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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/adherence-to-the-mind-diet-linked-to-healthier-alzheimers-biomarkers-in-middle-age/" 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;">Adherence to the MIND diet linked to healthier Alzheimer’s biomarkers in middle age</a>
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<p><p>New research published in <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1028415X.2025.2599457" target="_blank">Nutritional Neuroscience</a></em> provides evidence linking a specific dietary pattern to healthier levels of Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers. The study suggests that middle-aged adults who closely follow the MIND diet are less likely to exhibit the pathological protein buildup associated with the condition. These findings imply that dietary habits may influence brain health years before any symptoms of memory loss appear.</p>
<p>Scientific understanding of how nutrition impacts the brain has evolved significantly in recent years. Medical professionals recognize that dietary patterns like the Mediterranean diet and the DASH diet support cardiovascular health. The MIND diet combines elements from both of these approaches to specifically target neuroprotection. While prior observational studies indicated that the MIND diet correlates with slower cognitive decline, the biological reasons for this remain under investigation.</p>
<p>“There is a gap in our understanding of the biological mechanisms that may explain how the MIND diet is associated with cognitive health,” said study author Mary Yannakoulia, a professor of nutrition and eating behavior at Harokopio University.</p>
<p>“Although observational evidence has consistently shown that greater adherence to the MIND diet is associated with a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease and slower cognitive decline, the underlying biological mechanisms remain unclear. One potential pathway involves amyloid beta deposition, a hallmark of Alzheimer’s pathology, that is known to begin accumulating many years before clinical manifestations.” </p>
<p>“So far, no studies have examined whether adherence to the MIND diet is associated with amyloid beta concentrations in cerebrospinal fluid samples among middle-aged individuals without dementia. Addressing this issue could shed light on whether dietary habits influence Alzheimer’s-related brain changes during the crucial preclinical phase, helping to inform strategies for early prevention.”</p>
<p>The research team analyzed data from the ALBION study, which is a project based in Greece. The final sample consisted of 250 participants. The median age of these individuals was sixty-five years. None of the participants had a diagnosis of dementia at the beginning of the study.</p>
<p>To assess dietary habits, the investigators used a rigorous interview process. Trained dietitians conducted four separate twenty-four-hour dietary recalls with each participant. One interview occurred in person, while the other three took place over the phone. These interviews covered three weekdays and one weekend day to capture a complete picture of typical eating habits.</p>
<p>Based on the food reported in these interviews, the researchers calculated a MIND diet score for every participant. This scoring system evaluates adherence to fifteen specific dietary components. There are ten brain-healthy food groups included in the score. These are green leafy vegetables, other vegetables, berries, nuts, beans, whole grains, fish, poultry, olive oil, and wine.</p>
<p>The scoring system also accounts for five food groups considered unhealthy for the brain. These include red meats, butter and stick margarine, cheese, pastries and sweets, and fried or fast food. Participants received points for eating healthy foods frequently and for limiting unhealthy foods. The total score could range from zero to fifteen, with higher scores indicating better adherence to the diet.</p>
<p>The researchers also needed to measure the biological markers of Alzheimer’s disease. They performed lumbar punctures to collect cerebrospinal fluid from the participants. In this fluid, they measured the concentration of a protein called amyloid beta 42. In a healthy brain, this protein is cleared away effectively.</p>
<p>In people developing Alzheimer’s disease, this protein clumps together to form plaques in the brain tissue. When these plaques form in the brain, the levels of the protein in the spinal fluid drop. Therefore, low levels of amyloid beta 42 in the fluid are considered a pathological sign. The researchers defined a specific cutoff point to identify participants with abnormal protein levels.</p>
<p>The statistical analysis compared the diet scores against the results of the spinal fluid tests. The researchers divided the participants into four groups based on their diet scores. These groups ranged from the lowest adherence quartile to the highest adherence quartile. They then used logistic regression models to calculate the odds of having pathological protein levels.</p>
<p>The study identified an association between the MIND diet and amyloid beta levels. Participants in the highest adherence group were significantly less likely to have abnormal amyloid beta concentrations compared to those in the lowest group. The analysis showed that those who followed the diet most closely had roughly fifty-seven percent lower odds of showing this specific sign of Alzheimer’s pathology.</p>
<p>The researchers adjusted their calculations to account for various factors that could influence the results. They controlled for age, sex, and years of education. They also adjusted for total calorie intake to ensure that overeating or undereating did not skew the findings. The association remained significant even after accounting for medical conditions like diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol.</p>
<p>In addition to the overall diet score, the researchers examined the fifteen individual components of the diet. They wanted to see if any single food group drove the results. Their initial analysis suggested that green leafy vegetables had the strongest link to better outcomes. Participants who ate more leafy greens appeared to have a lower risk of amyloid pathology.</p>
<p>However, the strength of this specific finding regarding leafy greens diminished when the researchers applied further statistical corrections. Because they tested many different food groups, they had to adjust their math to prevent false positives. After this correction, the link between leafy greens alone and amyloid levels was no longer statistically significant. This suggests that the benefit likely comes from the overall dietary pattern rather than one single food.</p>
<p>The researchers also looked at a subgroup of participants who had genetic data available. They specifically checked for the APOE4 gene variant, which is a known risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. Even when accounting for this genetic risk, the relationship between the MIND diet and healthier biomarker levels remained consistent.</p>
<p>There are some limitations to this research. The study utilized a cross-sectional design. This means it looked at diet and biomarkers at a single point in time. It provides a snapshot of the participants’ health but cannot prove that the diet caused the changes in protein levels. It is possible that people with better brain health simply choose to eat better.</p>
<p>The use of dietary recalls relies on memory, which can introduce errors. Participants might not remember exactly what they ate or might alter their reports to appear healthier. However, using four separate recalls helps to minimize this potential error. The researchers also noted that the study was relatively small, with only 250 people.</p>
<p>Future research needs to address these limitations to validate the findings. Long-term studies that follow participants over many years would help clarify the direction of the relationship. Randomized clinical trials are necessary to determine if adopting the MIND diet can actively lower amyloid levels. Scientists also need to investigate other biomarkers to get a more comprehensive view of brain health.</p>
<p>“Our findings suggest that adopting a brain-healthy dietary pattern, such as the MIND diet, may be associated with lower levels of Alzheimer’s-related biomarkers in the brain, even in individuals that do not experience dementia symptoms,” Yannakoulia told PsyPost. “In practical terms, the MIND diet emphasizes the consumption of plant-based foods, i.e.green leafy vegetables, berries, legumes, whole grains and nuts, and the use of olive oil as the primary cooking and salad oil.” </p>
<p>“Adopting such eating habits might help reduce processes linked to neurodegeneration, including inflammation and oxidative stress, thereby supporting long-term brain health. The present findings are preliminary and are derived from a cross-sectional design; they support though the growing evidence that everyday diet plays a significant role in preserving cognitive function and promoting brain health across the lifespan.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1028415X.2025.2599457" target="_blank">Association between adherence to the Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) diet and cerebrospinal fluid Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers in middle-life individuals without dementia: the ALBION study</a>,” was authored by Archontoula Drouka, Stelios Chatzispyrellis, Dora Brikou, Eva Ntanasi, Eirini Mamalaki, Stylianos Chatzipanagiotou, Christopher Papandreou, Konstantinos Rouskas, Yian Gu, Nikolaos Scarmeas, and Mary Yannakoulia.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/most-men-do-not-fit-the-profile-of-toxic-masculinity-new-study-finds/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Most men do not fit the profile of “toxic masculinity,” new study finds</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Jan 12th 2026, 06:00</div>
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<p><p>Most men do not fit the common stereotype of “toxic masculinity,” according to a recent study of over 15,000 heterosexual men in New Zealand. The research identifies five distinct groups based on their attitudes toward various problematic traits and beliefs, with the majority of men exhibiting low-to-moderate levels of such characteristics. </p>
<p>These findings challenge prevalent notions about masculinity and suggest a need for more nuanced understandings of men’s identities, as published in the journal <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/men0000547" target="_blank">Psychology of Men & Masculinities</a>.</p>
<p>The term “toxic masculinity” has gained widespread currency in both public conversations and academic discussions, often used to describe a range of problematic attitudes and behaviors attributed to men. This often includes misogyny, homophobia, emotional repression, and aggression, drawing on sociological perspectives that have sometimes cast masculinity in a negative light. </p>
<p>However, some scholars and critics have questioned the clarity and utility of the term, suggesting it can be overly broad, ill-defined, or even stigmatizing, potentially hindering constructive dialogue about men’s issues and mental health.</p>
<p>Addressing this lack of empirical definition and prevalence in the general population, researchers Deborah Hill Cone, Chris G. Sibley, and Danny Osborne of the University of Auckland, together with Kieren J. Lilly of the University of Queensland, sought to systematically investigate different patterns of masculine attitudes. Their aim was to determine if a “toxic masculinity” profile truly exists, how common it might be, and what other forms of masculinity are present within the male population. </p>
<p>To conduct their investigation, the research team utilized data from the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study, specifically from its tenth wave collected between 2018 and 2019. Their sample consisted of 15,808 heterosexual men ranging in age from 18 to 99 years old, with an average age of 51.07 years. This large, nationwide random sample allowed for a comprehensive examination of diverse perspectives across the country.</p>
<p>Participants provided responses to questions assessing eight indicators often linked to problematic masculinity. These indicators included gender identity centrality, which measures the importance of being a man to one’s self-concept, and sexual prejudice, reflecting negative attitudes toward individuals based on their sexual orientation. Other measures were disagreeableness, a personality trait reflecting a lack of amiability, and narcissism, characterized by a heightened sense of self-importance.</p>
<p>The study also evaluated hostile sexism, which involves overtly negative attitudes toward women, and benevolent sexism, encompassing seemingly positive but stereotypical views of women that restrict their roles. Participants’ opposition to domestic violence prevention initiatives was measured as an indicator of attitudes toward harmful behaviors in intimate relationships. </p>
<p>Finally, social dominance orientation (SDO), which reflects a preference for group-based inequality, was included. The researchers noted that while these were often short-form scales or single-item indicators due to survey constraints, they have been shown to reliably approximate their full-form counterparts.</p>
<p>The researchers employed a statistical technique known as Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) to identify distinct subgroups of men based on their patterns of responses to these eight indicators. This method allows for the classification of individuals into profiles that share similar characteristics. After identifying these profiles, the researchers then examined how various demographic and health-related factors correlated with membership in each group.</p>
<p>The LPA revealed five distinct profiles of masculinity within the sample. The largest group, encompassing 35.4% of the men, was labeled “Atoxics.” These individuals consistently reported the lowest levels across all eight indicators of problematic masculinity, suggesting a general absence of these attitudes.</p>
<p>The second largest group, making up 27.2% of the sample, was termed “LGBT-tolerant Moderate.” Men in this profile expressed low-to-moderate levels on most indicators, notably showing low levels of sexual prejudice. They tended to have moderate levels of narcissism and disagreeableness compared to the Atoxic group.</p>
<p>Another significant group, representing 26.6% of the men, was identified as “Anti-LGBT Moderate.” This profile was similar to the LGBT-tolerant Moderate group in many respects but showed noticeably higher levels of sexual prejudice. They also exhibited slightly lower levels of disagreeableness and narcissism compared to the LGBT-tolerant Moderate profile.</p>
<p>Two smaller profiles displayed more pronounced patterns of problematic masculinity. The “Benevolent Toxic” profile comprised 7.6% of the sample. Men in this group reported moderate levels of disagreeableness, narcissism, and opposition to domestic violence prevention. </p>
<p>They scored moderately high on gender identity centrality and hostile sexism, and highest on benevolent sexism and sexual prejudice. This profile suggests a form of toxicity characterized by paternalistic and seemingly positive but restrictive views of women, alongside elevated sexual prejudice.</p>
<p>The smallest group, representing 3.2% of the sample, was labeled the “Hostile Toxic” profile. These men demonstrated the highest levels on most of the problematic indicators, including disagreeableness, hostile sexism, opposition to domestic violence prevention, narcissism, and social dominance orientation. </p>
<p>They also showed high sexual prejudice, although their levels of benevolent sexism and gender identity centrality were moderate. This profile aligns most closely with the commonly understood, severe manifestations of “toxic masculinity.”</p>
<p>The study also explored the demographic and health characteristics associated with membership in these profiles. Men in the Hostile Toxic profile tended to be older, unemployed, single, religious, and identify as an ethnic minority. They also reported higher levels of conservatism, deprivation, and emotional dysregulation. </p>
<p>On the other hand, higher education levels and greater body satisfaction were associated with a lower likelihood of belonging to the Hostile Toxic profile and a higher likelihood of belonging to the Atoxic profile.</p>
<p>For the Benevolent Toxic profile, men in a relationship and those who identified as religious were more likely to belong to this group. This group was also less likely to be highly conservative compared to the Hostile Toxic profile. These findings suggest that the Benevolent Toxic profile may represent a more traditional or paternalistic form of problematic masculinity, often found among men embedded in certain social structures.</p>
<p>The Atoxic and LGBT-tolerant Moderate profiles, when compared to the Hostile Toxic profile, tended to include men who were employed, in a relationship, and held less conservative political views. Specifically, the LGBT-tolerant Moderate profile was more common among younger, nonreligious men living in less deprived areas. The Anti-LGBT Moderate profile was also more common among employed men and those in a relationship but surprisingly associated with being older, suggesting generational differences in specific attitudes.</p>
<p>This research, while extensive, presents certain potential misinterpretations and limitations. It is important to avoid concluding that the identified five profiles represent the definitive “true” number of masculinity types in the population, or that sociodemographic characteristics are absolute determinants of profile membership. </p>
<p>The study’s cross-sectional design means it captures associations at one point in time and cannot establish cause-and-effect relationships or the stability of profile membership over time.</p>
<p>The sample was limited to heterosexual men and a binary conceptualization of gender, meaning its findings may not generalize to non-heterosexual or non-cisgender men, or other cultural contexts beyond New Zealand, a Western, educated, and democratic nation.</p>
<p>Future research could address these limitations by conducting longitudinal studies to examine the stability of masculinity profiles and how they evolve over a person’s life. Expanding research to include non-heterosexual and non-cisgender men, as well as diverse cultural contexts, particularly in the Global South, would enhance the generalizability of findings. </p>
<p>Future studies might also include specific indicators of traditional masculine ideology, such as emotional competence, and more direct measures of attitudes toward sexual violence against women.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/men0000547" target="_blank">Are Men Toxic? A Person-Centered Investigation Into the Prevalence of Different Types of Masculinity in a Large Sample of New Zealand Men</a>,” was authored by Deborah Hill Cone, Kieren J. Lilly, Chris. G. Sibley, and Danny Osborne.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/how-the-words-people-use-reveal-hidden-patterns-of-personality-dysfunction/" 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;">How the words people use reveal hidden patterns of personality dysfunction</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Jan 11th 2026, 20:00</div>
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<p><p>Is it possible to spot personality dysfunction from someone’s everyday word use? My colleagues and I have conducted research that suggests you can, and often sooner than you might expect.</p>
<p>Whether in a quick text message, a long email, a casual chat with a friend, or a comment online, the words people choose quietly reveal deeper patterns in how they think, feel, and relate to others.</p>
<p>Everyone has personality traits – habitual ways of thinking, feeling and behaving. When these patterns become rigid, intense or disruptive, they can cause ongoing problems with emotions, sense of self and relationships.</p>
<p>At the more severe end are personality disorders, where these patterns create significant distress and impairment. Common <a href="https://theconversation.com/people-with-personality-disorders-are-more-likely-to-sign-up-for-psychology-studies-heres-why-thats-a-problem-201237">personality disorders</a> include narcissistic, antisocial, and borderline personality disorder.</p>
<p>But not everybody has a full-blown disorder. Personality functioning actually exists on a spectrum. <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-we-becoming-so-narcissistic-heres-the-science-55773">We’re all a little narcissistic</a>, after all.</p>
<p>Many people you meet – at work, when dating, or online – may show milder difficulties, such as mood fluctuations, negativity, rigid thinking or darker traits like manipulation and callousness. These patterns often <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.54.101601.145041">slip into how people speak</a> or write long before they show up in more explicit behaviour.</p>
<p>Noticing these patterns can help us learn about and understand others, support those who may be struggling, and navigate our social lives safely – online and offline – with greater awareness.</p>
<p>There are some extreme examples. Linguists <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/forensicsci3010006">analysing the personal letters of Austrian serial killer Jack Unterweger</a> – widely viewed as a classic case of malignant narcissism – found unusually high levels of self-focused language, such as “I” and “me”. He also had a notably flat emotional tone. Likewise, letters from Dennis Rader, the BTK killer (bind, torture, kill) displayed strikingly <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/C/bo44312033.html">grandiose, detached and dominance-focused wording.</a></p>
<p>Psychologists have long known that certain linguistic habits reveal how people are functioning internally. For example, people experiencing distress consistently use more <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2017.02.005">self-focused language</a> and more <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.05.035">negative emotion words</a>. That’s because they internalise a lot and experience negative affect.</p>
<p>Those with darker personality traits often use more <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2983323.2983822">hostile, negative and disconnected language</a>, including more swear words and anger words, such as “hate” or “mad”. At the same time, they use fewer socially connected terms like “we”.</p>
<p>Vitally, these patterns aren’t usually deliberate. They emerge naturally because <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X09351676">language tracks attention, emotion and thought</a>. With computational text analysis, researchers can now analyse these subtle cues at scale, and rapidly.</p>
<h2>Our research findings</h2>
<p>Across four studies using computational text analysis – three of which formed my <a href="https://doi.org/10.17635/lancaster/thesis/2215">PhD research</a> – my colleagues and I found clear evidence that personality dysfunction leaves a detectable trace in everyday communication.</p>
<p>In one study of 530 people, published in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1521/pedi.2023.37.4.444">Journal of Personality Disorders</a>, we analysed written essays about peoples’ close relationships. We also collected data on their levels of personality dysfunction. Those with greater personality dysfunction used language that carried a sense of urgency and self-focus – “I need…”, “I have to…”, “I am…”.</p>
<p>This was expressed alongside ruminative, past-tense wording. They also had more negative, particularly angry, emotion terms, such as “furious” and “annoyed”. At the same time, they used noticeably less intimate or affiliative language such as “we”, “love” and “family”.</p>
<p>In a second project, published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadr.2023.100647">Journal of Affective Disorders Reports</a>, we again analysed written essays (530 people), as well as transcribed conversations from 64 romantic couples which included women with diagnosed personality disorders.</p>
<p>Across both written and spoken communication, those with more dysfunctional or disordered personalities used more negative emotion words – and a wider variety of them. Even during mundane conversations, their language carried heavier negative affect, indicating a preoccupation with negative feelings.</p>
<p>Turning to online communication, in a study recently published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s44184-025-00142-w">npj Mental Health Research</a>, we analysed nearly 67,000 Reddit posts from 992 people who self-identified as having a personality disorder. Those who frequently engaged in self-harm used language that was markedly more negative and constricted.</p>
<p>Their posts contained more self-focused language and more negations – such as “can’t”. They also used more sadness and anger terms, and more swearing, while referencing other people less. Their wording was also more absolutist, reflecting all-or-nothing thinking, favouring words like “always”, “never”, or “completely”.</p>
<p>Together, these features created a linguistic picture of emotional overwhelm, negativity, withdrawal and rigid thinking.</p>
<p>Finally, in an ongoing project analysing more than 830,000 posts from the same 992 individuals with personality disorder, plus 1.3 million posts from a general-population comparison group of 945 people, we examined how people express their self-beliefs (“I am …”, “I feel …”, “My …”). Using an <a href="https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2025.acl-long.69">advanced self-belief classification tool</a>, we found that people with personality disorders shared self-beliefs on online discussion forums far more often, and their wording differed profoundly.</p>
<p>Their self-beliefs were more negative, extreme, and disorder-focused, including phrases like “my mental health”, “symptoms”, “diagnosis” and “medication”. They also used more emotional descriptors such as “depressive”, “suicidal” and “panic”. Many self-belief statements centred on pain and trauma – “abusive”, “abandonment”, “hurt”, “suffer”.</p>
<p>They also frequently referenced childhood or significant relationships (“mother”, “partner”, “relationship”). These patterns arose across a wide range of discussion contexts, suggesting that deeper struggles with identity may surface in language universally.</p>
<h2>Why this matters</h2>
<p>Understanding these linguistic patterns isn’t about diagnosing people from their texts. It is about noticing shifts in language that can provide gentle clues. If someone’s messages suddenly become unusually urgent or extreme, emotionally negative, absolutist, inward-focused and socially detached, it may be a sign they’re struggling.</p>
<p>And in everyday situations – dating, befriending, online interactions – recognising patterns of hostility, extreme negativity, and emotional and cognitive rigidity can help people spot early signs. This is particularly for dark personality styles, such as psychopathy or narcissism. For instance, noticeably high use of self-references (“I”, “me”), anger words (“hate”, “angry”), and swear words, combined with a lack of terminology indicative of social connection (“we”, “us”, “our”), may be important language patterns to look out for.</p>
<p>But no single word or phrase reveals someone’s personality. People vent, joke, and use sarcasm. What really matters is the pattern over time; the emotional tone, themes and recurring linguistic habits. Subtle linguistic traces can offer a window into someone’s emotional world, identity, thinking patterns and relationships long before they speak openly about their difficulties.</p>
<p> </p>
<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/people-with-personality-disorders-often-use-language-differently-our-research-reveals-how-271109">original article</a>.</em></p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/women-prefer-masculine-faces-only-when-they-appear-safe/" 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;">Women prefer masculine faces only when they appear safe</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Jan 11th 2026, 18:00</div>
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<p><p>Recent research suggests that women weigh potential threats more heavily than physical appeal when evaluating the faces of potential partners. The findings indicate that while masculine facial features are often preferred, this preference vanishes if the face also communicates aggression. These results were published in the journal <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2025.113514" target="_blank">Personality and Individual Differences</a></em>.</p>
<p>Evolutionary psychologists have long studied how humans select mates. One prevailing theory involves sexual dimorphism, which refers to the physical differences between males and females. In men, high levels of testosterone during puberty often result in specific facial traits. These include a broader jaw, a prominent brow ridge, and thinner cheeks.</p>
<p>These masculine traits can signal good health and strong genetic potential. However, they can also signal dominance or a lack of warmth. Consequently, women often face a dilemma when choosing a partner. They must balance the desire for good genes against the need for a supportive and safe companion.</p>
<p>This decision-making process is known as a trade-off strategy. Researchers have previously looked at how external factors influence this choice. For example, women might prefer different traits depending on whether they feel secure in their environment. But less attention has been paid to the specific cues within the face itself.</p>
<p>Huilin Zhu of Southwest University and Yue Wu of Shaanxi Normal University led an investigation into this dynamic. Along with their colleagues, they sought to understand how attractiveness and aggressiveness interact. They hypothesized that women prioritize avoiding risk over acquiring genetic benefits.</p>
<p>The researchers conducted four distinct studies to test this hypothesis. The first study involved 139 female participants recruited through an online platform. The team used digital technology to manipulate photographs of male faces.</p>
<p>They started with twenty photographs of young men. Using computer software, they identified specific landmarks on each face. They then morphed these images to appear either more masculine or more feminine. This resulted in pairs of faces that differed in shape but retained the identity of the original photo.</p>
<p>Participants viewed these pairs and selected the face they found more attractive. The researchers had previously categorized the original faces based on perceived attractiveness and aggressiveness. This allowed them to analyze how these underlying qualities influenced the women’s choices.</p>
<p>The results revealed a specific hierarchy in preference. When a face was perceived as highly aggressive, women preferred the feminized version. This occurred regardless of whether the original face was considered handsome or plain. The signal of aggression appeared to override other aesthetic considerations.</p>
<p>A different pattern emerged when the faces were rated as low in aggression. In these non-threatening contexts, physical beauty played a larger role. When a low-aggression face was also highly attractive, women showed a strong preference for the masculinized version. This suggests that masculinity is desirable, but only when it feels safe.</p>
<p>The second study introduced the element of relationship context. The researchers recruited 108 distinct female participants for a laboratory experiment. The women viewed the same pairs of synthesized faces used in the first study.</p>
<p>However, the prompt was different this time. Participants were asked to choose a face based on two different scenarios. One scenario involved a short-term romance, such as a casual date. The other involved a long-term commitment, potentially leading to marriage.</p>
<p>The data showed that the trade-off strategy was most evident in the long-term context. When women considered a long-term partner, high aggression dampened their preference for masculinity. They appeared to prioritize safety and reliability for committed relationships.</p>
<p>In the short-term context, this pattern was not statistically significant. The interaction between attractiveness and aggressiveness was less distinct when the relationship was casual. This aligns with theories suggesting that safety concerns are heightened when choosing a life partner.</p>
<p>The third study aimed to verify these findings with more precise materials. The researchers felt that the faces in the first two studies might not have been distinct enough. They wanted to ensure the differences in attractiveness and aggression were obvious.</p>
<p>They selected a new set of twenty faces from a larger pool of photographs. These faces were strictly categorized into high or low groups for both traits. Ninety-nine women participated in this survey, focusing again on the long-term relationship context.</p>
<p>The results confirmed the patterns observed earlier but with greater intensity. In the condition with low aggression and high attractiveness, the preference for masculinity was very strong. Conversely, high aggression consistently neutralized this preference. The clearer distinction between the images likely led to these more robust results.</p>
<p>The final study sought to address a limitation of using computer-generated images. In the real world, people do not choose between two morphed versions of the same person. To improve ecological validity, the team used photographs of real, unaltered faces.</p>
<p>They presented 138 women with 64 natural photographs of male faces. Instead of a forced choice, the participants rated each face on a scale. They evaluated the images for attractiveness, aggressiveness, and masculinity.</p>
<p>The statistical analysis supported the conclusions of the previous three experiments. A man’s masculinity positively predicted his attractiveness rating, but this relationship depended on aggression. If the man looked aggressive, his masculinity contributed much less to his perceived appeal.</p>
<p>These four studies collectively propose an integrated model of mate selection. The researchers argue that women employ a “risk-first” processing strategy. The assessment of threat appears to happen before the assessment of benefit.</p>
<p>High facial attractiveness can usually act as a “gain signal.” It amplifies the positive qualities associated with masculine features. But this amplification effect is fragile. It breaks down in the presence of threat cues.</p>
<p>This aligns with the “staying alive” theory in evolutionary psychology. This theory posits that females have evolved to be particularly sensitive to interpersonal threats. Because females historically bore the primary costs of reproduction and child-rearing, physical safety was paramount.</p>
<p>Prioritizing risk avoidance would have provided an adaptive advantage. A partner who appears aggressive might possess resources or strength. However, he also presents a risk of intimate partner violence or harm to offspring.</p>
<p>The study suggests that women cognitively integrate these conflicting cues. They do not view masculinity in a vacuum. Instead, they interpret it through the lens of potential danger.</p>
<p>The authors note several caveats to their research. The participants in all four studies were young Chinese women. Most were university students or highly educated. This demographic is not representative of the entire global population.</p>
<p>Cultural background plays a role in how personality traits are perceived. What is seen as aggressive in one culture might be viewed differently in another. Similarly, standards of beauty vary across different societies.</p>
<p>The researchers recommend that future inquiries expand the demographic pool. It would be beneficial to include women from diverse age groups and socioeconomic backgrounds. Additionally, the study relied on faces of Asian descent.</p>
<p>Future research should examine whether these trade-offs persist with faces from different racial groups. This would help determine if the risk-aversion strategy is a universal human trait. It is possible that different environments necessitate different trade-off strategies.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2025.113514" target="_blank">Integrating facial cues within the trade-off strategy: How attractiveness and aggressiveness shape women’s preferences for male facial sexual dimorphism</a>,” was authored by Huilin Zhu, Yue Wu, Caoyuan Niu, and Lijun Zheng.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/how-scientists-are-growing-computers-from-human-brain-cells-and-why-they-want-to-keep-doing-it/" 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;">How scientists are growing computers from human brain cells – and why they want to keep doing it</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Jan 11th 2026, 16:00</div>
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<p><p>As prominent artificial intelligence (AI) researchers eye <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdx4x47w8p1o">limits</a> to the <a href="https://www.dwarkesh.com/p/ilya-sutskever-2">current phase</a> of the technology, a different approach is gaining attention: using living human brain cells as computational hardware.</p>
<p>These “biocomputers” are still in their early days. They can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2022.09.001">play simple games</a> such as Pong, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-023-01069-w">perform basic speech recognition</a>.</p>
<p>But the excitement is fuelled by three converging trends.</p>
<p>First, venture capital is flowing into <a href="https://hbr.org/2025/11/how-generative-ai-is-reshaping-venture-capital">anything adjacent to AI</a>, making speculative ideas suddenly fundable. Second, techniques for growing brain tissue outside the body have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-01468-3">matured</a> with the <a href="https://www.roche.com/stories/modelling-myelination">pharmaceutical industry</a> jumping on board. Third, rapid advances in brain–computer interfaces have seen <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11569-024-00462-9">growing acceptance</a> of technologies that blur the line between biology and machines.</p>
<p>But plenty of questions remain. Are we witnessing genuine breakthroughs, or another round of tech-driven hype? And what ethical questions arise when human brain tissue becomes a computational component?</p>
<h2>What the technology actually is</h2>
<p>For almost 50 years, neuroscientists have grown neurons on <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s44222-024-00184-3">arrays of tiny electrodes</a> to study how they fire under controlled conditions.</p>
<p>By the early 2000s, researchers attempted rudimentary two-way communication between neurons and electrodes, planting the <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1012407611130">first seeds of a bio-hybrid computer</a>. But progress stalled until another strand of research took off: brain organoids.</p>
<p>In 2013, scientists demonstrated that stem cells could self-organise into <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature12517">three-dimensional brain-like structures</a>. These organoids spread rapidly through biomedical research, increasingly aided by “organ-on-a-chip” devices designed to mimic aspects of human physiology outside the body.</p>
<p>Today, using stem-cell-derived neural tissue is commonplace – from drug testing to developmental research. Yet the neural activity in these models remains primitive, far from the organised firing patterns that underpin cognition or consciousness in a real brain.</p>
<p>While complex network behaviour is beginning to emerge even <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-025-02111-0">without much external stimulation</a>, experts generally agree that current organoids are not conscious, nor close to it.</p>
<h2>‘Organoid intelligence’</h2>
<p>The field entered a new phase in 2022, when Melbourne-based Cortical Labs published a high-profile study showing cultured neurons learning to play Pong in a closed-loop system.</p>
<p>The paper drew intense media attention – less for the experiment itself than for its use of the phrase “embodied sentience”. Many neuroscientists said the language overstated the system’s capabilities, arguing it was misleading or ethically careless.</p>
<p>A year later, a consortium of researchers introduced the broader term “<a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fsci.2023.1017235">organoid intelligence</a>”. This is catchy and media-friendly, but it risks implying parity with artificial intelligence systems, despite the vast gap between them.</p>
<p>Ethical debates have also lagged behind the technology. Most bioethics frameworks focus on brain organoids as biomedical tools – not as components of biohybrid computing systems.</p>
<p>Leading organoid researchers have <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aeb1510">called for urgent updates to ethics guidelines</a>, noting that rapid research development, and even commercialisation, is outpacing governance.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, despite <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03633-0">front-page news in Nature</a>, many people remain unclear about what a “living computer” actually is.</p>
<h2>A fast-moving research and commercial landscape</h2>
<p>Companies and academic groups in the United States, Switzerland, China and Australia are racing to build biohybrid computing platforms.</p>
<p>Swiss company FinalSpark already offers <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/these-living-computers-are-made-from-human-neurons/">remote access to its neural organoids</a>. Cortical Labs is preparing to ship a desktop <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/biological-computer-for-sale">biocomputer called CL1</a>. Both expect customers well beyond the pharmaceutical industry – including AI researchers looking for new kinds of computing system.</p>
<p>Academic aspirations are rising too. A team at UC San Diego has ambitiously proposed using organoid-based systems to <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03633-0">predict oil spill trajectories in the Amazon by 2028</a>.</p>
<p>The coming years will determine whether organoid intelligence transforms computing or becomes a short-lived curiosity. At present, claims of intelligence or consciousness are unsupported. Today’s systems display only simple capacity to respond and adapt, not anything resembling higher cognition.</p>
<p>More immediate work focuses on consistently reproducing prototype systems, scaling them up, and finding practical uses for the technology.</p>
<p>Several teams are exploring organoids as an alternative to animal models in neuroscience and toxicology.</p>
<p>One group has proposed a framework for testing <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fncel.2024.1480845">how chemicals affect early brain development</a>. Other studies show improved prediction of <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-025-08194-6">epilepsy-related brain activity</a> using neurons and electronic systems. These applications are incremental, but plausible.</p>
<h2>Small systems, big questions</h2>
<p>Much of what makes the field compelling – and unsettling – is the broader context.</p>
<p>As billionaires such as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/nov/10/investors-transhumanist-ideas-neurotech-progress-elon-musk">Elon Musk</a> pursue neural implants and transhumanist visions, organoid intelligence prompts deep questions.</p>
<p>What counts as intelligence? When, if ever, might a network of human cells deserve moral consideration? And how should society regulate biological systems that behave, in limited ways, like tiny computers?</p>
<p>The technology is still in its infancy. But its trajectory suggests that conversations about consciousness, personhood and the ethics of mixing living tissue with machines may become pressing far sooner than expected.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/270464/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/how-scientists-are-growing-computers-from-human-brain-cells-and-why-they-want-to-keep-doing-it-270464">original article</a>.</em></p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/emotional-regulation-skills-predict-lower-anxiety-and-aggression-in-adolescents/" 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;">Emotional regulation skills predict lower anxiety and aggression in adolescents</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Jan 11th 2026, 14:00</div>
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<p><p>A study of adolescents in Australia found that higher emotional intelligence is associated with higher subjective and eudaimonic wellbeing, and lower psychological distress. The research was published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/00332941251399175"><em>Psychological Reports</em></a>.</p>
<p>Emotional intelligence refers to the ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions effectively in oneself and in others. It involves recognizing emotional cues such as facial expressions, tone of voice, and bodily signals.</p>
<p>A core component of emotional intelligence is emotional awareness, which allows individuals to identify and label their own feelings accurately. Another key component is emotion regulation, or the ability to manage emotions in adaptive ways rather than being overwhelmed by them.</p>
<p>Emotional intelligence also includes empathy, or understanding and responding appropriately to the emotions of other people. It supports effective communication, conflict resolution, and relationship quality. Individuals with higher emotional intelligence tend to cope better with stress and emotional challenges. Emotional intelligence is associated with better mental health and psychological wellbeing. In work and leadership contexts, it is linked to teamwork, performance, and job satisfaction.</p>
<p>Study author Justine Lomas and her colleagues wanted to investigate the relationships between the trait of emotional intelligence and different measures of adolescent psychological adjustment. They also wanted to look into potential gender differences in these factors.</p>
<p>Their hypothesis was that emotional intelligence would be associated with better wellbeing and lower levels of psychological distress. They also expected that emotional awareness and regulation (which are components of emotional intelligence) would be associated with internalizing and externalizing behaviors.</p>
<p>Subjective wellbeing refers to how people evaluate and experience their lives, typically in terms of life satisfaction, positive emotions, and low levels of negative emotions. Eudaimonic wellbeing refers to a deeper sense of wellbeing based on meaning, purpose, personal growth, and the realization of one’s potential rather than pleasure alone.</p>
<p>Internalizing behaviors are problems that are directed inward, such as anxiety, depression, social withdrawal, and somatic complaints. Externalizing behaviors refer to problems that are directed outward, such as aggression, rule-breaking, impulsivity, and antisocial behavior.</p>
<p>Study participants were 422 students completing year 8 at three independent Australian schools. 83 of the students were girls. Their average age was approximately 13 years.</p>
<p>Study participants completed assessments of emotional intelligence (using the Adolescent Swinburne University Emotional Intelligence Test), distress (the General Health Questionnaire-12), subjective and eudaimonic wellbeing (the EPOCH and the Personal Wellbeing Index – School Children Version), and externalizing and internalizing symptoms (the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire).</p>
<p>Results showed that components of emotional intelligence were associated with better subjective and eudaimonic wellbeing, lower psychological distress, and fewer internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Higher subjective and eudaimonic wellbeing were associated with fewer internalizing and externalizing symptoms and lower psychological distress.</p>
<p>The study also found small gender differences in some components of emotional intelligence. Additionally, girls tended to report higher psychological distress compared to boys.</p>
<p>“The results of the current study indicate that EI [emotional intelligence] plays a role in the prediction of wellbeing and problem behaviors, offering additional predictive power beyond measures of psychological distress, eudaimonic and subjective wellbeing. The results also offer support for the notion that EI is a predictor of adolescent wellbeing, no matter how wellbeing is conceptualized,” study authors concluded.</p>
<p>The study contributes to the scientific understanding of the links between emotional intelligence and wellbeing. However, the design of the study does not allow any causal inferences to be derived from the results.</p>
<p>The paper, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/00332941251399175">Pursuit of Happiness: The Relationship Between Adolescent Wellbeing, Psychological Distress, Problem Behaviours, and Emotional Intelligence,</a>” was authored by Justine Lomas, Con Stough, and Luke Downey.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/how-musical-genre-and-familiarity-shape-your-inner-thoughts/" 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;">How musical genre and familiarity shape your inner thoughts</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Jan 11th 2026, 12:00</div>
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<p><p>Listening to music is often perceived as a leisure activity or a background accompaniment to daily life, yet the human mind is rarely still during the experience. A new study reveals that the specific genre of a musical piece, combined with the listener’s familiarity and enjoyment of it, actively steers the brain toward distinct types of thoughts. </p>
<p>These mental excursions range from vivid autobiographical memories and made-up stories to critical evaluations of the composition itself. The findings, which offer a detailed map of the “thoughtscapes” evoked by different musical styles, were published in the journal <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/03057356251346654" target="_blank">Psychology of Music</a></em>.</p>
<p>Psychologists and musicologists have established that music acts as a potent trigger for the imagination. It is well documented that a simple melody can spontaneously conjure visual imagery or retrieve deep-seated memories from a listener’s past. </p>
<p>However, prior investigations into these phenomena have typically been quite narrow in scope. Previous studies often isolated specific types of thoughts, such as concentrating solely on memory or solely on visual daydreams, without looking at how they interact. </p>
<p>Furthermore, earlier research frequently relied on a very limited selection of musical styles, often testing only two or three genres at a time. This restricted approach made it difficult to understand why a classical symphony might elicit a fictional narrative while a pop song triggers a specific memory of a person or place.</p>
<p>To address these gaps, a research team led by Hazel A. van der Walle from Durham University undertook a comprehensive examination of the listening mind. The team included Wei Wu and Kelly Jakubowski, also from Durham University, and Elizabeth H. Margulis from Princeton University. Their primary objective was to investigate the impact of genre, familiarity, enjoyment, and musical features on the stream of consciousness. They sought to determine how different musical contexts shape the mental landscape of the listener.</p>
<p>The researchers designed a large-scale experiment involving 701 participants recruited from the United Kingdom and the United States. To ensure the study reflected the diversity of real-world listening habits, the team curated a library of 356 musical excerpts. These clips spanned 17 distinct genres, representing a broad spectrum of Western music. </p>
<p>The selection included styles such as Ambient, Country, Heavy Metal, Video Game music, Jazz, Folk, and Hip-hop, alongside decades-specific categories like Sixties and Eighties pop. Each excerpt was 30 seconds long and instrumental, preventing any lyrical content from directly dictating the listener’s thoughts.</p>
<p>Participants listened to a random selection of these clips and were asked to report what occupied their minds during each track. The study provided several categories for these thoughts. Some options focused on the music itself, while others covered “music-evoked” thoughts. These included memories of past media consumption, such as films or video games, and fictional imaginings, where the listener invented a story or scene. </p>
<p>Other categories captured autobiographical memories from the listener’s own life or abstract visualizations of shapes and colors. The researchers also tracked “mind-wandering,” defined as thoughts about everyday matters or future plans that were unrelated to the music.</p>
<p>In addition to categorizing their thoughts, participants rated each musical excerpt on several scales. They indicated how familiar they were with the piece and how much they enjoyed it. They also assessed the music’s emotional qualities, specifically its valence, which refers to how positive or negative it sounds, and its arousal, or energy level. Finally, listeners rated the degree of contrast within the clip, noting whether the music changed dynamically over the 30-second duration.</p>
<p>The results demonstrated that the genre of music exerts a powerful influence on the listener’s internal experience. Film music, in particular, stood out for its ability to transport listeners away from the technical aspects of the composition. This genre frequently triggered memories of other media, such as scenes from movies or television programs. </p>
<p>Even when the specific track was unidentified, the stylistic conventions of the genre seemed to prompt listeners to construct their own fictional narratives. The researchers suggest that Film music is compositionally designed to support storytelling, which naturally leads the mind toward narrative imagining.</p>
<p>The study also identified a unique effect regarding Video Game music. This genre was notably effective at reducing thoughts about “everyday stuff,” such as chores or daily anxieties. The immersive nature of music composed for gaming appears to engage the listener in a way that blocks out mundane distractions. This finding highlights the potential utility of specific genres in managing attention and regulating mood.</p>
<p>Familiarity with the music proved to be a major driver of where the mind wandered. When listeners recognized a track, they were more likely to experience autobiographical memories. This aligns with the idea that familiar songs often serve as “soundtracks” to specific periods in a person’s life. Familiarity also increased the likelihood of having thoughts focused on the music itself, perhaps because the listener could anticipate what was coming next. Conversely, unfamiliar music was generally less likely to trigger specific media memories.</p>
<p>However, an exception to this familiarity rule emerged within the Film music genre. While unfamiliarity usually decreased media memories, participants reported more media-related associations when they recognized a piece of Film music. This suggests that when listeners know a film score, they actively retrieve the cinematic context they have previously experienced.</p>
<p>The degree of enjoyment a listener felt played a central role in fostering creativity. The data showed that when participants enjoyed the music, they were more likely to engage in fictional imaginings. High enjoyment ratings also correlated with an increase in autobiographical memories. </p>
<p>This supports the psychological theory that positive emotional states encourage an open, exploratory mindset. When listeners liked what they heard, they were less likely to tune out and think about their daily to-do lists.</p>
<p>Structural features of the music, such as contrast and energy, also shaped the thought process. Songs that were rated as having high contrast, characterized by changes in dynamics or rhythm, tended to hold the listener’s attention more effectively. This reduced the frequency of mind-wandering about everyday matters. It appears that a dynamic musical landscape gives the brain enough stimulation to stay focused on the auditory experience.</p>
<p>Unexpectedly, music rated as having high arousal, or high energy, was associated with an increase in thoughts about everyday stuff. One might assume that energetic music would command attention, but the findings suggest otherwise. It is possible that the stimulation provided by high-energy tracks triggers an active cognitive state that spills over into practical concerns. This distinction indicates that musical energy and musical contrast influence the brain in fundamentally different ways.</p>
<p>The researchers also examined how different types of thoughts tended to cluster together. There was a moderate connection between media memories and fictional imaginings. This implies that recalling a movie scene might inspire the listener to spin off a new, invented narrative. </p>
<p>Conversely, when listeners were focused on analyzing the technical features of the music, they were less likely to engage in fictional storytelling. This suggests a potential trade-off between analytical listening and creative immersion.</p>
<p>The authors acknowledge certain limitations in the study. Because the experiment was conducted online, the researchers could not control the audio quality of the participants’ listening devices. Additionally, the study relied on self-reported data, which depends on the participants’ ability to accurately introspect and categorize their fleeting mental states. The focus remained exclusively on Western music genres, leaving open the question of how non-Western musical traditions might influence thought patterns.</p>
<p>Despite these caveats, the study offers a rich and nuanced view of the listening mind. It moves beyond simple emotion-labeling to describe the complex “thoughtscapes” that music generates. The findings have practical implications for various fields. In therapeutic settings, practitioners could select specific genres to encourage memory retrieval or creative visualization. </p>
<p>For the average listener, understanding these effects allows for more intentional curation of one’s daily soundtrack. Whether the goal is to spark creativity, revisit the past, or simply focus on the present, the choice of genre appears to be a key variable. The research highlights that music is not merely a passive backdrop but an active participant in shaping the flow of human consciousness.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/03057356251346654" target="_blank">Thoughtscapes in music: An examination of thought types occurring during music listening across 17 genres</a>,” was authored by Hazel A. van der Walle, Wei Wu, Elizabeth H. Margulis, and Kelly Jakubowski.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/new-research-reveals-a-psychological-shift-triggered-by-the-2008-great-recession/" 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 research reveals a psychological shift triggered by the 2008 Great Recession</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Jan 11th 2026, 10:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study suggests that the 2008 Great Recession did more than damage the economy; it also altered how Americans perceive their own social standing. The findings, published in <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976251400338" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Psychological Science</a></em>, indicate that this period of economic turmoil caused a lasting drop in class identity across the United States.</p>
<p>Psychologists have traditionally viewed class identity as a stable trait. Most Americans tend to identify as working class or middle class, and these self-conceptions usually persist throughout their lives.</p>
<p>Historical data going back to the 1940s supports the idea that these identities do not fluctuate easily. Consequently, there has been little empirical work examining whether class identity can change over the long term.</p>
<p>The researchers behind the new study sought to challenge the assumption of stability. Theoretical models suggest that class identity should be malleable when people experience drastic changes in their circumstances. The 2008 Great Recession provided a unique historical context to test these theories on a large scale.</p>
<p>“While class identity is known to predict critical outcomes like health and voting behavior, it has historically been treated as a static trait that remains stable throughout adulthood,” said study author <a href="https://www.antonoplis.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stephen Antonoplis</a>, an assistant professor at the University of California, Riverside and director of <a href="https://saslab.ucr.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Self and Society Laboratory</a>.</p>
<p>“We wanted to test this assumption by investigating whether a massive, nationwide economic shock, specifically the 2008 Great Recession, shifted how people see themselves in the social hierarchy.”</p>
<p>During the financial crisis, many Americans faced tangible losses in the form of unemployment and foreclosures. At the same time, the cultural narrative shifted. The rise of movements like Occupy Wall Street popularized language about the “1%” versus the “99%.” This rhetoric emphasized that most Americans occupied a lower position relative to the economic elite.</p>
<p>To investigate this phenomenon, the researchers analyzed data from four large datasets. These included the American National Election Studies, the General Social Survey, and the World Values Survey. These three datasets used repeated cross-sectional designs, meaning they surveyed different groups of people each year.</p>
<p>The team also utilized the Health and Retirement Study. This dataset is longitudinal, meaning it tracks the same individuals over many years. This design allowed the researchers to observe changes within the lives of specific people. In total, the study included data from 164,296 participants.</p>
<p>The datasets covered a broad span of time, ranging from decades before the recession to years after. The sample was largely representative of the United States population in terms of gender, race, and education. This large sample size provided high statistical power to detect population-level shifts.</p>
<p>The researchers employed a statistical method called interrupted time-series modeling. This technique analyzes the trend of a variable leading up to a specific event. It then identifies if there is a sudden change in level at the time of the event. Finally, it looks at the trend in the years following the event.</p>
<p>Class identity was measured using two different approaches. Three of the surveys asked participants to choose a label that best described their social class. Options typically included categories such as lower class, working class, middle class, and upper class.</p>
<p>The Health and Retirement Study used a visual measure known as the MacArthur Ladder. Participants were shown a drawing of a ladder with ten rungs representing society. They were asked to place themselves on the rung that reflected their standing relative to the people who are best and worst off.</p>
<p>The results from the American National Election Studies showed a clear pattern. In the years leading up to 2008, class identity among Americans had been gradually increasing. However, the data revealed a drop in class identity starting in 2008. Following this decline, identity levels began to recover slowly in the subsequent years.</p>
<p>The General Social Survey yielded similar results regarding the immediate impact of the recession. Class identity appeared relatively stable in the decades prior to the crash. In 2008, there was a negative shift in how participants identified themselves. Unlike the previous dataset, this survey indicated that identity levels did not bounce back and remained lower for the next fourteen years.</p>
<p>The longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study provided perhaps the strongest evidence. Because this survey followed the same people, it controlled for differences between generations. These participants reported linear increases in their perceived status leading up to the recession.</p>
<p>Once the recession hit, these same individuals reported a sharp decline in their social standing. This drop was significant compared to what would have been expected based on their previous positive trends. The analysis showed that the recession disrupted the upward trajectory of their lives.</p>
<p>“We were particularly struck by the consistency of the findings across such diverse datasets, including the fact that the drop was visible within the lives of the same individuals over time, as well as the fact that results from most datasets indicated that Americans’ class identity had not increased considerably in the years following the recession,” Antonoplis told PsyPost.</p>
<p>The World Values Survey was the only dataset that produced slightly different results. It showed a decrease in class identity in the decades prior to 2008. While the data did show a decrease in 2008, the drop was not statistically significant in this specific model. However, the overall pattern across the four studies points toward a real effect.</p>
<p>These findings suggest that class identity is not set in stone. It appears to be responsive to the economic and cultural environment.</p>
<p>“The main takeaway is that people’s sense of ‘where they stand’ in society is not set in stone,” Antonoplis explained. “It is dynamic and responsive to the world around them, including both changes in their finances or employment and changes in the broader culture, such as messaging about economic threat and wealth discrepancies. Our results also suggest that major economic events don’t just change our bank accounts—they change our sense of self and our relationship to society.”</p>
<p>“While the numerical shifts might look small at first glance, they represent a significant ‘level drop’ across the entire American population. Because class identity is such a powerful driver of health, well-being, and political leanings, even a modest downward shift can have large aggregate effects on public health and national discourse. It is the difference between a society that feels well off and one that feels collectively demoted.”</p>
<p>As with all research, there are some limitations. The research relied on self-reported data, which can be influenced by various biases. Additionally, while the time-series design helps infer causality, it is difficult to isolate the recession from other events.</p>
<p>For example, the election of Barack Obama occurred around the same time as the financial crisis. However, the authors argue that this event is unlikely to be the cause. The election represented a moment of hope for many and occurred after the recession had already begun.</p>
<p>Future research could explore the mechanisms behind this shift in greater detail. Scientists want to understand if personal financial loss or media exposure played a bigger role. It is also unclear if this drop in identity led to specific changes in people’s attitudes or mental health.</p>
<p>“For example, did changes in class identity following the Great Recession produce changes in people’s political views or social values?” Antonoplis said. “Did the change in class identity affect people’s psychological well-being?”</p>
<p>“This research was made possible by decades of data collection from thousands of Americans who participated in national surveys since the 1950s and by decades of federal government funding for social science research,” the researcher added. “Our study serves as a reminder of how valuable long-term social science infrastructure is for understanding the psychological consequences of history.”</p>
<p>“We hope this study encourages more researchers to look at identity as something that evolves alongside the world we live in and that it inspires lawmakers to continue funding vital research in the social sciences.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976251400338" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The 2008 Great Recession Lowered Americans’ Class Identity</a>,” was authored by Stephen Antonoplis, Juan Eduardo Garcia-Cardenas, Eileen K. Graham, and Daniel K. Mroczek.</p></p>
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<p><strong>Forwarded by:<br />
Michael Reeder LCPC<br />
Baltimore, MD</strong></p>
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