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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/cannabis-use-exacerbates-paranoia-in-survivors-of-chaotic-childhoods-new-study-suggests/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Cannabis use exacerbates paranoia in survivors of chaotic childhoods, new study suggests</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Mar 29th 2026, 10:00</div>
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<p><p>An analysis of Cannabis & Me study data found that childhood trauma, particularly emotional and physical abuse, is strongly associated with paranoia. Furthermore, the study revealed that heavy cannabis use amplifies these symptoms, acting as a multiplier for trauma-induced paranoia. The paper was published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291725101190"><em>Psychological Medicine</em></a>.</p>
<p>Paranoia is a psychological condition characterized by persistent and irrational distrust or suspicion of others. It involves the belief that other people have harmful intentions, even when there is little or no evidence to support this. Individuals experiencing paranoia tend to interpret neutral or ambiguous situations as threatening or personally directed against them.</p>
<p>Paranoia is a core feature of psychotic conditions, such as schizophrenia, delusional disorder, and paranoid personality disorder. Stress, trauma, and substance use—including cannabis—can significantly contribute to the development of paranoia. People experiencing paranoia tend to become socially withdrawn because they find it difficult to trust others, and their relationships often suffer due to constant suspicion and the misinterpretation of others’ actions.</p>
<p>Study author Giulia Trotta and her colleagues wanted to explore the relationship between childhood trauma, cannabis use, and paranoia. They hypothesized that childhood trauma exposure would be associated with more severe paranoia, and they expected that cannabis use would exacerbate this vulnerability. More specifically, they predicted that individuals with greater cannabis consumption would experience heightened paranoia symptoms in response to their childhood trauma.</p>
<p>The authors analyzed data from the Cannabis & Me study, a cross-sectional study designed to examine the interplay between childhood trauma, cannabis use, and paranoia in a large, non-clinical sample. The data came from 4,736 individuals who completed the study’s online survey.</p>
<p>Among these respondents, 2,573 were current cannabis users, 816 were past users, and the remaining 1,347 participants had never used cannabis. Approximately 56% of the participants were men, and the average age was 32 years. Roughly half of the cohort reported surviving some form of childhood trauma, with females more heavily represented in the trauma-exposed group.</p>
<p>Participants completed assessments of childhood trauma (using a modified Childhood Trauma Screen Questionnaire) and paranoia (using the Green Paranoid Thoughts Scale). Rather than simply asking participants if they used cannabis, the researchers used a detailed questionnaire to calculate each participant’s weekly “Standard THC Units.” This metric accounted for the frequency, type (e.g., hash, herbal, oil), and quantity of cannabis consumed, providing a highly precise measure of a participant’s exposure to THC, the primary psychoactive component of cannabis.</p>
<p>The results showed that individuals who survived childhood trauma, particularly those exposed to physical and emotional abuse, tended to have much more severe paranoia symptoms as adults. Participants exposed to bullying, sexual abuse, household discord (such as parents constantly fighting), and neglect as children also exhibited severe paranoia symptoms.</p>
<p>The researchers also found that individuals exposed to childhood trauma were more likely to consume high quantities of THC. As expected, heavy cannabis use amplified paranoia symptoms across the board in a dose-dependent manner—meaning the more THC a person consumed, the worse their paranoia became.</p>
<p>Crucially, the statistical models revealed a specific interaction between THC consumption and two types of trauma: emotional abuse and household discord. The researchers found that consuming cannabis significantly amplified paranoia in individuals who had survived these specific traumas, suggesting that THC exacerbates the hyper-vigilance and mistrust already instilled by chaotic or emotionally abusive childhood environments.</p>
<p>“This study underscores the complex interplay between childhood trauma, cannabis exposure, and paranoia, demonstrating that trauma is a strong predictor of paranoia, with cannabis use further exacerbating this liability,” the study authors concluded. “The findings highlight the need for trauma-informed clinical approaches and cannabis use harm reduction strategies to mitigate the psychological risks associated with high levels of cannabis use, particularly in trauma-exposed individuals.”</p>
<p>The authors suggest that public health officials should develop “Standard THC Unit” guidelines to help users monitor their intake safely, similar to standard units of alcohol.</p>
<p>The study contributes heavily to the scientific understanding of the long-term psychological consequences of childhood abuse. However, it should be noted that the cross-sectional design of this study does not allow for definitive causal inferences. Additionally, the childhood trauma assessment was based on participants’ retrospective recall, which leaves room for reporting bias or memory repression to have affected the results.</p>
<p>The paper, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291725101190">The impact of childhood trauma and cannabis use on paranoia: a structural equation model approach,</a>” was authored by Giulia Trotta, Edoardo Spinazzola, Hannah Degen, Zhikun Li, Isabelle Austin-Zimmerman, Bok Man Leung, Yifei Lang, Victoria Rodriguez, Monica Aas, Lucia Sideli, Kim Wolff, Tom P. Freeman, Robin M. Murray, Chloe C. Y. Wong, Luis Alameda, and Marta Di Forti.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/limiting-social-media-to-one-hour-a-day-reduces-loneliness-in-distressed-individuals/" 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;">Limiting social media to one hour a day reduces loneliness in distressed individuals</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Mar 29th 2026, 08:00</div>
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<p><p>A recent study published in the <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2026.121331" target="_blank">Journal of Affective Disorders</a></em> suggests that limiting social media use to one hour per day can reduce feelings of loneliness among young adults experiencing symptoms of depression and anxiety. The findings indicate that this simple behavioral change tends to benefit all participants equally, regardless of their gender or how often they compare themselves to others online. These results provide evidence that managing screen time could be an effective part of treating loneliness in vulnerable populations.</p>
<p>Humans possess a deep biological need for social connection, which helps protect against emotional distress. When young people feel lonely, they are at a higher risk for developing or worsening symptoms of anxiety and depression. Social networking platforms were originally designed to bring people together and build communities.</p>
<p>Despite these original intentions, observational research frequently links heavy social media use to increased feelings of social isolation. Previous experimental studies testing this relationship have produced mixed results, often showing that abstaining from social media only has minor effects. But many of these earlier studies focused on individuals who were not experiencing emotional distress.</p>
<p>Because these healthy participants were not particularly lonely to begin with, they had little room for improvement. In psychological research, this is known as a floor effect, where a measurement cannot go any lower. The scientists conducting the current study wanted to look specifically at young people who were already experiencing anxiety and depressive symptoms. These vulnerable individuals often experience higher levels of loneliness.</p>
<p>“I have studied the impact of screens on health and mental health for many years, and given social media is the screen type that occupies the majority of screen time, and here to stay, I feel it’s important to study its impacts on development and health and wellbeing,” said study author <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/contributors/gary-goldfield-phd" target="_blank">Gary Goldfield</a>, a senior scientist at <a href="https://www.cheoresearch.ca/research/find-a-researcher/dr-gary-goldfield/" target="_blank">the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute</a> and professor at the University of Ottawa.</p>
<p>“Social media is a tool developed to strengthen social connections, which of course should reduce feelings of social isolation (in theory), but despite near constant digital connection, about 25% of youth feel lonely. Indeed, some studies found that high social media use was associated with greater loneliness and social isolation, not less, with some evidence to suggest high social media use displaces high quality, in-person recreational activities and social interaction with friends and family.” </p>
<p>“However, almost all studies were correlational, so we could not tell if high social media use led to greater loneliness or whether greater loneliness led people to use more social media use to try to feel more socially connected and less isolated. To address the issue of causality, we ran an experiment in youth with symptoms of distress who we considered a group vulnerable to some of the psychologically harmful elements of social media, such as negative social comparisons.” </p>
<p>Social comparison is the habit of evaluating one’s own life based on the curated, often idealized lives others present online. People often edit their online profiles to over-represent positive experiences, a phenomenon known as a positivity bias. </p>
<p>This creates an environment where users constantly view the best moments of others, which can trigger feelings of inadequacy. Social media provides almost countless opportunities for these unfavorable comparisons because the number of online connections usually exceeds real-life friendships.</p>
<p>For their study, the researchers recruited undergraduate students from a Canadian university. The initial sample included 260 young adults between the ages of 17 and 25. To participate, individuals had to own a smartphone and use social media for at least two hours a day. They also had to report experiencing symptoms of anxiety or depression. The study began with a one-week baseline period to track normal behavior.</p>
<p>Participants used the built-in screen time tracking features on their smartphones to monitor their daily usage. They sent daily screenshots of these reports to the scientists to provide an objective measure of their habits. Participants also completed questionnaires to measure their baseline levels of loneliness and their tendency to compare themselves to others online.</p>
<p>Following the baseline week, the scientists randomly divided the participants into two groups for a three-week experiment. The intervention group was instructed to restrict their social media use to a maximum of one hour per day. The control group received no instructions and was told to continue using their devices as usual.</p>
<p>Out of the original group, 219 participants completed the entire four-week study and were included in the final analysis. The intervention group successfully followed the instructions, cutting their daily social media time by an average of 78 minutes, which amounted to a 50 percent reduction. The control group kept their usage relatively stable throughout the experiment.</p>
<p>At the end of the three weeks, the scientists assessed the participants’ loneliness levels again using a standardized psychological survey called the UCLA Loneliness Scale. The researchers found that the group asked to limit their social media use showed a significant decrease in loneliness compared to the control group. The control group experienced almost no change in their feelings of isolation.</p>
<p>This provides evidence that cutting back on social media actively reduces feelings of loneliness in distressed youth. The scientists noted that the intervention aligns with behavioral displacement theory. This theory suggests that time spent on social media replaces time that could be spent on direct, in-person social interactions. By limiting screen time, individuals likely freed up time to connect with friends and family in the real world. </p>
<p>“I think the important takeaway is that high social media use is harmful to mental health and can make people feel more lonely and isolated, and reducing social media and connecting with friends and family in-person is a much more potent way of promoting social connection and alleviating loneliness,” Goldfield told PsyPost. “In short, although socially connecting online is more convenient, there is no substitute for real-life human interaction.”</p>
<p>When looking at the secondary variables, the scientists found no differences based on gender. Men and women experienced the same level of improvement in their loneliness scores after reducing their screen time.</p>
<p>Similarly, a participant’s baseline tendency to engage in social comparison did not change the effectiveness of the intervention. Limiting social media usage helped reduce loneliness across the board, regardless of these individual traits. </p>
<p>“Due the sheer number of social comparisons made regularly on social media that increase with exposure, we thought reducing social media would reduce social comparisons with less exposure, and that those who were high in social comparison before the intervention would show greater reductions in loneliness, given high social comparison is associated with greater loneliness,” Goldfield said. “The relationship between social media and mental health has been shown to be stronger in girls than boys in some studies, so we also thought that maybe girls would therefore benefit more from reducing compared to boys, but they don’t.”</p>
<p>As with all research, there are some limitations. The sample consisted mainly of female undergraduate psychology students who volunteered for a study about reducing screen time. This means the participants might have already been highly motivated to change their habits. Because of this specific demographic, the findings might not apply perfectly to the general population or to people in different age groups.</p>
<p>Readers should be cautious not to interpret these findings as a complete cure for mental health conditions. The effect size of the intervention was considered small to moderate. This suggests that simply reducing social media time is unlikely to eliminate severe loneliness on its own. But reducing screen time could serve as one piece of a broader treatment strategy.</p>
<p>To build on these findings, the scientists are now exploring whether the benefits of limiting screen time last over longer periods and apply to younger adolescents. </p>
<p>“In 12-17 year old youth struggling with mental health, we are launching a study (called REWIRE) to examine the effects of a 12-week intervention designed to reduce social media time by 50% and reallocate that time to personalized non-screen health promoting behaviours (e.g., physical activity, time in nature, social time with friends/families, hobbies, leisure pursuits etc.) on mental health, cognition and brain functioning (via fMRI scans),” Goldfield said.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2026.121331" target="_blank">Reducing social media use decreases loneliness regardless of gender or level of social comparisons in youth with anxiety and depression: A randomized controlled trial</a>,” was authored by Gary S. Goldfield, Marcus V.V. Lopes, Wardah Mahboob, Sabrina Perry, and Christopher G. Davis.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/does-crying-actually-make-you-feel-better-new-psychology-research-shows-it-depends-on-a-key-factor/" 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;">Does crying actually make you feel better? New psychology research shows it depends on a key factor</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Mar 29th 2026, 06:00</div>
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<p><p>A recent study published in <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.157541" target="_blank">Collabra: Psychology</a></em> has found that the emotional benefits of crying depend heavily on the reasons behind the tears. While people often assume that a good cry provides immediate emotional relief, the research suggests that shedding tears does not universally improve a person’s mood. The effects of crying are relatively short-lived and vary based on whether the tears were triggered by personal distress, media, or moments of harmony.</p>
<p>Scientists conducted the new study to better understand how crying affects adults in their natural, everyday environments. In the past, scientists have mostly relied on laboratory experiments or surveys that ask participants to recall past events. These traditional methods can create problems because people might hold back tears in a lab setting or struggle to accurately remember exactly how they felt days or weeks later.</p>
<p>“Crying is a basic human behavior. I was astonished that very little research has been done on crying in field-like settings,” said study author <a href="https://kris.kl.ac.at/en/persons/stefan-stieger/" target="_blank">Stefan Stieger</a>, a professor and the head of the Department Psychological Methodology at Karl Landsteiner University.</p>
<p>The scientists wanted to track emotions as they unfolded in real time. They sought to measure exactly how long it takes for a person’s mood to change after crying. They also aimed to see if factors like the intensity of the tears or the specific trigger for the crying changed the emotional outcome.</p>
<p>To explore these questions, the scientists observed 106 adults over a period of four weeks. The participants were primarily women from Austria and Germany with an average age of about 29. They installed a customized tracking application on their personal smartphones to log their experiences.</p>
<p>Whenever participants cried, they were instructed to immediately log the event in the app. They recorded the specific trigger, how intensely they cried, how many minutes the crying lasted, and their current levels of positive and negative emotions. The app then automatically prompted them to report their emotional state again 15, 30, and 60 minutes later.</p>
<p>To ensure they did not miss any tears, the researchers also asked participants to complete an end-of-day survey. This daily survey captured any crying episodes the person might have forgotten to log earlier. It also measured their overall emotional state for the day, which allowed the scientists to establish a baseline of how each person usually felt on days without any tears.</p>
<p>The scientists found that emotional crying is a very common human behavior. Nearly 87 percent of the participants cried at least once, averaging about five crying episodes over the four-week period. In total, participants reported 315 immediate crying events and an additional 300 previously forgotten events in their evening surveys.</p>
<p>Women tended to cry more often than men. The women in the study averaged nearly six crying episodes over the month, while men averaged just under three. Women also cried for longer periods and with greater intensity than the male participants.</p>
<p>The reasons for crying varied between men and women. Women were more likely to cry because of loneliness or personal disputes with loved ones. Men tended to cry in response to feelings of helplessness or in reaction to media, such as watching a sad movie.</p>
<p>Across the entire group, the most frequent cause of crying was media consumption. Tears triggered by feeling overwhelmed or lonely were the most intense and lasted the longest. These specific episodes averaged between 11 and 13 minutes each.</p>
<p>When looking at emotional outcomes, the scientists found no overall evidence that crying automatically provides immediate relief, which Stieger said came as a surprise.</p>
<p>The emotional aftermath depended almost entirely on the specific trigger for the tears. Crying in response to personal struggles, such as loneliness or feeling overwhelmed, led to a sharp drop in positive emotions and a strong increase in negative emotions.</p>
<p>These negative feelings lingered for quite a while. For individuals who cried from feeling overwhelmed, their positive emotions remained significantly lower than normal a full hour later. These self-focused triggers also dragged down the person’s overall mood for the rest of the day, though their emotions returned to normal by the following morning.</p>
<p>Tears shed for other reasons showed very different patterns. Crying over media content caused an initial drop in both positive and negative emotions. Over the next hour, negative emotions continued to decrease, suggesting that crying at a movie might eventually help soothe a person.</p>
<p>Tears of harmony, such as crying when someone does something kind, did not immediately change a person’s emotional state. About 15 minutes later, participants experienced a strong drop in negative emotions. Finally, crying from a sense of helplessness caused a quick drop in positive emotions, but the participants recovered to their normal emotional baseline within 15 minutes.</p>
<p>While the study provides detailed insights into human emotion, there are potential misinterpretations and limitations to keep in mind. Because the study relied entirely on self-reporting, participants might have inaccurately judged their own emotions. They might also have still forgotten to report some short or minor crying episodes.</p>
<p>The study design also did not allow the scientists to compare crying to experiencing a similar strong emotion without shedding tears. Because of this, it is hard to know if the observed mood changes were caused specifically by the act of crying or simply by the intense emotional event itself.</p>
<p>“No further studies about this topic are currently planned,” Stieger said. “But we will use the assessment procedure, i.e., multiple measurements per day over a certain amount of days (experience sampling method) using smartphones, for our further studies because this method is very promising if we want to analyze human behavior in their everyday life (i.e., has high ecological validity).”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.157541" target="_blank">Effects of Crying on Affect: An Event-based Experience Sampling Study of Adult Emotional Crying</a>,” was authored by Stefan Stieger, Hannah Graf, and Sophie Biebl.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/countries-holding-stronger-precarious-manhood-beliefs-tend-to-be-less-happy-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;">Countries holding stronger precarious manhood beliefs tend to be less happy, study finds</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Mar 28th 2026, 18:00</div>
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<p><p>An analysis of the World Happiness Report data and a global study of gender beliefs found that countries with stronger precarious manhood beliefs tend to have lower national happiness, but also lower GDP, lower life expectancy, lower social support, and heightened perceptions of corruption. The paper was published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118752"><em>Social Science & Medicine</em></a>.</p>
<p>Precarious manhood beliefs are based on the idea that manhood is a social status that must be earned and can easily be lost. According to this perspective, being a “real man” is seen as something that requires constant demonstration through behavior and achievement. These beliefs suggest that masculinity is more fragile and socially judged than femininity. Because of this perceived fragility, men feel pressure to prove their masculinity in public and social situations.</p>
<p>Research shows that threats to masculinity can lead some men to react with increased competitiveness, aggression, or risk-taking. Precarious manhood beliefs are often reinforced by cultural norms that associate masculinity with strength, independence, and dominance. When men feel that these expectations are not met, they may experience anxiety, shame, or social insecurity. Studies have also linked strong precarious manhood beliefs to support for traditional gender roles.</p>
<p>Study authors James R. Mahalik and Michael P. Harris hypothesized that precarious manhood beliefs would be associated with national happiness and the factors determining national happiness across countries. More specifically, they predicted that countries with stronger precarious manhood beliefs would tend to have lower levels of happiness, lower gross domestic product (GDP), lower social support, lower perceptions of freedom, lower levels of generosity, poorer health outcomes, and higher perceptions of corruption.</p>
<p>These authors analyzed data from the World Happiness Report and combined it with data from a large-scale study of cross-cultural gender beliefs. The World Happiness Report is a data set created by the Gallup World Poll using data from 137 nations. In this report, approximately 1,000 respondents per country report their views every year.</p>
<p>The study authors used data on happiness, gross domestic product, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make choices, generosity, and corruption perception from this report. Data in the cross-cultural gender beliefs dataset came from 33,417 college students across 62 countries. By overlapping these two datasets, the researchers focused their final analysis on 59 countries.</p>
<p>Results showed that countries with more pronounced precarious manhood beliefs tended to have lower national happiness. They also tended to have lower GDP, lower life expectancy, lower social support, and higher perceived corruption. However, the researchers did not find a significant relationship between precarious manhood beliefs and a nation’s overall generosity or citizens’ perceived freedom to make life choices.</p>
<p>The authors suggest that rigid gender norms harm national economies by steering men away from essential “feminine” fields, like caregiving and education, and restricting women’s workforce participation. Furthermore, the pressure to appear tough drives risky health behaviors (like smoking and heavy drinking) and discourages emotional vulnerability, ultimately lowering life expectancy and eroding community trust. The researchers also noted that precarious masculinity ideals are often exploited by authoritarian “strongman” political leaders, which can deepen societal polarization and fragmentation.</p>
<p>“This study highlights the significant societal factors associated with precarious manhood beliefs, demonstrating their detrimental links to national happiness and well-being. In an era marked by the resurgence of rigid masculinity norms, these findings underscore the need to address cultural pressures that undermine collective welfare. As global societies grapple with less happiness and more social fragmentation, addressing precarious masculinity may provide a critical step toward fostering healthier, more cohesive communities,” the study authors concluded.</p>
<p>The study contributes to the scientific understanding of the links between precarious manhood beliefs and other important characteristics of a society. However, the correlational design of the study does not allow any causal inferences to be derived from the results. Therefore, it remains unknown whether abandoning precarious manhood beliefs increases happiness in a society, or if lower happiness strengthens precarious manhood beliefs. </p>
<p>The study authors note that it is entirely possible that economic hardship, lower life expectancy, and higher corruption in a society foster the perception of manhood as precarious. Additionally, the data on gender beliefs relied on college student samples, which may not fully represent the broader populations within those countries.</p>
<p>The paper, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118752">Precarious manhood, precarious nations: The contribution of cultural beliefs comprising masculinity to national happiness,</a>” was authored by James R. Mahalik and Michael P. Harris.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/pink-noise-worsens-sleep-quality-when-used-to-block-out-traffic-and-city-noise/" 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;">Pink noise worsens sleep quality when used to block out traffic and city noise</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Mar 28th 2026, 16:00</div>
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<p><p>Pink noise—often promoted as a sleep aid—may actually worsen sleep by reducing REM sleep, while simple foam earplugs offer far better protection against nighttime noise, according to a new study published in <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsag001" target="_blank">Sleep</a></em>.</p>
<p>Environmental noise—such as traffic, aircraft, or alarms—is known to disturb sleep and contribute to long‑term health problems. Deep sleep is particularly vulnerable, and chronic disruption has been linked to cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders, and impaired daytime functioning. At the same time, broadband noise like pink or white noise has been marketed as a way to mask unwanted sounds and promote rest. Despite their popularity, scientific evidence supporting broadband noise as a sleep enhancer has been surprisingly thin.</p>
<p>Led by Mathias Basner from the University of Pennsylvania, the researchers designed a tightly controlled seven‑night sleep‑lab experiment involving 25 healthy adults with an average age of 28.5 (seven males). Each participant slept under different conditions, including quiet nights, nights with intermittent environmental noise (e.g., sounds of cars and trains), nights with continuous pink noise alone, and nights combining environmental noise with either earplugs or continuous pink noise (at two different volumes).</p>
<p>Every night was monitored using full polysomnography—the gold standard for measuring sleep stages—while mornings included cognitive tests, cardiovascular measurements, hearing checks, and surveys.</p>
<p>Environmental noise alone significantly reduced deep sleep—on average a 23.4-minute decrease—replacing restorative deep sleep with lighter sleep stages. Interestingly, pink noise did not help, instead generating its own problem. Pink noise was found to be associated with an 18.6-minute average decrease in REM sleep—the sleep stage crucial for memory, emotional regulation, and brain development.</p>
<p>When pink noise was added to environmental noise, sleep became even more disrupted. Participants experienced less deep sleep, less REM sleep, more time awake, and lower sleep efficiency overall. Evidently, pink noise not only failed to protect sleep from environmental noise, but it made sleep architecture worse.</p>
<p>Earplugs provided a very different outcome. The foam earplugs used in the study restored most of the deep sleep lost to environmental noise, recovering about 72% of the reduction in deep sleep. In nearly every sleep measure, nights with earplugs looked statistically indistinguishable from quiet control nights. Participants also reported feeling more rested and less fatigued compared to nights with environmental noise (whether masked by pink noise or not).</p>
<p>The authors concluded that the negative effects of pink noise on REM sleep caution against the widespread and indiscriminate use of broadband noise. They specifically advised discouraging its popular use in newborns and toddlers, noting that REM sleep is critical for neurodevelopment in these age groups, though further confirmatory studies are needed.</p>
<p>The study does have limitations. For example, it was only conducted over a short‑term period, involved only healthy young adults, and tested only two levels of pink noise. Real‑world environments are more complex, and long‑term effects remain unknown.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsag001" target="_blank">Efficacy of pink noise and earplugs for mitigating the effects of intermittent environmental noise exposure on sleep</a>,” was authored by Mathias Basner, Michael G. Smith, Makayla Cordoza, Matthew S. Kayser, Michele Carlin, Adrian J. Ecker, Yoni Gilad, Sierra Park‑Chavar, Ka’alana Rennie, Victoria Schneller, Sinead Walsh, Haochang Shou, Quy Cao, Magdy Younes, Daniel Aeschbach, and Christopher W. Jones.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/co-occurring-depression-and-cannabis-use-linked-to-less-efficient-brain-networks/" 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;">Co-occurring depression and cannabis use linked to less efficient brain networks</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Mar 28th 2026, 14:00</div>
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<p><p>New research published in <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2026.113082" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Drug and Alcohol Dependence</a></em> provides evidence that experiencing depression symptoms alongside cannabis use is linked to less efficient communication across the brain compared to cannabis use alone. The study suggests that while cannabis use tends to increase overall connectivity in the brain, the presence of depression weakens this effect, resulting in a less integrated brain network.</p>
<p>Scientists conducted this study to better understand the underlying biology of why cannabis use and depression frequently occur together. Heavy or chronic cannabis use might increase the risk of developing depression, while individuals experiencing depression often turn to cannabis to self-medicate. Both cannabis use and depression individually alter the way different areas of the brain communicate with each other.</p>
<p>This baseline brain communication is known as resting-state functional connectivity, which refers to the brain activity that happens when a person is awake but not focused on a specific task. Prior studies have shown changes in resting-state connectivity in people who use cannabis and in those with depression, but the combined effect of both factors on the brain remained largely unexplored. The researchers wanted to see if depression strengthens or weakens the brain connectivity changes normally associated with cannabis use.</p>
<p>The human brain contains an endocannabinoid system, a biological network that plays a role in mood regulation and responding to stress. Deficits in this biological signaling are often associated with depression. Because cannabis contains chemical compounds that interact directly with these same biological receptors, the researchers suspected that cannabis might impact the brain differently depending on a person’s level of depression.</p>
<p>“There is high co-morbidity between cannabis use and depression symptoms based on behavioral and epidemiological studies. However, we barely understood the underlying brain mechanisms linking them. We wanted to investigate how cannabis use and depression symptoms interactively affect the way different parts of the brain communicate,” said study author Che Liu, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas at Dallas and member of Francesca M. Filbey’s <a href="https://labs.utdallas.edu/filbeylab/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Neuroimaging of Reward Dynamics (NiRD) Lab</a>.</p>
<p>For their study, the research team analyzed brain imaging and behavioral data from 395 adults aged 18 to 55 across four different research sites. The sample included 223 individuals who used cannabis weekly and tested positive for cannabis in a urinalysis. This group had an average age of 26.8 years, and 61.9 percent were male. The control group consisted of 172 individuals with an average age of 25.0 years, and 48.3 percent were male.</p>
<p>Participants completed detailed questionnaires about their substance use, including the timeline of their cannabis, alcohol, and nicotine habits. They also took the Beck Depression Inventory-II, a standard survey used to measure the severity of recent depression symptoms. After completing the questionnaires, participants underwent magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, to scan their brain activity while resting.</p>
<p>The scientists used a mathematical approach called graph theory to analyze the MRI data. This method maps the brain as a complex network of hubs and the connections between them, allowing researchers to measure how efficiently information travels. They looked at global measures, which capture how well the entire brain communicates across long distances, as well as local measures, which examine the activity within localized functional neighborhoods.</p>
<p>These specific functional neighborhoods included the default mode network, which handles self-reflection and emotional processing. The team also looked at the frontoparietal network, which manages decision-making and attention. Finally, they examined the salience network, which helps the brain prioritize important stimuli, and the subcortical network, which is involved in reward processing.</p>
<p>The data revealed that individuals in the cannabis group had higher global efficiency and shorter communication paths across the brain compared to the control group. This pattern indicates a state of heightened connectivity, meaning information was traveling faster and more broadly across different regions. The cannabis group also showed increased localized connectivity in the salience, frontoparietal, and subcortical networks.</p>
<p>However, the presence of depression symptoms appeared to alter these outcomes. As depression scores increased among participants who used cannabis, the heightened global efficiency and integration normally linked to cannabis use weakened. The researchers noted that the combination of cannabis use and depression tends to result in a less efficient and less integrated brain network than cannabis use alone.</p>
<p>“Our findings suggest that having depression symptoms weaken the effects of cannabis on brain communication, potentially resulting in less efficient and less integrated brain network function compared to cannabis use alone,” Liu told PsyPost.</p>
<p>The scientists also examined whether the frequency of a person’s cannabis use changed these outcomes. Looking strictly at the drug’s direct effects, they found that smoking more frequently led to even higher brain connectivity and integration. Yet, the researchers were surprised to find that frequency of use did not change how depression affected the brain. The dampening effect of depression on brain connectivity happened simply because a person was a regular cannabis user.</p>
<p>“We were surprised to find that while depression symptoms moderated the effects of cannabis use status on the brain, it didn’t seem to matter how often a person used cannabis,” Liu said. “This suggests a potential ‘threshold effect’ where even minimal use may be enough to interact with depression and alter the way the brain communicates, rather than the effects increasing with higher doses.”</p>
<p>As with all research, there are limitations to consider. Because the study observed participants at a single point in time, the scientists cannot definitively prove that cannabis use and depression caused the observed changes in brain connectivity. The results only show a statistical association between these factors. Additionally, the study sample contained very few participants with moderate or severe depression.</p>
<p>“Most participants in this study had relatively mild depression symptoms, which might limit our ability to detect the full impact of depression on the brain,” Liu said. “Additionally, we only looked at the data a single time point, thus we cannot determine whether cannabis use or depression occurs first.”</p>
<p>“We aim to conduct longitudinal studies that track individuals who use cannabis over time to better understand the cause-and-effect relationship between cannabis use, depression, and brain function. We also want to expand our scope by examining brain function during specific tasks and including participants with a broader range of depression severity, including those with clinical major depressive disorder.”</p>
<p>“Our findings highlight the ‘intersectionality’ of depression and cannabis use, showing that they don’t just exist side-by-side but actively interact to shape our brain,” Liu added.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2026.113082" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The intersectionality of cannabis use and depression symptoms on functional brain topology in adults</a>,” was authored by Che Liu, Janna Cousijn, Emese Kroon, and Francesca M. Filbey.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/knowing-an-ai-is-involved-ruins-human-trust-in-social-games-2026-03-26/" 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;">Knowing an AI is involved ruins human trust in social games</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Mar 28th 2026, 12:00</div>
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<p><p>When artificial intelligence steps in to make decisions for people during social interactions, human partners respond with less trust, fairness, and cooperation, ultimately leading to worse outcomes for everyone involved. However, when people are unsure if an automated program is pulling the strings, they behave normally and often secretly rely on the technology themselves. These findings were recently published in the journal <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf112">PNAS Nexus</a>.</p>
<p>Artificial intelligence programs known as large language models can generate human-like text and answer complex queries. These tools are increasingly integrated into daily life, helping people draft emails, settle disputes, and make choices with social consequences. The almost universal nature of these text-based models makes them fundamentally different from older algorithms designed for narrow tasks like playing chess or sorting data.</p>
<p>As these conversational algorithms take a more active role in mediating communication, it raises a question about how people respond to a machine acting on behalf of another human. Interactions online are increasingly text-based, meaning algorithms will likely play a larger role in shaping human relationships. Understanding how people react to this shift is a major goal for behavioral scientists.</p>
<p>Past research explored how people interact with specialized systems designed to optimize very specific tasks. Yet few studies have looked at how everyday conversational artificial intelligence affects cooperation between real people. Behavioral researcher Fabian Dvorak at the University of Konstanz in Germany led a team of economists to investigate this phenomenon. </p>
<p>The team wanted to observe human behavior when an algorithm steps in to make choices that directly impact other people’s earnings. To study this, the researchers used a series of classic economic games. These are standardized scenarios used by economists and psychologists to measure social behaviors like reciprocity, cooperation, and altruism. </p>
<p>In these exercises, participants make choices that determine how real money is split between themselves and an anonymous partner. Over three thousand participants from online platforms were recruited to play five types of two-player economic games. One setup was the Ultimatum Game, where one person proposes how to divide a pot of money and the partner must either accept or reject the offer. </p>
<p>If the partner rejects the split in the Ultimatum Game, neither person receives any money. This forces the proposer to offer a fair amount to avoid a total loss. Another scenario was the Trust Game, where sending money to a partner multiplies its total value. The receiving partner then decides how much of the multiplied total to return to the original sender, testing their trustworthiness. </p>
<p>The researchers also included the Prisoner’s Dilemma, an exercise where both players can cooperate for mutual gain or betray each other for selfish gain. Another scenario, the Stag Hunt Game, requires players to choose between hunting a large stag together for a high reward or selfishly catching a hare alone for a smaller, guaranteed reward. If one person goes for the stag and the other defects to the hare, the stag hunter gets nothing.</p>
<p>Finally, the testing included a coordination exercise. In this game, players select an option from a list, such as a planet in the solar system. They earn a larger payout only if both players independently select the exact same option without communicating beforehand. </p>
<p>In each match, one participant had the option or the requirement to let a version of ChatGPT make their decision. Both participants would eventually receive the monetary payout based on the final choices. The researchers varied whether the human partner knew about the algorithm’s involvement in the game.</p>
<p>The study included conditions where the artificial intelligence took over randomly and openly. In other setups, participants could choose to hand off their choice to the machine. The team then tested situations where this handoff was either completely transparent to the human partner or kept hidden from them entirely.</p>
<p>The team also experimented with personalizing the algorithm to match the user’s specific personality traits. Participants answered a short survey about their preferences, such as whether they favored introversion over extraversion or truth over harmony. The researchers fed these answers into the initial instructions given to ChatGPT to shape its subsequent decisions.</p>
<p>The results indicated a strong negative reaction to the known use of artificial intelligence. Across all five games, participants acted less cooperatively and demonstrated lower levels of trust when they knew the other person’s decision came from ChatGPT. This early hesitance resulted in a financial loss for both players.</p>
<p>Participants expected the algorithm to be self-serving and less fair than a human player. As a result, they went on the defensive early in the games. They offered less money in the split scenarios and refused to cooperate in the team exercises, assuming the algorithm would betray them. In the Stag Hunt Game, participants assumed the machine would not cooperate, making them more likely to settle for the safe option of hunting a hare.</p>
<p>The irony of the situation was that the algorithm itself tended to make cooperative and generous choices. The artificial intelligence usually opted to maximize the overall payout for both players. The financial losses in these transparent scenarios were driven entirely by the human players proactively withholding trust.</p>
<p>The Coordination Game was the only exception. The artificial intelligence rarely chose the most popular or expected answer, causing coordination failures. This was the one instance where the machine’s choices directly lowered the payout by acting unpredictably.</p>
<p>A totally different pattern emerged when the involvement of the artificial intelligence was kept a secret. When participants were uncertain whether they were interacting with a human or a machine, they behaved exactly as they would with a normal human partner. Their financial returns did not drop in these hidden conditions.</p>
<p>Despite the negative social reactions, people still liked using the technology for their own benefit. When given the chance to let the machine make the decision, participants did so roughly forty percent of the time. They were especially likely to hand over control when the other player would not know about the machine. </p>
<p>Making a decision in these games requires cognitive effort and carries a risk of feeling guilty for selfish choices. Delegating the task to the program removes the burden of writing a justification and shields the human player from feeling personally responsible for the outcome.</p>
<p>Attempting to make the algorithm act more like the specific user did not fix the financial losses. While the decisionmakers felt the customized algorithm represented them somewhat better, the human partners still reacted negatively. Knowing a machine was involved was enough to trigger defensive behavior, regardless of its programmed personality.</p>
<p>In a secondary test, the team asked independent evaluators to figure out which decisions were made by a human and which came from the algorithm. When looking only at the final numerical choice, evaluators could not distinguish between the two. The algorithm blended in perfectly with normal human behavior.</p>
<p>However, the evaluators could spot the artificial intelligence when they were allowed to read short written justifications for the decisions. The algorithm tended to use technical language focused on potential monetary outcomes. Human players usually explained their choices in simpler, more casual language.</p>
<p>The researchers noted a few limitations to their work. The participants primarily came from specific online platforms in the United Kingdom, meaning the findings might not apply to every demographic group. The study only looked at isolated, one-time interactions between strangers.</p>
<p>In the real world, people might adapt their behavior if they interact with the same automated program repeatedly over a longer period. It is also possible that other methods of personalizing the program could yield different social reactions. The current study relied on direct text prompts to shape the language model’s behavior, which is only one way to customize the tool.</p>
<p>The study raises questions about new technology regulations designed to increase transparency. Laws like the European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act require companies to disclose when content is generated by a machine. Informing people that an algorithm is involved might unintentionally damage trust and hurt economic cooperation.</p>
<p>Future research will need to explore how to build public trust in these systems rather than simply disclosing their presence. Until people feel comfortable interacting with machines, mandatory transparency could lead to defensive behavior and lower social cohesion.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf112" target="_blank">Adverse reactions to the use of large language models in social interactions</a>,” was authored by Fabian Dvorak, Regina Stumpf, Sebastian Fehrler, and Urs Fischbacher.</p></p>
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<p><strong>Forwarded by:<br />
Michael Reeder LCPC<br />
Baltimore, MD</strong></p>
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