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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/two-simple-cognitive-tendencies-emerge-as-surprisingly-powerful-predictors-of-belief-in-pseudoscience/" 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;">Two simple cognitive tendencies emerge as surprisingly powerful predictors of belief in pseudoscience</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Nov 15th 2025, 08:00</div>
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<p><p>People who are more likely to endorse pseudoscientific beliefs tend to report experiencing meaningful coincidences more often and are also more likely to misrepresent random events as non-random. These findings, published in <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.70133" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Applied Cognitive Psychology</a></em>, suggest that belief in pseudoscience may stem from cognitive tendencies related to how people interpret everyday events and assess patterns.</p>
<p>Previous research had already found that people who believe in paranormal phenomena tend to experience more meaningful coincidences and show a strong tendency to avoid repeating patterns when simulating random events. These findings were thought to reflect a misunderstanding of how randomness works or a broader tendency to find meaning where none exists.</p>
<p>However, paranormal beliefs often involve supernatural explanations. Pseudoscientific beliefs, such as the idea that homeopathy is an effective medical treatment, may not rely on supernatural elements but still contradict established scientific evidence. The new study asked whether similar cognitive tendencies—such as seeing causality in random events or misunderstanding randomness—are also linked to pseudoscientific beliefs.</p>
<p>“We are interested in how biases in cognitive processing might make some individuals more prone to endorse beliefs not supported by adequate empiric evidence. I had read some exciting work linking biases in the interpretation of chance with paranormal beliefs, and I thought it could be interesting to try to extend those findings to the field of pseudoscience,” said study author <a href="https://www.ub.edu/GRECIL/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Javier Rodríguez-Ferreiro</a>, a professor at the University of Barcelona.</p>
<p>The study involved 108 undergraduate psychology students from the University of Barcelona, with an average age of just over 22 years. Participants completed several tasks and questionnaires measuring their endorsement of pseudoscientific ideas, their personal experiences of coincidences, and their ability to simulate randomness.</p>
<p>To measure pseudoscientific beliefs, participants rated their agreement with 20 statements reflecting popular but scientifically unsupported claims, such as beliefs about alternative medicine or astrology. Higher average scores indicated stronger endorsement of pseudoscience.</p>
<p>To assess perceptions of coincidences, the researchers used a questionnaire asking how often participants experienced “curious or meaningful” coincidences. These included examples such as thinking of someone and then unexpectedly seeing them. The participants also indicated what they believed caused these coincidences, choosing from options like pure chance, destiny, intuition, or extra-sensory perception. Participants could select more than one explanation.</p>
<p>Participants then completed two tasks designed to measure how they represent randomness. In one task, they viewed pairs of images showing either the head or tail of a coin and were instructed to randomly choose one to simulate a real coin toss. In the second task, they were shown images of a die’s six sides and asked to select one per trial, again attempting to mimic real dice rolls.</p>
<p>For both tasks, the researchers tracked how often participants repeated the same result in consecutive selections. A higher tendency to avoid repetition than expected by chance suggested a bias in how participants understood randomness.</p>
<p>The results showed that participants who more strongly endorsed pseudoscientific beliefs tended to report a higher frequency of meaningful coincidences in their lives. They were also more likely to attribute these coincidences to non-random causes, such as destiny or a universal connection, rather than to chance. Among the explanations offered for coincidences, “pure chance” was the most commonly endorsed, but those who selected this option tended to score lower on the pseudoscience measure.</p>
<p>Participants also displayed a general bias toward avoiding repetition when simulating randomness, selecting fewer repeated outcomes than chance would predict. This repetition avoidance was particularly evident in the coin toss task. Importantly, those who more strongly endorsed pseudoscientific beliefs were also more likely to show this bias, especially in the coin task. This suggested a link between belief in pseudoscience and a distorted sense of what a random sequence should look like.</p>
<p>When the researchers looked at all the variables together, they found that two factors independently predicted higher endorsement of pseudoscientific beliefs. The first was how often participants explained coincidences with non-chance causes. The second was how strongly they avoided repetition in the coin task. These two cognitive tendencies—seeking causal explanations for coincidences and misunderstanding randomness—each appeared to contribute separately to belief in pseudoscience.</p>
<p>“We have found both a lower threshold for causally connecting events and biased representation of randomness independently predicted pseudoscientific belief endorsement, but the former had the clearest effect, specially in the case of the tendency to attribute non-chance explanations to coincidences between events,” Rodríguez-Ferreiro told PsyPost.</p>
<p>“Having said that, I was most surprised by the association with chance representation because I think that the link with pseudoscience endorsement is not that obvious. I find it very amusing that how we perform in relatively low-level tasks apparently disconnected from reality, such as replicating the tossing of a coin, is related with daily-life behaviors.”</p>
<p>The study was based on correlational data, which means it cannot determine whether these cognitive tendencies cause belief in pseudoscience or are merely associated with it. The researchers emphasized that their findings should not be taken as proof of a direct causal relationship. It is also possible that a third variable influences both the tendency to see patterns and belief in pseudoscientific ideas.</p>
<p>The study sample was also limited to psychology students in a Western European context. Beliefs in pseudoscience and the cognitive styles that support them may vary by culture. The findings may not apply to broader or more diverse populations.</p>
<p>The researchers suggest that future studies could test these findings in other cultural settings and use experimental methods to see whether changes in how people interpret randomness or coincidences can actually influence their belief in pseudoscientific ideas. They also hope to refine their tools for measuring coincidence interpretation by better integrating the reporting and explanation of such events.</p>
<p>“We would like to continue this research line designing a paradigm that could allow us to experimentally test whether perceived randomness influences causal inference,” Rodríguez-Ferreiro said.</p>
<p>While the research does not prove that these cognitive tendencies cause belief in pseudoscience, it does suggest they play a meaningful role. In the future, educational interventions aimed at improving people’s understanding of probability and the role of chance in everyday life might help reduce susceptibility to such beliefs.</p>
<p>“I think the take-home message is that the way we process information, in this case, how we understand coincidences between events, can lead us to false beliefs, so it is important to be cautious when interpreting the world around us,” Rodríguez-Ferreiro said.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.70133" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Random Sequences, Experienced Coincidences, and Pseudoscientific Beliefs</a>,” was authored by Javier Rodríguez-Ferreiro, Nia Pangani, and Itxaso Barberia.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/liberals-prefer-brands-that-give-employees-more-freedom-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;">Liberals prefer brands that give employees more freedom, study finds</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Nov 15th 2025, 06:00</div>
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<p><p>Companies may think of employee rules as a private matter, but new research suggests consumers are paying attention — and forming judgments based on what they see. A study published in the <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-025-01119-z" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science</a></em> finds that people’s political views shape how they respond to companies that tightly control their frontline staff. Liberals tend to prefer brands that give employees more freedom, while conservatives are mostly unaffected by how strict a company is.</p>
<p>In the past, companies treated employee behavior policies as internal tools to manage customer service, improve performance, and reduce mistakes. But today, these policies are often shared publicly — through corporate websites, social media, and even news coverage. Some companies promote flexible work environments, while others enforce strict guidelines. These decisions now signal more than just operations; they also communicate brand values.</p>
<p>Consumers, especially in the digital era, increasingly base their judgments on how companies treat their workers. Seventy-seven percent of consumers report that a company’s employee policies influence their decisions, according to a 2024 industry survey.</p>
<p>Despite this, most research still focuses on how behavioral control affects internal outcomes, like staff performance or service consistency. The authors of this new study wanted to explore how public perceptions of these policies influence consumer decisions — and how these perceptions vary depending on political ideology.</p>
<p>“We started by noticing that some people prefer being served by ‘robot-like’ employees who stick to a script, while others enjoy a more relaxed, unscripted service style,” explained study author Hung M. Dao of the University of Liverpool Management School.</p>
<p>“Around the same time, market reports showed that consumers were increasingly turning to social media to learn how companies treat their employees before making purchase decisions. That made us wonder whether people judge brands based on how much control they place on their staff. Since strict control can signal a dominance-based hierarchy, we began to suspect that liberals and conservatives might react differently to such policies.”</p>
<p>The research team conducted seven separate studies, involving over 2,800 U.S. participants across various platforms. They tested how consumers responded to strict versus loose behavioral control policies applied to frontline employees in different industries. These policies covered rules about employee appearance, speech, behavior, and even social media use.</p>
<p>In the first study, 200 participants read mock codes of conduct from a fictional coffee shop. Some read a version with strict rules (e.g., no emotional expression, scripted interactions), while others saw a more flexible policy (e.g., encouragement to show personality). Participants then rated how likely they were to purchase from the coffee shop. Liberals expressed significantly less interest when the policy was strict. Conservatives’ responses were mostly unaffected by the type of policy.</p>
<p>A second study used visual cues. Participants saw images of baristas either wearing uniforms and headsets with formal postures (suggesting strict control) or in casual clothing with relaxed body language (suggesting loose control). Again, liberals showed a clear preference for the looser environment, while conservatives did not significantly differentiate between the two.</p>
<p>A third study asked participants to choose between hotels with either strict or loose employee rules. The researchers also measured social dominance orientation, or SDO — a psychological tendency to accept or reject social hierarchies. They found that SDO helped explain the effect of political ideology: liberals, who typically reject dominance-based hierarchies, disliked strict control. Conservatives, who tend to accept such hierarchies, were more neutral.</p>
<p>“We thought conservatives would dislike strict control due to their emphasis on personal freedom, but they were mostly indifferent,” Dao told PsyPost.</p>
<p>To test fairness, other studies manipulated how strict control was applied. In one case, participants read that social media restrictions applied either to frontline workers or to executives. When strict rules applied to high-level employees, liberals responded more positively.</p>
<p>In another study, participants evaluated gyms. In one condition, a national chain enforced strict employee control. In another, a small local gym did. Liberals were more critical of strict policies from large, powerful firms than from smaller ones. Conservatives, in contrast, showed a stronger preference for strict control when it was enforced by the larger chain.</p>
<p>In the final study, researchers added a new twist: they made the risk of service failure more noticeable. For example, participants were told that hotels in a certain area were unreliable. In this context, both liberals and conservatives became more supportive of strict employee control. The desire for reliability seemed to override ideological differences.</p>
<p>“When we highlighted the risk of service failure, both liberals and conservatives actually preferred stricter control, suggesting that reliability and consistency concerns can override ideological preferences in certain situations,” Dao said.</p>
<p>“Consumers do notice how companies treat their employees, and it matters more to some than others. Liberals tend to prefer brands that give frontline staff more freedom, while conservatives are mostly indifferent. But the gap narrows when control feels fair. For example, when rules also apply to the CEO or when a smaller, less powerful company (e.g., independent firms) is the one enforcing them. In short, employee control policies aren’t just internal, they send a message about your brand values.”</p>
<p>“The effects are consistent and reliable: we found them across different industries, study designs, and in real-world settings,” Dao explained. Practically, firms should highlight employee freedom whenever possible. But if strict control is necessary, applying the same rules to both frontline staff and executives can soften negative reactions, especially among liberal consumers.”</p>
<p>But as with all research, there are some limitations. The study focused on how consumers respond before experiencing the actual service. It did not examine how they react during or after interactions, which may also be shaped by political views. The researchers also used hypothetical scenarios and mock companies, which may not fully capture real-world complexity.</p>
<p>Another limitation is that the study focused mainly on U.S. consumers, whose political beliefs may differ from those in other cultures. Future research could explore how cultural attitudes toward authority and freedom influence consumer reactions in other countries.</p>
<p>The researchers also plan to examine how people react to automated service agents like chatbots or robots. Even when no human is involved, people may still interpret control policies in ways that reflect their broader values and ideologies.</p>
<p>“Many companies assume their internal control policies stay behind closed doors, but they don’t,” Dao concluded. “How a company treats its employees sends a public signal about its values.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-025-01119-z" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Freedom or control? Liberals’ versus conservatives’ responses to frontline employee behavioral control policies</a>,” was authored by Hung M. Dao, Aristeidis Theotokis, and J. Joško Brakus.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/music-reorganizes-brain-activity-to-enhance-our-sense-of-time/" 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 reorganizes brain activity to enhance our sense of time</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Nov 14th 2025, 20:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study published in the journal <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.70118"><em>Psychophysiology</em> </a>reveals that listening to music can alter brain connectivity and improve a person’s ability to estimate the passage of time. The research offers a window into how auditory experiences can temporarily reshape brain function and how long-term training creates a more resilient neural architecture for processing time.</p>
<p>The perception of time is a fundamental cognitive process, allowing us to judge durations and sequence events. This internal sense of timing is not perfectly constant; it can be influenced by external factors, including music, which can act as a powerful synchronizing agent for brain rhythms.</p>
<p>A team of researchers from the University of Guadalajara, led by neuroscientist Julieta Ramos-Loyo, sought to understand the neural underpinnings of this phenomenon. Building on previous work that showed music could improve timing accuracy in non-musicians, they designed a study to directly compare the brain activity of musicians and non-musicians to see how their neural networks responded differently to a musical cue before a timing task.</p>
<p>To investigate these brain dynamics, the scientists focused on the concept of functional connectivity. This refers to the synchronized activity between different brain regions, indicating that they are communicating and working together as a network.</p>
<p>Using electroencephalography, a technique that measures electrical activity from the scalp, they could map these communication patterns. They assessed the brain networks using several key metrics. One is global efficiency, which measures how well information is integrated across the entire brain, reflecting the efficiency of long-range connections. Another is local efficiency, which gauges the brain’s capacity for specialized processing within densely interconnected local clusters of regions. A third measure, network density, quantifies the overall strength of connections within the brain.</p>
<p>The investigation involved two groups of young men: one composed of 26 individuals with over a decade of formal musical training and another with 28 individuals with no such training. Each participant performed a time production task, which required them to estimate a 2.5-second interval by pressing a key. They completed this task under two conditions: once in silence and once after listening to a segment of instrumental electronic music. The researchers recorded their brain’s electrical activity at rest, while listening to the music, and during both versions of the timing task.</p>
<p>Analysis of the behavioral results confirmed the researchers’ initial expectations about timing ability. The non-musicians tended to overestimate the 2.5-second interval when performing the task in silence. After listening to music, however, their accuracy improved significantly, with their estimates becoming closer to the target duration.</p>
<p>In contrast, the musicians were more accurate than the non-musicians from the outset and showed no change in their performance after hearing the music. Their highly trained sense of time appeared less susceptible to influence from the external musical stimulus.</p>
<p>The brain connectivity data provided a potential explanation for these behavioral differences. Even in a resting state, before any task began, the brains of musicians and non-musicians were organized differently. Musicians exhibited a greater number of long-distance connections that linked frontal and posterior regions of the brain.</p>
<p>Non-musicians, on the other hand, showed more localized connectivity, with stronger connections within separate anterior and posterior clusters. This suggests that the musicians’ brains maintain a more globally integrated network as a baseline state.</p>
<p>These distinct patterns became more pronounced during the experiment. Across all conditions, the musicians’ brains displayed consistently higher global efficiency. This indicates that their neural networks are configured for more effective, large-scale communication, allowing for the rapid integration of information from distributed brain regions. This globally efficient network may support their superior and more stable time-keeping abilities.</p>
<p>Conversely, the brains of non-musicians showed higher local efficiency. This pattern points toward a more segregated mode of processing, where specialized information is handled within localized modules rather than being integrated across the entire brain.</p>
<p>The overall network density was also higher in musicians, suggesting a greater number of functional connections were active in their brains throughout the tasks. Listening to music appeared to modulate the connectivity of non-musicians, particularly by strengthening connections in posterior brain regions, which coincided with their improved timing performance.</p>
<p>The researchers propose that these findings reflect two different strategies for processing time, shaped by experience. The non-musicians’ more malleable, locally organized network benefited from the synchronizing effect of the music, which may have helped to organize the neural activity needed for the timing task.</p>
<p>The musicians’ brains, molded by years of training, already operate with a highly integrated, globally efficient network optimized for temporal processing. This pre-existing state of organization makes them both more accurate at timing and less influenced by external cues.</p>
<p>The study is not without its limitations. The participants were all young men, so the findings may not generalize to women or individuals in other age groups. The experiment also used a single piece of electronic music at a moderate tempo; different musical genres or speeds could yield different results.</p>
<p>Future research could explore these variables to build a more complete picture of how music interacts with the brain’s time-keeping mechanisms. Additionally, physiological measures of arousal could help determine its contribution to the observed effects.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.70118">Listening to Music Modulates EEG Functional Connectivity During Subsequent Time Estimation: A Comparative Study Between Musicians and Non-Musicians</a>,” was authored by Julieta Ramos-Loyo, Luis P. Ruiz Gómez, and Sergio I. Rivera-Tello.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/what-connects-childhood-trauma-to-aggression-in-teens-with-gaming-disorder/" 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;">What connects childhood trauma to aggression in teens with gaming disorder?</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Nov 14th 2025, 18:00</div>
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<p><p>A study in China found that altered brain activity in the left precuneus mediates the association between childhood trauma and heightened aggression in adolescents with internet gaming disorder. The paper was published in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2025.120357"><em>Journal of Affective Disorders</em></a>.</p>
<p>Internet gaming disorder is a behavioral addiction characterized by excessive and compulsive use of online games, leading to significant impairment in personal, social, educational, or occupational functioning. Individuals with this disorder tend to lose control over their gaming habits, prioritizing games over real-life obligations and relationships. They may experience withdrawal symptoms such as irritability or anxiety when unable to play.</p>
<p>The disorder is associated with preoccupation with gaming, tolerance (needing to play longer to feel satisfied), and unsuccessful attempts to reduce playtime. It frequently co-occurs with depression, anxiety, and attention-deficit problems. Neurologically, excessive gaming can activate the brain’s reward pathways similarly to substance addictions. Adolescents and young adults are considered particularly vulnerable populations for this disorder.</p>
<p>Study author Shijie Chen and his colleagues wanted to explore the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the impact of childhood trauma on aggression in adolescents with internet gaming disorder. They note that children who have suffered childhood abuse are at an increased risk of developing internet gaming disorder as they may resort to gaming as a means of escaping their pain and trauma.</p>
<p>Previous studies indicate that both childhood trauma and internet gaming disorder are associated with dysregulation in brain regions involved in emotion regulation and impulse control. They are also associated with an increased likelihood of aggressive behaviors. Because of this, it is possible that a specific type of brain activity or a specific brain region is responsible for this association.</p>
<p>Study participants were 111 individuals between 10 and 18 years of age. 31 of them suffered from internet gaming disorder but had no history of childhood trauma. 43 had both internet gaming disorder and a history of childhood trauma, while 37 were healthy youths who served as controls.</p>
<p>Study participants completed an assessment of internet addiction (the Internet Addiction Test) and a structured clinical interview to determine whether they met the criteria for internet gaming disorder. Participants also completed assessments of childhood trauma experiences (the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire – Short Form), aggressive behavior (the Reactive-Proactive Aggression Questionnaire), and underwent magnetic resonance imaging of their brains.</p>
<p>The key finding emerged when comparing the two groups with internet gaming disorder. The group without a history of trauma showed significantly lower spontaneous brain activity (measured as fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation) in the left precuneus compared to the group with a history of trauma. Furthermore, higher levels of childhood trauma were correlated with higher activity in the left precuneus. In turn, this higher activity in the left precuneus was correlated with higher levels of reactive aggression (i.e., impulsive, ‘hot-headed’ aggression).</p>
<p>“Our study identifies the left precuneus as a critical neural region where childhood trauma uniquely impacts aggression in adolescents with IGD [internet gaming disorder]. The findings highlight the necessity for targeted interventions in IGD with trauma histories, providing potential avenues to reduce aggression in at-risk adolescents affected by both trauma and gaming addiction,” the study authors concluded.</p>
<p>The study contributes to the scientific understanding of the neural underpinnings of aggression, particularly aggression related to internet gaming disorder. However, the study design does not allow any definitive causal inferences to be derived from the results. Also, childhood trauma and aggression were assessed using self-report measures, which are susceptible to reporting bias.</p>
<p>The paper, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2025.120357">Altered brain activity mediates the correlation between childhood trauma and aggression in youths with internet gaming disorder,</a>” was authored by Shijie Chen, Hongwei Wen, Yuhong Zhou, Yuejiao Zhang, and Xuemei Gao.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/energy-insecurity-linked-to-higher-rates-of-depression-and-anxiety/" 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;">Energy insecurity linked to higher rates of depression and anxiety</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Nov 14th 2025, 16:00</div>
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<p><p>Many U.S. households face a growing challenge in meeting basic energy needs, and a new study suggests this struggle may carry mental health consequences. According to research published in <em><a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2840540" target="_blank" rel="noopener">JAMA Network Open</a></em>, American adults who experienced any form of energy insecurity in the past year were more likely to report symptoms of depression and anxiety. The findings highlight energy insecurity as a potentially overlooked social factor that may shape psychological well-being and deserve greater attention in public health efforts.</p>
<p>While food and housing insecurity have long been considered important public health concerns, energy insecurity has received less attention. Yet, energy access is essential for basic daily functioning—from heating and cooling to food storage and medical device usage. The researchers wanted to understand whether households that struggle to afford energy or maintain safe indoor environments are also more likely to experience emotional distress.</p>
<p>“Millions of people in the United States experience energy insecurity, yet we know less about how this form of hardship affects their daily lives and well-being,” said study author Michelle Graff, an assistant professor at the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology.</p>
<p>“My coauthor, Ther Aung, and I were especially interested in the health consequences of situations like being unable to pay an energy bill, keeping a home at unsafe temperatures, or cutting back on food or medicine to pay an energy bill. We hypothesized that these experiences would be linked to mental health challenges, including symptoms of depression and anxiety. This study allowed us to examine that relationship using nationally representative data.”</p>
<p>The study drew on responses from over 1.1 million adults, representing a weighted U.S. population of more than 187 million. The data came from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey, a national questionnaire that collects information on housing, income, food access, health, and other household conditions.</p>
<p>The researchers focused on three specific experiences to measure energy insecurity. These included being unable to pay an energy bill, keeping the home at unsafe or uncomfortable temperatures, and reducing or skipping essential expenses like food or medicine in order to pay energy costs. Respondents were classified as energy insecure if they reported experiencing any of these situations within the past year.</p>
<p>To assess mental health, the study used short validated screening tools for depression and anxiety. The depression scale included questions about loss of interest and feelings of sadness. The anxiety scale asked about persistent nervousness and difficulty controlling worry. Both tools used a cut-off score that signaled the likelihood of clinically significant symptoms.</p>
<p>The results showed that 43 percent of U.S. adults reported at least one form of energy insecurity. About one in five respondents had been unable to pay an energy bill, and nearly the same proportion kept their homes at uncomfortable or unsafe temperatures. One-third reported sacrificing other necessities to cover energy costs.</p>
<p>These experiences were not confined to a narrow segment of the population. Although lower-income households were more likely to experience energy insecurity, it was also present among a range of demographic groups, including renters, large families, and people with disabilities.</p>
<p>Adults who experienced energy insecurity were more likely to screen positive for anxiety and depression symptoms. Among those who reduced spending on essentials to pay for energy, nearly 39 percent reported anxiety symptoms, and 32 percent reported symptoms of depression. In contrast, those who did not experience that tradeoff reported much lower rates. These patterns remained even after adjusting for other social and demographic factors, including income, education, employment, food security, and housing stability.</p>
<p>When looking at energy insecurity more broadly, the researchers found that adults who experienced at least one of the three energy insecurity indicators had more than twice the odds of reporting symptoms of anxiety or depression compared to those who did not. Specifically, energy-insecure respondents had 2.29 times the odds of anxiety symptoms and 2.31 times the odds of depression symptoms. These findings were statistically significant and consistent across the study’s models.</p>
<p>“Nearly half of U.S. adults experienced at least one form of energy insecurity between 2022 and 2024,” Graff told PsyPost. “Even after accounting for other forms of hardship, individuals facing energy insecurity had higher odds of reporting symptoms of depression or anxiety. This suggests that energy insecurity has its own distinct and meaningful relationship with health.”</p>
<p>The researchers also examined other social determinants of health, such as food insecurity, housing instability, and unemployment. Each of these was also associated with higher odds of mental health symptoms. Among these, food insecurity had a particularly strong relationship with psychological distress. Still, energy insecurity appeared to be more common than either food insecurity or housing instability, suggesting that energy access may be an under-recognized factor in public health.</p>
<p>The study found that each component of energy insecurity may relate to mental health in distinct ways. For example, being unable to pay a bill may cause ongoing financial worry, while living in uncomfortable indoor conditions may create daily physical discomfort and emotional stress. Choosing between energy and basic needs such as food or medicine may intensify feelings of instability. Although these forms of hardship often co-occur, understanding how each one contributes to psychological symptoms could help shape more targeted solutions.</p>
<p>One finding that stood out was the apparent lack of mental health benefit associated with state-level protections against utility disconnection. Some states prohibit utility shutoffs during certain times of the year, but these policies did not appear to reduce symptoms of depression or anxiety. This may suggest that policy protections alone are not sufficient to relieve the broader stress associated with energy insecurity.</p>
<p>“Energy insecurity is a meaningful social determinant of health. While we often talk about food and housing insecurity, fewer people recognize energy as a basic necessity that shapes comfort, safety, and stress,” Graff said. “Our results show that energy insecurity is widespread and that it is associated with worse mental health outcomes among U.S. adults. Addressing energy insecurity is not just an economic issue; it is also a public health concern that needs to be further explored across multiple geographic and time dimensions.”</p>
<p>But there are some limitations. Since the study used cross-sectional data, it cannot determine causality. It’s possible that people experiencing anxiety or depression may be more likely to fall behind on energy bills. Additionally, the time frames for mental health symptoms and energy insecurity differed. The former focused on the past two weeks, while the latter asked about the past year. The study also relied on self-reported experiences, which may introduce bias or subjectivity, especially in assessing what counts as an unsafe indoor temperature.</p>
<p>Despite these limitations, the study offers a national snapshot of how energy access may relate to mental health. The findings suggest energy insecurity is both common and potentially impactful. The authors argue that recognizing energy insecurity as a distinct issue, rather than subsuming it under broader poverty measures, could help guide both public health and social policy responses.</p>
<p>“Sometimes, energy bills are treated as a secondary expense compared to rent or mortgage payments, but our study underscores that the two are not interchangeable,” Graff said. “Being able to afford your home does not guarantee you can afford to safely heat, cool, or power it. These should be treated as distinct policy issues.”</p>
<p>“We plan to continue investigating the scale, variation, and health consequences of energy insecurity. Our hope is that this work helps policymakers prioritize expanding energy assistance programs to meet demand and so households can both afford their homes and safely power them.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2840540" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Energy Insecurity and Mental Health Symptoms in US Adults</a>,” was authored by Michelle Graff and Ther W. Aung.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/a-subtle-sign-could-predict-alzheimers-or-parkinsons-years-in-advance/" 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;">A subtle sign could predict Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s years in advance</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Nov 14th 2025, 14:00</div>
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<p><p>In a magical scene towards the end of 2007 film <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratatouille_(film)">Ratatouille</a>, notoriously harsh food critic Anton Ego is instantly transported back in time, his childhood memories revived by a spoonful of the film’s eponymous dish. No pictures were needed – just the taste and scent of the food.</p>
<p>Smell is the quietest of our senses, but also one of the most powerful. Indeed, it can even <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-tantalising-scent-of-rain-or-freshly-baked-bread-why-can-certain-smells-transport-us-back-in-time-212644">open the floodgates to memories</a> we thought long forgotten.</p>
<p>It is also <a href="https://theconversation.com/three-reasons-strong-perfumes-give-you-a-headache-192063">the most personal and subjective sense</a>, which is what makes it so hard for people to agree on what smells good. However, there does seem to be consensus on the worst smell in the world.</p>
<p>In 1889, in a German laboratory, a chemical reaction involving a compound called <a href="https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/things-i-won-t-work-thioacetone">thioacetone</a> produced a stink so terrible that it caused people to vomit and faint half a kilometre away, forcing the partial evacuation of the city of Freiburg. We still don’t know what exact reaction caused this stench, but it seems nobody is in a hurry to find out.</p>
<p>But what happens when our smell starts to fail? And what if losing smell were more than just a passing symptom?</p>
<h2>A shortcut to our emotions</h2>
<p>Smell is an evolutionary advantage: it warns us of invisible dangers and puts us on alert. Scent can also influence our decisions, and big brands are well aware of this, <a href="https://theconversation.com/dollars-and-scents-how-the-right-smells-can-encourage-shoppers-to-buy-healthier-foods-232973">perfuming their shops</a> with fragrances that tap into our emotions and invite us to stay.</p>
<p>Smells have the ability to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-strange-science-of-odour-memory-74403">awaken memories and intense emotions</a>, and the olfactory bulb is responsible for this. This small area of the forebrain, located very close to the nose, receives olfactory signals and sends them directly to the areas of the brain that manage our memory and emotions.</p>
<p>Despite its importance, smell remains the least well-understood of the senses, and is often underestimated. When it fades, it usually goes unnoticed, but we may not realise how important it is until we lose it.</p>
<p>This is what happened to <a href="https://thecounter.org/lost-sense-of-smell-covid-19-gastronome-italians/">Michele Crippa</a>, a renowned Italian “super taster” who lost his sense of smell during the pandemic. Although he regained it weeks later, his personal nightmare had only just begun, as when his sense of smell came back, it was distorted. Oranges smelled like burnt plastic, peaches smelled like basil, and vanilla made him feel sick. This was likely because the neurons in his olfactory bulb had been damaged.</p>
<p>While any loss of smell is unpleasant, it could have a greater significance: a warning signal from deep with our brains.</p>
<h2>A common cold, or Parkinson’s?</h2>
<p>Most of us have lost our sense of smell at some point, usually thanks to a simple bout of cold or flu. However, this symptom can also be an early <a href="https://www.neurology.org/doi/10.1212/WNL.0000000000006919">symptom of neurodegenerative diseases</a> like <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/alzheimers-disease-30935">Alzheimer’s</a> or <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/parkinsons-disease-30547">Parkinson’s</a>. This has been known for some time, but the surprising thing is that the loss of smell occurs years before the symptoms of these diseases appear.</p>
<p>So, could loss of smell be used to predict Parkinson’s disease? The answer, unhelpful though it may be, is: it depends.</p>
<h2>An early warning</h2>
<p>One of the major problems with neurodegenerative diseases is that the damage is already very advanced by the time they can be diagnosed. In the case of Parkinson’s disease, when the first symptoms (stiffness, tremors, and so on) appear, more than half of the neurons that produce <a href="https://theconversation.com/dopamine-brain-chemical-helps-us-understand-other-people-raising-hopes-for-new-treatments-232837">dopamine</a>, the neurotransmitter that controls movement, have already been lost.</p>
<p>Identifying early symptoms like loss of smell – which affects up to 90% of patients – could serve as a <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/biomarkers-4112">biomarker</a>, alerting us to the presence of the disease. This would allow us to diagnose it much earlier, and provide access to more effective treatments.</p>
<p>The problem is that this symptom is not exclusive to Parkinson’s: it can also appear with ageing, stress, or other conditions. This means we tend to downplay its importance.</p>
<p>We still do not know for certain why neurodegenerative diseases cause loss of smell, although we have some clues. In some Parkinson’s patients, the disease may begin in the olfactory bulb long before spreading to the areas that control movement. This is because certain <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-causes-parkinsons-disease-what-we-know-dont-know-and-suspect-57579">viruses, pesticides or toxins</a> that we inhale could damage it and cause alterations to the area.</p>
<p>In the case of Alzheimer’s disease, damage could begin in a tiny bluish region of the brain stem called the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-62500-8">locus coeruleus</a>, as a recent study has revealed. This “alert button” keeps us awake and focused, and its connection to the olfactory bulb is what links smells to emotions. When that connection is broken, problems occur with smell long before the first signs of dementia emerge.</p>
<p>In short, the loss of the ability to smell would not be a symptom of the disease itself, but rather a warning sign that the degenerative process has begun.</p>
<h2>Diagnosing through smell</h2>
<p>When a patient comes into the clinic, it is not always easy to distinguish between Parkinson’s disease and other similar movement disorders. A loss of smell, combined with other tests and indicators, could help confirm the diagnosis. It could also help us predict the disease’s progression, as it is related to <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7534008/">more severe forms of the disease</a>.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the loss of smell in Parkinson’s disease is selective. Patients perceive pleasant smells such as chocolate without issue, but have <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neurology/articles/10.3389/fneur.2024.1362763/full">difficulty detecting neutral or unpleasant odours</a> like soap, smoke or rubber.</p>
<p>Other patients, especially women, experience something even stranger: <a href="https://www.prd-journal.com/article/S1353-8020(22)00124-9/fulltext">olfactory hallucinations</a>. This means they perceive “phantom” odours, such as tobacco or burning wood, which are not really there.</p>
<p>Incredible though it may seem, Parkinson’s disease even has its own scent, which has been described as woody and musky. We know this thanks to Joy Milne, a Scottish woman with a heightened sense of smell – she was able to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/sep/07/woman-who-can-smell-parkinsons-helps-scientists-develop-test">recognise this particular odour</a> on her husband 12 years before he was diagnosed with the disease.</p>
<p>The loss of smell may seem like like something confined to the nose, but it is actually a window into the brain. It allows researchers to peek inside the brain to decipher its secrets, and to gather valuable information that will help us care for and improve the quality of life of those who suffer from neurodegenerative diseases.</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/losing-your-sense-of-smell-it-could-be-an-early-sign-of-alzheimers-or-parkinsons-disease-266169">original article</a>.</em></p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/trauma-history-shapes-how-the-brain-adaptively-responds-to-new-stress/" 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;">Trauma history shapes how the brain adaptively responds to new stress</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Nov 14th 2025, 12:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study reveals that brain networks associated with a person’s history of traumatic experiences can temporarily quiet down when confronted with a new, mild stressor. This finding, published in the <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2505965122" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a></em>, suggests that for many individuals, the brain’s response to new challenges may involve an adaptive disengagement from patterns shaped by past adversity. The research offers a window into how the brain navigates the complex relationship between old wounds and new difficulties.</p>
<p>How the brain processes stress is powerfully shaped by past experiences. Events from a person’s life can leave a lasting imprint on neural circuits, altering how they respond to future challenges. Two primary theories attempt to explain this phenomenon.</p>
<p>One model, known as sensitization, proposes that past stress makes a person’s brain and body more reactive to later stressors. An opposing model, called habituation, suggests that previous encounters with stress can lead to a dampened or blunted response to new stressful events, reflecting a form of learning or adaptation.</p>
<p>To test these competing ideas, a team of researchers at Yale University investigated how brain networks that reflect a history of trauma behave in real time during a stressful experience. The group, led by Elizabeth V. Goldfarb, an assistant professor of psychiatry, and Felicia A. Hardi, a postdoctoral fellow at Yale’s Wu Tsai Institute, aimed to move beyond static snapshots of the brain and observe its dynamic response to an immediate challenge. They wanted to understand if these trauma-related networks would amplify their activity, as sensitization would predict, or reduce it, in line with habituation.</p>
<p>The researchers began by identifying the specific brain networks linked to trauma. They collected functional magnetic resonance imaging data, which measures brain activity by detecting changes in blood flow, from 170 adult participants from the New Haven, Connecticut community. Each participant also completed a checklist detailing their lifetime exposure to potentially traumatic events, such as accidents, natural disasters, or assault.</p>
<p>Using a machine learning approach, the scientists fed this information into a model designed to find patterns of brain connectivity that could reliably predict the number of traumatic events an individual had experienced.</p>
<p>This method successfully identified two distinct networks. A “positive network” was one in which stronger communication between brain regions was associated with a greater number of past traumatic events. A “negative network” was one where stronger connectivity was linked to fewer traumatic events. These networks were specific to trauma history; they did not predict other life factors like education level or general stress.</p>
<p>The positive network, which became the focus of the subsequent experiments, showed strong involvement of brain regions belonging to the salience network, a system known to be involved in detecting emotionally significant events and coordinating the body’s response.</p>
<p>With these trauma-predictive networks identified, the team conducted two experiments to see how they would react to stress. In the first experiment, 92 of the original participants were randomly assigned to either a stress group or a control group. Those in the stress group underwent a procedure called the Socially Evaluated Cold Pressor Test, which involved submerging their arm in ice water for three minutes while being observed and video-recorded.</p>
<p>This task is a well-established method for reliably inducing both a psychological and a physiological stress response, including the release of the stress hormone cortisol. The control group performed a similar task but with warm water and without social evaluation.</p>
<p>The researchers scanned participants’ brains immediately before and after the procedure. They found that in the group that experienced the ice-water stressor, the positive trauma-predictive network showed a significant and temporary decrease in connectivity.</p>
<p>The communication between the brain regions in this network became less synchronized following the stressful event. This effect was not seen in the control group, indicating the change was a direct response to the acute stress. “We found that individuals were disengaging their trauma network when they were faced with mild stress,” said Hardi.</p>
<p>To further investigate the biological mechanisms behind this change, the team conducted a second experiment with a separate group of 27 participants. In this study, each person visited the lab on two different occasions. On one visit they received a pill containing hydrocortisone, which is chemically identical to the body’s primary stress hormone, cortisol. On the other visit, they received an identical-looking placebo pill. This design allowed the researchers to isolate the effects of the stress hormone itself, separate from the psychological experience of a stressful situation.</p>
<p>The results from the pharmacological study mirrored those of the first experiment. When participants received hydrocortisone, the connectivity within the same positive trauma-predictive network decreased compared to when they received the placebo. This finding suggests that stress hormones like cortisol may play a direct role in prompting the brain to dampen the activity of these trauma-related circuits. The consistency of the results across two different methods and two independent groups of people strengthens the evidence for this habituation-like response.</p>
<p>The team then explored the real-world relevance of this neural adaptation. They examined the relationship between the change in network connectivity and participants’ self-reported symptoms of depression. The analysis revealed that among individuals in the stress group, those who showed a greater decrease in their positive network connectivity also tended to have lower scores for depressive symptoms. This association suggests that the ability to quiet this trauma-related network in the face of new stress may be a marker of better emotional health and adaptive coping.</p>
<p>“We asked what these networks do when you’re faced with a stressful situation,” Goldfarb explained. “We found that when you’re in a mildly stressful situation, it’s helpful for your daily functioning and mental health symptoms to turn down that trauma network.”</p>
<p>The study’s authors note some important context for their findings. The participants were from a general community sample and, on average, did not report extreme levels of trauma or psychiatric symptoms.</p>
<p>The laboratory stressor was also relatively mild and short-lived. It is possible that for individuals with more severe trauma histories or those facing more intense threats, the brain might react differently, perhaps by heightening the activity of these networks in a sensitized response. The adaptive nature of this neural quieting may depend on the context and severity of the stress.</p>
<p>Future research could examine these dynamics in clinical populations, such as individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder, to see if this adaptive mechanism is altered. Further work might also explore how the timing of traumatic events, such as during childhood versus adulthood, influences these neural responses. Understanding the brain’s capacity for adaptive regulation could eventually inform new approaches for supporting resilience and mitigating the long-term impact of stress.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2505965122" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trauma-predictive brain network connectivity adaptively responds to mild acute stress</a>,” was authored by Felicia A. Hardi, Jean Ye, Irene Zhou, Zihan Bai, D. T. Nguyen, Krystian B. Loetscher, Julia G. Pratt, Bailey B. Harris, Dylan G. Gee, and Elizabeth V. Goldfarb.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/new-study-shows-that-not-all-forms-of-social-rank-are-equally-attractive/" 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 study shows that not all forms of social rank are equally attractive</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Nov 14th 2025, 10:00</div>
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<p><p>People tend to look for partners who hold social rank, but a new study published in <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506251386119" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Social Psychological and Personality Science</a></em> suggests that the kind of rank someone pursues matters for romantic attraction. The research provides evidence that attraction depends both on the type of rank a person displays and the relationship goals of the observer.</p>
<p>Social rank is often associated with desirable qualities such as influence and access to resources. Many people assume that rank improves attractiveness in a general way. But rank is not a single category. People can gain status through competence, generosity, and respect from others, which is known as prestige. They can also gain status through force, intimidation, or assertive behavior, which is known as dominance.</p>
<p>These two paths carry different interpersonal signals and different implications for long-term relationships. At the same time, individuals differ in their relationship goals. Some seek stable partnerships with long-term investment, while others seek short-term sexual relationships. The researchers wanted to test how these relationship goals shape attraction to people who use dominance or prestige to rise in social rank.</p>
<p>“I wanted to add nuance to the long-held and widely generalizable—but overly broad—finding that ‘social rank is attractive in a potential mate.’ Although people around the world are attracted to those with high social rank, recent research shows that social rank takes at least two distinct forms: dominance and prestige,” said study author <a href="https://www.zakwitkower.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Zak Witkower</a>, an assistant professor at the University of Amsterdam.</p>
<p>“Our work adds nuance to the finding that social rank is universally attractive, demonstrating that the appeal of social rank depends on both how people achieve social rank, and what others are looking for in a partner, with dominance and prestige attracting those pursuing short-term and long-term relationships in different ways.”</p>
<p>The researchers conducted a series of three studies. The first study surveyed more than one thousand adults in the United States. Participants first completed a questionnaire that measured their orientation toward long-term and short-term mating. People with stronger long-term orientations expressed greater interest in committed partnerships, while those with stronger short-term orientations expressed comfort with casual sexual relationships.</p>
<p>After rating their own orientation, participants evaluated how attractive they found people who display dominance or prestige. These traits were presented in the form of brief descriptions, such as being considered an expert in an area or being willing to use aggression to achieve a goal.</p>
<p>The researchers found that participants who scored higher on long-term mating orientation tended to find prestige attractive. They also tended to rate dominance as unattractive. This suggests that people who prioritize committed partnerships associate prestige with traits such as warmth, reliability, and social support, while perceiving dominance as linked to behaviors that may endanger relationship stability.</p>
<p>Short-term mating orientation showed a different pattern. Participants who scored higher on this orientation tended to find both dominance and prestige appealing. This indicates that people oriented toward short-term relationships may see benefits in both routes to high status. Prestige can signal intelligence and competence, while dominance can signal physical strength and confidence.</p>
<p>The researchers ran additional analyses to test whether gender affected the relationship between mating orientation and attraction. The general pattern remained consistent. Men and women with long-term orientations preferred prestige and tended to avoid dominance. Men and women with short-term orientations tended to find both strategies appealing. Some differences in size of effect emerged across genders, but the basic relationships stayed the same.</p>
<p>The researchers also tested the combined influence of long-term and short-term orientation by comparing people who favored long-term strategies with those who favored short-term ones. People who preferred long-term strategies consistently showed a stronger attraction to prestige relative to dominance.</p>
<p>The next phase of the project tested whether these patterns would hold when people formed impressions based on appearance alone. People often make judgments about potential partners quickly, especially in contexts where they rely on physical appearance. The researchers conducted two additional studies that focused on faces rather than personality traits. These studies used photographs that had been digitally altered to appear more or less dominant. The researchers did not include prestige faces because no comparable method existed to manipulate faces along that dimension.</p>
<p>In the first of these facial preference studies, participants viewed pairs of faces in which one face was a neutral image and the other was a version of the same face adjusted to appear more dominant. Participants indicated which face they found more attractive. As in the first study, participants also completed questionnaires assessing their long-term and short-term mating orientations.</p>
<p>The results again aligned with the original predictions. People with higher short-term mating orientation scores were more likely to choose the dominant faces. People with higher long-term mating orientation scores were less likely to choose them. This pattern appeared across participants and did not vary significantly by gender.</p>
<p>The effect sizes were smaller than those found in the self-reported preference study, which the authors interpret as evidence that physical cues of dominance influence attraction in a more subtle way. Even so, the relationship between mating orientation and attraction remained consistent.</p>
<p>“The effects were robust, but varied in magnitude depending on how we measured attraction,” Witkower told PsyPost. “For example, people’s self-reported preferences showed large effects, while the effects were smaller when we measured attraction after subtly manipulating face to appear more and less dominant. Nonetheless, across all methods the same clear pattern emerged, which consistently supported our hypotheses.”</p>
<p>A second facial preference study replicated this design but improved it by ensuring that participants only viewed faces that matched their preferred gender in a romantic partner. This step helped the researchers measure attraction more directly. More than eight hundred people took part.</p>
<p>The researchers again found that people with stronger short-term mating orientation tended to select the dominant faces more often, while those with stronger long-term mating orientation tended to avoid them. These findings suggest that the relationship between mating orientation and attraction to dominance extends to appearance-based impressions of a potential partner.</p>
<p>“People looking for long-term romantic partners tend to be drawn to prestige but are systematically put off by dominance,” Witkower said. “In contrast, those interested in short-term sexual relationships are attracted to both prestige and dominance. In other words, social rank isn’t always attractive—its appeal depends on the type of rank and the kind of relationship someone is seeking—and this pattern holds true for both men and women.”</p>
<p>As with all research, there are limitations to consider. The studies focused on perceptions of attraction rather than real-world relationship outcomes. People may report certain preferences but behave differently when forming actual relationships. The work relied heavily on American participants, most of whom were White, which limits the ability to generalize the findings across cultures.</p>
<p>Future research could examine how the context of dominance shapes attraction. There may also be cultural differences in how prestige and dominance are valued and expressed, which could influence how they relate to mating preferences. The researchers aim to explore these variations to determine whether the patterns observed reflect universal tendencies.</p>
<p>“Given the universal link between social rank and attraction—and evidence from around the world showing that both dominance and prestige are viable paths to achieving social rank—our next step is to test whether the patterns we observed reflect an evolved and potentially universal feature of human psychology,” Witkower said. “By examining these dynamics across diverse cultures, we aim to uncover whether the connection between mating orientation and attraction to different forms of social rank is culturally shaped or a fundamental aspect of human nature.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506251386119" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Short-Term and Long-Term Mating Strategies Show Distinct Patterns of Attraction to Dominance and Prestige</a>,” was authored by Zachary Witkower and Nicholas O. Rule.</p></p>
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<p><strong>Forwarded by:<br />
Michael Reeder LCPC<br />
Baltimore, MD</strong></p>
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