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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/new-psychology-research-shows-people-consistently-underestimate-how-often-things-go-wrong-across-society/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">New psychology research shows people consistently underestimate how often things go wrong across society</a>
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<p><p>People systematically underestimate how often things go wrong in the world—a bias researchers call the “failure gap.” This mega-project was published in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000468"><em>Journal of Personality & Social Psychology</em></a>.</p>
<p>We rely on perceptions of how common events are when forming opinions, making decisions, and supporting policies. Prior research shows that these perceptions are often biased. Much of the literature has focused on optimism; for example, people tend to believe good outcomes are more likely and bad outcomes less likely, especially when those outcomes affect them. However, does this tendency extend beyond personal life to broader societal issues, such as crime, health, or economic failures?</p>
<p>Lauren Eskreis-Winkler and colleagues examined this broader question, asking whether people misjudge how often failures occur across many domains of life. They proposed that the issue may not just be optimism, but the way information is shared: failures are less frequently discussed than successes because they are uncomfortable, embarrassing, or socially costly to communicate. As a result, people may develop systematically skewed impressions of reality because they are exposed to incomplete information</p>
<p>The team ran a large, multi-study research program involving approximately 3000 participants, combining controlled online experiments, analyses of real-world data, and field studies to understand how people perceive failure and how those perceptions can be changed. Across the initial set of studies, participants recruited from platforms like Amazon Mechanical Turk and Prolific were asked to estimate how often different kinds of failures occur across more than 30 domains, including national issues (e.g., crime, health care), global problems (e.g., poverty, pollution), and everyday personal experiences (e.g., relationship breakups, product returns).</p>
<p>In some cases, participants estimated multiple items within a single domain, while in others they focused on one type of failure. These estimates were then compared to real-world statistics drawn from official data sources. The researchers also varied how questions were framed, sometimes asking about failure directly and other times about success, to ensure that any bias was specific to failure rather than general misestimation.</p>
<p>To investigate why these misperceptions arise, the researchers examined how often failure versus success is discussed in widely available information sources. They conducted large-scale searches of approximately 2.4 million news articles using databases such as Nexis Uni, systematically comparing how frequently failures and successes were mentioned across domains that participants had previously evaluated. They extended this approach to other forms of shared information, including social media and online consumer reviews, to test whether the pattern held beyond traditional news.</p>
<p>The researchers also designed experiments where participants were exposed to curated information environments; for example, sets of reviews or headlines that either underrepresented or accurately reflected the true rate of failure to directly test whether exposure to skewed information shapes people’s beliefs.</p>
<p>The later studies moved beyond perception to examine when the bias might disappear and what consequences it has. Participants were asked to estimate failures in contexts where sharing negative experiences had recently become more socially acceptable, such as reports of sexual misconduct following the #MeToo movement, allowing the researchers to test whether reduced stigma increases awareness.</p>
<p>Finally, a series of field and online experiments examined how correcting misperceptions influences real-world attitudes and decisions. These included samples of voters, educators, and workplace managers, who were provided with accurate statistics about failure rates and then asked to make judgments about policies such as criminal punishment, school discipline, workplace stigma, and parental leave.</p>
<p>Across the studies, the results revealed a robust and consistent pattern: people substantially underestimated how often failures occur. This was true across national, international, and individual domains, as well as within specific contexts like sports, education, and medication effectiveness. Even when the structure of a situation made the true answer obvious, such as competitive sports, where the wins and losses must balance, participants still underestimated failure rates. On average, failures occurred far more frequently in reality than people believed, indicating a broad and systematic gap between perception and reality.</p>
<p>The researchers also found strong evidence that this gap is linked to how information is shared. Failures were consistently underrepresented in news coverage, social media, and online reviews relative to their true occurrence. When people were experimentally exposed to information environments that downplayed failure, their estimates became even more inaccurate.</p>
<p>Conversely, when the information they encountered accurately reflected real-world failure rates, the gap narrowed. In contexts where discussing failure had become more normalized (e.g., public conversations about sexual misconduct), the usual pattern weakened or even reversed, suggesting that visibility and openness play a key role in shaping perceptions.</p>
<p>Importantly, correcting these misperceptions had meaningful downstream effects on attitudes and decision-making. When participants learned the true prevalence of failures, they became less supportive of harsh punitive measures, such as strict disciplinary actions or mass incarceration, and more supportive of policy changes aimed at addressing underlying problems. In workplace and policy contexts, increased awareness of failure rates also reduced stigma and encouraged more supportive practices, such as extending parental leave.</p>
<p>Taken together, these findings demonstrate not only that people misjudge failure, but that these misjudgments can shape important social and institutional decisions.</p>
<p>One limitation is that the failure gap may depend on context and culture; because most participants came from Western, educated populations, it remains unclear whether the same pattern generalizes globally.</p>
<p>The research, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000468">The Failure Gap</a>” was authored by Lauren Eskreis-Winkler, Kaitlin Woolley, Minhee Kim, and Eliana Polimeni.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/short-video-addiction-is-linked-to-lower-life-satisfaction-through-loneliness-and-anxiety/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Short video addiction is linked to lower life satisfaction through loneliness and anxiety</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Apr 21st 2026, 08:00</div>
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<p><p>Spending excessive amounts of time watching short videos on social media is associated with a sequence of psychological shifts that predict lower overall life satisfaction. A new study published <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2026.2642128"><em>The Journal of Psychology</em></a> provides evidence that problematic use of short video platforms is linked to higher feelings of loneliness, which subsequently relate to elevated anxiety and a decrease in a person’s contentment with their life.</p>
<p>Researchers <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Tugba-Tuerk-Kurtca" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tuğba Türk Kurtça</a> and Muhammet Can Doğru conducted the study to understand the psychological mechanisms connecting short video consumption to subjective well-being. Platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts provide a continuous feed of highly personalized content. Algorithms deliver this media in rapid, random sequences, creating a reward structure that makes it difficult for users to exercise self-control.</p>
<p>Over time, this loss of control can develop into short video addiction. This specific type of digital habit is defined by a person spending excessive time watching brief clips despite negative consequences in their daily life. The researchers noted that empirical research exploring the long-term effects of this specific addiction on life satisfaction remains limited.</p>
<p>“Short video platforms have grown very rapidly, yet we noticed that most research focused on general social media or cross-sectional data. There was a clear gap in understanding how short video addiction affects well-being over time. We wanted to examine not just whether there is an effect, but the psychological process behind it—particularly the roles of loneliness and anxiety,” explained Kurtça, an associate professor at Trakya University.</p>
<p>To address this gap, the researchers framed their inquiry around two established psychological concepts. The first is the displacement hypothesis, which suggests that time spent online directly replaces time that would otherwise be spent on meaningful offline activities and face-to-face interactions. When a screen consumes a person’s temporal and cognitive resources, they miss out on real-world emotional support.</p>
<p>The second concept is self-determination theory, which posits that humans require a sense of autonomy, competence, and social connection to function optimally. The scientists suspected that addictive short video consumption interferes with these basic psychological needs. They designed their study to see if a sequence of psychological distress could explain how digital habits erode life satisfaction.</p>
<p>Many prior studies on digital habits relied on cross-sectional surveys, which only capture a single snapshot in time. By collecting data at two distinct points, the researchers could better determine the directional sequence of these psychological changes. This half-longitudinal approach helps scientists clarify which emotional states precede others.</p>
<p>The scientists utilized a two-wave design to track changes over time. This approach allowed them to observe the direction of psychological shifts across a standard three-month university semester. They recruited an initial group of participants in February 2025 and followed up with them in May 2025.</p>
<p>The final sample included 234 participants, consisting of 183 women and 51 men with an average age of 22 years. Most of the participants were currently enrolled university students. On average, the group reported spending roughly two and a half hours each day watching short videos, primarily on platforms like Instagram Reels and TikTok.</p>
<p>The researchers used established questionnaires to measure four specific variables at both time points. To evaluate short video addiction, they asked participants to rate statements about losing track of time or failing to reduce their usage. They assessed loneliness by asking participants to evaluate their feelings of social rejection and emotional isolation.</p>
<p>Anxiety levels were measured using a specific emotional stress scale that gauges feelings of lost control and threat anticipation. Finally, the researchers evaluated life satisfaction, which is defined as how harmoniously a person’s current reality matches their expectations. Participants rated their overall contentment with their life circumstances.</p>
<p>By analyzing the data across the three-month interval, the researchers identified a sequential psychological pathway. They found that high levels of short video addiction at the start of the study predicted an increase in loneliness three months later. The quick, superficial entertainment offered by short videos tends to replace deep, trusting relationships with superficial online networks.</p>
<p>This initial isolation then cascaded into further emotional difficulties. Participants who experienced higher loneliness at the beginning of the study reported elevated anxiety by the second measurement. Feeling disconnected deprives individuals of social support, making them feel excluded and heightening their sensitivity to environmental stressors.</p>
<p>Finally, the researchers found that increased anxiety was linked to a noticeable drop in subsequent life satisfaction. Elevated anxiety disrupts daily functioning and prevents people from developing positive expectations for the future. As a result, individuals struggle to view their lives holistically and positively.</p>
<p>“What stood out was the sequential pattern: loneliness and anxiety did not act independently but formed a chain linking short video use to lower life satisfaction,” Kurtça told PsyPost. “Even though each effect was modest, together they created a meaningful pathway. What makes this finding important is not just that short video use relates to well-being, but how it does so—through a step-by-step psychological process that unfolds over time.”</p>
<p>The findings suggest that short video addiction does not simply harm well-being in a direct or isolated manner. Instead, the addiction operates through a sequential chain of social and emotional consequences. The continuous displacement of offline interactions initiates a cascading effect of psychological distress.</p>
<p>“The key takeaway is that excessive short video use may gradually reduce life satisfaction—not directly, but by increasing feelings of loneliness and then anxiety over time,” Kurtça said. “These effects are small individually, but they accumulate. So, it’s not just about screen time, but how that time may be replacing meaningful social connections.”</p>
<p>As with all research,, the findings come with a few limitations. Because the research relied entirely on self-reported questionnaires, the data might be influenced by personal biases. Participants may not always accurately estimate or report their actual daily screen time.</p>
<p>The participant pool also consisted mostly of female university students. This demographic concentration means the findings might not fully apply to older adults, adolescents, or individuals from different educational backgrounds. University students often face unique academic pressures and social transitions that could amplify feelings of loneliness and anxiety.</p>
<p>The three-month study period only captures short-term psychological shifts. The scientists note that this brief window cannot account for long-term developmental changes or the cumulative effects of years of social media use. Future research should involve longer observation periods to better understand the stability of these emotional pathways.</p>
<p>Future studies could also utilize objective screen time trackers instead of relying on subjective estimates. Doing so would provide a more precise measure of actual digital consumption. Incorporating multi-method approaches would help reduce potential reporting errors.</p>
<p>Finally, future research could explore bidirectional relationships within these psychological pathways. It is highly possible that individuals who already feel lonely and anxious turn to short videos as a coping mechanism. This behavior could create a mutually reinforcing cycle where emotional distress and short video addiction continuously amplify one another.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2026.2642128">Short Video Addiction and Life Satisfaction: Sequential Longitudinal Pathways via Loneliness and Anxiety</a>,” was authored by Tuğba Türk Kurtça and Muhammet Can Doğru.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/unrestricted-generative-ai-harms-high-school-math-learning-by-acting-as-a-crutch/" 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;">Unrestricted generative AI harms high school math learning by acting as a crutch</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Apr 21st 2026, 06:00</div>
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<p><p>A recent study published in the <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2422633122" target="_blank">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a></em> suggests that giving high school students unrestricted access to artificial intelligence for math practice can impair their ability to learn the material. While AI chatbots help students correctly solve problems when the technology is available, removing the AI causes these students to perform worse on independent exams than peers who never used the tools.</p>
<p>Generative artificial intelligence refers to computer programs that can instantly create original content, such as conversational text or mathematical solutions, by analyzing patterns in massive amounts of existing data. While this technology has become highly popular, its impact on student development remains a subject of debate.</p>
<p>“Generative AI arrived with enormous excitement about its productivity potential. But if AI undermines skill development, it could harm both productivity and cognitive abilities in the long run. At the time, there was remarkably little causal evidence on AI’s effects in education,” said study author <a href="https://www.alpsungu.com/" target="_blank">Alp Sungu</a>, an assistant professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.</p>
<p>To investigate whether these systems aid or impede human learning, the scientists explored a concept educators and psychiatrists call cognitive debt or cognitive atrophy. This theory suggests that outsourcing reasoning to machines might erode the brain’s ability to think critically. When a computer completes an assignment, the user misses out on the productive struggle required to solve complex problems independently.</p>
<p>This loss of independent problem solving is especially risky because AI models frequently generate false information. People must maintain the expertise required to evaluate the machine’s output. If students rely on algorithms early in their education without practicing these mental gymnastics, they may fail to develop the foundational skills needed for future success.</p>
<p>To test how different software configurations affect these outcomes, the scientists conducted a randomized controlled trial at a large high school in Turkey during the Fall 2023 semester. The sample included nearly 1,000 students across about fifty regular classrooms in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh grades. The researchers focused on mathematics instruction, dedicating four ninety minute sessions to topics that comprised about fifteen percent of the semester’s curriculum.</p>
<p>Students were divided into three groups. The first group served as a control, meaning they completed practice problems using only their standard textbooks and class notes. The second group received laptops equipped with a program called GPT Base, which acted like a standard ChatGPT interface and was instructed simply to act as a math tutor.</p>
<p>The third group received laptops with a program called GPT Tutor. This application used the same interface but included invisible background instructions designed by teachers to safeguard the learning process. These specific instructions forced the AI to provide step by step hints instead of direct answers, and fed the AI the correct solutions so it would not invent false information.</p>
<p>Each class session was split into three distinct parts. First, the teacher provided a traditional lecture and solved examples on the board. Next, the students engaged in an assisted practice period where they worked through specific problems designed to reinforce the lecture concepts.</p>
<p>During this second phase, students used the resources assigned to their specific group, whether that was textbooks or one of the two AI programs. Finally, students completed an unassisted exam containing problems conceptually identical to the practice exercises. During this last phase, all students worked entirely independently with no access to laptops, books, or notes.</p>
<p>To ensure students took the task seriously, performance on both the practice problems and the final exam counted toward their actual class grades. Independent graders scored the paper submissions using a standardized rubric to eliminate any potential teacher bias.</p>
<p>The researchers observed a massive boost in performance during the practice phase for students using artificial intelligence. Compared to the control group, students using the unrestricted GPT Base scored forty eight percent higher, while students using the guided GPT Tutor scored one hundred and twenty seven percent higher.</p>
<p>When the researchers evaluated the independent exam results, a very different pattern emerged. Students in the unrestricted GPT Base group performed seventeen percent worse on the unassisted exam than students in the control group who never had access to a computer. Students in the guided GPT Tutor group performed statistically the same as the control group, indicating that the software constraints prevented the learning loss seen in the unrestricted group.</p>
<p>“Honestly, the main result did surprised me! I wasn’t expecting AI to harm student learning (you generally don’t run a study expecting the treatment to hurt outcomes!),” Sungu told PsyPost.</p>
<p>“The effects are non-trivial and move in opposite directions depending on what you measure. With AI access, students scored 48% higher on practice problems, but once that access was removed, the same students scored 17% lower on exams than those who never had AI at all. These aren’t subtle differences, they suggest that how students interact with AI during learning fundamentally shapes what they retain.”</p>
<p>By analyzing the chat logs between the students and the artificial intelligence, scientists identified why the unrestricted AI harmed learning. The vast majority of students using GPT Base simply asked the program for the correct answer. The AI obliged, but the researchers found it provided the correct answer only fifty one percent of the time, frequently making logical and arithmetic errors.</p>
<p>Students would blindly copy these flawed answers onto their practice sheets without fully understanding the material. Because they used the tool as a crutch, they were entirely unprepared when they had to solve similar problems on their own. In contrast, students using GPT Tutor were forced to interact with the material, asking for help and attempting to solve the problems themselves, which preserved their ability to learn.</p>
<p>“Within traditional educational settings, students tend to use standard generative AI tools as an answer machine, a way to get homework done rather than to learn,” Sungu said. “That shortcut can hurt their actual learning.”</p>
<p>The researchers also discovered a significant mismatch between how much students thought they learned and their actual performance. Students using the unrestricted GPT Base program felt they learned just as much as their peers, despite failing the independent exam at higher rates. Meanwhile, students using the guided GPT Tutor perceived that they performed significantly better, even though their final exam scores only matched the control group.</p>
<p>A common misinterpretation of these findings is the assumption that well designed artificial intelligence cannot improve educational outcomes at all. The guided AI program in this study did not cause students to outperform the control group on the final exam, but it did use relatively simple background programming. The researchers suggest that more advanced systems acting as proactive tutors could eventually yield positive learning benefits.</p>
<p>“We tested one tool with fairly simple prompt engineering,” Sungu noted. “Much more work is needed on long-term learning, skill development, and downstream productivity effects.”</p>
<p>A major limitation of the study is its specific context, as it only evaluated mathematics instruction in a single high school during a time when AI chatbots were still a novel technology. The scientists point out that different subjects, such as writing, lack objective evaluation criteria and might interact differently with artificial intelligence. Additionally, researchers only measured short term outcomes rather than evaluating skills over an extended period.</p>
<p>Future research should examine the long term effects of AI use on skill development to see if extended reliance leads to broader cognitive atrophy. Scientists hope to evaluate new educational policies that guide these digital tools toward societal benefit rather than intellectual harm.</p>
<p>“AI isn’t just changing how we work. It’s changing how we think,” Sungu explained. “That makes education the front line. My goal is to study how AI and other digital technologies reshape human capital development more broadly, and to design and test policies that steer these tools toward societal value rather than a potential cognitive atrophy.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2422633122" target="_blank">Generative AI without guardrails can harm learning: Evidence from high school mathematics</a>,” was authored by Hamsa Bastani, Osbert Bastani, Alp Sungu, Haosen Ge, Özge Kabakcı, and Rei Mariman.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/lifting-weights-builds-a-sharper-mind-and-reduces-anxiety-in-older-women-2026-03-20/" 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;">Lifting weights builds a sharper mind and reduces anxiety in older women</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Apr 20th 2026, 18:00</div>
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<p><p>Lifting weights provides a robust method for older women to improve their memory and mental health, regardless of whether they lift heavy weights for fewer repetitions or lighter weights for more repetitions. The recent clinical trial, published in the <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2025.120938">Journal of Affective Disorders</a></em>, highlights exercise as a highly effective, non-pharmaceutical treatment for protecting the aging mind. The findings reveal that structured physical exertion delivers vast psychological benefits.</p>
<p>As people age, they routinely face a gradual decline in multiple physical capabilities alongside an increased risk of cognitive impairment. Women in particular often experience heightened vulnerability to depression and anxiety in their later years. This elevated risk stems from a combination of biological shifts associated with menopause, hormonal changes, and various evolving social factors. Over time, poor mental health can accelerate physical and cognitive decline.</p>
<p>Medical professionals routinely prescribe cardiovascular and resistance training to preserve physical independence. Beyond building muscle mass and raw physical strength, lifting weights initiates biological changes that protect the brain. Muscular contractions release specialized proteins into the bloodstream that travel to the brain, theoretically promoting the growth of new neural connections and reducing systemic inflammation.</p>
<p>Physical exertion also helps regulate the body’s internal stress systems, specifically the persistent secretion of cortisol. Maintaining this biological balance reduces oxidative stress in brain tissue and actively limits harmful cellular damage over time. Researchers suspect these unseen biochemical reactions can alter how the aging brain processes daily thoughts and emotions.</p>
<p>Major sports medicine organizations provide differing guidelines regarding exactly how older adults should program these physical routines. The American College of Sports Medicine once recommended that older adults lift a weight heavy enough to cause muscle fatigue within eight to twelve repetitions. Fitness professionals refer to this specific intensity threshold as a repetition maximum.</p>
<p>More recent updates to these guidelines have expanded the recommended limit to ten to fifteen repetitions. The exact intensity that produces the greatest mental adaptations remains a subject of ongoing debate among exercise physiologists. A heavier load lifted fewer times might trigger entirely different neurological adaptations than a lighter load lifted a greater number of times.</p>
<p>Some prior research indicates that shorter, heavier sets better reduce depression, while lighter, longer sets might be superior for quelling anxiety. Paolo M. Cunha, a prominent researcher at the State University of Londrina in Brazil, designed a study to test these different training variables. Cunha and his colleagues organized a randomized clinical trial to identify the optimal resistance training intensity for enhancing brain health.</p>
<p>The research team recruited 120 women with an average age of 68 who were not currently participating in any structured exercise programs. Prior to the intervention, independent cardiologists screened the volunteers using diagnostic stress tests to ensure they could safely participate. The researchers then divided the women into three equal groups based on their baseline physical strength to guarantee a balanced comparison.</p>
<p>The first group followed a resistance training program utilizing heavier weights pushed for eight to twelve repetitions. The second group performed the same exercises but used slightly lighter weights lifted for ten to fifteen repetitions. The final group acted as a control and maintained a sedentary lifestyle throughout the trial.</p>
<p>For three months, the active groups visited the university fitness facility three mornings a week. Under the direct supervision of qualified fitness experts, the participants completed three sets of eight different full-body exercises. Their routines featured weight machines and free weights, incorporating movements such as chest presses, leg extensions, seated rows, and bicep curls.</p>
<p>As the women gained strength over the twelve weeks, the supervisors progressively increased the weight they lifted. Adjusting the load ensured the participants consistently reached their assigned repetition range with proper breathing and movement technique. Meanwhile, researchers instructed all participants to avoid any new exercise outside of the laboratory setting.</p>
<p>The scientists administered a wide battery of cognitive and psychological tests before the program began and again shortly after it ended. They utilized the Montreal Cognitive Assessment to evaluate basic spatial skills, short-term memory, and language processing. The team also distributed multiple standardized surveys to track clinical symptoms of geriatric depression and general anxiety.</p>
<p>Other specialized tests gauged executive function, a term for the mental processes that enable planning, focusing attention, and multitasking. The Trail Making Test required the women to connect a scattered sequence of numbers and letters as quickly as possible to measure their cognitive flexibility. In a separate verbal test, the women had to name as many words starting with the letter F or as many animals as they could vocalize within sixty seconds.</p>
<p>The researchers additionally evaluated the women using a computerized Stroop test to measure their mental inhibitory control. In this visual test, the software displayed words like “red” or “black” written in conflicting ink colors, such as a green font. The women had to suppress their automatic reading reflex and quickly press a button corresponding to the physical ink color instead of the written word.</p>
<p>Following the three-month intervention, both groups of weightlifters demonstrated striking improvements in their test scores. Their performance on the global cognitive assessment rose, and their reaction times in the executive function tests dropped substantially. The control group experienced no such improvements, and in certain testing categories, their mental performance worsened slightly.</p>
<p>The structured physical activity also drastically reduced the severity of mood disorders among the exercising participants. Scores evaluating depressive symptoms dropped by roughly 34 percent in the lower repetition group and a substantial 24 percent in the higher repetition group. Diagnostic anxiety scores plummeted by over 40 percent in both groups of active women.</p>
<p>The researchers noted that these positive shifts met the specific threshold for a clinically meaningful difference. In practical terms, this means the psychological benefits were large enough that the women would tangibly notice an improvement in their daily emotional state. The trial data did not uncover any major outcome differences between the two repetition strategies. Both weightlifting intensities performed equally well at defending against cognitive decline.</p>
<p>The study does feature several caveats that could shape future research into the neurological benefits of structured exercise. The testing relied heavily on self-reported psychological surveys, which are sometimes susceptible to a participant’s subjective biases or temporary mood states. The team also did not rigorously track variations in the women’s light daily physical activities outside the gym environment.</p>
<p>The researchers also strongly suspect that the social framework of the fitness program contributed to the emotional benefits. For twelve weeks, the active participants exercised in a shared, supportive environment, interacting routinely with peers and enthusiastic supervisors. This type of consistent social engagement routinely combats loneliness and provides psychological relief.</p>
<p>Future trials will need to isolate whether different exercise durations or added social interactions alter these positive neural changes. Despite these variables, the results demonstrate that resistance training offers a robust, accessible method for treating mild cognitive and mood issues. Older adults can feel confident that regularly lifting weights will reliably benefit their minds just as much as their skeletal muscles.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2025.120938">Impact of resistance training repetition ranges on cognitive function and mental health in older women: A randomized controlled clinical trial</a>,” was authored by Paolo M. Cunha, Alex S. Ribeiro, Edilaine F. Cavalcante, Pâmela Castro-e-Souza, Vanessa Santos-Melo, Luís Alves de Lima, Fábio L. Orsatti, Aline M. Gerage, Ricardo J. Rodrigues, Analiza M. Silva, Brendon Stubbs, and Edilson S. Cyrino.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/how-a-perceived-lack-of-traditional-values-makes-minorities-seem-younger/" 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 a perceived lack of traditional values makes minorities seem younger</a>
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<p><p>People tend to stereotype sexual minorities and Black men as unusually young, an assumption driven by a shared cultural belief that these groups lack traditional values. This overlapping set of perceptions functions to paint certain demographics as inherent threats to the social order. The research was published in the <i><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2025.104869">Journal of Experimental Social Psychology</a></i>.</p>
<p>In the early 1970s, sociologist Stanley Cohen popularized the term “folk devils” to describe groups targeted by media-driven moral panic. Cohen analyzed how dominant institutions focused on youth subcultures, turning them into symbols of societal decay. Through these portrayals, young people were framed as actively rejecting established norms and threatening the existing social fabric.</p>
<p>New York University Abu Dhabi psychology researcher Jaime L. Napier and her colleagues suspected that similar societal forces shape modern stereotypes of adult minority groups. They predicted that other marginalized populations would be stereotyped in age-related ways because of parallel cultural assumptions about their core values.</p>
<p>Previous psychological studies have often focused on a single element of identity at a time, looking at race or gender in isolation. This singular approach misses the subtle ways that multiple social categories overlap to form entirely different public expectations. For instance, the behavioral traits people associate with a broad racial category might closely match expectations for men but fail to describe the cultural stereotypes applied to women of the same race.</p>
<p>To capture a fuller picture of public bias, the research team examined the combined effects of gender, sexual orientation, and race on age-related assumptions. Over a series of experiments, the researchers asked participants to evaluate a standardized list of 99 personality traits. The participants indicated which traits they believed belonged to the cultural stereotypes of different demographic profiles.</p>
<p>These profiles ranged from generic categories, like young people or men, to highly specific intersections, like gay Asian men or straight Black women. To ensure their analysis reflected broader cultural narratives rather than hidden personal prejudice, the researchers explicitly asked respondents to identify what the average American would think.</p>
<p>The team first established baseline ratings for exactly what traits the public believes define stereotypical youth and stereotypical adherence to traditional American values. Traits heavily connected to youth included descriptors like naive, impulsive, loud, and pleasure-loving. Traits linked to high traditionalism included descriptors like conservative, conventional, nationalistic, and loyal to family ties. The researchers then mapped these baseline ratings onto the specific traits chosen for various racial and sexual minority groups.</p>
<p>In the first sets of tests, the team compared the traits assigned to gay targets against those assigned to straight targets or individuals with no specified sexual orientation. They found that participants consistently judged gay men and lesbian women as possessing more youth-related traits than their heterosexual counterparts. Statistical modeling revealed that this overlapping stereotype was explained almost entirely by a perceived lack of traditional values.</p>
<p>Because the general public views sexual minorities as untraditional, they casually link them to the chaotic, energetic traits usually reserved for young people. Labeling a target as straight had the opposite effect, cementing traits associated with older ages and high traditionalism.</p>
<p>The researchers then introduced racial categories into the experiment, asking a new group of participants to select stereotyped traits for White and Black groups. The results demonstrated that Black men without a specified sexual orientation were already ascribed as many youth-related traits as gay White men. Because Black men are already saddled with a cultural stereotype of youthful nonconformity, explicitly labeling a Black male target as gay did not alter the perception of his youth beyond its already high baseline.</p>
<p>This finding provides a missing link for older psychological studies regarding implicit bias. Past research has shown that the public tends to associate Black men with aggression and danger, but these biases fade when participants are shown photographs of elderly Black men. The new study suggests that the cultural default assumption for a Black man is inherently a youthful one.</p>
<p>The perceived lack of traditional values once again accounted for this overlap. The public tends to stereotype both gay people and Black men as differing from traditional American norms, leading to the assumption that they share youthful characteristics.</p>
<p>When the researchers looked closer at the specific flavors of these stereotypes, they found nuanced differences. The youthful stereotype applied to gay men was heavily driven by assumptions of nonconformity and high extraversion. In contrast, the youthful stereotype associated with Black men was distinctly linked with an assumed lack of conscientiousness.</p>
<p>A final study expanded the experimental design to include Asian targets. Unlike the other profiles, Asian men and women without a specified sexual orientation were assigned far more old traits than young traits. Their cultural stereotype aligned heavily with traditional values, framing them as a kind of anti-folk devil.</p>
<p>This reflects historical media narratives that have routinely depicted Asian Americans as a model minority defined by diligence, quietness, and strict conventionality. In the middle of the twentieth century, American media often emphasized the achievements of Asian communities to subtly suggest that societal struggles in African American communities were cultural failures rather than the result of systemic racism. The model minority concept became the structural opposite of the folk devil. By associating the entire Asian demographic with older, traditional traits, the public distances them from the youth-oriented panic that defines other minority groups.</p>
<p>Even for this highly conventionalized group, introducing a minority sexual orientation fundamentally altered their stereotypical profile. When Asian targets were labeled as gay or lesbian, participant selections shifted away from older, traditional traits and moved rapidly toward younger, untraditional ones. A minoritized sexual orientation effectively erased the presumed traditionalism of the racial category.</p>
<p>The authors note several limitations to the current work. The surveyed participants were overwhelmingly White and heterosexual, meaning the data primarily captures the cultural perspective of dominant societal groups. Future investigations should recruit more diverse sample populations to determine if marginalized group members hold the same age-related stereotypes about themselves and their peers.</p>
<p>The researchers also pointed out that their statistical models were generally less effective at explaining the stereotypes applied to women compared to men. While lesbian targets were viewed as younger than their straight counterparts, the shift was not as easily accounted for by a lack of traditional values. This indicates that societal expectations of femininity might complicate these rapid cultural judgments.</p>
<p>Experiencing these cultural assumptions can have real consequences for the targeted communities. The persistent association of minorities with youthful traits could contribute to the well-documented anxiety surrounding aging within the gay community, leading to isolation or distress as individuals grow older. If society expects gay men to be permanently young, those who do age might feel as if they are losing their social visibility. A better understanding of how society blends sexual orientation, race, and age stereotypes might help clinical psychologists support patients navigating multi-layered discrimination throughout entirely different stages of their lives.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2025.104869">Folk devils? Perceived lack of traditional values explains youth-related stereotypes of sexual minorities and Black men</a>,” was authored by Jaime L. Napier, Maria Laura Bettinsoli, Rosandra Coladonato, Magdalena Formanowicz, and Andrea Carnaghi.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/true-crime-fans-are-not-more-likely-to-dream-up-creative-ways-to-harm-others/" 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 listening to true crime make you a more creative criminal?</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Apr 20th 2026, 14:00</div>
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<p><p>Reading about or listening to stories of real-world violence does not seem to make people more creative when it comes to harming others. In fact, heavy consumers of true crime might actually be less likely to use their imaginative skills for malicious purposes. These findings were recently published in <i><a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/jocb.70100">The Journal of Creative Behavior</a></i>.</p>
<p>Media consumption shapes how people think, feel, and act in their daily lives. Researchers have spent decades testing how fictional violence in video games and movies might influence aggression. Many psychologists suggest that consuming violent content primes aggressive thoughts and desensitizes watchers to human suffering. Yet one exceptionally popular genre has largely escaped scientific scrutiny. True crime media focuses on real human stories of assault, serial murder, and hostage situations.</p>
<p>Half of the public in the United States consumes true crime tales on television, in books, or through podcasts. People often debate whether immersing oneself in these grim realities might leave a lasting, negative imprint on an individual. A team of psychology researchers wondered if this constant exposure to real-life violence might boost a specific psychological trait known as malevolent creativity.</p>
<p>Malevolent creativity involves intentionally generating highly original and harmful ideas to damage or take revenge on other people. A person displaying this trait goes beyond standard aggression by inventing novel, unexpected ways to cause physical or psychological pain. University of Graz researcher Corinna M. Perchtold-Stefan and her colleagues set out to see if the true crime genre provides an instructional blueprint for this kind of behavior. They measured whether frequent listeners or viewers of true crime are more capable of dreaming up unique ways to exact revenge.</p>
<p>The researchers evaluated the idea from two opposing angles. On one hand, realistic portrayals of extreme violence might systematically alter a person’s boundaries, providing them with practical knowledge for destructive behaviors. On the other hand, the people who actively seek out true crime might have different underlying motives, such as a desire to understand justice or an urge to prepare for real-world dangers.</p>
<p>The researchers conducted two separate studies to investigate these concepts. In the first study, the team surveyed 160 adult participants online. Participants reported how often they engaged with true crime media and filled out a questionnaire measuring their natural tendencies toward physical and verbal aggression. They also completed a standard test of verbal creativity, which required them to generate as many unusual words or sentences as possible within a hard time limit.</p>
<p>To capture malevolent creativity, the researchers asked participants to imagine being trapped in unfair social situations. Example scenarios included a careless colleague spilling coffee on an expensive book or a neighbor breaking a promise to pay for help. Participants had three minutes to invent as many harmful, creative ideas as possible to get back at the offending wrongdoer.</p>
<p>Independent reviewers then judged the participants’ responses based on three distinct categories. The reviewers counted the raw number of revenge ideas generated, scored how damaging the ideas were, and rated how original they were. The results did not show a direct, broad link between true crime consumption and malevolent creativity. The researchers found that frequent true crime fans produced a slightly higher number of revenge plots, but this was only the case for participants who already had highly aggressive personalities.</p>
<p>The first study also revealed an unexpected pattern regarding the quality of the revenge ideas. Normally, people who score highly on general verbal creativity also score highly on the originality of their malevolent ideas. The researchers found that consuming a lot of true crime media seemed to disrupt this cognitive link. For heavy true crime consumers, basic creative potential did not translate into highly original ways to harm others.</p>
<p>To see if these patterns held up under different conditions, Perchtold-Stefan and her team conducted a second study. They recruited 307 participants in a supervised laboratory setting. The team added new questionnaires to measure depressive moods and preferences for other media genres, including fictional horror and science fiction. This allowed them to isolate the specific effects of true crime from a broader interest in general entertainment.</p>
<p>In the second study, the researchers swapped the general verbal creativity test for an assessment of affective creativity. Affective creativity measures a person’s ability to smoothly invent positive ways to reinterpret a threatening or stressful situation. A person taking this test might have to quickly brainstorm reassuring thoughts to calm themselves down while walking alone through a dark park at night.</p>
<p>The second study utilized a slightly expanded malevolent creativity test. Participants again had to invent revenge schemes, adjusting their plots for new scenarios involving a disruptive roommate or a romantic rival. Reviewers also categorized the specific types of revenge, looking for themes of physical harm, property damage, social manipulation, or simple trickery.</p>
<p>Once again, the researchers found very little evidence that true crime popularity drives creative aggression. True crime consumption was weakly associated with generating a higher number of ideas, but the ideas themselves were not notably harmful or exceptionally original. When high true crime consumers did come up with revenge ideas, they heavily featured forms of social intimidation or manipulation rather than physical devastation.</p>
<p>Instead, the second study found that a preference for fictional horror was far more associated with generating highly damaging ideas. The researchers noted that fictional horror is not constrained by physics, reality, or the human justice system. Fictional horror media might offer a deeper vocabulary of out-of-the-box harm, while true crime narratives often repeat similar, real-world patterns of blunt physical violence.</p>
<p>Just like the first study, the researchers found that high true crime consumption seemed to sever the link between an individual’s overall creativity and their malevolent originality. Participants who scored high in affective creativity generally produced more unique revenge plots. But if those same highly creative people consumed large amounts of true crime material, their revenge ideas were suddenly much less original.</p>
<p>The authors proposed a few reasons for these missing links. Listening to real stories of murder and abuse might increase a person’s empathy and moral sensitivity. A frequent true crime consumer might be acutely aware of the terrible aftermath of violence in the real world. This awareness could make it mentally taxing or unappealing for them to exert creative effort in bringing about similar harm, even within the confines of a hypothetical psychological test.</p>
<p>Another explanation borrows from a criminological concept called routine activity theory. This theory suggests that people adjust their behavior when they are highly aware of risks and the presence of authorities, like law enforcement. Frequent engagement with true crime narratives might heighten a person’s sensitivity to the real-world consequences of criminal actions. This vigilance could suppress their motivation to imagine novel yet risky forms of aggression.</p>
<p>Because the research relied on a cross-sectional design, the scientists cannot prove exactly how media habits and creative abilities influence one another over time. The team only captured a single snapshot of the participants. A cross-sectional setup means that the researchers cannot state with absolute certainty whether true crime consumption alters a person’s creativity or if preexisting personality traits drive both habits simultaneously.</p>
<p>The researchers plan to follow up with experimental and longitudinal designs to test how these relationships evolve over several years. Future studies might measure how audiences subjectively perceive the novelty of the crimes they hear about. For now, the data suggests that true crime enthusiasts use their favorite genre to understand human suffering rather than using it as a violent instruction manual.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/jocb.70100">Do Fans of Violent Stories Show a Higher Potential for Creative Harm? True Crime as a Stimulating Environment for Malevolent Creativity</a>,” was authored by Corinna M. Perchtold-Stefan, David Cropley, Katharina Sattler, Christian Rominger, Andreas Fink, and Matthijs Baas.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/autism-spectrum-disorder-is-associated-with-specific-congenital-malformations/" 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;">Autism spectrum disorder is associated with specific congenital malformations</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Apr 20th 2026, 12:00</div>
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<p><p>An analysis of data from the Israel National Birth Registry found that congenital malformations were more common in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) than in neurotypical children. The most prevalent physical anomalies were circulatory and urogenital system malformations. Interestingly, the study suggests a distinct biological sex divide: genital system malformations were more frequent exclusively in boys with ASD, while non-genitourinary malformations (primarily circulatory) were more common in girls with ASD when compared to neurotypical girls. The paper was published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-025-03302-8"><em>Molecular Psychiatry</em></a><em>.</em></p>
<p>Autism spectrum disorder is a neurological and developmental condition that affects how a person interacts, communicates, learns, and behaves. Symptoms usually begin in early childhood, often within the first two years of life. Autism is characterized as a spectrum because it can manifest very differently from one person to another, presenting a wide range of strengths, challenges, and support needs.</p>
<p>Common features include difficulties with social communication and interaction, as well as restricted or repetitive behaviors, interests, or activities. Some autistic individuals speak fluently, while others may use few words or be nonverbal. Many autistic people also experience differences in learning, attention, sensory processing, or movement. Scientists suggest that autism has a multifactorial origin heavily influenced by genetic and environmental factors, though the exact underlying mechanisms are not fully understood.</p>
<p>Study author Rony Cleper and his colleagues set out to investigate whether certain physical malformations present at birth are associated with an increased likelihood of a later ASD diagnosis. A robust body of evidence shows that early intervention tends to improve outcomes and functioning for individuals with ASD. Because of this, identifying whether specific congenital malformations could serve as developmental “red flags” might help direct at-risk newborns toward earlier diagnostic screening.</p>
<p>To explore this, the researchers analyzed data from the Israel National Birth Registry, which records all live births and detected congenital malformations in the country, alongside the Autism Registry of the Israeli Ministry of Social Affairs.</p>
<p>The analyses utilized data from 4,302 singleton pregnancies resulting in live births between 1993 and early 2006, excluding twin and triplet pregnancies. This cohort included all registered children diagnosed with ASD during this period (2,099 individuals) paired with an equal number of age- and sex-matched neurotypical children.</p>
<p>The results provided evidence that congenital malformations were more frequent in the ASD group. Overall, children later diagnosed with ASD had 75% higher odds of having a congenital malformation. This association remained mathematically robust even after researchers adjusted the models for confounding factors like birth weight, parental age, ethnicity, and maternal immigration.</p>
<p>The highest differences in congenital malformation frequencies were found in the circulatory system (2.1% of children with ASD vs. 1.2% of neurotypical children) and urogenital organs (1.8% of children with ASD vs. 0.8% of neurotypical children).</p>
<p>Crucially, when the researchers stratified the data by sex, distinct patterns emerged. Genital malformations were specifically associated with an ASD diagnosis in boys. Conversely, girls with ASD were more likely to have non-genitourinary malformations (primarily circulatory) compared to girls without the disorder.</p>
<p>The researchers suggest that this sex-specific split points to the complex ways sex hormones—specifically androgens like testosterone—may differently influence embryonal and neurological development. For instance, urogenital malformations in males are often linked to a deficiency in prenatal androgen signaling. On the flip side, an excess of embryonic androgens is known to negatively impact the development of the circulatory system, which aligns with the anomalies observed in the female ASD group.</p>
<p>“In conclusion, CM [congenital malformations], most notably genitourinary in males exclusively, and others (mostly circulatory) in females, are more prevalent in newborns later diagnosed with ASD, as compared with age- and sex-matched controls,” the study authors concluded. “These sex-specific CM might represent useful pre- and postnatal markers of ASD, and their presence in newborns at-risk of ASD might indicate earlier and more frequent neurodevelopmental assessments.”</p>
<p>While the study contributes valuable population-level evidence to the scientific understanding of ASD, the authors note several limitations. Diagnostic criteria for ASD changed during and after the study period, resulting in higher reported rates of ASD in more recent times.</p>
<p>Additionally, the widespread modern use of prenatal ultrasounds allows for the early diagnosis of major structural malformations, triggering a rise in pregnancy terminations in severe cases. This could create a survival bias that limits the ability to fully analyze the link between ASD and the most severe birth defects. Finally, the study lacked available data regarding family genetic histories, which is a highly relevant factor in both ASD and embryonal development.</p>
<p>The paper “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-025-03302-8">The association between autism spectrum disorder and congenital malformations: a population-based nested case-control study</a>” was authored by Rony Cleper, Ori Kapra, Nadav Goldental, and Raz Gross.</p></p>
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<p><strong>Forwarded by:<br />
Michael Reeder LCPC<br />
Baltimore, MD</strong></p>
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