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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/perceived-grievance-and-psychological-distress-are-linked-to-left-wing-authoritarianism/" 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;">Perceived grievance and psychological distress are linked to left-wing authoritarianism</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">May 4th 2026, 10:00</div>
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<p><p>A new psychological study suggests that feelings of psychological distress and perceived social grievances contribute to authoritarian attitudes among people on the political left. The findings provide evidence that left-wing authoritarianism is heavily influenced by a belief that society is deeply unjust and oppressive toward marginalized groups. The research was published in the <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13569317.2024.2344755" target="_blank">Journal of Political Ideologies</a></em>.</p>
<p>Savannah Love and Rachael Sharman conducted the research to better understand the psychological forces driving extreme political behavior on the left side of the spectrum. Sharman is a senior lecturer and undergraduate program coordinator in psychology at the University of the Sunshine Coast’s School of Health. “Extreme political polarization poses a real risk to society and is on the increase across most Western democracies,” Sharman said. </p>
<p>The researchers noted that individuals at both extremes share similar psychological traits. “Extremists exist on both ends of the right/left-wing spectrum and have more in common than they would like to admit, in particular a psychological predisposition toward intolerance,” Sharman explained. While right-wing extremism has a long history of academic study, left-wing extremism remains less examined.</p>
<p>In recent years, a rise in identity-based political movements has occurred on the political left. Identity politics involves focusing political attention on specific group attributes like race, gender, and sexuality. This approach often highlights an ongoing struggle between marginalized identities and privileged groups. </p>
<p>The scientists wanted to explore how an awareness of systemic social injustices relates to left-wing authoritarianism. In psychological literature, this awareness of social injustice is known as perceived grievance. They also aimed to test whether underlying mental health issues make individuals more susceptible to these rigid political beliefs. </p>
<p>To investigate these connections, the researchers recruited 299 English-speaking adults through various social media platforms. Participants were found in general community forums and specific political groups across the political spectrum. The volunteers ranged in age from 18 to 85, with the majority falling between 25 and 34 years old. </p>
<p>The sample was slightly majority female and predominantly Caucasian. The group heavily leaned toward the left side of the political spectrum, with nearly forty percent identifying as very left-wing. These participants completed an extensive online survey containing several established psychological questionnaires. </p>
<p>The researchers measured left-wing authoritarianism using a specific twenty-two-item scale. This tool captures three distinct dimensions, which include revolutionary aggression, support for top-down censorship, and a rejection of traditional values. Revolutionary aggression refers to a desire to dismantle the established order, sometimes violently. </p>
<p>Top-down censorship involves a willingness to restrict the free speech of those holding opposing viewpoints. Anti-conventionalism represents an aggressive intolerance toward people who hold traditional or conservative beliefs. To measure perceived grievance, participants completed the Privilege and Oppression Inventory. </p>
<p>This survey assesses a person’s awareness of systemic privileges, specifically focusing on sexism, heterosexism, Christian privilege, and white privilege. A higher score on this inventory indicates a greater belief that society is fundamentally structured around these forms of oppression. The survey also included the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale, which measures general psychological distress. </p>
<p>Participants answered questions about their moral concerns using the Moral Foundations Questionnaire. This tool evaluates whether people base their morality on individualizing foundations, like care and fairness, or binding foundations, like loyalty and authority. Additionally, the scientists assessed participants’ emotional reactivity and their need for cognitive closure. </p>
<p>Emotional reactivity describes how quickly and intensely a person experiences negative or positive emotions. The need for cognitive closure refers to an individual’s desire for firm answers and an aversion to uncertainty or ambiguity. Love and Sharman used a statistical technique called structural equation modeling to analyze the collected data. </p>
<p>This complex mathematical method allows scientists to map out and test relationships between multiple psychological variables simultaneously. Through this analysis, the final statistical model explained fifty-three percent of the variance in left-wing authoritarianism among the participants. The findings provide evidence that an awareness of systemic oppression strongly relates to a desire to enforce ideological conformity. </p>
<p>“Our study showed ‘perceived grievance’ (a feature of identity politics) most strongly predicted left-wing authoritarianism,” Sharman told PsyPost. People who view the world primarily through a lens of profound social injustice tend to support authoritarian solutions to fix those perceived wrongs. The study also revealed an indirect psychological pathway starting from basic psychological distress. </p>
<p>The data indicates that participants experiencing higher levels of depression, anxiety, and stress tend to hold higher perceptions of social grievance. This heightened sense of grievance then contributes to their left-wing authoritarian attitudes. Psychological distress does not appear to cause authoritarianism directly on its own. </p>
<p>Instead, distress seems to make individuals more receptive to narratives of social grievance and systemic oppression. Adopting this aggrieved worldview then paves the way for rigid, authoritarian political thinking. The researchers also discovered an unexpected relationship involving the participants’ moral foundations. </p>
<p>They found that perceived grievances strongly influenced an individual’s reliance on individualizing moral foundations. These specific moral foundations focus heavily on protecting individuals from harm and ensuring fairness. “Perhaps somewhat counter-intuitively LWA (left-wing authoritarians) were more likely to prioritize individualizing aspects of morality over group-centered priorities,” Sharman noted. </p>
<p>She added that while this finding was unexpected, other research teams have observed similar patterns. This individualizing moral focus acted as a bridge, further increasing left-wing authoritarian tendencies. This suggests that left-wing authoritarians are primarily motivated by a desire to protect vulnerable people and enforce fairness. </p>
<p>As with all research, there are limitations to keep in mind. The study relies on a cross-sectional design. Because data was collected at a single point in time, the scientists cannot definitively prove that psychological distress or perceived grievance directly causes left-wing authoritarianism. The sample was also highly educated and mostly white, which limits how well the findings can be applied to the broader general public. </p>
<p>The researchers anticipate that some readers might struggle to view the results objectively. “I think unfortunately a lot of people now center their identity on their political affiliation (which ironically enough our study tangentially tested and found support for),” Sharman said. “So any perceived challenge to a strongly held idea is quickly perceived as a personal attack.” </p>
<p>Because of this, people might react defensively to the research. “With that in mind, I can guarantee this study will be interpreted by many in a way that protects their personal identity status rather than an objective reading of the findings,” Sharman explained. As for next steps, the scientists plan to look into the role of the internet in shaping these attitudes. </p>
<p>“Savannah Love is currently undertaking a PhD under my supervision investigating identity development in adolescents within social media,” Sharman said. “We suspect social media saturation may explain a lot of the issues we are seeing with political polarization.” Understanding these digital environments could provide a more complete picture of modern political extremes. </p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13569317.2024.2344755" target="_blank">Perceived grievance and individualising moralities: exploring the psychological structure of left-wing authoritarianism</a>,” was authored by Savannah Love and Rachael Sharman.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/turning-to-chatbots-when-lonely-may-exacerbate-feelings-of-loneliness-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;">Turning to chatbots when lonely may exacerbate feelings of loneliness, study finds</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">May 4th 2026, 08:00</div>
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<p><p>A 12-month longitudinal study of adults from four English-speaking countries found that being lonely may spur people to seek companionship through chatbots. However, such use may, over time, exacerbate feelings of loneliness. The paper was published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976261427747"><em>Psychological Science</em></a>.</p>
<p>The recent development of large language models, AI systems capable of communicating with users in natural human language, has ushered a new era for humanity. It can be argued that it has started both a revolution in the way business is conducted and in how people live their lives. Soon after its release in late 2022, ChatGPT gained millions of users. Four years later, in 2026, estimates state that over 1 billion people use large language models and generative AI tools.</p>
<p>In this short period, many people have started using AI chatbots for companionship. Some researchers suggest that AI companionship might prove to be a scalable tool for combating the loneliness epidemic. However, there are also voices warning that AI companions might do more harm than good. The main reason for this is that AI is unable to genuinely experience emotions or bond with another person; it can only supply an illusion of understanding, empathy, caring, and love.</p>
<p>Furthermore, because AI lacks a genuine inner life, it cannot engage in the reciprocal self-disclosure that is critical for building rewarding, long-term human relationships. Consequently, forming bonds with AI companions or even AI romantic partners might ultimately leave vulnerable individuals unsatisfied and worsen their mental health over time.</p>
<p>Study authors Dunigan Folk and Elizabeth Dunn note that people may turn to AI companions because they are always available (unlike human partners or friends) and simulate human companionship in a manner that feels compelling in the moment. However, the researchers theorize that these easy but shallow interactions with AI may be crowding out the more rewarding interactions with real humans in people’s lives.</p>
<p>To examine this, they conducted a 12-month longitudinal survey investigating the relationship between loneliness and the use of chatbots for social purposes. The study participants included 2,149 individuals from the United Kingdom (50%), the United States (28%), Canada (14%), and Australia (8%) who completed at least one survey across four data collection waves. Of these participants, 979 completed all four surveys, and 466 completed three. The participants’ average age was 40 years, and 49% were men.</p>
<p>The surveys asked participants how often they had used chatbots for social purposes over the past four months—such as asking for advice on life decisions, having regular social conversations, or seeking social companionship. The surveys also measured “emotional isolation” by asking participants how emotionally isolated they felt from other people during that same period. </p>
<p>dditionally, the researchers tracked a broader metric of overall “social connection” and asked whether participants had experienced major life events—such as a relocation, a breakup, the beginning of a steady romantic relationship, or becoming a parent—to control for outside social stressors.</p>
<p>Results showed that roughly 26% to 30% of participants reported using chatbots for social purposes at any given wave. On average, the frequency with which participants used chatbots for these purposes did not change significantly across the data collection period.</p>
<p>Crucially, individuals who reported feeling more emotionally isolated at one time point tended to report a higher use of chatbots for social purposes four months later. This confirmed the study authors’ expectations that feeling lonely leads people to seek out chatbots. However, after increasing their chatbot use, participants also tended to report even further increased emotional isolation at the next time point. Experiencing a major life event, on the other hand, was not associated with a subsequent increase in chatbot use.</p>
<p>When the study authors looked at their broader measure of overall social connection, the results showed that individuals who felt less socially connected also tended to increase their social chatbot use four months later. In this analysis, however, increased chatbot use did not lead to even lower social connection at a later time point. (Experiencing a breakup tended to be followed by reduced feelings of social connection four months later, but it was not associated with increased chatbot use. Other types of life events were not associated with changes in social connection.)</p>
<p>“Taken together, these findings provide initial evidence that being lonely may spur people to seek companionship through chatbots but that such use may, over time, exacerbate feelings of loneliness. We urge caution, however, in drawing strong conclusions given the exploratory nature of our analyses,” the study authors concluded.</p>
<p>These findings contribute to emerging evidence about the ways people use AI chatbots to satisfy psychological needs. However, it should be noted that the observational design of this study does not allow for definitive causal inferences to be derived from the results. Additionally, all findings were based on self-reports, leaving room for reporting bias to affect the results.</p>
<p>The paper, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976261427747">How Does Turning to AI for Companionship Predict Loneliness and Vice Versa?</a>” was authored by Dunigan Folk and Elizabeth Dunn.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/new-study-shows-how-nazi-era-propaganda-influences-present-day-attitudes/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">New study shows how Nazi-era propaganda influences present-day attitudes</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">May 4th 2026, 06:00</div>
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<p><p>A recent study published in the <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.70071" target="_blank">European Journal of Social Psychology</a></em> suggests that viewing historical propaganda that glorifies dictators tends to soften the negative emotions people feel about past atrocities. Scientists found that mixing images of a smiling, approachable Adolf Hitler with photographs of Holocaust atrocities lessened feelings of guilt and increased positive emotions among modern German viewers. These findings provide evidence that historical propaganda can still manipulate human emotions decades after its creation.</p>
<p>Museums and educators often struggle with how to present historical artifacts from dark periods of history. Some experts worry that displaying positive, everyday photographs of dictators might communicate distorted images of the past to younger generations. Other people argue that these materials are simply historical evidence without the power to influence modern minds.</p>
<p>Historically, the Nazi party relied heavily on propaganda to secure public support. A large portion of this propaganda focused on glorifying Adolf Hitler. He was frequently depicted as a relatable man of the people as well as a revered savior.</p>
<p>Scientists have extensively studied derogatory propaganda, which dehumanizes marginalized groups. But they have spent less time examining the psychological effects of glorifying propaganda. The researchers conducted this study to see if flattering portrayals of Hitler still affect how people process the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime. </p>
<p>Lara Ditrich, a postdoctoral researcher at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien, explained that the scientists started this work after a meeting with a museum curator. The curator mentioned that propaganda images glorifying Hitler were widely considered “vicious pictures” in his field. </p>
<p>“When we started looking into this statement, we were surprised to find that there had been no research on the effects of such images in psychology so far, despite the acknowledged role propaganda played in securing the Nazis’ ascent to power and the continued existence of the relevant propaganda materials,” Ditrich told PsyPost. </p>
<p>She added that the research team wanted to determine whether these images are truly vicious and, if so, in what way. Specifically, they wanted to know if these images impact group-based guilt.</p>
<p>Group-based guilt is an emotion people experience because of their membership in a specific group, even if they did not personally commit any wrongdoing. For example, modern Germans might feel collective guilt about the Holocaust, even though they were born long after World War II ended.</p>
<p>To explore this concept, the scientists first conducted two preliminary laboratory experiments with 66 and 77 participants, respectively. The researchers showed participants a slideshow of black-and-white photographs from the 1920s to the 1940s. In one group, participants only viewed 16 photographs depicting the atrocities committed during the Nazi era. </p>
<p>Other participants viewed a mixed presentation containing eight atrocity photographs and eight glorifying propaganda images. After the slideshow, the participants rated their emotions. The researchers found early signs that the mixed presentation reduced guilt-related emotions.</p>
<p>To build on these early tests, the scientists conducted a larger laboratory experiment with 172 participants. The participants were mostly university students answering questions in private computer cubicles. In this experiment, the researchers showed the first group 16 photographs of Nazi atrocities. </p>
<p>The second group viewed 32 photographs in a randomized order. This slideshow consisted of the 16 atrocity images and 16 glorifying propaganda images. After viewing the slideshows, the participants rated their current emotions on a questionnaire. The researchers found that participants in the mixed group reported feeling significantly less guilty and less ashamed than the people who only looked at the atrocity photographs.</p>
<p>Next, the researchers conducted a second confirmatory laboratory study with 114 participants. The setup was nearly identical to the previous experiment, but the scientists added new questionnaires. They wanted to test whether the propaganda was causing cognitive change. Cognitive change happens when people alter how they think about a situation to lessen its emotional impact. </p>
<p>For instance, participants might blame a few powerful leaders or blame the manipulative nature of propaganda rather than holding the entire group responsible. Once again, the mixed group reported lower levels of individual guilt and shame. However, the researchers did not find evidence that the propaganda changed how the participants attributed blame. The propaganda did not affect broader measures of collective guilt acceptance.</p>
<p>To see if these effects held up outside the laboratory, the scientists designed a large online study with 643 participants. This group was chosen to be representative of the modern German population in terms of age and gender. The researchers created a third experimental group for this study. </p>
<p>These new participants viewed the 16 atrocity images mixed with 16 positive, ordinary historical photographs. These pictures matched the propaganda in content, such as a regular man looking at a Christmas tree instead of Hitler looking at a Christmas tree. In this online format, the researchers did not find the same direct reduction in guilt across the groups. The different sets of images did not produce significant differences in the participants’ reported guilt or in their subconscious guilt-related thoughts.</p>
<p>Because the online study showed different results than the laboratory studies, the researchers combined the data from all the experiments into one large statistical analysis. This integrative analysis included 860 total participant observations. By looking at the combined data, the scientists discovered a broader emotional shift.</p>
<p>“Across the studies, we were surprised to see how broadly propaganda images soothed negative emotions evoked by reminders of the atrocities committed under the Nazi’s reign by past members of our participants’ national group,” Ditrich said. </p>
<p>She noted that while they originally assumed the images would primarily reduce guilt-related feelings, the overall data showed that the propaganda reduced an array of negative emotions and amplified positive emotions. Participants in the mixed condition reported feeling happier, calmer, more excited, and more relaxed. This combined effect makes these images “even more ‘vicious’ than we had anticipated,” Ditrich noted.</p>
<p>The researchers suspect that this emotional shift happens through attentional deployment. Attentional deployment is a psychological coping strategy where people direct their focus away from something upsetting to distract themselves. The smiling, positive images likely provided a distraction that diluted the emotional weight of the atrocity photographs.</p>
<p>One limitation of the research is that the online study failed to replicate the initial laboratory findings regarding guilt. The researchers suggest that participants taking an online survey at home might pay less attention to the images than participants sitting in a controlled laboratory setting. People in a laboratory might also feel more motivated to engage deeply with the material.</p>
<p>The researchers also pointed out that the study focused exclusively on 1930s and 1940s propaganda. It remains to be seen if contemporary political images produce the same results. Ditrich also addressed a potential misinterpretation of the findings.</p>
<p>“We want to emphasize that our results do not suggest that all of our participants started approving of Hitler and his actions simply because they saw propaganda images glorifying him,” Ditrich stated. “Our results are limited to showing effects on participants’ momentary emotions; we find no effects on participants’ attitudes towards National Socialism.”</p>
<p>For the broader takeaway, Ditrich emphasized being cautious with media. “Our work suggests that it can be dangerous to take images, even old ones, at face value,” she said. She noted that images are sometimes crafted for emotional impact and do not reflect the full truth. </p>
<p>While the average person might not see historical propaganda daily, they do encounter modern images meant to evoke or soothe specific feelings. She advised cross-referencing images with other sources. “This is particularly true with the advent of ever more sophisticated AI image generators,” she added.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.70071" target="_blank">Vicious Pictures? How National Socialist Propaganda Glorifying Adolf Hitler Affects Contemporary Viewers’ Emotions</a>,” was authored by Lara Ditrich, Katharina Bernecker, Jonas Reinhardt, and Kai Sassenberg.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/children-with-adhd-are-six-times-more-likely-to-experience-depression/" 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;">Children with ADHD are six times more likely to experience depression</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">May 3rd 2026, 20:00</div>
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<p><p>Children and teenagers with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are significantly more likely to experience depression than their peers, according to a new study published in the <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/10870547251341597" target="_blank">Journal of Attention Disorders</a></em>.</p>
<p>ADHD is a neurodevelopmental condition that affects attention, impulse control, and activity levels. While it is widely known for these behavioral symptoms, experts have increasingly recognized that mental health challenges often occur alongside it. Previous research has shown that many children with ADHD develop additional conditions, but the exact rate of co-occurring depression in this group has remained unclear.</p>
<p>To address this gap, researchers set out to bring together existing evidence from across the world. They wanted to better understand how common depression is in young people with ADHD and whether certain factors—such as age, sex, or medication—make a difference in reported rates. </p>
<p>Led by Shipei Wang from the University of Edinburgh in the U.K., the research team analyzed data from 24 rigorous studies involving a total of 6,815 children and adolescents. Of these, just over 5,000 had ADHD. Crucially, the researchers specifically focused on children with ADHD who did not have an intellectual disability, as intellectual disabilities can independently influence depression severity. </p>
<p>Participants ranged in age from early childhood to late adolescence (5 to 19 years old), with an average age below 18. The studies included both boys and girls, although boys made up the vast majority of ADHD participants (over 76%), reflecting a long-standing sex imbalance in ADHD diagnoses.</p>
<p>Across the included studies, depression was assessed using clinical interviews, standardized questionnaires, or a combination of both. The researchers combined these results using a statistical approach called a meta-analysis. This allowed them to estimate an overall, pooled rate of depression across all studies while also examining differences between subgroups.</p>
<p>Their findings revealed that depression is highly common among young people with ADHD. Across the individual studies, reported rates varied widely—from as low as 1.7% to as high as 60%. When pooled together, the estimated average rate was 11.31%. Importantly, in seven case-control studies that directly compared the two groups, young people with ADHD were found to be far more likely to experience depression—around 12%, compared to just 2% in their neurotypical peers.</p>
<p>The meta-analysis also uncovered notable differences between boys and girls. Girls with ADHD were found to have much higher rates of depression—nearly 21%—compared to roughly 9% in boys. While this mirrors the gender disparity seen in the general population, the researchers noted that the severe underrepresentation of girls in ADHD research may mean that the true rate of co-occurring depression in females is even higher than current estimates suggest. </p>
<p>Another key finding was that the method used to measure depression heavily influenced the results. Studies that used a combination of interviews and questionnaires tended to report the highest rates (roughly 21%), while those relying solely on interviews reported the lowest (roughly 8.4%). </p>
<p>Wang and colleagues highlighted the urgent need to develop depression assessment tools tailored specifically to the ADHD population. </p>
<p>“ADHD symptoms such as inattention, restlessness, and irritability also manifest in depressive symptomatology, potentially leading children and their parents to overreport depressive symptoms on standardized questionnaires designed for neurotypical populations,” the authors noted. Conversely, they added, “The lack of ADHD-specific validated measures may cause interviewers to interpret overlapping symptoms as part of ADHD, potentially masking and underestimating co-occurring depression.”</p>
<p>Despite these critical insights, the researchers caution that the overall pooled results should be interpreted carefully. There was massive statistical variability (heterogeneity) between the studies in terms of design, sample characteristics, and assessment methods. Furthermore, the review only included studies published in English, potentially excluding relevant research conducted in other regions.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/10870547251341597" target="_blank">Rates of Depression in Children and Adolescents With ADHD: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis</a>,” was authored by Shipei Wang, Tracy M. Stewart, Isinsu Ozen, Arnab Mukherjee, and Sinead M. Rhodes.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/mapping-the-mental-health-crisis-among-palestinian-refugees-in-egypt/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Researchers map trauma symptoms among Palestinian refugees</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">May 3rd 2026, 18:00</div>
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<p><p>A recent evaluation of Palestinian refugees displaced to Egypt reveals that suicidal ideation acts as a primary driving symptom for both men and women experiencing mental health struggles. The findings, published in the journal <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2026.117210"><i>Psychiatry Research</i></a>, suggest that medical professionals treating conflict-affected populations should create targeted, gender-specific interventions to reduce overlapping psychological conditions. </p>
<p>Mental health disorders affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide, ranking among the top causes of global disability. In developing nations and conflict zones, healthcare systems often lack the resources to meet this massive demand. Refugees face some of the highest risks for developing psychological conditions. They encounter violence, the sudden loss of their homes, and an uncertain future in unfamiliar host countries. </p>
<p>These psychological burdens produce a massive financial and societal toll around the world. Current estimates suggest that depression and anxiety cost the global economy nearly one trillion dollars annually due to lost productivity. In developing countries, the situation is particularly dire. The vast majority of individuals with severe mental health conditions in these regions receive absolutely no treatment.</p>
<p>Traditional psychiatric models usually treat mental health conditions as distinct underlying diseases that produce a set checklist of problems. In recent years, an alternative approach called network theory has gained traction among medical professionals. This framework proposes that mental health conditions operate as dynamic networks of individual symptoms that directly interact with one another. </p>
<p>In a theoretical network model, a symptom like sleep loss might trigger physical fatigue, which then fuels a depressed mood. Identifying the most central symptoms in these networks helps clinicians know exactly where to direct their treatment. Addressing a core symptom can potentially collapse the rest of the psychological network. </p>
<p>Prior studies show that men and women often process extreme trauma in totally different ways. Biological differences, varying social expectations, and different types of trauma exposure shape how a person responds to severe stress. Because of these differences, a mental health map for a refugee population might look entirely different depending on a person’s gender. </p>
<p>An investigative team led by Noha Fadl, a public health researcher at Alexandria University in Egypt, set out to map these symptom networks. They focused on a highly vulnerable group: Palestinian adults who fled to Egypt following the outbreak of the 2023 war in Gaza. Egypt currently hosts huge numbers of displaced individuals, stretching local healthcare infrastructures to their limits. </p>
<p>The recent conflict in Gaza has displaced massive populations, forcing tens of thousands of Palestinians to seek temporary safety across the Egyptian border. These individuals often arrive with scarce financial resources and limited access to professional psychiatric care. The long-term regional impact includes strained public services, housing shortages, and heightened social tensions. Such severe cumulative pressures deeply complicate the delivery of adequate medical interventions.</p>
<p>Fadl and her colleagues surveyed 558 Palestinian refugees over the age of eighteen. The participants completed standardized questionnaires designed to measure the severity of anxiety, depression, and trauma responses. To ensure broad participation, the researchers collected data through secure online forms as well as in-person surveys. </p>
<p>The physical data collectors were Palestinian university students who had recently been displaced to Egypt themselves. Their familiarity with the target population helped establish trust and facilitated access to a community that might otherwise remain hidden from formal public health surveys. Due to the chaotic nature of sudden displacement, obtaining a truly randomized sample was impossible. The researchers instead relied on snowball sampling, where early participants recruited other members of their personal networks.</p>
<p>The survey results pointed to exceptionally high rates of psychological distress. More than 90 percent of the surveyed refugees reported multiple symptoms of anxiety and depression. Additionally, well over half of the participants exhibited signs of severe trauma responses. </p>
<p>To build the visual networks, the research team utilized a mathematical tool known as a Bayesian graphical model. This advanced probability framework allows researchers to observe how heavily two symptoms relate to one another while simultaneously controlling for the influence of every other symptom in the dataset. If a patient reports both vivid nightmares and general sadness, the software calculates whether those two issues link directly to each other. It also checks if a third hidden element is holding them together in the background.</p>
<p>The team created separate mathematical models for men and women. This allowed the researchers to see which specific symptoms acted as central hubs. These dominant traits act as gravity wells, pulling other negative psychological experiences into their orbit. </p>
<p>In both the male and female networks, suicidal ideation emerged as a core symptom. This means that thoughts of self-harm were deeply intertwined with a wide variety of other mental health struggles. The authors attribute this high risk to a combination of inadequate social support, poor financial status, and the intense general distress associated with forced migration. </p>
<p>Beyond this shared focus, the networks diverged based on gender. For men, a severe loss of energy appeared as a secondary core symptom. The researchers note this might reflect a behavioral shutdown, a state where extreme stress causes the body to retreat and conserve energy. This specific feature directly connected to sudden changes in appetite. </p>
<p>In the female network, the secondary core symptom was psychomotor agitation or retardation. This clinical term describes a state where an individual either moves and speaks unusually slowly or experiences intense, restless physical movement. The researchers suggest this points to a pattern of distress defined by an inability to regulate emotions and physical behavior. </p>
<p>The models also highlighted the strongest links between entirely different categories of mental illness. For the male refugees, the strongest bridge between anxiety and depression was the connection between a lingering fear of future threats and a depressed mood. The data links this continual worry with the presence of a heavy, negative emotional state over time. </p>
<p>Among the female participants, the strongest bridge between anxiety and depression was the link between an inability to relax and a total loss of pleasure. Medical professionals refer to this lack of positive emotion as anhedonia. This connection aligns with established psychological models, which suggest that extreme physical tension can drain a person’s ability to experience joy. </p>
<p>Within the anxiety category, women showed a tight coupling between a general feeling of tension and becoming easily annoyed. The researchers relate this to emotional hyperreactivity. When individuals cannot tolerate sudden shifts into negative emotions, they often use worry as a coping mechanism. This pattern frequently appears more prominent in women, who experience different societal pressures and physiological stress responses than men. </p>
<p>The researchers also looked at how trauma symptoms interacted with one another over time. Men showed a strong link between intrusive thoughts about the war and a state of constant physical hypervigilance. In women, intrusive thoughts were most strongly tied to environmental reminders of the conflict. This suggests that external cues frequently triggered involuntary traumatic memories for the female participants. </p>
<p>The study relies on a cross-sectional design, meaning the researchers captured a single snapshot in time. Because of this, the statistical networks reveal mathematical associations but cannot prove that one symptom eventually causes another. The reliance on self-reported questionnaires rather than formal clinical diagnoses also introduces a potential margin of error into the data. </p>
<p>The researchers did not screen out individuals with preexisting mental health conditions. They also lacked information on the exact timeline of each participant’s displacement and their past medical history. These unknown variables could influence the severity of the reported distress and alter the structure of the resulting networks. </p>
<p>Moving forward, the research team suggests that humanitarian health programs should prioritize early detection of the core symptoms identified in this group. Integrating these targeted, gender-specific approaches into existing support networks could maximize limited medical resources. Future research will need to test whether treating these specific central hubs actually collapses the larger web of psychological distress.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2026.117210">Anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder among Palestinian refugees in Egypt: Gender-stratified item-level Bayesian network analysis</a>,” was authored by Noha Fadl, Ammar Elsayed Mohamed Mohamed shahtou, Hagar Mostafa Own, Muhammad Abdullatif Alkasaby, Mahmoud A. Abdel-Fattah, Rola Mahmoud Abdallah Tafesh, Saja Hasan Alzaanin, Hisham Mohammed Mahmoud Zourob, Mohammed Walid Ali Aljedaili, Fathi I.A. Shaheen, and Rofaida Gamal Abdullah.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/high-temperatures-are-linked-to-slightly-increased-rates-of-police-violence/" 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;">High temperatures are linked to slightly increased rates of police violence</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">May 3rd 2026, 16:00</div>
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<p><p>An analysis of Mapping Police Violence data found that police violence in the U.S. tended to be slightly higher when average monthly temperatures exceeded 20.3°C (68.5°F). In areas with over 5 million people and in areas with less than 50mm of precipitation, each additional 1°C increase in the monthly average temperature above this threshold was associated with a roughly 2% increase in the rate of deaths caused by police violence. The paper was published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0345523"><em>PLOS ONE</em></a>.</p>
<p>Climate studies over the past few decades have indicated that our planet is rapidly warming. In 2024, global average surface temperatures exceeded 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for the first time on record. These climate shifts have resulted in increasingly frequent periods of very hot daily temperatures.</p>
<p>In humans, exposure to high air temperatures—specifically temperatures above comfortable levels to which the body is adapted—produces physical discomfort, fatigue, and irritability. When people are overheated, they may find it harder to concentrate, make decisions, or control emotional reactions. Heat can also disturb sleep, and poor sleep can further worsen mood and self-control. Consequently, several studies suggest that very hot weather is associated with higher levels of aggression, conflict, and violence.</p>
<p>High temperatures may increase stress because the body has to work harder to regulate its internal temperature. As a result, people may become less patient and more likely to react impulsively in frustrating situations. Heat can also reduce productivity, especially in jobs that require physical effort or sustained attention. Vulnerable groups, such as older adults, children, and people with underlying health conditions, may be especially affected by extreme heat. In extreme cases, exposure to high air temperatures can even lead to death.</p>
<p>Study author Jiacheng Zou and his colleagues investigated the relationship between heat exposure and the risk of police violence in the U.S. They noted that while previous studies have reported links between exposure to high temperatures and general violence, few have focused specifically on police violence. In this context, police violence refers to incidents in which an on-duty or off-duty law enforcement officer uses lethal force against a civilian, resulting in death, regardless of whether the killing is legally considered justified.</p>
<p>The study authors analyzed data about deaths caused by police violence from the <a href="https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/">Mapping Police Violence</a> (MPV) website. The MPV is one of the most comprehensive databases of victims of police-related fatalities in the continental United States. It integrates data on deaths caused by police officers using firearms, batons, chokeholds, stun guns, or other methods from 2013 to the present, capturing both incident details and demographic information.</p>
<p>The researchers analyzed 13,381 records from this database detailing incidents that occurred between January 2013 and the end of 2024. They collected meteorological data for that same period from the climate monitoring database of the National Centers for Environmental Information, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This climate database compiles raw meteorological observation data from multiple monitoring stations across the U.S. Using this information, the authors calculated the monthly average temperatures and precipitation for each U.S. county.</p>
<p>The results showed that police violence becomes more frequent when average monthly temperatures exceed 20.3°C or fall below −3.2°C. The increase in the frequency of police violence was more pronounced at increasingly higher temperatures than it was under very low temperatures.</p>
<p>In areas with over 5 million people, each additional 1°C increase in the monthly average temperature (above the 20.3°C threshold) was associated with a 2.01% increase in the rate of deaths caused by police violence. Meanwhile, in areas with less than 50mm of monthly precipitation, each additional 1°C rise in temperature was associated with a 2.06% increase in police-related deaths. The researchers also noted that the association between high temperatures and the risk of death caused by police violence was particularly notable in the year 2024.</p>
<p>“Our research reveals the linkage between temperature variation and the risk of police violence, highlighting the urgent need for targeted intervention strategies in the practices of police law enforcement, particularly under the high-temperature environmental conditions,” the study authors concluded.</p>
<p>The study sheds light on how human behavior changes under high environmental temperatures. However, it should be noted that the behavior of police officers is influenced by a complex range of factors that go well beyond environmental conditions, including the behavior of the civilians involved and the specific, escalating developments that lead to a violent event. These granular, individual-level factors could not be fully captured in the study, yet they remain highly relevant for the accurate framing and interpretation of these findings.</p>
<p>The paper, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0345523">Higher temperatures are associated with increased risk of police violence: A nationwide county-level study in the United States, 2013–2024</a>,” was authored by Jiacheng Zou, Kun Hou, Xia Xu, and Zhen Wang.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/natural-daylight-in-the-office-helps-people-with-type-2-diabetes-control-blood-sugar/" 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;">Natural daylight in the office helps people with type 2 diabetes control blood sugar</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">May 3rd 2026, 14:00</div>
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<p><p>Spending time in natural daylight during normal working hours tends to help people with type 2 diabetes maintain better blood sugar levels and burn more body fat. This shift in metabolism provides evidence that environmental lighting plays a significant role in managing chronic health conditions. The findings were recently published in the journal <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2025.11.006" target="_blank">Cell Metabolism</a></em>.</p>
<p>“We are working in the field of type 2 diabetes, and specifically metabolic aspects of type 2 diabetes,” said Patrick Schrauwen, a researcher at the Institute for Clinical Diabetology at the German Diabetes Center. The human body relies on a circadian rhythm, which is an internal twenty-four-hour clock that regulates sleep, digestion, and hormone release. Light is the primary signal that synchronizes this internal clock with the outside world. </p>
<p>“Daylight influences this clock, and makes that our metabolism is rhythmic, in such a way that it is adapted to live on earth, with its 24-hour day and night cycle,” Schrauwen explained. The research team previously found that people at risk for type 2 diabetes often exhibit a disturbed metabolic rhythm. </p>
<p>“The reason for this is not known, but we do know that we spend a lot of our working time inside, without exposure to daylight,” Schrauwen noted. This inspired the scientists to conduct a controlled proof-of-concept study to see if daylight could directly alter human metabolism.</p>
<p>To test this, the researchers conducted a randomized crossover trial involving thirteen volunteers with well-controlled type 2 diabetes. The group consisted of eight women and five men with an average age of seventy years. Each participant completed two distinct testing periods lasting four and a half days each, with a four-week resting period in between.</p>
<p>During the interventions, the volunteers stayed in a controlled research facility. For one period, they spent their daytime hours sitting at a desk facing a wide window that provided dynamic natural daylight. For the other period, they sat at a desk in the same room but were separated by a lightproof barrier and exposed only to standard artificial office lighting set to about three hundred lux.</p>
<p>The scientists maintained strict control over the participants’ routines to isolate the effect of the lighting. Everyone ate standardized meals at exact times to ensure digestion did not alter the daily data. They also performed identical bouts of light physical activity, such as stepping on stairs, for thirty minutes after each meal.</p>
<p>If participants needed to leave the room during the artificial light condition, they wore special orange-tinted glasses. These glasses completely block out blue light, which is the type of light that most strongly affects the circadian clock. This ensured the participants did not accidentally receive a dose of natural outdoor light during their artificial light trial.</p>
<p>To measure blood sugar, the volunteers wore continuous glucose monitors, which are small sensors attached to the arm that track glucose levels around the clock. The researchers also used specialized breathing masks and a sealed respiration chamber to measure oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production. This technique allows scientists to calculate how many calories the body is burning and whether it is using carbohydrates or fats for energy.</p>
<p>Exposure to natural daylight yielded noticeable improvements in metabolism. While average overall blood sugar levels did not change, participants spent more time in a normal, healthy blood sugar range when exposed to natural light. Specifically, they stayed in this healthy range for about fifty-one percent of the time under natural light, compared to forty-three percent under artificial light.</p>
<p>The continuous glucose monitors also showed that natural light led to smaller spikes and dips in blood sugar over a twenty-four-hour period. Along with these more stable blood sugar levels, the researchers observed a shift in how the body used energy. During the daytime hours, participants burned fewer carbohydrates and oxidized more fat when they were exposed to natural daylight.</p>
<p>Through extensive blood analysis, the scientists looked at a wide array of circulating metabolites, which are small molecules produced during digestion and energy use. Under natural light, participants had higher levels of cholic acid and glutamic acid. Ceramides, a type of fat often elevated in people with type 2 diabetes, showed a tendency to decrease under natural daylight.</p>
<p>When examining muscle tissue collected at the end of the study, the scientists found higher activity in specific genes that control the circadian clock. The researchers coaxed these cells to grow into mature muscle fibers in a laboratory dish. By inserting a tracking protein, they observed that the daily rhythmic patterns of these cells shifted after the natural light exposure.</p>
<p>“Even though we hoped to find effects of daylight, given this was only a short study, we were surprised that the effects of daylight were broad,” Schrauwen said. “Not only on glucose, but also on several metabolites in the blood, and also effects on the muscle. We believe that effects may be even stronger if the longer term effects would be investigated.”</p>
<p>“We live in a world where our natural 24-hour rhythm gets easily disturbed,” Schrauwen said. “We have food all day through, we work late, and we are exposed to artificial light until just before going to sleep.” He explained that these disruptions might increase the risk of type 2 diabetes, while daylight exposure could help reset our biological clock and lower that risk.</p>
<p>While these findings are promising, the study involves a small sample of only thirteen older adults, which limits how broadly the results can be applied to the general population. The experiment also took place strictly during the summer months, meaning the effects of natural light might be different during the darker days of winter. Additionally, sleep quality was only measured through subjective questionnaires rather than objective brainwave monitoring. </p>
<p>Schrauwen pointed out that this was a short intervention study, comparing only five days of daylight versus artificial light. “Longer studies are needed to investigate the true impact on our metabolic health,” he added.</p>
<p>“We aim to further understand how disturbances in our 24-hour rhythmicity of metabolism can lead to diabetes, and how we can restore a proper 24-hour rhythmicity,” Schrauwen noted. In addition to light exposure, the scientists plan to focus on the impact of when people eat and exercise. Exploring how these lifestyle factors interact with the body’s internal clock could eventually lead to new guidelines that prioritize natural daylight in homes and workplaces.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2025.11.006" target="_blank">Natural daylight during office hours improves glucose control and whole-body substrate metabolism</a>,” was authored by Jan-Frieder Harmsen, Ivo Habets, Andrew D. Biancolin, Agata Lesniewska, Nicholas E. Phillips, Loic Metz, Juan Sanchez-Avila, Marit Kotte, Merel Timmermans, Dzhansel Hashim, Soraya S. de Kam, Gert Schaart, Johanna A. Jörgensen, Anne Gemmink, Esther Moonen-Kornips, Daniel Doligkeit, Tineke van de Weijer, Mijke Buitinga, Florian Haans, Rebecca De Lorenzo, Hannah Pallubinsky, Marijke C.M. Gordijn, Tinh-Hai Collet, Achim Kramer, Patrick Schrauwen, Charna Dibner, and Joris Hoeks.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/what-the-big-five-personality-traits-reveal-about-your-sexual-fantasies/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">What your personality traits reveal about your sexual fantasies</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">May 3rd 2026, 12:00</div>
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<p><p>New research published in the journal <i><a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0329745">PLOS One</a></i> reveals that a person’s underlying personality traits are strongly linked to how often they experience sexual fantasies. The findings suggest that individuals with higher levels of negative emotionality fantasize more frequently, while those who are highly agreeable or conscientious tend to have fewer sexual fantasies.</p>
<p>When psychologists attempt to understand why people act the way they do, they often turn to the Big Five personality framework. This theoretical model argues that human personality can be largely described using five broad dimensions. Extraversion captures a person’s sociability and outgoing nature, while agreeableness reflects interpersonal warmth and a desire for social harmony.</p>
<p>Conscientiousness relates to self-discipline and goal-directed behavior. Negative emotionality, which is often referred to as neuroticism, describes a tendency to experience negative moods. Finally, open-mindedness encompasses an individual’s intellectual curiosity and willingness to embrace new experiences.</p>
<p>To achieve even greater precision, psychologists break each of these five broad traits into three smaller components, known as facets. For instance, conscientiousness is composed of organization, productiveness, and responsibility. Negative emotionality includes anxiety, emotional volatility, and depression. Analyzing personality at this granular level helps pinpoint the exact psychological mechanisms driving human behavior.</p>
<p>Despite the basic universality of sexual fantasies, they remain heavily understudied in psychological literature. For decades, clinical frameworks framed these mental experiences as inherently problematic or explicitly linked them to antisocial behaviors, such as aggression or sexual offenses. More recent scientific approaches attempt to study sexual desires in a value-neutral way, acknowledging that most adults experience them and often derive well-being from them.</p>
<p>However, scientists have gathered very little data on how everyday mental imagery connects to standard personality profiles. Most previous investigations only looked at the broad Big Five categories, masking the specific nuances that facet-level data can reveal.</p>
<p>To address this gap, psychologists Emily Cannoot and William J. Chopik from Michigan State University, along with Amy C. Moors from Chapman University and the Kinsey Institute, designed an expansive national survey. They recruited 5,225 adult participants through online polling panels.</p>
<p>The participants ranged in age from 18 to 94 years old, with an average age of about 58. Slightly more than half of the respondents identified as men. Because the survey was embedded within a larger project focused on close relationships, nearly all participants were either married or actively dating someone. They were also relatively active sexually, with more than two thirds indicating they engage in sex at least once a month.</p>
<p>Participants first completed a standardized 30-item personality test. They read statements such as “I am someone who worries a lot” or “I am someone who is persistent, works until the task is finished.” They then rated how accurately each statement described their own disposition on a five-point scale. This allowed the research team to generate scores for both the overarching Big Five traits and their 15 specific facets.</p>
<p>Next, the respondents filled out a comprehensive sexual fantasies questionnaire. This tool presented 40 distinct sexual themes and asked participants to report their frequency of fantasizing about each one. The response options ranged from never having the fantasy to experiencing it daily.</p>
<p>The researchers categorized the 40 themes into four main groupings. Exploratory fantasies involve novel or group experiences, like participating in an orgy. Intimate fantasies center on emotional closeness and romance, such as making love outdoors in a secluded, beautiful setting.</p>
<p>Impersonal fantasies feature scenarios where the participant might act as an observer, such as watching others have sex. Sadomasochistic fantasies involve themes of submission, dominance, or being forced to do something.</p>
<p>When analyzing the data, the researchers first ran straightforward comparisons between personality scores and fantasy frequencies. They subsequently applied a statistical technique to isolate the unique effect of each trait. Since people’s personality features often overlap, and because age and gender influence sexual behavior, this secondary analysis held those overlapping variables constant.</p>
<p>The results revealed that conscientiousness was the most consistent predictor of a person’s sexual mental life. Individuals who scored higher in conscientiousness reported lower frequencies across all four types of sexual fantasies. Agreeableness displayed a very similar pattern, reliably predicting a lower frequency of fantasizing.</p>
<p>A closer look at the facets illuminated exactly why these traits suppress sexual imagination. The negative association for agreeable people was entirely driven by the respectfulness facet, with the compassion and trust facets showing no substantial link. Similarly, for conscientious individuals, the responsibility facet minimized fantasizing, while organization and productiveness played no role.</p>
<p>Highly respectful and responsible people may feel a stronger internal pressure to align with traditional social norms. They might moralize their own behavior and naturally shy away from entertaining unconventional scenarios or themes of consensual aggression.</p>
<p>Conversely, participants with higher levels of negative emotionality fantasized much more frequently. This positive association appeared consistently across the exploratory, intimate, impersonal, and sadomasochistic categories alike.</p>
<p>This finding became much more apparent when the research team looked at the subcomponents of negative emotionality. The emotional volatility and anxiety facets exhibited virtually no relationship with sexual fantasies. The entire effect was generated by the depression facet.</p>
<p>The researchers suspect this points toward an emotional regulation strategy. People with depressive personality features might deliberately or spontaneously lean on sexual fantasies to generate positive mental states. In this view, entertaining exciting or arousing thoughts acts as a psychological buffer against low moods.</p>
<p>Some results contradicted previous psychological assumptions. Past studies suggested that open-minded individuals tend to daydream more frequently in general, leading to an expectation that they would also report more sexual fantasies. In this study, however, open-mindedness and its facet of creative imagination were largely unrelated to the frequency of sexual thoughts. Extraversion and its facets of sociability, energy, and assertiveness also showed minimal relationships with fantasizing once age, gender, and other background variables were controlled.</p>
<p>The authors outlined a few structural limitations to their study. The data relied natively on self-reported surveys. When people are asked about sensitive topics, they sometimes adjust their answers to appear more socially conventional. The anonymous setting of the survey likely mitigated some of this bias, but self-reports can never entirely eliminate it.</p>
<p>The study also relied on a cross-sectional design, which captures people at only one single point in time. This methodology cannot track stability or change. A person’s personality traits and sexual interests might fluctuate together over the years as their life circumstances shift.</p>
<p>Additionally, the participant pool skewed heavily white, and nearly all respondents were in monogamous romantic relationships. Future studies will need to recruit more diverse samples, including single individuals and those practicing consensual non-monogamy, to see if these patterns hold across different populations.</p>
<p>Understanding the natural variation in sexual imagination provides a helpful framework for both researchers and clinicians. Expanding the focus beyond broad personality traits to specific facets offers a much higher resolution map of human sexuality. Normalizing these differences allows mental health professionals to approach conversations about sex with greater context, recognizing that the mind’s erotic life is tightly interwoven with a person’s fundamental psychological makeup.</p>
<p>The study, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0329745">“Associations between big five personality traits, facets, and sexual fantasies,”</a> was authored by Emily Cannoot, Amy C. Moors, and William J. Chopik.</p></p>
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<p><strong>Forwarded by:<br />
Michael Reeder LCPC<br />
Baltimore, MD</strong></p>
<p><strong>This information is taken from free public RSS feeds published by each organization for the purpose of public distribution. Readers are linked back to the article content on each organization's website. This email is an unaffiliated unofficial redistribution of this freely provided content from the publishers. </strong></p>
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