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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/psychedelics-may-not-boost-creativity-as-widely-believed-new-study-suggests/" 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;">Psychedelics may not boost creativity as widely believed, new study suggests</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Sep 28th 2025, 10:00</div>
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<p><p>A recent clinical study provides new evidence that the effects of psychedelic substances on creativity are more nuanced than commonly assumed. The research, published in the <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/02698811251353256" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Journal of Psychopharmacology</a></em>, tested the acute effects of a standardized combination of N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and harmine—a formulation inspired by the traditional brew ayahuasca—on several types of creative thinking. Contrary to popular belief, the researchers found that this psychedelic combination actually tended to impair certain forms of creative thinking.</p>
<p>The study was motivated by a widespread but largely untested belief that psychedelic substances can expand the mind and unlock creative potential. Ayahuasca, a plant-based psychedelic used in Indigenous Amazonian rituals, has gained attention for its reported psychological effects, including vivid visions and shifts in personal insight. It contains DMT, a powerful hallucinogen, and harmine, a compound that increases the brain’s exposure to DMT by preventing it from breaking down too quickly.</p>
<p>DMT acts on serotonin receptors and is known for inducing intense perceptual and cognitive alterations. Harmine, meanwhile, inhibits an enzyme in the gut and brain that normally deactivates DMT. Together, these compounds enable DMT to take stronger and longer-lasting effects when consumed in a brew like ayahuasca. While many anecdotal reports and popular narratives describe psychedelic experiences as creatively enriching, scientific evidence has so far been mixed. The new study aimed to clarify these claims using carefully controlled conditions and ecologically valid methods.</p>
<p>“I’ve always been fascinated by the link between altered states of consciousness and creative cognition. Psychedelics are often described as creativity-enhancing, yet the scientific evidence is mixed and sometimes paradoxical. As both a neuroscientist and an amateur artist, I wanted to look beyond standard lab tasks and study creativity in a more naturalistic context of artistic creation,” said study author <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dila-suay/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dila Suay</a> of the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca.</p>
<p>To explore how these substances affect different facets of creativity, researchers designed a rigorous, placebo-controlled experiment. Thirty healthy male participants took part in three separate sessions. In one session, they received both DMT and harmine. In another, they received only harmine. In the third session, they were given a placebo. The order of these sessions was randomized for each participant, and the design was double-blinded so neither participants nor researchers knew which substance was being administered at any time.</p>
<p>The researchers examined two levels of creativity. At the micro level, they measured how well participants could think divergently (coming up with many novel ideas) and convergently (solving problems with one correct answer). To assess these skills, they used standard tasks: the Alternative Uses Task and the Picture Concept Task.</p>
<p>The Alternative Uses Task measures divergent thinking by asking participants to list as many creative and unusual uses as possible for a common object, such as a shoe or a pen. The Picture Concept Task assesses convergent thinking by requiring participants to identify a shared conceptual link between images arranged in a grid, selecting one image from each row that fits the same category.</p>
<p>At the macro level, the researchers explored how creativity unfolded during an open-ended painting activity. Participants used a digital tablet to create artwork without specific instructions. Every few minutes, they indicated which phase of the creative process they were in—such as planning, reflecting, producing, or experiencing a flash of insight—using a self-report method called the Creative Process Report Diary.</p>
<p>The results indicated that the DMT/harmine combination impaired convergent thinking. Participants were less able to solve structured problems, and this effect was especially pronounced in those who performed well in the placebo condition. In other words, individuals with stronger baseline reasoning abilities were more likely to see their performance decline under the influence of the psychedelic combination.</p>
<p>Divergent thinking, which involves idea generation, was not significantly affected overall. However, the researchers observed a trend suggesting that the DMT/harmine condition may reduce the fluency and elaboration of ideas. These reductions were not statistically conclusive but were large enough to warrant attention in future studies.</p>
<p>The painting task yielded additional findings. Although the number of times participants entered each creative stage did not differ dramatically between drug conditions, more detailed analyses pointed to specific changes in the flow of the creative process. Both the DMT/harmine and harmine-only conditions were associated with fewer transitions involving the incubation stage—a reflective phase during which ideas are left to develop subconsciously. Notably, the DMT/harmine condition also reduced transitions from this reflective stage to moments of insight, suggesting a disruption in the way participants arrived at new ideas.</p>
<p>The researchers also assessed participants’ subjective experiences using a standardized questionnaire. Under the DMT/harmine condition, participants reported stronger feelings of insight, changes in the meaning they assigned to perceptions, and alterations in focus and mental clarity. However, these feelings did not align with objective improvements in creative performance. In fact, some subjective effects—such as distorted meaning perception—were associated with lower scores in idea generation.</p>
<p>These patterns suggest a surprising disconnect between how people feel under the influence of psychedelics and how they actually perform in tasks requiring creative thought. There was a “clear gap between how participants felt and what they actually produced,” Suay told PsyPost. “They reported strong feelings of creativity and insight, yet their performance on structured tasks often declined. This dissociation shows that our subjective sense of creativity under psychedelics doesn’t always match measurable outcomes; an important reminder that different tools may be needed to assess creativity in altered states.”</p>
<p>“Our findings show that psychedelics don’t simply ‘boost creativity.’ A DMT/harmine formulation impaired structured problem-solving while leaving the idea generation phase largely unchanged. Yet participants consistently felt more creative and insightful. This mismatch suggests that standard creativity tests may not fully capture the altered dynamics of creative thought in psychedelic states. On a process level, psychedelics also disrupted the familiar sequence leading to sudden insights, indicating that ideas may emerge through new pathways under their influence. In other words, psychedelics may shift how creativity unfolds rather than making us ‘more creative’ in a straightforward sense.”</p>
<p>While the study used a carefully controlled design, there are still some limitations that should be considered when interpreting the results. The sample included only male participants, which limits its relevance to broader populations. Creativity measures also showed high variability across individuals, meaning that people responded to the substances in different ways. This variability could be influenced by personality traits, cognitive styles, or past experiences with altered states of consciousness, none of which were fully examined here.</p>
<p>“Creativity is also highly individual, and we observed considerable variability depending on people’s baseline cognitive style. Psychedelics didn’t affect everyone in the same way, which is an important direction for future work,” Suay noted.</p>
<p>The researchers relied on acute assessments, meaning all measures were taken during or shortly after the drug effects. Future studies could investigate whether psychedelic experiences have longer-term effects on creativity, either enhancing or impairing it after the acute phase. In addition, it remains unclear whether the results from this pharmaceutical formulation of DMT and harmine would generalize to traditional ayahuasca ceremonies, where context, ritual, and expectations may play a significant role.</p>
<p>“I want to better understand how psychedelics alter the unfolding of creative thought and how this may support therapeutic processes,” Suay explained. “For example, in psychedelic-assisted therapy, creativity could help patients explore new perspectives and express emotions in novel ways. I’m also interested in combining behavioral measures with brain data, such as EEG, to link neural dynamics with shifts in creative thinking.”</p>
<p>“Creativity is not a single skill but a dynamic process that includes idea generation, reflection and refinement. Our results suggest that psychedelics may favor some stages while disrupting others. That nuance is key if we want to apply these substances responsibly, whether in therapy, art or the science of human cognition.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/02698811251353256" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ayahuasca-inspired DMT/harmine formulation alters creative thinking dynamics during artistic creation</a>,” was authored by Dila Suay, Helena D. Aicher, Berit Singer, Michael J Mueller, Alen Jelusic, Lionel Calzaferri, Paul Springfeld, Dario A. Dornbierer, and Milan Scheidegger.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/new-psychology-research-shows-a-genetic-link-between-higher-intelligence-and-never-having-sex/" 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 shows a genetic link between higher intelligence and never having sex</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Sep 28th 2025, 08:00</div>
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<p><p>Sex is <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-the-point-of-sex-its-good-for-your-physical-social-and-mental-health-67848">important</a>. Romantic, typically sexual, partnerships are often among the most central relationships in individuals’ lives, providing a host of personal, health, social and economic benefits.</p>
<p>But what about people who don’t have sex?</p>
<p>In <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2418257122">a new study</a>, my colleagues and I looked at the differences between mature adults who had never had sex and those who had. We found sexlessness is associated with a range of genetic, environmental, physical and mental factors – but much still remains unclear.</p>
<h2>Life without sex</h2>
<p>Some people – often described as “asexual” – simply don’t desire sex.</p>
<p>However, those who do but are unable to find suitable and willing partners may be vulnerable to poor mental health and loneliness, social embarrassment, and economic disadvantages (for example due to not cohabiting with a partner). People involved in online “incel” (involuntary celibate) cultures may even be at risk of radicalisation.</p>
<p>So it is important to understand more about people who don’t have sex.</p>
<p>Knowing the characteristics associated with sexlessness would help to understand its causes and consequences. It may even inform strategies to remove barriers to people finding fulfilling partnerships.</p>
<p>To find out more, we studied about 400,000 UK residents aged between 39 and 73, and a further 13,500 Australian residents aged between 18 and 89. Around 1% of both men and women had not had sex.</p>
<p>Our team – led by Laura Wesseldijk, Abdel Abdellaoui and Karin Verweij from Amsterdam UMC, and me – examined associations between sexlessness and genes, the social environment, and various physical, cognitive, personality and mental health traits.</p>
<h2>Sex ratios and income inequality</h2>
<p>We found sexless men tended to live in regions of the UK with relatively fewer women.</p>
<p>In both men and women, sexlessness was more common in regions with higher income inequality.</p>
<p>These new findings align with those of an earlier <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09567976211036065">study</a> of “incel” posts on social media. It found they were more likely to originate from regions of the United States with relatively fewer women and higher income inequality.</p>
<h2>Wellbeing and other factors</h2>
<p>We also looked for characteristics that were more common among people who had never had sex.</p>
<p>Sexless individuals tended to feel more nervous and lonely and less happy, and had fewer visits from friends and family. They were also less likely to have someone to confide in or to believe that life is meaningful.</p>
<p>These findings confirm the entanglement of sex and wellbeing.</p>
<p>People who had never had sex tended to use drugs and alcohol less, be more educated, and to have started wearing glasses from a younger age.</p>
<p>Men with lower grip strength and arm muscle mass (proxies for general upper body strength) were less likely to have had sex. There were no such correlations among women.</p>
<h2>Familiar stereotypes</h2>
<p>The overall pattern we observe among sexless people – intelligent, academically successful, with less physical strength and more social isolation – aligns with existing stereotypes of lower romantic success, especially in adolescence.</p>
<p>Our participants were middle-aged adults, or older.</p>
<p>However, wearing glasses at an early age, and other stereotypically “nerdy” features, may <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/3813706.pdf">disrupt</a> adolescent dating experiences. This in turn may affect one’s romantic confidence into adulthood.</p>
<h2>No gene for sexlessness</h2>
<p>We also had genetic data about all participants. This meant we were able to analyse whether genetic differences were associated with having had or not had sex.</p>
<p>Using what’s called a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43586-021-00056-9">genome-wide association analysis</a>, we found genes accounted for 15% of the variation in whether or not individuals had had sex.</p>
<p>However, there were no individual genes with large effects. Rather, there were many genes, each with tiny effects.</p>
<h2>Links to intelligence, introversion and other traits</h2>
<p>Our genetic analyses also let us detect genetic correlations with any other traits that have been genetically analysed, even if in separate studies. A genetic correlation indicates the genes associated with one trait are also associated with another trait.</p>
<p>In this way, we found an array of interesting links between sexlessness and other traits.</p>
<p>In particular, there was a strong genetic correlation not only with education but also measured intelligence. There were also correlations with higher income and socioeconomic status.</p>
<p>Sexlessness was also positively genetically correlated with introversion, autism spectrum disorder and anorexia. However, it was negatively genetically correlated with drug and alcohol disorders and also depression, anxiety and ADHD.</p>
<h2>Cause and effect is hard to discern</h2>
<p>Our results paint a complex picture. One major aspect of uncertainty is what causes underlie the pattern of associations we found.</p>
<p>For example, not having had sex may cause unhappiness. But unhappiness may also make it more difficult to find a partner, or a third factor could cause both unhappiness <em>and</em> difficulty finding a partner.</p>
<p>Another aspect of uncertainty is that the participants only reported whether or not they had had sex, not whether they had ever desired sex. Many sexless individuals in the sample may be asexual.</p>
<p>However, some of our results are difficult to explain via asexuality – for example, the link with the local ratio of men to women, and the negative association with male strength. Our results likely reflect a mixture of voluntary and involuntary sexlessness.</p>
<h2>A step forward</h2>
<p>Our study represents a large step forward in understanding sexlessness. However, more nuanced assessment of desire and sexuality will be key to better characterising how sexlessness relates to the interplay between genes, local environments, sexuality and culture.</p>
<p>Studies of more people using more advanced methods may also be able to tease apart cause and consequence.</p>
<p>There should be no value judgement on individuals who do not have sex, whether voluntarily or otherwise. By studying this trait, we only aim for a deeper understanding, which generally benefits all concerned.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/265391/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1"><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></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/1-of-people-dont-have-sex-new-research-shows-it-may-be-partly-genetic-265391">original article</a>.</em></p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/scientists-discover-surprising-link-between-gut-brain-interactions-and-mental-health/" 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;">Scientists discover surprising link between gut-brain interactions and mental health</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Sep 28th 2025, 06:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study provides evidence that the connection between the brain and the stomach may be linked to mental health in a measurable way. Researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark, publishing their work in <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s44220-025-00468-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nature Mental Health</a></em>, report that a specific pattern of communication between the brain and the stomach reflects how individuals feel emotionally and psychologically. Their findings suggest that these gut-brain interactions can indicate a person’s levels of anxiety, depression, well-being, and overall quality of life.</p>
<p>The idea that emotions are linked to physical sensations in the gut is widely reflected in language. People often talk about having “butterflies in the stomach” when nervous, or feeling “sick to the stomach” when distressed. Yet, despite these common expressions, most scientific attention in the field of brain-body interaction has focused on other organs, such as the heart and lungs. These areas have long been studied for their roles in emotion and mood.</p>
<p>The researchers were struck by how little was known about how the stomach, in particular, interacts with the brain. While recent studies have explored the influence of gut bacteria and digestion on mental health, very little work had been done on the electrical rhythms of the stomach and how they may directly communicate with the brain’s networks involved in emotion, attention, and cognition.</p>
<p>The team behind this new study wanted to explore whether a person’s psychological profile might be reflected in how strongly the stomach and brain are coupled during rest. Their aim was not to link a specific diagnosis like depression to a single brain region, but rather to identify patterns across a broad spectrum of mental health experiences.</p>
<p>“Our interest grew from the long-standing discussion about the role of the body in shaping emotion, a question that has fascinated philosophers and scientists for centuries,” said study author <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/leah-banellis-phd-b192a6a0/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Leah Banellis</a> (<a href="https://bsky.app/profile/leahbanellis.bsky.social" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@leahbanellis</a>), a postdoctoral fellow in Cognitive Neuroscience at Aarhus University. “Yet, while the heart and lungs have received much attention, the stomach has been largely overlooked. This gap struck us as especially surprising, because the link between the stomach and emotional experience feels so intuitive. It is heavily reflected in everyday language, with phrases like ‘butterflies in the stomach,’ ‘sick to our stomach,’ or ‘trust your gut.'”</p>
<p>The research was part of the Visceral Mind Project, a large-scale initiative that combines data on brain activity, bodily rhythms, and psychological assessments. The team recorded data from 243 people using a method that captures both electrical signals from the stomach (electrogastrography) and brain activity measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).</p>
<p>The participants represented a wide range of mental health profiles, from those reporting high well-being to others showing signs of distress, including anxiety, depression, fatigue, and insomnia. To capture this diversity, the researchers didn’t exclude people with psychiatric symptoms or diagnoses. Instead, they aimed for variation, which would allow their models to detect patterns across the mental health spectrum.</p>
<p>Each participant underwent a series of recordings while lying still in the MRI scanner. At the same time, sensors on the abdomen captured the stomach’s slow electrical rhythm, which cycles about three times per minute. This rhythm, which originates from specialized cells in the stomach lining, is typically involved in coordinating digestion. But the researchers suspected it might also be linked to mental state.</p>
<p>To analyze the relationship between stomach and brain activity, the team used a method that looks at how well the two rhythms align over time. This measure, known as phase-locking value, essentially captures the degree of synchronization between stomach signals and brain signals across different regions.</p>
<p>The researchers then combined this data with results from a comprehensive mental health questionnaire. The battery included 37 different scores across a range of domains—such as anxiety, stress, mood, fatigue, attention, sleep quality, and life satisfaction. Using a statistical method known as canonical correlation analysis, they looked for patterns that linked brain-stomach coupling with the participants’ mental health profiles.</p>
<p>The analysis revealed a clear and statistically significant pattern. Stronger coupling between the stomach’s rhythm and brain activity was associated with poorer mental health. Individuals who reported more symptoms of anxiety, depression, stress, and fatigue tended to show increased synchronization between their stomach and brain rhythms. In contrast, those with higher levels of well-being and life satisfaction showed weaker coupling.</p>
<p>“For the first time, we’ve found a scientific link between your ‘gut feelings’ and your mental health, showing a surprising connection between your stomach’s natural rhythm and your brain,” Banellis told PsyPost. “Specifically, our study revealed that stronger communication between the stomach and brain is linked to worse mental health, such as higher symptoms of anxiety, depression, stress, and fatigue, whereas weaker stomach-brain communication aligns with better mental health reflected in higher overall well-being and quality of life.”</p>
<p>This stomach-brain signature was not random. It was localized in specific brain networks, particularly those involved in attention, cognitive control, and salience detection. Some of the strongest associations were found in regions like the superior angular gyrus and the posterior frontal and parietal areas—regions often implicated in cognitive tasks and mental health disorders.</p>
<p>Importantly, the researchers ran multiple control analyses to ensure the robustness of their findings. They ruled out the possibility that the observed effects were simply due to general brain activity patterns, fluctuations in heart rate or breathing, or basic features of stomach physiology. In other words, the association appeared specific to the coupling between the stomach’s electrical rhythm and particular brain networks—not just a general marker of body or brain state.</p>
<p>Their approach was designed to detect broad psychological dimensions rather than focus on one diagnosis. The strongest psychological pattern they found was a spectrum ranging from negative affective states (like anxiety and depression) to positive traits (like well-being and quality of life). This result suggests that the stomach-brain connection is not tied to any one disorder but instead reflects a general mode of psychological functioning.</p>
<p>“Anxiety, depression, stress, and fatigue showed the strongest links to stomach-brain communication,” Banellis explained. “While phrases like ‘butterflies in the stomach’ or feeling ‘sick to your stomach’ are common ways we describe emotional distress, it was surprising to find such consistent and clear evidence across these symptoms. Even more unexpected was the direction of the effect: we might have assumed that stronger alignment between the body and brain would be beneficial. Instead, our findings suggest that heightened stomach-brain communication could act more like a warning signal, an internal alarm system reflecting mental strain rather than harmony.”</p>
<p>As with all research, there are limitations. The findings are based on resting-state measurements, meaning the participants were not performing any tasks during the brain scans. This leaves open the question of how the stomach-brain relationship behaves during emotional challenges or cognitive demands.</p>
<p>Another limitation is that the study was cross-sectional—it measured participants at one point in time. This limits the ability to determine cause and effect. Longitudinal studies that follow people over time will be needed to see whether changes in stomach-brain coupling can predict shifts in mental health, or whether interventions that alter this coupling can improve well-being.</p>
<p>“Despite our study including hundreds of participants, far surpassing the size of previous studies, and using a robust machine learning technique, our study is correlational in nature,” Banellis noted. “Thus, future causal paradigms are needed to understand this mental health associated stomach-brain relationship further.”</p>
<p>The researchers also note that their measurements relied on surface recordings of stomach activity, which can be affected by noise and variability. Despite extensive quality control, a portion of the data had to be excluded. Future studies using higher-resolution tools or invasive methods in clinical settings might yield even clearer signals.</p>
<p>“Our study raises important questions about causality, whether the stomach is influencing the brain, the brain is influencing the stomach, or both, as well as how stomach-brain communication develops over time and whether it can predict changes in mental health,” Banellis said. “It also opens the door to new treatment approaches targeting the disrupted brain-body connection we identified.”</p>
<p>“To build on these findings, we plan to pursue three closely connected next steps: first, case-controlled studies in patients diagnosed with anxiety or depression; second, longitudinal studies to track how stomach-brain communication evolves and whether it predicts mental health trajectories; and third, testing new interventions designed to modulate stomach-brain interactions and evaluate their potential for improving mental health.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-025-00468-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stomach–brain coupling indexes a dimensional signature of mental health</a>,” was authored by Leah Banellis, Ignacio Rebollo, Niia Nikolova, and Micah Allen.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/lifelong-social-connections-may-slow-biological-aging-and-reduce-inflammation/" 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;">Lifelong social connections may slow biological aging and reduce inflammation</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Sep 27th 2025, 20:00</div>
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<p><p>A lifetime of rich social connections, from warm parental relationships in childhood to deep community engagement in adulthood, may physically slow the aging process at a cellular level. New research suggests that the cumulative effect of these social advantages is associated with a younger biological age and lower levels of chronic inflammation. The findings were published in the journal <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbih.2025.101096" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Brain, Behavior, & Immunity – Health</a></em>.</p>
<p>The study was conducted by a team of researchers, led by Anthony Ong, a professor of psychology at Cornell University, who sought to understand how social experiences become embedded in our biology over the course of a life. It is well established that strong social ties are linked to better health and longer life. However, access to these resources is not equal, and advantages or disadvantages can accumulate over time, leading to growing health differences between people. The researchers proposed that these long-term patterns of social connection, which they call “cumulative social advantage,” might be reflected in the body’s core regulatory systems that govern aging.</p>
<p>To investigate this idea, the researchers analyzed data from 2,117 adults participating in the Midlife in the United States study, a large, long-term project tracking the health and well-being of a national sample of Americans. The participants had an average age of 55 years. The scientists first created a comprehensive measure of cumulative social advantage by combining 16 different self-reported indicators. These indicators captured a wide range of social resources across a person’s life.</p>
<p>“Cumulative social advantage is really about the depth and breadth of your social connections over a lifetime,” Ong said. “We looked at four key areas: the warmth and support you received from your parents growing up, how connected you feel to your community and neighborhood, your involvement in religious or faith-based communities, and the ongoing emotional support from friends and family.” This combined score was designed to reflect not just a person’s current social life, but a sustained history of social connectedness.</p>
<p>Next, the researchers examined biological data collected from the participants. They looked at three different physiological systems. The first was epigenetic aging, which was assessed using seven different “epigenetic clocks.” These are sophisticated algorithms that analyze patterns of chemical tags on DNA, known as DNA methylation, to estimate a person’s biological age.</p>
<p>Unlike chronological age, which is simply the number of years a person has been alive, biological age reflects the health and condition of their cells and tissues. Two of these clocks, GrimAge and DunedinPACE, are specifically designed to predict mortality risk and the pace of physiological decline.</p>
<p>The second system was systemic inflammation. The team measured the levels of eight different biomarkers in the blood that indicate chronic, low-grade inflammation throughout the body. This type of persistent inflammation is a known driver of many age-related diseases. Key markers included Interleukin-6, a central pro-inflammatory protein, and C-reactive protein. The third system was neuroendocrine function, which relates to the body’s stress response.</p>
<p>The researchers analyzed overnight urine samples to measure levels of hormones like cortisol and catecholamines, including epinephrine and norepinephrine. The scientists then used statistical models to see if there was a relationship between a person’s cumulative social advantage score and their biological markers, after accounting for factors like age, sex, race, education, and income.</p>
<p>The results showed a consistent pattern linking social advantage to healthier biology. Individuals with higher cumulative social advantage scores tended to have slower epigenetic aging. This connection was apparent across all seven epigenetic clocks, but it was strongest for the GrimAge and DunedinPACE clocks. This finding suggests that people with a lifetime of richer social ties were biologically younger than their peers with fewer social resources.</p>
<p>The analysis also revealed a link between social advantage and the immune system. Higher scores for cumulative social advantage were associated with lower levels of systemic inflammation, with the most robust connection seen for the biomarker Interleukin-6.</p>
<p>“What’s striking is the cumulative effect, these social resources build on each other over time,” Ong said. “It’s not just about having friends today; it’s about how your social connections have grown and deepened throughout your life. That accumulation shapes your health trajectory in measurable ways.”</p>
<p>The study did not find a significant association between cumulative social advantage and the neuroendocrine markers from the overnight urine samples. The researchers suggest that this might be because these hormones fluctuate rapidly and an overnight sample may not capture the most meaningful aspects of the body’s stress response. The connections were most evident in biological systems that reflect long-term wear and tear, like epigenetics and chronic inflammation, rather than short-term stress hormone output.</p>
<p>“Think of social connections like a retirement account,” Ong said. “The earlier you start investing and the more consistently you contribute, the greater your returns. Our study shows those returns aren’t just emotional; they’re biological. People with richer, more sustained social connections literally age more slowly at the cellular level. Aging well means both staying healthy and staying connected, they’re inseparable.”</p>
<p>The authors note some limitations of their work. Because the study was a cross-sectional analysis, meaning it looked at data from a single point in time, it cannot prove that social advantage causes slower aging. It is possible that people who are healthier to begin with are better able to build and maintain strong social networks. Future research that follows individuals over many years will be needed to establish a clearer cause-and-effect relationship. Additionally, other unmeasured factors, such as genetics or early-life adversity, could be influencing both social resources and biological health.</p>
<p>Future studies could also explore which specific aspects of social advantage are most impactful on health. The current measure was heavily influenced by indicators of community engagement, so further work could disentangle the unique effects of family support versus broader social integration. Researchers may also need to use more intensive methods for measuring stress hormones, such as collecting saliva samples multiple times a day, to get a more dynamic picture of how social experiences affect the body’s stress response systems in real time.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbih.2025.101096" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cumulative social advantage is associated with slower epigenetic aging and lower systemic inflammation</a>,” was authored by Anthony D. Ong, Frank D. Mann, and Laura D. Kubzansky.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/prenatal-exposure-to-common-insecticide-linked-to-brain-structure-abnormalities-in-youth/" 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;">Prenatal exposure to common insecticide linked to brain structure abnormalities in youth</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Sep 27th 2025, 18:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study reports that prenatal exposure to the insecticide chlorpyrifos is associated with lasting changes in the structure and metabolism of the brain in children and adolescents. The research also found a link between exposure to the chemical before birth and poorer performance on tasks measuring fine motor control. The findings, which suggest that the insecticide may produce widespread and enduring disturbances in brain development, were published in the journal <em><a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaneurology/fullarticle/2837712" target="_blank" rel="noopener">JAMA Neurology</a></em>.</p>
<p>Researchers pursued this investigation because chlorpyrifos has been one of the world’s most widely used insecticides, commonly applied to agricultural crops. Previous studies have shown that the chemical can cross the placenta from a pregnant mother to the developing fetus, where it can enter the brain. Animal research has indicated that chlorpyrifos can interfere with the generation and development of brain cells.</p>
<p>Some earlier studies in humans had also connected prenatal exposure to outcomes like smaller head size at birth, developmental delays in toddlers, and lower intelligence scores. Led by first author Bradley S. Peterson of the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, the research team used advanced brain imaging techniques to look for specific, long-term physical markers in the brains of youths who were exposed in the womb.</p>
<p>The investigation was a prospective, longitudinal cohort study, meaning it followed a group of individuals over a long period. Researchers recruited 727 pregnant women from northern Manhattan, New York, between 1998 and 2006. The women self-identified as either African American or Dominican. To measure prenatal exposure to chlorpyrifos, scientists collected blood from the mother or the umbilical cord at the time of delivery and measured the concentration of the insecticide. The study noted that before a residential ban in 2001, a primary source of exposure in this community was indoor spraying for pests.</p>
<p>Years later, when the children from this cohort were between the ages of 6 and 14, 270 of them participated in the brain imaging phase of the study. The researchers used several different kinds of magnetic resonance imaging to get a comprehensive picture of the brain. One technique measured the thickness of the cortex, the brain’s folded outer layer responsible for higher-level thinking. Another method, called diffusion tensor imaging, assessed the structure of the brain’s white matter, which contains the nerve fiber bundles that transmit signals between brain regions.</p>
<p>A third technique, arterial spin labeling, measured regional blood flow, which serves as an indicator of brain metabolism. Finally, magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging was used to measure the levels of certain chemicals in the brain, including one called N-acetyl-l-aspartate, a marker of healthy neuron density. The children also underwent a series of behavioral tests to assess their motor skills, attention, and general intelligence.</p>
<p>The results showed a clear pattern: progressively higher levels of prenatal chlorpyrifos exposure were associated with progressively greater alterations in the brain. Anatomical scans revealed that higher exposure was linked to a thicker cortex in large areas of the frontal, temporal, and posteroinferior regions of the brain. At the same time, the volume of local white matter directly beneath these thickened areas was smaller. The scientists suggest this could indicate a shift in the boundary between the brain’s gray matter and white matter, possibly related to changes in the organization of the cortex or the myelination of nerve fibers.</p>
<p>The imaging of the brain’s white matter tracts showed that higher chlorpyrifos exposure was associated with changes in the internal capsule, a critical pathway that connects the cortex with deeper brain structures. These changes could represent either a higher density of nerve fibers or an alteration in the myelin sheath, the fatty insulation that helps signals travel efficiently.</p>
<p>The study also found that higher prenatal exposure was linked to significantly lower blood flow throughout most regions of the brain. This widespread reduction suggests a long-term decrease in brain metabolism. Adding to this, measurements of brain chemistry showed that higher exposure was connected to lower concentrations of N-acetyl-l-aspartate in certain deep white matter areas, pointing to a lower density of healthy neurons.</p>
<p>When the researchers looked at the behavioral test results, they found a significant link between prenatal chlorpyrifos exposure and motor function. Children with higher exposure levels performed more poorly on tests of fine motor speed, such as finger-tapping, and on motor programming tasks that involve complex finger sequences. These behavioral findings are consistent with the observed structural changes in the brain’s motor circuits. The study did not find significant associations between chlorpyrifos exposure and the other cognitive or behavioral domains that were tested.</p>
<p>The scientists propose a potential biological mechanism to explain their findings. They note that the pattern of brain changes observed in connection with chlorpyrifos is remarkably similar to what they found in a previous study on prenatal exposure to air pollution within the same group of children. Since the two exposures were not correlated with each other, this suggests that different environmental toxins might affect brain development through a final common pathway.</p>
<p>Preclinical studies indicate that chlorpyrifos, along with pollutants found in air pollution, can trigger inflammation and oxidative stress. In the developing fetal brain, this could impair the function of mitochondria, the energy-producing centers of cells. This damage could be especially toxic to the cells responsible for creating myelin, leading to the kinds of white matter abnormalities and altered brain structure seen in the scans.</p>
<p>“The disturbances in brain tissue and metabolism that we observed with prenatal exposure to this one pesticide were remarkably widespread throughout the brain. Other organophosphate pesticides likely produce similar effects, warranting caution to minimize exposures in pregnancy, infancy, and early childhood, when brain development is rapid and especially vulnerable to these toxic chemicals,” said first author Bradley Peterson, who is also the Vice Chair for Research and Chief of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry at the Keck School of Medicine.</p>
<p>“Current widespread exposures, at levels comparable to those experienced in this sample, continue to place farm workers, pregnant women, and unborn children in harm’s way. It is vitally important that we continue to monitor the levels of exposure in potentially vulnerable populations, especially in pregnant women in agricultural communities, as their infants continue to be at risk,” said Virginia Rauh, a senior author on the study and a professor at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.</p>
<p>The study has some limitations. The participants were from a specific urban community of Dominican and African American families, so the findings may not be generalizable to all populations. As an observational study, it identifies associations but cannot prove that chlorpyrifos exposure directly caused the observed brain and behavioral differences.</p>
<p>The researchers did not measure exposure to the insecticide after birth, nor did they account for potential exposure to other pesticides or for genetic factors that can influence how the body metabolizes these chemicals. Future work could explore whether the effects seen with chlorpyrifos are caused by a shared mechanism of inflammation, which could open avenues for developing interventions to reduce or prevent the adverse effects of various neurotoxicants.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaneurology/fullarticle/2837712" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Brain Abnormalities in Children Exposed Prenatally to the Pesticide Chlorpyrifos</a>,” was authored by Bradley S. Peterson, Sahar Delavari, Ravi Bansal, Siddhant Sawardekar, Chaitanya Gupte, Howard Andrews, Lori A. Hoepner, Wanda Garcia, Frederica Perera, and Virginia Rauh.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/feeling-connected-to-others-by-race-or-skin-tone-linked-to-distress/" 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;">Feeling connected to others by race or skin tone linked to distress</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Sep 27th 2025, 16:00</div>
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<p><p>Recent research found that Black respondents’ sense of linked fate with other Black people (i.e., Black linked fate) is not influenced by their skin tone, but their sense of shared fate with others with the same skin tone (i.e., skin tone linked fate) does vary with how dark their skin is. Both forms of linked fate were linked to greater psychological distress, even after controlling for identity, discrimination, and ingroup attitudes. The paper was published in <a href="http://www.doi.org/10.1177/01902725251339476"><em>Social Psychology Quarterly</em></a>.</p>
<p>Black linked fate and skin tone linked fate are concepts used in social science to understand how identity and shared experiences shape people’s perceptions and well-being. Black linked fate refers to the belief among individuals identifying as Black that their personal outcomes are tied to the collective fate of Black people as a group. This idea helps explain political solidarity, voting behavior, and shared responses to discrimination.</p>
<p>Skin tone linked fate, on the other hand, refers to the belief that one’s outcomes are connected to the outcomes of people who share a similar shade of skin, whether lighter or darker. This concept captures the reality that skin tone itself, beyond just being Black, can influence social treatment and opportunities.</p>
<p>Study authors Tamunosaki Bilaye-Benibo and Matthew A. Andersson wanted to explore whether skin tone linked fate is related to the mental health of Black individuals. They also wanted to know whether linked fate in terms of race is linked to mental health and to compare these associations with how other aspects of ethnoracial identity are linked to mental health.</p>
<p>They analyzed data from the 2020 Collaborative Multi-racial Post-Election Survey, focusing specifically on Black or African American respondents born in the United States. This survey was fielded between April and August 2021. The dataset contained data from a total of 3,046 Black respondents.</p>
<p>This survey assessed psychological distress by asking participants how often they were bothered by a list of experiences indicative of psychological distress. Skin tone linked fate was assessed by asking them, “If someone said something bad about [light/medium/dark] skinned people, how likely is it that you would feel almost as if they said something bad about you?” Black linked fate was assessed by asking participants to rate how much their lives are affected by what happens to Black people.</p>
<p>The survey also assessed negative ingroup attitudes (e.g., “If Black people carried themselves better, White people would treat them better”), racial closeness (“How close do you feel to other Black people?”), and skin tone, racial, and relative identity saliences (“How important is your skin tone/being Black/other identities to your identity?”). Participants also reported their own skin tone, perceived discrimination based on skin tone or race, and various demographic information.</p>
<p>Results showed that participants with different skin tones did not differ in their perceptions of Black linked fate (i.e., how much what happens to Black people affects their lives). However, skin tone linked fate level was associated with one’s skin tone—individuals with darker skin tones tended to have a stronger sense of skin tone linked fate.</p>
<p>Individuals with a stronger sense of linked fate of both types (Black linked fate and skin tone linked fate) tended to report greater psychological distress. These links remained even after adjusting for other ethnoracial identities. However, these associations were all weak.</p>
<p>“Both facets of linked fate associate with psychological distress. Meanwhile, our results show how a sense of racial closeness might offset any pernicious mental health consequences of linked fate. All told, we submit that skin color should be considered more closely in future studies of ethnoracial identity and mental health,” study authors concluded.</p>
<p>The study sheds light on the links between characteristics of racial identity and mental health. However, it should be noted that the data were collected at a time of nationwide protests (after the killing of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor) in the United States, which may have made participants more sensitive to Black linked fate than to skin tone linked fate.</p>
<p>The paper, “<a href="http://www.doi.org/10.1177/01902725251339476">Skin Tone Linked Fate and Psychological Distress</a>,” was authored by Tamunosaki Bilaye-Benibo and Matthew A. Andersson</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/researchers-shed-light-on-how-breathwork-can-induce-altered-states-of-consciousness/" 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;">Researchers shed light on how breathwork can induce altered states of consciousness</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Sep 27th 2025, 14:00</div>
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<p><p>A new scientific investigation finds that altered states of consciousness induced by fast-paced breathing are linked to specific changes in brain blood flow and the body’s autonomic nervous system. The research, published in the journal <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0329411" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PLOS One</a></em>, offers a biological explanation for the profound subjective experiences reported by practitioners of this technique.</p>
<p>Breathwork is a general term for practices that involve consciously controlling one’s breathing. Some forms, known as high ventilation breathwork, involve increasing the rate or depth of breathing, often guided by evocative music. These practices can produce powerful shifts in perception and emotion, creating experiences that practitioners describe as being similar to those from psychedelic substances, including feelings of bliss, unity, and emotional release.</p>
<p>Despite growing popularity as a therapeutic tool, the biological processes behind these effects have remained largely unexamined. A team of researchers, led by first author Amy Amla Kartar, sought to fill this gap by exploring what happens in the brain and body during these intense breathing sessions.</p>
<p>The investigation involved a total of 31 unique, experienced breathwork practitioners who participated across three interconnected experiments, with some individuals taking part in more than one session. The first study was conducted remotely over a video conferencing platform with 15 participants (average age 43, 5 female) to see if the subjective effects could be reliably produced in a home setting. A second study used a special type of magnetic resonance imaging that measures blood flow in the brain with 19 participants (average age 44, 7 female). The third experiment took place in a psychophysiology lab with 8 participants (average age 41, 2 female) where researchers measured changes in the autonomic nervous system.</p>
<p>For the laboratory and imaging sessions, participants listened to pre-recorded audio instructions paired with evocative ambient music. The session would begin with a period of normal breathing, after which the music’s tempo would progressively increase to encourage the fast-paced breathing. The audio track provided specific guidance, such as: “Mouth wide open, pulling on the inhale, that’s it. No pauses at the top of the inhale, or the bottom of the exhale. Full body breaths. Breathing in to your whole body.”</p>
<p>The instructions also encouraged participants to surrender to the experience: “The music is going to keep on rising, so fall into the rhythm and let your breath guide you. Your job is just to keep breathing… Whatever sensations you’re feeling, let them come, let them rise, enjoy them. Stay focused.” In all settings, participants completed questionnaires before and after the breathwork to document their emotional state, any panic-like symptoms, and the nature of their altered state of consciousness.</p>
<p>Across all three settings, the researchers found that high ventilation breathwork was safe for experienced practitioners and consistently produced altered states of consciousness. Participants did not report significant increases in fear or any panic attacks, although there was a slight increase in reported physical discomfort. Negative feelings and emotions tended to decrease after the sessions. The most commonly and intensely reported experience was a state the researchers call “Oceanic Boundlessness,” which includes feelings of bliss, spiritual connection, and a sense of unity with one’s surroundings. This particular experience was chosen as the key subjective measure to compare against the biological data.</p>
<p>The brain imaging results from 13 of the 19 participants revealed significant changes in cerebral blood flow. Overall, the fast-paced breathing caused a widespread reduction in blood flow to the brain, which is an expected physiological response to lowered carbon dioxide levels in the blood. The scientists discovered a specific relationship between this change and the participants’ subjective experiences. They found that a greater reduction in blood flow in a brain region known as the left posterior insula was associated with more intense feelings of Oceanic Boundlessness. This part of the brain is thought to be central to interoception, which is the perception of the body’s internal state, including signals from the heart and lungs.</p>
<p>Further analysis of this brain region showed that the blood flow reduction was specifically linked to the components of Oceanic Boundlessness described as “experience of unity” and “blissful state.” This suggests that changes in how the brain processes internal bodily signals may contribute to these profound feelings.</p>
<p>The researchers also identified another key finding when they compared blood flow from the beginning of the breathwork session to the later, more sustained phase. In a region that includes the right amygdala and hippocampus, areas linked to emotion and memory processing, blood flow actually increased for those who reported the most intense experiences. This localized increase, happening against a backdrop of overall reduced blood flow, may indicate heightened neural activity related to processing emotional memories.</p>
<p>In the laboratory experiment focusing on physiology, the researchers observed that high ventilation breathwork activated the body’s sympathetic nervous system, the system responsible for the “fight or flight” response. This was measured by a decrease in heart rate variability, a marker that indicates the heart is beating in a more regular, less variable pattern typical of an aroused state. The specific pattern of change in heart rate variability over the course of the session was directly related to the intensity of the participant’s reported Oceanic Boundlessness. This finding connects the profound psychological state to a distinct signature of bodily arousal.</p>
<p>The study has some limitations. The number of participants in each experiment was small, and they were all experienced practitioners, so the results may not apply to individuals new to the practice. The research did not include a control condition, such as listening to the music without performing the breathwork, which makes it difficult to isolate the effects of breathing alone. The authors noted that they chose to study the practice as a whole, including the musical component, because that is how it is typically used. Future research could explore these effects in a larger and more diverse population, including novices and individuals with specific mental health conditions, to better understand its therapeutic potential.</p>
<p>“Conducting this research was a fantastic experience,” Kartar said. “It was thrilling to explore such a novel area – while many people anecdotally recognize the health benefits of breathwork, this style of fast-paced breathing has received very little scientific attention. We are very grateful to our participants for making this work possible.”</p>
<p>Alessandro Colasanti, a principal investigator on the project, also commented on the findings. “Breathwork is a powerful yet natural tool for neuromodulation, working through the regulation of metabolism across the body and brain. It holds tremendous promise as a transformative therapeutic intervention for conditions that are often both distressing and disabling.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0329411" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Neurobiological substrates of altered states of consciousness induced by high ventilation breathwork accompanied by music</a>,” was authored by Amy Amla Kartar, Toru Horinouchi, Balázs Örzsik, Brittany Anderson, Lottie Hall, Duncan Bailey, Sarah Samuel, Nati Beltran, Samira Bouyagoub, Chris Racey, Yoko Nagai, Iris Asllani, Hugo Critchley, and Alessandro Colasanti.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/liberals-trust-experts-more-than-conservatives-but-expert-labels-still-matter/" 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;">Liberals trust experts more than conservatives, but expert labels still matter</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Sep 27th 2025, 12:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study published in <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/09636625251372081" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Public Understanding of Science</a></em> suggests that attributing scientific claims to specific experts can modestly increase how accurate those claims are perceived to be — especially among politically conservative individuals. Conducted in the United States, the study also indicates that while liberals tend to trust experts more than conservatives across the board, conservatives may still respond more positively when claims come from experts whose research is associated with production and economic growth.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/rodrigo-reyes-cordova-48164b213/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rodrigo Reyes Cordova</a>, a doctoral researcher at <a href="https://medialab.sciencespo.fr/en/people/rodrigo-alonso-reyes-cordova/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the médialab at Sciences Po Paris</a>, conducted the study. He wanted to better understand how political ideology affects public trust in scientific experts and their claims. Rather than relying on broad labels like “pro-science” or “anti-science,” the study focuses on whether people’s beliefs align with the type of expert making a claim.</p>
<p>Previous research has shown a long-term trend in the U.S.: conservatives have become more skeptical of scientific institutions over time, while liberals have grown more trusting. However, Reyes Cordova aimed to go deeper by examining how the alignment between a person’s political beliefs and the field of expertise influences their perception of trust and credibility.</p>
<p>“My main motivation was a feeling of discomfort with the narrative that ‘liberals/left-wing people are pro-science and conservatives/right-wing people are anti-science,'” Reyes Cordova told PsyPost. “I do not think that captures the reality. My view is that everyone is biased, regardless of political beliefs, and we are all prone to dismissing information that seemingly conflicts with them.”</p>
<p>The study draws on the idea of cultural cognition — a framework that suggests people are more likely to trust claims that align with their values and worldview. According to this view, political ideology shapes how people evaluate expert information, not necessarily because they reject science itself, but because they interpret scientific claims through a social and political lens.</p>
<p>To explore these questions, Reyes Cordova designed an online experiment involving 1,054 adults living in the U.S. Participants were presented with four different claims, each tied to current public debates: immigration and crime, taxation and government revenue, genetically modified foods, and climate change. Each participant was randomly assigned to one of four conditions. In some cases, the claim was attributed to an expert from a specific field (like a sociologist or economist), in other cases to a general “scientist,” and in the control condition, the claim had no named source.</p>
<p>The study categorized experts into two broad groups. One group, labeled as impact experts, included sociologists and environmental scientists. These fields tend to focus on the societal and environmental consequences of industry and policy. The second group, called production experts, included economists and agricultural scientists, who typically work in fields tied to industrial output and economic performance.</p>
<p>Participants were asked to rate how accurate they believed each claim was, as well as how much they trusted various kinds of experts. They also reported their political ideology, identifying themselves as either liberal or conservative.</p>
<p>Across all expert types, liberals expressed more trust than conservatives. However, the difference was smaller for production experts. This suggests that while conservatives are generally less trusting of experts, they may be relatively more comfortable with experts whose work aligns with economic or industrial goals.</p>
<p>“Conservatives trust all experts less, regardless of whether that expert is from what I define as a ‘production’ or ‘impact’ field,” Reyes Cordova explained. “That said, they do favor production over impact experts.”</p>
<p>When it came to judging the accuracy of specific claims, political ideology again played a role. Liberals tended to rate all four claims as more accurate than conservatives did — except for the taxation claim. Conservatives rated that claim (which said taxing the rich and corporations reduces government income) as more accurate than liberals. This finding aligns with previous research showing that people’s political beliefs often influence how they evaluate individual claims.</p>
<p>Despite these ideological differences, the expert’s field — whether impact or production — did not have a consistent effect on how accurate a claim was perceived to be. In other words, attributing a claim to an economist versus an environmental scientist did not significantly change how participants rated its accuracy. This result held regardless of the participant’s political orientation.</p>
<p>“Overall, experts are seen as a source of credibility for scientific information,” Reyes Cordova told PsyPost.</p>
<p>However, some subtle effects did emerge. Overall, attributing a claim to any kind of expert, whether from a specific field or just a general “scientist,” increased its perceived accuracy compared to when no expert was mentioned. This effect appeared most strongly in two of the four claims: the one about taxation and the one about climate change.</p>
<p>For the taxation claim, both liberals and conservatives rated the claim as more accurate when it was linked to a specific expert, compared to when it had no source. For the climate change claim, conservatives in particular viewed the claim as more accurate when it was attributed to an environmental or agricultural scientist, rather than left without a named source. Liberals, by contrast, rated the claim’s accuracy the same regardless of whether an expert source was included.</p>
<p>“On the anthropogenic nature of climate change, conservatives rated the claim as more accurate when attributed to an expert, even if this is a claim they usually reject,” Reyes Cordova said.</p>
<p>These findings suggest that including an expert attribution — simply mentioning that a claim comes from a named expert — can increase credibility. For claims that are typically contested or politicized, like climate change, this strategy may be especially helpful in bridging ideological divides.</p>
<p>The study has some limitations. The sample was balanced in terms of political ideology, gender, and education, but it was not nationally representative. This limits the generalizability of the findings. The claims used in the study were drawn from earlier research and may not reflect topics that are most relevant or salient to participants today. Some of the claims, such as those about genetically modified organisms, may also be more contested within scientific communities than the study assumed.</p>
<p>“The experiment was administered to a very special sample, and participants evaluated only a small number of claims,” Reyes Cordova noted. “Additionally, I did not measure whether people have ‘wrong’ or ‘correct’ views on scientific information; I only measured their perception of expert information. Nevertheless, the results are robust, since the design was experimental and controlled for demographic variables.”</p>
<p>Future research might explore how different expert fields are viewed across the political spectrum, and whether certain claims are more persuasive when accompanied by experts with particular reputations or qualifications. Studies could also test whether similar effects are seen in other countries or cultural contexts. Another promising direction would be to include a wider range of claims and examine how the perceived political orientation of an expert — not just their field — influences credibility.</p>
<p>“I aim to understand the conditions under which the public is willing to accept expert information,” Reyes Cordova said. “For a functioning democracy, it is essential that experts are heard.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/09636625251372081" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Political ideology-driven perceptions of experts and their claims</a>,” was published online on September 19, 2025.</p></p>
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<p><strong>Forwarded by:<br />
Michael Reeder LCPC<br />
Baltimore, MD</strong></p>
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