particularly those involving Cluster B personality traits. By using large language models and a mathematical technique called topological data analysis, researchers mapped how online discourse in hate speech and misinformation communities aligns with language used in forums for conditions like borderline, antisocial, and narcissistic personality disorders.</p>
<p>The explosion of online communication, especially on platforms like Reddit, has raised concerns about the spread of hate speech and misinformation. These types of content have been linked to real-world consequences, including increased prejudice, public health confusion, and even violence.</p>
<p>Prior work has connected toxic online behavior to personality features often discussed under the “Dark Triad” — narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Yet this is only part of the clinical terrain. In psychiatry’s diagnostic manuals, a set of conditions known as Cluster B personality disorders (antisocial, borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic) are grouped together because they tend to involve heightened emotionality, impulsive or risk-taking behavior, and persistent difficulties in relationships.</p>
<p>People who meet criteria for these disorders may show patterns such as intense and rapidly shifting emotions, a strong need for admiration or attention, disregard for rules or others’ rights, manipulative or hostile interactions, and fluctuating self-image. These features can manifest as antagonistic or combative language, quick escalation during conflict, and a tendency to frame interactions in terms of status, betrayal, or threat.</p>
<p>Researchers have had less success establishing how hate speech and misinformation might relate to psychiatric conditions more broadly, especially across the diagnostic spectrum in the DSM-5. A central question is whether distinctive linguistic patterns in toxic content align with features commonly associated with Cluster B—such as hostility, impulsivity, or unstable self-concept—or whether they reflect a more general psychological profile that cuts across diagnoses.</p>
<p>One challenge is the massive scale of online posts, which makes it difficult to analyze patterns across communities. Another difficulty lies in identifying whether speech patterns linked to hate or misinformation reflect a general psychological profile or traits more consistent with specific mental health conditions.</p>
<p>But advances in artificial intelligence, particularly large language models like GPT-3, have created new opportunities to address these challenges. By extracting high-dimensional representations—called embeddings—of written text, researchers can now study the underlying structure and similarity of speech patterns across different types of content.</p>
<p>“I had noticed that there was a certain antisocial component to hate speech, and had become curious if there would be a connection between hate speech and Cluster B personality disorders,” said study author Andrew Alexander, a 2nd year psychiatry resident at University of Alabama at Birmingham Medical Center.</p>
<p>“When I came up with the idea of analyzing posts from these communities with large language models, I thought about misinformation as well and was curious, so I added misinformation communities to the analysis as well. I also expanded beyond solely Cluster B disorders and included more psychiatric disorders for the same reason.”</p>
<p>To explore this, the researchers turned to Reddit, a platform organized into thousands of thematic forums known as subreddits. Because Reddit hosts a wide range of communities—including support groups for mental health, forums focused on conspiracies or misinformation, and communities known for controversial or hateful speech—it offered a rich dataset for comparing linguistic features across different types of discourse.</p>
<p>The research team selected 54 subreddits for their analysis, dividing them into four categories: hate speech, misinformation, psychiatric disorder forums, and control groups. Communities flagged as spreading hate or misinformation were identified based on prior academic literature or Reddit’s own moderation decisions. Psychiatric disorder forums were included if they self-identified as such and contained user posts that reflected those conditions. Control communities were those unrelated to mental health, hate, or misinformation.</p>
<p>From each subreddit, the team gathered 1,000 posts. Two kinds of data representations were then created. First, “individual user post” embeddings were generated, based on single Reddit posts. Second, “distilled embeddings” were constructed by combining multiple posts from a community to reflect its overall tone and content. The researchers used GPT-3’s embedding model to translate each post into a 1,536-dimensional vector representing its semantic content.</p>
<p>After constructing these embeddings, the researchers applied a method called zero-shot classification. This technique involves training a machine learning model on one type of data and then asking it to classify new data from a category it has not seen before. For this study, models were trained on embeddings from psychiatric disorder and control communities, and then used to classify embeddings from hate speech and misinformation communities. The goal was to see whether the speech patterns in hate or misinformation forums more closely resembled those found in psychiatric disorder communities or in neutral control forums.</p>
<p>In addition to this classification approach, the team used topological data analysis to visualize relationships between different types of communities. This method allowed them to create a map of the embedding space, showing how closely different clusters—such as hate speech, misinformation, or depression forums—were related based on the underlying structure of their language.</p>
<p>The classification results suggested that the language in hate speech communities was more similar to that of psychiatric disorder communities than to control groups. Nearly 80% of the hate speech embeddings were classified as resembling psychiatric disorder communities, with the strongest associations found for Cluster B personality disorders: antisocial, borderline, and narcissistic personality disorder. Another frequent match was Schizoid Personality Disorder, a Cluster A condition characterized by social detachment.</p>
<p>While hate speech posts often matched these disorder-associated embeddings, misinformation posts were more mixed. About a quarter of the misinformation embeddings were classified as resembling psychiatric disorder communities, with some resemblance to anxiety-related conditions. The rest were more closely aligned with control communities, suggesting that the linguistic markers in pure misinformation posts are not as tightly linked to psychiatric disorder forums as those found in hate speech communities.</p>
<p>Topological data analysis reinforced these findings. On the map generated from the embeddings, psychiatric disorder forums clustered in a region that was directly connected to hate speech embeddings. Control communities, in contrast, were generally located in more distant or isolated regions. Interestingly, some misinformation communities also showed a bridge-like connection to the psychiatric disorder cluster, especially those involving COVID-related conspiracy theories, which have been associated with anxiety in prior studies.</p>
<p>Further analysis of the spatial layout revealed a gradient of similarity. Communities with the most overlap with hate speech—such as those focused on narcissistic and schizoid personality disorders—were positioned closest to the hate speech region. Others, like depression or post-traumatic stress disorder forums, were located further away. When the researchers re-ran their classification models while removing narcissistic and schizoid communities from the training data, hate speech embeddings were redistributed to other Cluster B disorders like borderline and antisocial personality disorder, as well as Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.</p>
<p>This finding suggests that hate speech shares a broad linguistic resemblance to communities characterized by emotional dysregulation, impulsivity, or hostility, rather than to just one specific disorder. Meanwhile, PTSD forums did not appear to share the same proximity to hate speech in the map, suggesting that Complex PTSD and classic PTSD may differ in meaningful linguistic ways—possibly supporting arguments that CPTSD is more closely aligned with personality disorders than previously thought.</p>
<p>Misinformation communities showed weaker and more variable connections. The clearest pattern emerged for anxiety-related content, especially in forums focused on COVID-19 misinformation. However, these links were less consistent across the dataset, and most misinformation embeddings clustered closer to control forums on the topological map.</p>
<p>“I think the most important takeaways are that there seems to be similarities in speech between hate speech and communities for certain psychiatric disorders, though it is not possible at the moment to conclusively determine why,” Alexander told PsyPost. “It could be that people with these disorders are more likely to engage in hate speech, or it is possible that these communities foster a lack of empathy that is reflected by speech similar to those seen in these disorders. For misinformation, I think the big takeaway is that there seems to be a slight similarity seen with the speech patterns in anxiety disorder communities, but psychiatric disorders likely are not the driving force behind misinformation.”</p>
<p>However, the researchers emphasized that their findings should not be interpreted as implying that individuals with psychiatric disorders are more likely to spread hate speech or misinformation. Instead, the results suggest that certain linguistic features present in hate speech resemble those found in online communities where users self-identify as having particular mental health conditions. These associations do not establish causality and should not be used to stigmatize people with mental illness.</p>
<p>One limitation of the study lies in its reliance on self-identified communities rather than clinically verified diagnoses. It remains uncertain whether the users in these psychiatric forums actually meet diagnostic criteria for the conditions discussed. Additionally, the study focused only on Reddit, which may not generalize to other social platforms with different user demographics or moderation practices.</p>
<p>“It should be emphasized that this is based on social media community posts, not directly confirmed diagnoses. This means that this study would need to be followed up with one evaluating individuals with confirmed diagnoses to be more certain of the results, though I believe that these results are a fairly good indicator nonetheless.”</p>
<p>Future research could benefit from incorporating more communities across platforms, expanding the range of mental health conditions studied, and collecting clinical data when possible. A more detailed understanding of how hate speech and misinformation evolve in different online environments could also help inform efforts to counteract their spread.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0000935" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Topological data mapping of online hate speech, misinformation, and general mental health: A large language model based study</a>,” was authored by Andrew William Alexander and Hongbin Wang.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/neuroscientists-just-rewrote-our-understanding-of-psychedelics-with-a-groundbreaking-receptor-mapping-study/" 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;">Neuroscientists just rewrote our understanding of psychedelics with a groundbreaking receptor-mapping study</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Sep 1st 2025, 06:00</div>
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<p><p>Classical psychedelics act on a surprisingly broad range of brain receptors, not just the serotonin receptor long associated with their hallucinogenic effects, according to new research published in the journal <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2025.06.012" target="_blank">Neuron</a></em>. The study, which systematically profiled 41 psychedelic compounds, suggests that these drugs activate multiple serotonin, dopamine, and adrenergic receptors, potentially explaining both their therapeutic effects and side effects.</p>
<p>For decades, researchers have known that the hallucinogenic effects of compounds like LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline arise mainly from their interaction with a specific serotonin receptor in the brain known as the 5-HT2A receptor. This receptor is widely expressed in areas of the cortex involved in perception, cognition, and self-awareness, and it plays a key role in shaping how the brain interprets sensory information. </p>
<p>When psychedelics bind to this receptor, they trigger a cascade of neural activity that can produce visual distortions, shifts in emotional tone, a blurring of boundaries between self and environment, and altered time perception—all hallmarks of the psychedelic experience.</p>
<p>But while the link between psychedelics and the 5-HT2A receptor has been firmly established, that connection alone does not fully explain the wide range of effects these compounds can produce—or their potential therapeutic benefits. Recent clinical studies suggest that psychedelics may help alleviate depression, anxiety, addiction, and other psychiatric conditions, yet it remains unclear which specific molecular interactions are responsible for these outcomes. Each psychedelic compound has a distinct chemical structure, and it is likely that they interact with many different receptors beyond just 5-HT2A.</p>
<p>“Classical psychedelics such as LSD, psilocybin, DMT, and mescaline have long been used for medicinal and cultural purposes. In recent years, they have gained significant attention for their therapeutic potential in treating several neuropsychiatric conditions such as depression, anxiety, cluster headache, and pain,” said study author Manish Jain, a research associate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.</p>
<p>“Due to the burgeoning interest, there has been an unmet need for a comprehensive dataset for these compounds. Until now, available pharmacological data on psychedelics has been fragmented, generated from different assays across multiple laboratories, often with varying protocols. This patchwork has made true head-to-head comparisons between compounds difficult. Our study addresses this gap by providing the first systematic and comprehensive pharmacological profiling of psychedelics, delivering a unified dataset that will serve as a critical resource for future research and therapeutic development.”</p>
<p>To begin their investigation, the research team compiled a broad and chemically diverse library of psychedelic compounds. They started with a set of 255 psychoactive molecules that had previously been reported to produce psychedelic-like experiences in humans. These were identified through public databases and resources commonly used in psychopharmacology research, including Erowid, Wikipedia, and IsomerDesign.</p>
<p>The compounds fell into three major chemical families that include most classical psychedelics: tryptamines, phenethylamines, and lysergamides. Tryptamines include substances like psilocybin and DMT, which are structurally similar to serotonin and often found in natural sources such as “magic” mushrooms or ayahuasca. Phenethylamines include compounds like mescaline and 2C-B, which are chemically closer to dopamine and often have more stimulant-like properties. Lysergamides, such as LSD and its analogs, contain a tryptamine-derived ergoline (tetracyclic) core and tend to be highly potent and long-lasting.</p>
<p>To ensure they captured this diversity in their final analysis, the team used computational methods to compare the chemical structures of the 255 candidate compounds. They calculated what are known as Tanimoto coefficients—a mathematical measure of how similar two molecules are—to select a representative sample of 31 compounds that spanned the widest possible range of structures. To round out the dataset, they added 10 additional analogs from the phenethylamine and lysergamide classes due to their importance in those chemotypes, bringing the total to 41.</p>
<p>The team then used a computational method called the Similarity Ensemble Approach to predict how these compounds might interact with proteins in the human body. This analysis suggested that the selected psychedelics were likely to bind to a broad array of targets, not just one or two specific receptors. </p>
<p>To test their predictions about how these psychedelics might affect the brain, the researchers examined how each of the 41 compounds interacted with a large set of receptors. Specifically, they tested all the substances on 318 different human receptors known as G-protein-coupled receptors. These receptors are found throughout the body and brain, where they help cells communicate and respond to neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine. They play important roles in regulating mood, perception, attention, and other mental and physical processes. </p>
<p>Because LSD is known to have especially complex and long-lasting effects, the researchers also tested it on a separate group of more than 450 enzymes called kinases. These enzymes control many aspects of how cells function, and the team wanted to see if LSD might influence them in ways that could lead to side effects or unexpected actions.</p>
<p>The findings showed that psychedelics have a much broader impact on the brain’s receptor systems than previously thought. All 41 tested compounds strongly activated the serotonin 2A receptor, which has long been associated with psychedelic effects. But they all also acted on additional serotonin receptor subtypes, including the serotonin 2B receptor, which has been linked to heart valve disease when chronically activated. </p>
<p>The researchers emphasized this as a potential safety risk, especially for users who take psychedelics frequently or in microdoses over long periods. Importantly, activation of the serotonin 2B receptor occurred across all three chemical classes—tryptamines, phenethylamines, and lysergamides—suggesting that the issue is not limited to a few specific compounds.</p>
<p>“We found that most psychedelics strongly activate 5HT2B receptor, which has been associated with cardiac valvulopathy posing a potential safety concern,” Jain told PsyPost. “Therefore, we may need to design more precise, psychedelic-inspired molecules that avoid 5HT2B activation to mitigate cardiac valvulopathy risk.”</p>
<p>The study also revealed that many psychedelics engage with dopamine receptors. This was especially true for lysergamides such as LSD, which showed strong activity at dopamine D2, D3, and D4 receptors. Some tryptamines and phenethylamines also activated these receptors to a lesser extent. Dopamine receptors are associated with motivation, reward, and mood regulation, and their involvement may contribute to the stimulating and emotionally intense aspects of the psychedelic experience. The researchers confirmed these interactions using multiple functional assays and radioligand binding studies.</p>
<p>Adrenergic receptors, which respond to stress hormones like norepinephrine, were also activated by many of the tested compounds. These effects were again strongest among lysergamides, although some tryptamines and phenethylamines showed adrenergic activity as well. Because adrenergic receptors are involved in alertness, blood pressure regulation, and arousal, their activation may help explain the physical sensations and heightened awareness reported by many users of psychedelics.</p>
<p>To further understand the biological consequences of receptor activation, the researchers examined how each psychedelic compound influenced intracellular signaling pathways. They focused particularly on three types of responses: G protein activation, calcium signaling, and beta-arrestin recruitment. </p>
<p>Most psychedelics showed a strong bias toward activating the G alpha q signaling pathway through the serotonin 2A receptor. This pathway is associated with increases in intracellular calcium and has been linked in previous research to hallucination-like effects in animals. The team also measured beta-arrestin recruitment, which can modulate receptor sensitivity and duration of action. While most compounds activated both types of pathways to some degree, the degree of activation varied widely between molecules.</p>
<p>The researchers also compared the activity profiles of known hallucinogenic drugs to those of structurally similar compounds that do not produce hallucinations. One such example was lisuride, which binds to the same serotonin receptors as LSD but does not cause perceptual distortions. The researchers found that lisuride was more selective in the receptors it activated and triggered fewer downstream signaling pathways. It also showed a different pattern of signaling bias, favoring G protein activity over beta-arrestin recruitment. These differences may help explain why lisuride lacks the mind-altering properties of its hallucinogenic relatives.</p>
<p>“Another key finding is that, compared to non-hallucinogenic compounds, psychedelics generally engage a broader range of receptor-signaling pathways suggesting that their therapeutic likely arise from the simultaneous activation of multiple receptor-pathways networks,” Jain explained. “Importantly, this also indicates that it may be difficult to completely segregate their therapeutic potential from their hallucinogenic properties.”</p>
<p>The researchers also explored whether psychedelics directly interact with TrkB, a receptor involved in brain plasticity that is thought to contribute to antidepressant effects. Although some previous studies had proposed that LSD and psilocin bind directly to TrkB, this study found no evidence for such interactions. In both kinase binding assays and live-cell reporter experiments, neither compound produced significant activation of TrkB. This suggests that the plasticity-promoting effects of psychedelics likely arise from indirect signaling mechanisms, rather than direct activation of neurotrophic receptors.</p>
<p>To visualize how psychedelics interact with their targets at the atomic level, the researchers used cryo-electron microscopy to determine the three-dimensional structure of LSD bound to the dopamine D2 receptor. This structural data revealed specific hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions that explain LSD’s high affinity for this receptor. The diethylamide portion of LSD, in particular, appeared to stabilize the molecule in a binding configuration similar to that seen in serotonin receptor complexes. The researchers also used molecular dynamics simulations to confirm the stability of this configuration and to explore how different conformations of the molecule may influence receptor activation.</p>
<p>Finally, the researchers compared receptor activation data with behavioral data from animal studies and dose estimates from human reports. Compounds that more strongly activated the serotonin 2A receptor—especially through the G alpha q pathway—tended to produce stronger head-twitch responses in mice, a common proxy for hallucinogenic activity. These same compounds also tended to be effective at lower recreational doses in humans. These correlations suggest that laboratory measurements of receptor activation can serve as useful predictors of psychedelic potency and subjective effect.</p>
<p>“We developed a comprehensive dataset for a large number of psychedelic compounds,” Jain said. “These compounds primarily act via activation of 5HT2A serotonin receptor in the brain, but they also activate several other serotonin, dopamine and adrenergic receptors. While most recent studies are mainly focused on a just few compounds such as LSD, psilocin, DMT – our resource highlights many additional analogs that may hold promise for clinical development.”</p>
<p>“Importantly, our findings indicate that different psychedelics can engage distinct signaling pathways, which may contribute to their therapeutic effects. As the research on psychedelic medicines continues to advance, this dataset provides a foundational resource for the scientific community and will help guide the development of safe and effective treatments.”</p>
<p>While the study provides a broad and detailed pharmacological profile of psychedelics, the authors caution that their experiments were conducted in non-neuronal cell lines and may not fully reflect the complexities of living brain tissue. Receptor expression, signaling dynamics, and cellular context can all influence how a compound behaves in vivo. Even so, the dataset offers a valuable starting point for researchers aiming to develop psychedelic-inspired therapeutics that minimize risks while maximizing clinical benefits.</p>
<p>“This study represents just the beginning of exploring psychedelic molecules,” Jain explained. “Our dataset indicates the polypharmacology of psychedelics involves the simultaneous activation of multiple signaling pathways. looking ahead, there are several exciting avenues to pursue, including mapping the complete signaling network of these compounds, crosstalk between the receptors, molecular basis of hallucinogenicity, and clarifying how these molecules exert their therapeutic effects.”</p>
<p>“In summary, we presented a detailed analysis of a large number of psychedelic molecules spanning three major classes: tryptamine, phenethylamine and lysergamides – at the level of receptor-G protein interactions. Our dataset reveals diverse signaling outcomes across dozens of receptors, many of which are linked to their therapeutic effects. This Neuroresource provides a foundational information to the scientific community that will support advancing the knowledge about psychedelics research.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2025.06.012" target="_blank">The polypharmacology of psychedelics reveals multiple targets for potential therapeutics</a>,” was authored by Manish K. Jain, Ryan H. Gumpper, Samuel T. Slocum, Gavin P. Schmitz, Jakob S. Madsen, Tia A. Tummino, Carl-Mikael Suomivuori, Xi-Ping Huang, Laura Shub, Jeffrey F. DiBerto, Kuglae Kim, Chelsea DeLeon, Brain E. Krumm, Jonathan F. Fay, Michael Keiser, Alexander S. Hauser, Ron O. Dror, Brian Shoichet, David E. Gloriam, David E. Nichols, and Bryan L. Roth.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/narcissists-are-drawn-to-a-particular-kind-of-news-story-psychologists-find/" 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;">Narcissists are drawn to a particular kind of news story, psychologists find</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Aug 31st 2025, 16:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study published in the <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2025.104653" target="_blank">Journal of Research in Personality</a></em> suggests that individuals high in antagonistic narcissism are more likely to gravitate toward antisocial news content while showing less interest in stories about prosocial behavior. This tendency appears to be related to lower levels of empathy and a greater need for intense stimulation, traits commonly linked with antagonistic forms of narcissism. The findings point to a psychological pattern in how narcissistic individuals consume social information.</p>
<p>Narcissistic individuals tend to display a grandiose view of themselves, a preoccupation with status, and low regard for others. Much prior research has explored how narcissists behave in interpersonal situations—as the central actors or “protagonists”—often revealing a pattern of manipulative or hostile behavior. But social life also includes observing others, such as through news and media.</p>
<p>This study focused on what narcissists prefer to observe, particularly in terms of prosocial (helping) versus antisocial (harming) behavior in others. Prior work had already shown that narcissists often respond more favorably to antisocial behavior in others and evaluate prosocial individuals more negatively. What remained unknown was whether this pattern began even earlier in the information-processing pipeline: in the initial act of choosing what to pay attention to.</p>
<p>The researchers proposed that narcissists, especially those high in antagonistic traits such as arrogance and aggression, may prefer antisocial news content that reflects their own worldview. Drawing on person-environment fit theory, they suggested that individuals are drawn to environments and information that align with their own traits and values. In this case, narcissistic individuals may experience a better fit with antisocial content and a poorer fit with prosocial material.</p>
<p>“Broadly, my research is motivated by an interest in how narcissistic individuals engage with the communal side of social life — aspects such as cooperation, morality, and kindness,” said study author Jiafang Chen of the University of Amsterdam.</p>
<p>“This angle has received much less attention compared to the traditional focus on power, achievement, and social status. I believe that examining the communal dimension offers fresh insights into how narcissists shape their social environments, especially since they often end up in leadership positions and serve as role models. A natural starting point is to examine how narcissistic individuals are drawn to different kinds of social information in daily life, which both reflects who they are and reinforces their behavioral patterns.”</p>
<p>The research involved two main studies and a set of pilot studies to design the news headline task. First, the team created and tested news headlines classified as antisocial, prosocial, or neutral. They made sure these headlines differed in perceived social impact but were equally interesting and exciting to read. This allowed them to isolate the effects of narcissistic traits on content preference without confounding factors like novelty or shock value.</p>
<p>For instance, antisocial headlines included: “Supervisor sexually harasses multiple interns” and “Mother and daughter throw stones at sleeping animals in a zoo.” Prosocial headlines featured examples like “Steep increase in blood donors” and “Passerby helps fallen blind person get up.” Neutral headlines included more observational or factual events, such as “First passengers try high-speed vacuum pods” or “250 million users active on Snapchat each day.”</p>
<p>In the first main study, 253 participants completed a narcissism questionnaire and then chose ten out of thirty news headlines they would like to read. The headlines were evenly distributed among the antisocial, prosocial, and neutral categories. The researchers found that people with higher levels of antagonistic narcissism were more likely to pick antisocial headlines and less likely to select prosocial ones, compared to those lower in antagonistic narcissism.</p>
<p>The second study replicated these findings in a separate sample of 294 participants. This time, the researchers also measured three possible underlying traits that could explain the narcissists’ choices: their social motives, their capacity for empathy, and their level of sensation seeking. The idea was that narcissists might choose antisocial information not simply because they enjoy it, but because it better fits with their internal traits.</p>
<p>The findings showed that narcissistic individuals were less empathetic and more likely to seek intense, novel experiences—both of which were linked to a stronger preference for antisocial content and a weaker interest in prosocial content. Importantly, these two traits (low empathy and high sensation seeking) statistically accounted for the relationship between narcissism and information preference.</p>
<p>Across both studies, the data provided consistent evidence that antagonistic narcissism is associated with a selective preference for antisocial social information. In the first study, this pattern was clear: narcissistic individuals picked more antisocial and fewer prosocial headlines. In the second study, the effect was driven more by their reduced interest in prosocial stories.</p>
<p>The researchers found that this selection pattern was not random or incidental. When they analyzed what explained these choices, two key psychological traits emerged. Narcissistic individuals tended to score lower in affective empathy—the ability to feel compassion for others—which predicted a dislike for prosocial stories and a relative openness to antisocial ones. They also scored higher in sensation seeking, which predicted a stronger interest in stories involving harm, rule-breaking, or social conflict.</p>
<p>Interestingly, social motives—whether participants were more self-focused or altruistic—did not significantly mediate the effect. The authors suggest that simply being focused on one’s own outcomes may not be enough to explain why narcissists are attracted to antisocial content. Instead, the emotional detachment and desire for stimulation seen in these individuals may be more relevant.</p>
<p>A follow-up meta-analysis combining data from both studies confirmed that antagonistic narcissism reliably predicted a preference for antisocial over prosocial information.</p>
<p>“The main takeaway from our findings is that narcissistic individuals are more drawn to antisocial information—stories about others’ misbehavior—while showing less interest in prosocial information, such as acts of kindness or cooperation,” Chen told PsyPost. “This preference can be explained by their low affective empathy and heightened sensation-seeking tendencies. Together, these findings suggest that narcissists’ selection of social information not only reflects who they are but also reinforces their characteristic ways of engaging with the social world.”</p>
<p>But there are some limitations to consider. While the studies employed a task that mirrored real-life media consumption, they relied on self-reported data and correlational designs. This makes it difficult to draw conclusions about causality. For instance, it is not clear whether choosing antisocial content leads narcissists to behave more antisocially themselves—or whether these behaviors are simply consistent across domains.</p>
<p>Another limitation is that the study focused only on one specific form of narcissism: the antagonistic subtype. Narcissism is a complex and multidimensional trait that also includes more agentic (status-seeking) and neurotic (insecure) forms. While the authors did briefly explore these other dimensions, they found that antagonistic narcissism had the strongest and most consistent association with antisocial information preference.</p>
<p>Future research could explore whether repeatedly consuming antisocial content reinforces narcissists’ existing tendencies or shapes their behaviors over time. It might also test whether increasing exposure to prosocial stories could nudge narcissistic individuals toward more cooperative or empathetic actions. Some evidence suggests that such “communal activation” can temporarily soften narcissistic traits.</p>
<p>The researchers also recommend further work on other psychological traits—such as schadenfreude or envy—that may explain why some individuals take pleasure in others’ misfortunes and seek out news reflecting those scenarios.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2025.104653" target="_blank">You are what you read: Antagonistic narcissism predicts increased preference for antisocial and reduced preference for prosocial information</a>,” was authored by Jiafang Chen, Barbara Nevicka, Astrid C. Homan, and Gerben A. van Kleef.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/people-with-insecure-affective-attachment-are-more-likely-to-be-socially-anxious/" 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;">People with insecure affective attachment are more likely to be socially anxious</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Aug 31st 2025, 14:00</div>
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<p><p>A meta-analysis of studies investigating the association between affective attachment and social anxiety found that individuals with insecure attachment are more likely to experience social anxiety. The paper was published in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075251337887"><em>Journal of Social and Personal Relationships</em></a>.</p>
<p>Social anxiety is a mental health condition characterized by intense fear or worry about being judged, embarrassed, or negatively evaluated in social situations. It often develops during adolescence, when self-awareness and sensitivity to peer evaluation increase. Genetic predisposition, temperament traits such as shyness, and environmental factors like overprotective parenting or bullying can contribute to its onset. Early negative social experiences, such as humiliation or rejection, may also reinforce anxious responses.</p>
<p>Recognizing social anxiety is important because it can significantly impair education, career opportunities, and relationships. People with social anxiety may avoid speaking in class, meeting new people, or pursuing jobs that involve public interaction. If left untreated, it can lead to isolation, low self-esteem, and secondary problems such as depression or substance use.</p>
<p>Study author Yihan Zhang and colleagues sought to systematize the findings of prior research on affective attachment and social anxiety. Affective attachment refers to the deep emotional bonds individuals form with significant others. It develops early in life through interactions with caregivers, where consistent responsiveness fosters secure attachment and inconsistent or neglectful care can lead to insecure patterns.</p>
<p>Attachment patterns can be described using two psychological traits: attachment <strong>anxiety</strong> (fear of rejection or abandonment) and <strong>avoidance</strong> (discomfort with closeness and dependence). Individuals low on both traits are considered securely attached, while those with high levels of one or both are considered insecurely attached.</p>
<p>The researchers searched six scientific databases (ERIC, PsycINFO, PubMed, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global, Scopus, and Web of Science) for studies containing attachment and social anxiety or social phobia as keywords. This search yielded 2,224 records. After excluding studies that did not meet inclusion criteria, 42 papers were retained for analysis.</p>
<p>Altogether, the included studies involved 21,332 participants, with mean ages ranging from 19 to 44 years. Gender distribution varied widely, with some studies including only one gender.</p>
<p>Eighty percent of the studies reported a non-zero association between insecure attachment and social anxiety. On average, the strength of this association was in the low-to-medium range, though it varied considerably across studies. The association’s strength depended on the type of insecure attachment—whether characterized by high avoidance, high anxiety, or both—as well as on the method used to assess attachment.</p>
<p>“This meta-analysis confirmed that insecure attachment is significantly and positively related to social anxiety. Additionally, we found that the subcategory of insecure attachment and the instrument used to measure insecure attachment act as significant moderators that influence the association between insecure attachment and social anxiety,” the study authors concluded.</p>
<p>The study sheds light on the links between affective attachment pattern and social anxiety. However, it should be noted that this meta-analysis included only studies published in English. It is possible that including results published in other languages might have affected the overall results.</p>
<p>The paper, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075251337887">The relationship between insecure attachment and social anxiety in adult people: A three-level Meta-analysis,</a>” was authored by Yihan Zhang, Yihui Wang, Lai Na Siu, and Juan Zhang.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/music-induced-emotion-affects-what-we-remember-and-how-clearly/" 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;">Music-induced emotion affects what we remember and how clearly</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Aug 31st 2025, 12:00</div>
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<p><p>Music can stir emotion, spark memories, and bring people together—but does it also change what we remember? A new study published in <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0158-25.2025" target="_blank">The Journal of Neuroscience</a></em> suggests that the emotional arousal elicited by music after learning can shape whether people remember the gist of an experience or its finer details. The research indicates that increases or decreases in emotional arousal after listening to music influence the balance between general and specific memory in different ways, with potential implications for therapies targeting mood and memory disorders.</p>
<p>Music is often linked to memory and emotion in everyday life. A particular melody can evoke vivid recollections or emotional responses years after an event. This connection has prompted researchers to explore how music might be used as a tool to enhance memory and mood, especially in people with neurological or psychiatric conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease or depression.</p>
<p>Previous studies suggest that music’s influence on memory may be driven by its ability to elicit emotional arousal, which is known to affect how memories are formed and stored. Emotional arousal triggers the release of stress hormones like norepinephrine and cortisol, which influence memory processing in brain regions like the hippocampus and the amygdala. However, the relationship between arousal and memory is complex. High arousal does not always enhance memory and may sometimes result in a trade-off—people may better remember the general theme of an experience but forget the finer details, or vice versa.</p>
<p>The current study was designed to examine how music-induced emotional arousal, occurring after a learning event, influences memory. The researchers were particularly interested in how different levels of arousal—both increases and decreases—affected general versus detailed memory. They also aimed to assess whether features of music, such as familiarity and emotional tone, influenced this process.</p>
<p>“Music seems to hold a special place in memory. Even Alzheimer’s patients can remember music they loved when they were longer, which suggests that music may hold the key to preserving our memories,” said study author Stephanie L. Leal, an assistant professor at UCLA and director of <a href="https://memory.ibp.ucla.edu/" target="_blank">the Neuroscience of Memory, Mood, And Aging Lab</a>.</p>
<p>The research team recruited 130 undergraduate students, aged 18 to 35, to participate in a lab-based memory study. Participants were randomly assigned to one of six experimental groups. Four of the groups listened to emotionally arousing classical music varying in emotional tone (positive or negative) and familiarity (high or low). A fifth group listened to neutral sounds like white noise or crackling fireplaces, and a sixth group sat in silence. All participants completed a memory task that assessed their ability to remember both general and detailed aspects of visual images.</p>
<p>The memory task had two phases. In the first phase, participants viewed a series of neutral images of household objects and were asked to judge whether each one belonged indoors or outdoors. This task ensured that participants paid attention to the items without being explicitly told they would need to remember them. Following this encoding phase, participants listened to the assigned music, sound, or silence for about 10 minutes.</p>
<p>To assess emotional responses, participants used a standard affect grid both before and after the music or sound condition. This grid allowed them to report their current level of arousal and emotional tone. After a 30-minute delay filled with unrelated questionnaires, participants completed the second phase of the memory task. This time, they were shown images and asked to decide whether each one was new, old (an exact repeat), or similar but not identical to something they had seen earlier.</p>
<p>This task allowed the researchers to separately measure two types of memory: target recognition (for general memory of repeated items) and lure discrimination (for specific memory that can distinguish between similar items). Higher lure discrimination indicates a sharper, more detailed memory.</p>
<p>Music listening increased emotional arousal relative to the control conditions of neutral sounds or silence. This effect was strongest for negative music—regardless of whether it was familiar or unfamiliar—and for unfamiliar positive music. However, not all participants responded to the music in the same way. While the music was rated as emotionally arousing in pilot testing, individual responses varied widely, with some participants reporting increased arousal and others reporting decreases.</p>
<p>Despite these differences in emotional response, the researchers found no clear differences in memory performance across the six experimental groups. This suggested that the type of music or sound alone was not enough to explain memory differences. The researchers then turned to a different strategy: grouping participants based on how their emotional arousal changed after listening to music.</p>
<p>Using a machine learning technique called k-means clustering, they identified three distinct groups among the music participants: those who experienced large increases in arousal, those who showed moderate increases, and those who showed moderate decreases. When memory performance was examined across these groups, a more nuanced picture emerged.</p>
<p>Participants who experienced large increases or moderate decreases in arousal performed better on general memory (target recognition), but worse on specific memory (lure discrimination). In contrast, those who showed a moderate increase in arousal displayed stronger performance on lure discrimination but weaker performance on target recognition.</p>
<p>This suggests that moderate emotional arousal may enhance the brain’s ability to store fine-grained details, possibly by engaging hippocampal mechanisms related to pattern separation. In contrast, both high and low arousal may favor the storage of the broader context or gist of an experience.</p>
<p>“We initially hypothesized that music would enhance memory in general, so finding gist versus detail trade-offs was very interesting,” Leal told PsyPost. “Gist versus detail trade-offs in memory have been found in other emotional contexts, so it makes sense with the broader literature on emotional modulation, but was novel within the music and cognition field.”</p>
<p>When comparing these patterns with the control group, the researchers found that similar arousal patterns in the absence of music did not produce the same memory trade-offs. In other words, music-induced arousal appeared to have a unique impact on how memories were encoded or stabilized, even when the level of arousal was similar to that caused by non-musical stimuli.</p>
<p>“Music doesn’t impact all memory equally – we see evidence of music being able to target memory for the gist or details of an experience,” Leal said. “Furthermore, there are large individual differences in response to music, which can have a big impact on how music intervention may be impactful at improving memory. This is important when thinking about developing personalized music interventions.”</p>
<p>One of the main limitations of this study is that all participants listened to classical music, which may not be equally engaging or emotionally meaningful to everyone. Personal music preferences likely shape emotional responses and could influence how music affects memory. While classical music is commonly used in research, it may not fully capture the range of emotional engagement people experience when listening to their favorite songs.</p>
<p>The study also relied on self-reported emotional arousal, which, while useful, may not fully reflect physiological changes. Future studies could incorporate measures such as heart rate, skin conductance, or brain imaging to provide a more complete picture of how emotional arousal unfolds and interacts with memory processes. Additionally, studying longer-term memory effects, such as testing memory 24 hours or a week later, could clarify whether these music-induced enhancements are short-lived or more durable.</p>
<p>“We plan to utilize personalized music selections in our next study to determine what role a more individualized music approach has on emotional arousal and memory,” Leal said.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0158-25.2025" target="_blank">Fine-Tuning the Details: Post-encoding Music Differentially Impacts General and Detailed Memory</a>,” was authored by Kayla R. Clark and Stephanie L. Leal.</p></p>
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<p><strong>Forwarded by:<br />
Michael Reeder LCPC<br />
Baltimore, MD</strong></p>
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