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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/swearing-helps-people-perform-better-when-peak-performance-is-needed-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;">Swearing helps people perform better when peak performance is needed, 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 20th 2026, 10:00</div>
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<p><p>Psychological experiments found that repeating a self-selected swear word while doing chair push-ups resulted in better performance compared to repeating a neutral word. Swearing might promote psychological states that allow an individual to maximize effort and overcome internal constraints. The paper was published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0001650"><em>American Psychologist</em></a>.</p>
<p>In many situations where peak performance is needed, people hold themselves back, either consciously or unconsciously. This limits their opportunities for success. For example, people may forego situations where they can express ideas or seize personal or professional opportunities because they fear public speaking. Job applicants may hesitate when negotiating salaries. A person may feel too shy to approach someone they are attracted to, missing an opportunity to establish a desired romantic relationship.</p>
<p>Sometimes people miss opportunities because they believe they are not talented, attractive, educated, or important enough. People also hold back when they overthink possible negative outcomes and underestimate their ability to cope with them. Past criticism, embarrassment, failure, or unstable life experiences can make a person expect that new attempts will end badly.</p>
<p>Social pressure can also stop people from acting, especially when they worry that others will judge, mock, or exclude them. Some people stay in familiar but unsatisfying situations because familiarity feels safer than change. Over time, missed opportunities can accumulate and prevent important developments in life from taking place.</p>
<p>Study author Richard Stephens and his colleagues note that in situations where people are holding themselves back, a psychological boost that leads to a more “disinhibited” psychological state might produce more favorable outcomes. For example, a recent study showed that grunting enhances tennis players’ racquet power by 19-26%. The researchers proposed that swearing may also counteract tendencies to hold back and, thereby, improve physical performance.</p>
<p>They conducted two experiments to test this. Participants in the first experiment were 88 adults recruited from the study authors’ university campus community. The study authors asked them to perform chair push-ups in two different conditions: once while repeating a swear word of their choice, and once while repeating a neutral word.</p>
<p>The chair push-up task required participants to sit on a sturdy chair and place their hands under their thighs at a 45-degree angle, with their fingers pointing inward. They would then lift their feet while straightening their arms to support their body weight on their hands for as long as possible (up to a maximum safety limit of 60 seconds). While doing the push-ups, participants were asked to repeat their chosen word every two seconds. Study participants also completed assessments measuring their psychological “flow,” how humorous they found the vocalizations to be, their self-confidence, social desirability, and how distracting they found repeating the word to be.</p>
<p>The second experiment involved 94 participants recruited in the same way as Experiment 1. The overall design was the same, with the addition that participants repeated their assigned word for 20 seconds prior to the push-up task, as well as during the task. Additionally, this experiment included measures of bystander apathy (ratings of how likely they would be to help another person in various scenarios), state disinhibition (the State BIS/BAS scale), and somatic and cognitive anxiety. Participants also rated the novelty of the swear and neutral words they used.</p>
<p>The results of the first experiment showed that chair push-up hold times were longer when participants were repeating the swear word. In this condition, participants also experienced increased psychological flow and distraction. Ratings of humor and scores of perceived freedom from constraints were also higher.</p>
<p>Statistical analyses indicated that freedom from constraints and psychological flow might mediate (explain) the link between swearing and enhanced physical performance. Psychological flow is a highly focused and enjoyable state in which a person becomes fully absorbed in an activity that is challenging but manageable.</p>
<p>The results of the second experiment confirmed the previous findings: chair push-up performance improved in the condition where participants were swearing. Swearing also resulted in greater positive emotions, distraction, and the swear word was perceived as more novel than the neutral word. Unexpectedly, using the swear word seems to have also resulted in higher levels of cognitive anxiety.</p>
<p>Because the individual mediation analyses in both experiments were somewhat mixed and statistically underpowered, the researchers combined the data from both experiments with a third, previously conducted study. Analyzing this aggregated dataset of 300 participants confirmed the researchers’ core theory: swearing reliably improved physical performance by increasing psychological flow, enhancing self-confidence, and increasing distraction (which prevents the brain from focusing on pain or fatigue).</p>
<p>“These findings suggest that swearing promotes psychological states conducive to maximizing effort and overcoming internal constraints. These effects have potential implications for athletic performance, rehabilitation, and contexts requiring courage or assertiveness. As such, swearing may represent a low-cost, widely accessible psychological intervention to help individuals ‘not hold back’ when peak performance is needed,” the study authors concluded.</p>
<p>The study contributes to the scientific understanding of the role swearing plays in human lives. However, participants were most likely aware of what effects the study authors expected. It is unlikely that they did not realize that the study authors expected swearing to result in improved performance. This could have produced the placebo effect or the Hawthorne effect, biasing the results. The Hawthorne effect is the tendency for people to change their behavior (e.g., put in more effort) simply because they know they are being observed and are aware of the likely expectations of the observers.</p>
<p>The paper, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0001650">‘Don’t Hold Back’: Swearing Improves Strength Through State Disinhibition,</a>” was authored by Richard Stephens, Harry Dowber, Christopher Richardson, and Nicholas B. Washmuth.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/adults-with-better-math-skills-rely-less-on-the-brains-physical-movement-areas/" 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;">Adults with better math skills rely less on the brain’s physical movement areas</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">May 20th 2026, 08:00</div>
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<p><p>A recent study published in the journal <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhag028" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cerebral Cortex</a></em> suggests that adults who are better at math tend to rely less on the brain areas associated with physical movement when processing numbers. These findings provide evidence that as people develop advanced math skills, their brains shift toward more automatic and abstract ways of thinking about numbers.</p>
<p>Number processing relies on multiple mental formats. Scientists describe a verbal format for number words, a visual format for written digits, and a semantic format for the actual meaning or quantity. In recent years, scientists have proposed that an embodied format also exists, where physical experiences like counting on fingers help shape how the brain understands quantities.</p>
<p>To explore how these mental formats interact at different life stages, the authors aimed to understand how physical representations of numbers relate to formal math competence in both children and adults. Xueying Ren, a postdoctoral scholar in psychology and human development at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College, explained the motivation behind the research.</p>
<p>“While we know that number processing is foundational for mathematical competence, the underlying brain mechanisms have remained heavily debated,” Ren said. “Theories of embodied cognition suggest that our abstract understanding of math is initially rooted in physical, sensory, and motor experiences, like counting on our fingers in early childhood. We wanted to look closely at both children and adults using fMRI to see how the brain’s sensorimotor regions are recruited during number processing, and how that neural engagement actually tracks with real-world math abilities across different stages of development.”</p>
<p>Functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, is a type of brain scan that measures blood flow to detect active brain areas. To conduct the study, the researchers collected imaging data from 104 adults with an average age of about 23 years. They also tested 88 fourth-grade children with an average age of nearly 10 years.</p>
<p>While inside the scanner, participants completed a number comparison task and a sound-based task. During the tasks, participants looked at two types of images on a screen. One type was symbolic Arabic numerals, like the visual number four. The other type was embodied representations, which consisted of color photographs of human hands holding up different numbers of fingers.</p>
<p>In the number task, participants had to decide if the number shown on the screen was larger or smaller than a specific target number. The participants pushed buttons to answer as quickly as possible. In the sound-based phonological task, participants had to judge if the starting sound of the number matched the starting sound of a cartoon object, like a fan or a sun.</p>
<p>The researchers also measured the participants’ overall math abilities outside the scanner using a standardized assessment called the Woodcock-Johnson Third Edition Tests of Achievement. This assessment included three specific math tests. The Calculation subtest measured basic computation skills across various types of math. The Math Fluency subtest measured how many simple arithmetic problems the participant could solve in three minutes.</p>
<p>Finally, the Applied Problems subtest measured the ability to analyze and solve spoken word problems. To ensure the brain activity was specifically linked to math, the scientists also tested basic reading skills. They used two reading subtests to measure letter identification and the ability to sound out unfamiliar words. By comparing the math scores and reading scores against the brain scans, the researchers could isolate the specific neural networks responsible for numerical cognition.</p>
<p>When looking at the brain scans, the scientists observed that adults engaged a widespread network of brain regions when processing numbers compared to processing sounds. These areas included the occipital, temporal, parietal, and insular regions of the brain. Children activated a smaller, more localized set of brain areas during the same tasks.</p>
<p>“What surprised us most was the dramatic shift in how the brain is recruited for number processing as we grow up,” Ren told PsyPost. “When looking at the overall brain maps, adults engage a much wider, more expansive network of regions across the brain compared to children.”</p>
<p>“Yet, within that broader adult network, individuals with higher math proficiency actually showed reduced activation across sensorimotor and attentional areas, a pattern completely absent in children. This reveals a fascinating paradox: as the brain gains years of experience, actual math proficiency becomes marked not by working the brain harder, but by a transition toward incredible neural efficiency and automaticity.”</p>
<p>In adults, lower activity in the somatosensory and motor cortices during the number task was associated with higher math skills. These cortices are the parts of the brain responsible for processing physical touch sensations and voluntary body movements. The authors also found that adults with better math skills showed reduced activation in the right insular cortex.</p>
<p>The insular cortex is a brain region that detects highly demanding cognitive tasks and signals the brain to apply more effort. Lower activation in this area suggests that mathematically proficient adults perceive basic number tasks as less mentally taxing. These adults operate on a sort of cognitive autopilot, requiring less conscious effort to process quantities.</p>
<p>“The core takeaway is that proficient math performance in adulthood is characterized by a fundamental neural shift toward efficiency and automaticity,” Ren said. “While children rely heavily on basic quantity processing and sensory grounding to make sense of numbers, adults with higher math skills actually show reduced activation in sensorimotor and attentional brain areas. This suggests that as we gain experience, higher math proficiency isn’t about working the brain harder, but rather about transitioning away from a physical ‘scaffold’ to more abstract, automated mental representations.”</p>
<p>The scientists also examined the left intraparietal sulcus, a brain region known for handling numerical quantities. For adults, less activity in this region correlated with better math performance, supporting the neural efficiency hypothesis. For children, the exact opposite was true. Higher activity in the left intraparietal sulcus predicted better math scores in the fourth graders, indicating that young learners still rely heavily on basic quantity processing to succeed in math.</p>
<p>None of these brain activity patterns correlated with the participants’ reading scores. This lack of correlation provides evidence that the reduced reliance on motor and quantity-processing regions is highly specific to mathematical skills. It does not simply reflect general intelligence or advanced reading comprehension.</p>
<p>A potential misinterpretation of these findings is that physical methods like finger counting are unhelpful for learning math. The authors note that physical representations often serve as a necessary scaffold for young learners as they grasp basic number concepts.</p>
<p>“An important caveat is that our findings do not imply that sensorimotor strategies, like a child using their fingers to count, are bad or should be abandoned early,” Ren said. “Sensorimotor experiences serve as an essential, adaptive scaffold when we first learn mathematical concepts. The key is that this relationship changes over time; while physical grounding is vital for early learning, our long-term math proficiency relies on the brain eventually learning to offload that effortful physical processing to achieve automaticity.”</p>
<p>A limitation of the study is that the data for adults and children were collected using two different brain scanners. This was partially due to scheduling constraints caused by the global pandemic. While scanner differences usually affect overall signal strength rather than specific behavioral correlations, future studies should use consistent equipment to rule out any potential interference.</p>
<p>“Because this study looked at separate groups of adults and fourth graders, one important next step is to utilize longitudinal designs to trace these neural transitions within the same individuals over time,” Ren said. “It would be interesting and critical to pinpoint exactly when and how the brain shifts away from its reliance on sensorimotor scaffolding. Ultimately, understanding this developmental trajectory can help us design better, more tailored educational strategies and interventions for individuals who face persistent challenges in learning math.”</p>
<p>These findings highlight a broader trend in brain development and cognition. “Overall, I think this study beautifully illustrates a broader principle in cognitive neuroscience: learning and high expertise are often marked by the brain doing less work, adaptively reducing activity as effortful control gives way to smooth automaticity,” Ren said.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhag028" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reduced dependence on sensorimotor processing in the brain is associated with higher math skills in adults</a>,” was authored by Xueying Ren, Marc N. Coutanche, Julie A. Fiez, and Melissa E. Libertus.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/people-judge-rap-music-fans-as-more-capable-of-murder-new-study-finds/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">People judge rap music fans as more capable of murder, new study finds</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">May 20th 2026, 06:00</div>
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<p><p>New research published in the journal <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/03057356261424252" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Psychology of Music</a></em> suggests that people often form negative opinions about individuals simply because they listen to rap music. The findings indicate that reading violent or sexually explicit rap lyrics causes observers to view a hypothetical fan of that music as more sexually aggressive and more capable of committing murder. This provides evidence that negative stereotypes associated with rap music extend beyond the artists who create it and affect how everyday fans are perceived.</p>
<p>Rap and hip-hop are among the most popular music genres in the world today, with millions of people streaming these songs daily. At the same time, the genre tends to be associated with controversial themes. Some songs frequently reference violence, drug use, and the objectification of women.</p>
<p>Past studies show that these stereotypes can have serious consequences in the real world, especially within the justice system. In criminal trials, prosecutors sometimes use a defendant’s own rap lyrics as evidence of their poor character, violent tendencies, or even as a confession. Research provides evidence that mock jurors judge a lyricist more harshly when exposed to their rap lyrics. A mock juror is a person who participates in a simulated trial to help researchers understand how real juries might make decisions.</p>
<p>“We were fascinated by the continued inclusion of rap lyrics as evidence in criminal trial proceedings, which is a practice not commonly applied to other music genres or art forms,” said study author <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaila-putter/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kaila Putter</a>, a doctoral candidate and senior research officer at James Cook University in Australia. “Despite the genre’s immense popularity, there are still concerns that rap music promotes misogyny, violence and criminality.”</p>
<p>The scientists wanted to know if these negative assumptions apply to the people who simply listen to the music, rather than writing it. A person’s musical preference is a common piece of social information, and people often use it to make snap judgments about someone’s personality. The researchers also wanted to explore whether the specific label of the music genre or the actual content of the lyrics drives these character judgments.</p>
<p>To test their ideas, the researchers conducted two separate online experiments. In the first study, they recruited 300 adults living in the United States and Australia. Participants read a short biographical description of a fictional 18-year-old African American high school student. The student was described as an athlete with a good academic record who planned to attend college on a scholarship.</p>
<p>The researchers randomly assigned participants to read slightly different versions of this description. Some versions included a statement that the student was accused of murdering a former girlfriend, while others did not. Some versions included a set of violent and sexually explicit lyrics from the student’s favorite rap song, while others omitted the lyrics entirely. Finally, the student was presented as either male or female.</p>
<p>After reading the description, participants rated the student on a scale measuring different personality traits. Specifically, they were asked how capable of murder and how sexually aggressive they believed the student to be. Participants also answered an open-ended question asking what main piece of information they considered when making their ratings. Finally, they completed a survey about their own personal attitudes toward rap music.</p>
<p>The researchers found that the presence of the rap lyrics significantly influenced the participants’ opinions. When the description included the rap lyrics, participants rated the fan as more capable of murder and more sexually aggressive. The gender of the fan did not change these negative ratings, as male and female fans were judged equally harshly when the lyrics were present.</p>
<p>“While we may no longer observe the moral panic associated with rap music seen in decades past, the negative stereotypes associated with this genre are still pervasive, and they extend to fans of rap,” Putter told PsyPost.</p>
<p>The written responses revealed that participants consciously used the lyrics to judge the student. In conditions where the student was both accused of murder and linked to the rap lyrics, many participants focused more heavily on the song lyrics than the actual murder accusation. This suggests that simply liking a controversial song was seen as a major flaw in character.</p>
<p>“Perhaps most strikingly, in Study 1, when participants were asked to provide character ratings of a hypothetical fan of rap music, they reported greater consideration of the rap lyrics presented to them than an accusation of murder,” Putter said. “In other words, when making judgments about a hypothetical person, it appears that rap lyrics said to be from the person’s favorite song carries more weight than an accusation of murder.”</p>
<p>The authors then conducted a second experiment to see if the specific genre label was responsible for these judgments, or if the words themselves were to blame. For this study, they recruited 504 adults from the United States and Australia. They used the same basic description of the 18-year-old male student and the same set of violent lyrics used in the first experiment.</p>
<p>This time, they altered the criminal accusation to include either a murder charge, a domestic violence charge, or no crime at all. They also changed the musical genre label attached to the lyrics. Depending on the condition, the exact same lyrics were described as coming from a rap, heavy metal, electronic dance music, or pop song, or no genre was listed at all.</p>
<p>The researchers chose these specific genres because heavy metal and electronic dance music are also frequently considered problem music. Heavy metal is sometimes associated with physical aggression, while electronic dance music is often linked to recreational drug use. Pop music, on the other hand, is generally seen as harmless and is not typically linked to criminal behavior.</p>
<p>The scientists expected that labeling the lyrics as rap would lead to harsher judgments than labeling them as pop or electronic dance music. Surprisingly, the assigned genre label did not significantly affect how capable of murder or sexually aggressive the fan was perceived to be. Just as in the first experiment, the participants’ own attitudes toward rap were the strongest predictor of their ratings. People with positive views of rap saw the fan as less dangerous.</p>
<p>To understand why the genre label had little effect, the researchers looked at how the participants naturally categorized the song. They discovered that over 80 percent of the participants correctly identified the lyrics as rap music, regardless of the label they were given. This suggests that the lyrical content itself was so recognizable that it triggered rap-related stereotypes even when participants were explicitly told the song belonged to a pop or heavy metal genre.</p>
<p>“Importantly, participants’ perception of rap music influenced how they rated the hypothetical person,” Putter noted. “That is, those who held more positive views of rap were less likely to make negative character judgments. This finding highlights the importance of educating people on the historical influences and artistic conventions associated with rap music so as to challenge assumptions about the inflammatory content and autobiographical nature of rap lyrics.”</p>
<p>The authors note a few limitations to consider. “While our findings can be understood in the context of the potential negative consequences of rap-related stereotypes when presenting rap lyrics as evidence in criminal trials, our experiments were not conducted in a mock trial setting,” Putter said.</p>
<p>Additionally, the lyrics used in the experiment were highly violent and misogynistic, which means they do not represent all styles of hip-hop. Many rap songs feature positive messages, and different styles of lyrics might not produce the same negative character judgments.</p>
<p>Another limitation is that the fictional fan was specifically presented as an African American high school student. Because previous research links rap stereotypes to broader racial prejudices, changing the race of the fan might yield different results. Most of the participants in these two experiments identified as white, which might also influence how the cultural aspects of the music were interpreted.</p>
<p>In the future, scientists could explore how people react to hearing the music rather than just reading written lyrics on a screen. Listeners often focus more on the beat or the melody of a song than the exact words, and people regularly mishear or misunderstand sung lyrics. Researchers could also conduct these experiments in a simulated courtroom setting to see exactly how these biases might impact real legal decisions.</p>
<p>“It would be interesting to conduct experiments examining rap-related stereotypes in the Australian context, for example those associated with Drill rap groups (e.g., OneFour) and their fans,” Putter added.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/03057356261424252" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Character judgements of rap music fans</a>,” was authored by Kaila C. Putter, Dan J. Miller, Amy Belfi, James Rees, and <a href="http://www.researchaboutlistening.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Amanda E. Krause</a>.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/how-sharing-a-psychedelic-experience-changes-romantic-relationships/" 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 sharing a psychedelic experience changes romantic relationships</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">May 19th 2026, 20:00</div>
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<p><p>Taking a traditional psychedelic substance together with a romantic partner is associated with a deeper sense of mutual understanding and enhanced relationship quality. In contrast, using these substances alone might leave partners out of sync, potentially contributing to relationship dissolution down the line. The new research highlighting these relational dynamics was recently published in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2025.2607729"><i>Journal of Psychoactive Drugs</i></a>.</p>
<p>In psychology, people are believed to make sense of themselves and the broader world through their relationships with others. Romantic partners are particularly motivated to develop a joint perspective on life, actively aligning their views to create a stable social environment. Researchers refer to this psychological phenomenon as shared reality. When a couple possesses a high degree of this mutual perspective, they understand external events in a very similar way.</p>
<p>This mutual understanding builds trust and reinforces the underlying bond between the two individuals. A strong shared reality often develops simply by experiencing mundane life events together over a long period of time, such as eating meals, dealing with hardships, or taking a walk.</p>
<p>A psychedelic experience, however, is an entirely different type of event. It is a powerfully transformative state that alters a person’s sensory perception, emotional regulation, and cognitive processing. Because these profound neurological shifts are entirely internal, they are completely invisible to an outside observer.</p>
<p>When only one member of a couple takes a substance like psilocybin or LSD, the experience cannot be directly observed or felt by their sober partner. Following the drug’s effects, the two individuals might emerge with contrasting perceptions of reality. Having mismatched perceptions of reality is known to damage relationship quality and breed emotional distance over time.</p>
<p>Most research in modern health psychology has focused heavily on the individual patient, treating mental health as an isolated, internal struggle. Scientific investigations into psychedelic therapies have mostly favored this individualistic approach, largely ignoring the social environment the patient will return to. Yet, observational studies on group-based psychedelic ceremonies show that social processes serve as a major catalyst for healing.</p>
<p>Concepts like emotional support and a perceived sense of shared humanity help translate the chaotic psychedelic experience into lasting psychological improvements. This mirrors evidence in general behavioral health showing that lifestyle interventions, such as quitting smoking, often work better when they target households rather than individuals.</p>
<p>Therapies utilizing substances that are not considered classic psychedelics are already incorporating relational frameworks. Novel treatments using MDMA to address trauma have shown positive behavioral outcomes when partners are included in the process. Similarly, the drug ketamine is being integrated into couple-oriented therapeutic interventions, showing promise for enduring improvements in empathy, emotional vulnerability, and perspective-taking.</p>
<p>Talea Cornelius, a researcher at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and Tommaso Barba, a researcher at Imperial College London, wanted to understand how social context shapes outcomes for classic serotonergic psychedelics. They suspected that sharing an intense, perspective-altering journey might yield profound relational benefits for a romantic pair. They also theorized that leaving a partner out of the experience could create a psychological rift.</p>
<p>To test these ideas, Cornelius and Barba designed an online survey to capture relationship dynamics before and after a psychedelic event. They recruited adults who had previously taken a moderate to strong dose of a classic psychedelic. The study participants had to be in a romantic relationship at the time of the drug use, though they could report on either a past or current union.</p>
<p>The researchers gathered information from nearly eight hundred participants. Within this group, a small subset of couples participated together utilizing unique identification codes to link their surveys anonymously. The bulk of the respondents participated as individuals without their partners but still provided detailed reports on their relationship dynamics.</p>
<p>Participants reflected on their single most meaningful psychedelic event involving a traditional substance. A traditional psychedelic refers to compounds that primarily alter perception by interacting with the serotonin system in the brain. The researchers noted that almost half of the sample reported using psilocybin, while just over a quarter used LSD, and others opted for substances containing DMT.</p>
<p>To quantify the abstract concept of mutual understanding, the survey utilized a specialized psychological questionnaire. Participants rated their agreement with statements regarding the specific psychedelic session. For example, they were asked if they seemed to be on the same wavelength as their partner as the experience was occurring. They also rated whether they shared the same perception of what was happening in the moment.</p>
<p>Following these questions, the participants rated various aspects of their relationship both before and after the psychedelic event using established psychological scales. These everyday characteristics included emotional closeness, spiritual connection, physical intimacy, and general relationship satisfaction. The survey also collected ratings regarding interpersonal tenderness, feelings of commitment, and how often the couple experienced prolonged conflict.</p>
<p>One particular metric of interest was self-other overlap, a concept that measures how much a person feels their own identity merges with their partner’s identity. Survey takers selected visual diagrams depicting varying degrees of overlapping circles to indicate their level of interpersonal closeness before and after the drug experience.</p>
<p>The resulting data supported the research team’s initial hypotheses. Participants who took a psychedelic substance alongside their romantic partner reported vastly more positive behavioral changes than those who engaged in the experience alone. Engaging in the experience together was associated with elevated scores across nearly all relationship categories.</p>
<p>Couples who shared the substance use noted robust improvements in physical and emotional intimacy. They also reported higher levels of collaboration, a greater willingness to see things from their partner’s point of view, and an increased openness to new experiences in life. Notably, the amount of physical time the partners chose to spend together after the event also increased by a noticeable margin.</p>
<p>To understand why these enhancements occurred, the researchers utilized a statistical analysis involving the shared reality questionnaire. They found that a heightened sense of mutual understanding accounted for the positive relational outcomes. Sharing the psychedelic state allowed partners to feel like they were on the exact same wavelength, which in turn boosted their overall relationship satisfaction.</p>
<p>The survey findings also illuminated potential risks for people who did not share their psychedelic journeys. For individuals reporting on past romantic relationships, taking a psychedelic alone was linked to a much lower degree of shared reality regarding the event. This lack of shared understanding was indirectly associated with the decision to eventually end the relationship.</p>
<p>The researchers theorized that undergoing an intense internal transformation without a partner disrupts the couple’s established worldview. While taking the drug alone did not directly break up the partnership, the resulting misalignment in reality perception appeared to act as a stepping stone toward the breakup.</p>
<p>These results hold direct clinical applications for emerging psychiatric treatments. Modern therapies could inadvertently diminish a couple’s shared reality by treating only one member of a relationship. If a patient experiences a major shift in how they view the world, their untreated partner might struggle to relate, creating unintended emotional distance in the home.</p>
<p>At the same time, the authors warned that the profound bonding power of psychedelics requires strict ethical boundaries in clinical settings. In environments dealing with domestic distress, artificially increasing emotional vulnerability could be dangerous. Psychedelic therapies for couples in abusive situations would need robust screening processes to ensure the substances do not trap an individual in an unsafe or coercive dynamic.</p>
<p>The study has several limitations that prevent the researchers from determining strict cause and effect. The cross-sectional design relied entirely on participants recalling past events at a single point in time, which can introduce memory bias. Additionally, asking participants to deliberately rank their most meaningful experience might have skewed the results toward unusually impactful events.</p>
<p>The study sample lacked racial diversity, as nearly eighty percent of the survey takers identified as white. Because the data were entirely observational, it is possible that couples who already possessed strong communication skills were naturally more likely to take a psychedelic together. Experimental studies are necessary to isolate the genuine psychological impacts of the drugs.</p>
<p>Future investigations should track couples chronologically to see if the relationship benefits fade as time passes. Researchers could also explore whether partners need to ingest the exact same substance to reap the rewards, as almost every participant in the current study matched their partner’s drug choice. Looking at objective brain activity, such as neural synchrony during a shared psychedelic state, could provide even deeper insights.</p>
<p>The study, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2025.2607729">“Associations of Couples’ Psychedelic Use with Shared Reality and Relational Well-Being,”</a> was authored by Talea Cornelius and Tommaso Barba.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/brain-scans-and-mathematical-models-reveal-how-antidepressant-and-placebo-effect/" 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;">Brain connectivity predicts how well antidepressants work compared to placebos</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">May 19th 2026, 18:00</div>
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<p><p>People seeking treatment for depression often experience symptom relief whether they receive an active medication or an inactive placebo. By pooling data from various symptom surveys, researchers discovered that while the pattern of mood improvement looks remarkably similar in both scenarios, the active medication triggers a more intense recovery that is uniquely linked to a patient’s baseline brain connectivity. These findings were published in the journal <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291725100962">Psychological Medicine</a>.</p>
<p>Measuring mood improvement is notoriously difficult. Clinicians typically rely on standard questionnaires that condense a wide range of symptoms into a single score. This approach can blur the lines between different aspects of mental health, such as sadness, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts. It also makes it difficult to separate the effects of a pharmacological drug from the placebo effect. </p>
<p>The placebo effect occurs when a patient’s condition improves simply because they expect the treatment to work. Past studies comparing antidepressants to placebos often show little statistical difference when using broad, conventional rating scales. When patients take a pill, the expectation of feeling better often drives real neurobiological changes. To understand the true effect of a drug, researchers need tools that can distinguish the unique benefits of the medication from the baseline response generated by the mind.</p>
<p>Lucie Berkovitch, a researcher in the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine, led a team to investigate this measurement problem. The researchers suspected that standard clinical evaluations were hiding subtle differences between pharmacological and placebo responses. They wanted to know if the underlying pattern of symptom relief was the same for both groups. They also sought to determine if an individual’s brain wiring before treatment could predict their chance of recovery.</p>
<p>To answer these questions, the team analyzed data from a past clinical trial involving 192 individuals with major depressive disorder. In the first phase of this trial, patients were randomly assigned to receive either a common antidepressant medication called sertraline or a placebo pill for eight weeks. The original trial researchers had collected detailed information on the patients’ depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, and manic symptoms. They also took magnetic resonance imaging scans of the patients’ brains before any treatment began.</p>
<p>During the trial, clinicians used a simple seven-point rating system called the Clinical Global Impressions scale to judge if patients were getting better. Based on this broad assessment, the original results showed no statistical difference between the sertraline and placebo groups. The percentage of people considered responders to the treatment was nearly identical between the active drug and the sugar pill.</p>
<p>Berkovitch and the team approached the data differently. They used a statistical technique to evaluate the responses across all the individual questions from four separate psychological surveys. Instead of just looking at the final scores calculated by doctors, the researchers let a computer algorithm find the most dominant pattern of change across 73 individual symptom questions. This data-driven approach compressed the wide variety of patient answers into a single mathematical dimension of clinical improvement.</p>
<p>The results revealed that patients in both the medication and placebo groups improved along the exact same path. Whether they received the active drug or the sugar pill, their symptom relief followed a shared geometry. The mathematical type of symptoms that changed over time remained consistent regardless of the pill they took.</p>
<p>However, the patients taking sertraline advanced much further along this path. The mathematical model showed that the antidepressant prompted a stronger overall recovery than the placebo. This heightened effect was driven largely by greater reductions in anxiety and a lower risk of suicidal thoughts. </p>
<p>This finding highlighted the limitations of the classic clinician rating scale. The basic seven-point assessment had failed to detect this difference in response intensity. Standard surveys often weigh physical symptoms heavily, which can obscure specific psychological improvements tracked by the mathematical model.</p>
<p>The team also looked at the patients’ symptoms at the start of the study to see if initial sickness levels could predict recovery. They found that severe anxiety and suicidal risk at baseline predicted larger improvements on the mathematical model for both groups. Conversely, high baseline scores specifically for depression only predicted recovery in the patients taking sertraline.</p>
<p>After the first eight weeks, the trial included a second phase where patients who did not show improvement were switched to new treatments. Nonresponders to the placebo received sertraline, and nonresponders to sertraline received bupropion, a different class of antidepressant. The researchers ran the mathematical model on this second phase and found the same shared pattern of improvement. This outcome suggests the symptom geometry is consistent even as medications change.</p>
<p>The researchers achieved their most revealing insights when analyzing the baseline brain scans. During a resting state scan, a machine measures how different areas of the brain communicate with one another while the patient is awake but not performing any specific task. The researchers mapped the global connectivity of the brain. They identified how strongly each small region was linked to the rest of the neural network.</p>
<p>They found that higher overall brain connectivity before treatment predicted a stronger recovery on the symptom model for patients taking the antidepressant. This meant that the biological setup of a patient’s brain could forecast how well they would respond to the actual medication. This forecasting effect was not statistically significant for the patients who received the placebo.</p>
<p>Specific networks within the brain also showed different predictive patterns. The connectivity of the amygdala, an almond-shaped cluster of neurons involved in processing fear and emotion, predicted symptom improvement across both groups. The broader overarching brain networks only correlated with the medical drug’s success. The pharmacological treatment appeared to target specific, reproducible brain circuits. The biological roots of the placebo effect proved to be noisier and harder to predict than the drug response.</p>
<p>The study relies on a secondary analysis of a previously completed trial, meaning the data was not collected specifically for this new mathematical approach. The sample size was relatively small for the type of statistical modeling used. Additionally, the original trial design did not include brain scans taken at the end of the eight-week treatment period. Without follow-up imaging, investigators could only observe what predicted recovery rather than seeing how the brain physically changed in response to the drug or the placebo.</p>
<p>Future research featuring larger groups of patients could help confirm if this single path of mood improvement holds true across different demographics and depression subtypes. Conducting new trials that include multiple scans over time would allow scientists to map how these neural networks actually reorganize as symptoms fade. Comparing different types of antidepressants side-by-side using the same computer modeling could reveal how different chemical mechanisms influence recovery. By refining how we measure the mind, doctors may eventually be able to use brain scans to match patients with the most effective personalized treatments.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291725100962">A common symptom geometry of mood improvement under sertraline and placebo associated with distinct neural patterns</a>,” was authored by Lucie Berkovitch, Kangjoo Lee, Jie Ji, Markus Helmer, Masih Rahmati, Jure Demsar, Aleksij Kraljic, Andraz Matkovic, Zailyn Tamayo, John Murray, Grega Repovs, John Krystal, William Martin, Clara Fonteneau, and Alan Anticevic.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/more-than-6-of-young-adults-suffer-from-internet-gaming-disorder-global-study-reveals/" 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;">More than 6% of young adults suffer from Internet Gaming Disorder, global study reveals</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">May 19th 2026, 16:00</div>
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<p><p>A meta-analysis of studies on Internet Gaming Disorder found that this condition is, on average, present in 6.1% of young adults. The prevalence was higher in gamer-only samples (8.1%) compared to samples that included both gamers and non-gamers. The paper was published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2025.108576"><em>Addictive Behaviors</em></a>.</p>
<p>Internet Gaming Disorder is a pattern of excessive or poorly controlled video game playing that causes significant problems in a person’s life. It involves more than simply enjoying games or playing them often. A person with this disorder thinks about gaming constantly, feels restless or irritable when unable to play, and experiences a need to spend more and more time gaming to feel satisfied.</p>
<p>They may try to reduce gaming but repeatedly fail. As the disorder progresses, gaming slowly begins to replace school, work, sleep, exercise, hobbies, or relationships. Some people continue gaming even after it causes serious conflicts, poor performance, or emotional distress. Internet Gaming Disorder is especially concerning when gaming becomes a way to escape problems while simultaneously creating even bigger problems in daily life. The key issue in diagnosis is the loss of control and the harm that gaming leads to, rather than the raw number of hours a person spends gaming.</p>
<p>Study author Júlia Gisbert-Perez and her colleagues note that different studies tend to report varying prevalences of Internet Gaming Disorder among young adults, a demographic group highly vulnerable to this disorder due to the stress of transitioning to independence. With this in mind, they conducted a meta-analytic study aiming to integrate the findings of previous research to establish just how frequent this disorder is among individuals in this demographic. </p>
<p>The study authors searched the scientific research databases Web of Science (Core Collection), Scopus, and PsychInfo. They used search terms including “internet gaming disorder,” “online games addiction,” “problematic gaming behav*,” “pathologic video game use,” or “digital game addiction,” along with terms like “emerg* adult*,” “young adult*,” “university,” “college,” or “youth.” They looked for studies that reported a prevalence figure for Internet Gaming Disorder, comprised a sample of participants between 18 and 35 years of age, provided original empirical data, and were published in English or Spanish.</p>
<p>The search initially resulted in 1,411 publications. After screening and detailed inspection, they found 93 studies that met their criteria. Taken together, these studies included 149,601 participants. Their average age was 23-24 years old, and 51% of them were women.</p>
<p>The meta-analytic integration of the results from these studies showed that the pooled prevalence of Internet Gaming Disorder among young adults was 6.1%. Prevalence was higher in samples that consisted solely of gamers (8.1%), while it was 5.47% in mixed samples that included both gamers and non-gamers.</p>
<p>Further analyses revealed that the reported prevalence heavily depended on the specific diagnostic instrument used to assess the symptoms. Furthermore, prevalence rates tended to be artificially higher in studies with smaller sample sizes or those deemed to have a “high risk of bias.” Prevalence also might have been lower in samples containing more female participants, but the difference was not quite strong enough to pass the needed statistical thresholds.</p>
<p>Interestingly, when looking exclusively at the “gamer-only” samples, the researchers found that the prevalence of the disorder has been steadily increasing in recent years. The authors suggest this could be driven by the rise of competitive gaming platforms or the incorporation of predatory microtransactions and “loot boxes” in contemporary video games. </p>
<p>“These findings indicate that IGD [Internet Gaming Disorder] is more prevalent among young adults than in the general population, especially among gamers. The variability observed across studies highlights the need for methodological consistency and the use of validated diagnostic tools to improve comparability and inform prevention and intervention strategies,” the study authors concluded.</p>
<p>The study contributes to the scientific knowledge surrounding Internet Gaming Disorder. However, the study authors note that their search strategy might have missed some studies that reported age only in numerical terms, rather than using keywords like “young adults.” </p>
<p>Additionally, the authors report that their statistical analyses indicated a significant asymmetry in the published prevalences. Because scientific journals tend to favor publishing “significant” or shocking findings, it is highly likely that studies finding exceptionally high rates of gaming addiction were published, while studies finding low or unremarkable rates were never published (a phenomenon known as publication bias). This bias could have artificially distorted the overall 6.1% estimate, meaning the true prevalence might be slightly lower.</p>
<p>The paper, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2025.108576">Prevalence of Internet gaming disorder in young adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis</a>,” was authored by Júlia Gisbert-Perez, Claudio Longobardi, Manuel Martí-Vilar, Sofia Mastrokoukou, and Laura Badenes-Ribera.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/the-hidden-risks-and-realities-of-sexual-behavior-in-moving-vehicles/" 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;">The hidden risks and realities of sexual behavior in moving vehicles</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">May 19th 2026, 14:00</div>
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<p><p>Almost one-third of surveyed college students report engaging in sexual activity while riding in or driving a moving vehicle. Couples often view this behavior as a fun adventure despite the obvious risks on the road. The practice involves high rates of distracted driving and a noticeable gender gap in the rates of orgasm, according to new research published in <i><a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2025.2606768">The Journal of Sex Research</a></i>.</p>
<p>For about a century, automobiles have provided couples with a private place away from family and roommates to explore their sexuality. Most academic literature on the subject has focused on the well-known practice of parking. This concept refers to having sex in a stationary car parked in a secluded area, like an empty field or a drive-in theater. </p>
<p>Fewer researchers have evaluated the prevalence of sexual interactions while a vehicle is actually traveling down the road. Some media reports and traffic safety records capture extreme examples of this behavior. These official records usually only emerge when the sexual activity leads to a traffic stop, aggressive driving complaints, or a vehicle crash.</p>
<p>Researchers occasionally scan adult websites to analyze sexually explicit videos of people acting intimately while driving. Yet these instances and official traffic records represent only a fraction of the actual occurrences happening in everyday life. </p>
<p>Cindy Struckman-Johnson, a psychology researcher at the University of South Dakota, wanted to better estimate how common this hidden behavior is. Along with public health researcher Peter Anderson of Walden University and George Smeaton of Smeaton Research Consulting, Struckman-Johnson sought to profile the people engaging in this activity.</p>
<p>Over ten years ago, Struckman-Johnson published an initial survey on the topic that focused strictly on the sexual experiences of people in the driver’s seat. For this updated effort, the research team gathered data from both drivers and passengers. By expanding the focus, they hoped to understand how sexual partners interact as a couple in the front seat, what motivates them, and how their cell phone habits factor into the equation.</p>
<p>The researchers recruited just under one thousand undergraduate students from a Midwestern university to complete an anonymous online survey. Survey participants included students enrolled in variety of psychology classes covering topics like human development, abnormal behavior, and human sexuality. The participant pool was primarily white and heterosexual, and the average age was about twenty-one years old. </p>
<p>The students answered a series of targeted questions about their experiences with sex in vehicles. Because the study relies on self-reported survey data, the researchers can document correlations rather than direct cause and effect. Participants who indicated they had engaged in sexual activity as either a driver or a passenger answered specific questions about their most recent incident.</p>
<p>The survey prompted the students to describe the type of road, the sexual acts performed, and the identity of their partner. Respondents also had the opportunity to type freely about their most memorable experiences, allowing the researchers to capture nuanced details about the encounters.</p>
<p>The results showed that twenty-nine percent of the surveyed students had engaged in sexual activity in a moving vehicle. This behavior usually took place with a serious romantic partner on a rural highway or country road. Penetrative sex was relatively rare, with vaginally penetrative sex reported by just nine percent of the final analytical group. Very few people reported anal sex.</p>
<p>The most common sexual acts reported were oral sex and genital touching. More than two-thirds of the study participants who had sex in a moving vehicle said they engaged in oral sex. Many of these respondents described the situation as a form of erotic foreplay that occurred while they were trying to quickly get to a final destination.</p>
<p>The survey revealed a massive gap in physical pleasure between men and women. When prompted to recall if they achieved an orgasm during their most recent experience in a moving vehicle, roughly two-thirds of men said yes. In contrast, only about one-fifth of the women said they experienced an orgasm.</p>
<p>The researchers suspect this gap might relate to social expectations defining how heterosexual couples operate. Often referred to as sexual scripts, these social norms dictate patterned behaviors and sometimes prioritize male physical pleasure over female pleasure. In the survey responses, women were more likely than men to say they engaged in the activity specifically to satisfy their partner’s arousal or to give their partner an exciting adventure.</p>
<p>Conversely, the researchers noted that the anatomy of the situation itself might explain the differing orgasm rates. Providing oral sex to a male driver wedged behind the steering wheel is generally easier than attempting to do the same for a female driver. Because the survey did not ask whether participants were giving or receiving oral sex, the biological mechanics of the acts remain a possible factor.</p>
<p>The team also found that the participants took high levels of risk regarding sexual health. Among those reporting oral or penetrative sex, only about ten percent indicated they used a condom. The impromptu and spontaneous nature of these sexual encounters likely prevents couples from using proper physical barriers. Some survey respondents mentioned that a lack of condoms caused distracting bodily messes on the upholstery of the car.</p>
<p>Another layer of risk came from modern technology. Nearly forty percent of the participants reported using a cell phone while having sex in a moving vehicle. Almost thirty percent of that group said they watched pornography on their phones during the act.</p>
<p>Other cell phone habits during the journey showed distinct divisions between men and women. The women in the study were more likely to text or call a friend while the sexual activity was happening. The researchers noted that these participants might have been including friends as a way to “show off” to their peers or to increase their own levels of sexual excitement by being somewhat public.</p>
<p>Risky driving was exceptionally common during these events. Three-quarters of the participants reported experiencing at least one type of negative driver safety consequence. Over half of the respondents admitted the driver took their eyes off the road for more than two seconds. </p>
<p>Almost one-quarter of the participants said their vehicle drifted into another lane. One in five indicated the vehicle exceeded the speed limit. Safety margins practically dissolved as some participants even noted the driver completely let go of the steering wheel.</p>
<p>Despite the high frequency of distracted driving, only two participants reported a minor vehicle crash. Many participants said they mitigated the danger by slowing their speed, turning on cruise control, or pulling onto the shoulder of the highway to finish their sexual activities.</p>
<p>Although less than half of the respondents reported personal negative outcomes, a small number indicated they experienced the worst sex of their lives. A fractional percentage of respondents reported being pressured into the acts. Some women reported being emotionally manipulated or physically coerced into performing oral sex on abusive partners who were driving.</p>
<p>Yet for the vast majority, the outcomes felt entirely positive. Over eighty percent of the respondents said they had a fun and exciting adventure. Roughly ten percent of the participants labeled it as the best sex they ever had. Some participants linked the event to deeper romantic milestones, reporting it made them feel closer to a partner they eventually married. </p>
<p>The researchers caution that the results draw exclusively on students attending a single university in the rural Midwest. These students navigate long stretches of undeveloped plains, which might influence their sexual behavior differently than young adults living in dense urban settings. A person living in a crowded, high-traffic city may have far fewer opportunities to try this behavior.</p>
<p>Future work in this area will need to include older adults. Some public polls suggest adults in their thirties and forties have high rates of sexual experiences in moving vehicles. Researchers should also survey a more balanced count of men and women. The current study attracted substantially more female participants than male participants, which might skew some of the broader behavioral trends.</p>
<p>Clarifying the simple mechanics of these sexual acts will also help explain the orgasm gap. Future studies that document which partner is actively receiving physical stimulation could resolve whether the gap stems from social expectations or spatial restrictions. </p>
<p>As self-driving technology advances, the landscape of vehicular intimacy will likely shift entirely. The researchers point out that autonomous vehicles could turn cars into mobile bedrooms, making automotive sex increasingly commonplace. </p>
<p>For now, the research team recommends that basic driver safety programs begin mentioning the danger of sexual distractions. They also suggest that teenage sex education courses should acknowledge the reality of this behavior instead of intentionally ignoring it. A realistic education program could encourage young adults to simply pull off the roadway to prioritize both sexual safety and traffic survival.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2025.2606768">A New Look at Sexual Behavior in Moving Vehicles Reported by Midwestern College Students</a>,” was authored by Cindy Struckman-Johnson, Peter Anderson, and George Smeaton.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/a-healthy-diet-doesnt-cancel-out-the-inflammatory-effects-of-alcohol-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;">A healthy diet doesn’t cancel out the inflammatory effects of alcohol, 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 19th 2026, 12:00</div>
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<p><p>New research published in the journal <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/alcalc/agag015" target="_blank">Alcohol and Alcoholism</a></em> suggests that moderate to heavy drinking tends to be associated with increased bodily inflammation, even for individuals who maintain a highly nutritious diet. The study provides evidence that eating well might not be enough to counter the harmful physical effects of frequent alcohol consumption.</p>
<p>Scientists Kailyn Lowder and <a href="https://www.drjimikaye.com/" target="_blank">Jimikaye Beck Courtney</a> wanted to better understand how two common lifestyle factors, diet and alcohol consumption, interact to influence systemic chronic inflammation. Jimikaye Beck Courtney is an assistant professor and an A. Donald and Billie J. Stallings fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.</p>
<p>“I studied nutritional sciences during my undergraduate degree and began researching alcohol use during my postdoctoral fellowship,” Courtney said. “Across those experiences, I’ve been interested in the complexity of how both nutrition and alcohol use impact health outcomes.”</p>
<p>“For instance, past research indicated that moderate alcohol use may be protective against cardiovascular disease, but the U.S. Surgeon General more recently advised that any alcohol use increases cancer risk.”</p>
<p>Systemic chronic inflammation is a persistent, low level immune response. When the immune system is constantly activated in this way, it can induce oxidative stress and eventually damage healthy tissues. This persistent damage provides a foundation for various severe health conditions like cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. </p>
<p>“The first author, Kailyn Lowder, was a master’s student in EXSS at UNC Chapel Hill who also had a nutrition background and was studying inflammation in cancer,” Courtney noted. “We were interested in investigating whether alcohol use was detrimental to inflammation after accounting for the healthfulness of a person’s diet.”</p>
<p>To answer these scientific questions, the researchers recruited 91 adults between the ages of 21 and 44 years old. The participants all had a Body Mass Index of 25 or higher, classifying them as either overweight or obese. Body Mass Index is a standard measurement tool that uses a person’s height and weight to estimate their total body fat. </p>
<p>The selected sample was predominantly White, non-Hispanic, and female. The study utilized an intensive longitudinal design, meaning the researchers tracked the participants closely over a relatively short period of 21 consecutive days. </p>
<p>At the beginning of the study, the participants filled out initial surveys detailing their typical drinking habits over the previous month. Based on this retrospective information, the researchers categorized the participants into four distinct groups. These categories included nondrinkers who consumed zero drinks, light drinkers who consumed up to three drinks per week, moderate drinkers who consumed up to 14 drinks per week for men or seven for women, and heavy drinkers who exceeded those moderate limits.</p>
<p>During the 21 days, participants answered daily smartphone surveys each morning to report their exact alcohol consumption. The participants also completed highly detailed dietary recall interviews at the start of the study and again at the end. </p>
<p>The researchers used this food data to calculate a total Healthy Eating Index score for each person. Higher scores indicate a healthier diet rich in whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, and lower in saturated fats.</p>
<p>At the end of the 21 days, the participants returned to the laboratory for a follow up blood draw. The researchers analyzed the blood samples for specific inflammatory markers known as cytokines. Cytokines are proteins that the immune system releases in response to stress or injury.</p>
<p>In small amounts, cytokines are a normal part of the body’s defense system. However, when they are persistently elevated, known as chronic low grade inflammation, they can contribute to the development of heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. </p>
<p>The specific cytokines measured included C-reactive protein, tumor necrosis factor alpha, interleukin 6, and interleukin 1 beta. C-reactive protein is one of the most commonly used clinical markers of inflammation because it can be measured with a routine blood test. Elevated levels of C-reactive protein have been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other chronic conditions. </p>
<p>When looking strictly at the daily drinking logs from the 21 day period, the researchers found no significant associations between the daily average of drinks consumed and the levels of inflammatory proteins in the blood. However, when the scientists looked at the habitual drinking categories based on the past month of overall behavior, habitual alcohol consumption appeared to be detrimentally associated with specific inflammatory markers. This specific relationship remained intact even after factoring in how well the participants ate.</p>
<p>The scientists found significant differences based on biological sex regarding C-reactive protein levels. Females who fell into the moderate and heavy drinking categories had significantly higher levels of C-reactive protein compared to females who were only light drinkers. Interestingly, there were no such differences among the male participants in the study.</p>
<p>“I was somewhat surprised that males did not show any differences in inflammation (specifically C-reactive protein [CRP]) regardless of how much alcohol they consumed, whereas females had increased inflammation even when drinking moderately (4-7 drinks/week),” Courtney said. “This was surprising given previous research suggesting that moderate alcohol use may lower risk. In general, the results varied by inflammatory biomarker, showing how complicated the relationship is between nutrition, alcohol use, and inflammation.”</p>
<p>The authors note that females generally produce fewer of the enzymes needed to metabolize alcohol in the stomach and liver, and they tend to have less fat free body mass than males. These inherent biological differences mean females usually experience higher blood alcohol concentrations from the exact same amount of alcohol, which might explain their heightened inflammatory response.</p>
<p>When looking at tumor necrosis factor alpha, the scientists found that heavy drinkers of both biological sexes had significantly higher levels of this inflammatory protein compared to light drinkers. The researchers found no major associations between drinker type and interleukin 1 beta. For interleukin 6, female sex moderated the association among moderate drinkers, but the differences between the specific drinking groups were not statistically significant enough to draw firm conclusions.</p>
<p>Regarding overall diet, the researchers found that higher Healthy Eating Index scores were associated with slightly lower levels of C-reactive protein, tumor necrosis factor alpha, and interleukin 1 beta. Consuming more whole grains was linked to lower interleukin 6, while consuming more saturated fat was linked to higher interleukin 6. While eating a high quality diet did provide a small protective effect against inflammation, it did not cancel out the much larger spikes in inflammation seen in the moderate and heavy drinking categories. </p>
<p>“Inflammation increases disease risk, and alcohol use may exacerbate inflammation regardless of how healthy the rest of your diet is,” Courtney told PsyPost. “It’s worth noting that our study focused specifically on adults who were overweight or obese, so these findings may not apply equally to everyone, if you’re unsure what this means for you personally, it’s worth talking to your doctor. That said, if you are an adult who is overweight or heavier based on a body mass index > 25 kg/m², our findings suggest it may be worth avoiding more than 3 alcoholic drinks per week.”</p>
<p>Courtney also outlined a few limitations and potential misunderstandings regarding the findings. “It is important for readers to note that, although light drinking females (1-3 drinks/week) had lower CRP than moderate and heavy drinking females, they were not lower than non-drinkers,” Courtney said. “In other words, please do not interpret these findings to suggest that light drinking is better than non-drinking when it comes to inflammation.”</p>
<p>The researchers note that the findings might not apply to the broader general population or to people with different body compositions. “As well, this was a sample of disease-free adults who were overweight or heavier based on body mass index,” Courtney noted. “It’s possible that the impact of alcohol use and nutrition on inflammation could be different among adults who are normal weight, because overweight and obesity increase inflammation, as well as among adults who already have diseases like hypertension or diabetes.”</p>
<p>Additionally, the dietary data only covered two single days over the entire three week study period. Nutritionists generally recommend collecting dietary data over at least three or four days to get a truly accurate picture of a person’s habitual eating patterns. Another potential misinterpretation could arise from the reliance on self reported data for alcohol consumption.</p>
<p>“My overarching goal in research is to help people live healthier and happier lives by, for instance, helping them make informed decisions about whether drinking alcohol is a good decision for their health and well-being,” Courtney said. “For next steps, I’m continuing to investigate the impact of alcohol use and other lifestyle behaviors, like nutrition and physical activity, on inflammation to help achieve that long-term goal.”</p>
<p>Future research should aim to include larger and more diverse groups of people over extended periods of time. The scientists suggest that future studies could use objective measures of biological alcohol exposure, such as wearable alcohol sensors or breathalyzers, to eliminate the potential inaccuracies of self reporting. </p>
<p>“As with all research, replication and further investigation are always needed,” Courtney said. “In the meantime, guidance from medical organizations and the U.S. Surgeon General on alcohol use remains the best resource for making informed decisions about drinking. On that note, I want to highlight that Kailyn Lowder, the first author, was instrumental in this research, she is the one who initiated this specific research question. She’s an MD/PhD student, and I feel certain she is an upcoming leader in medicine and research.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/alcalc/agag015" target="_blank">Moderate-to-heavy habitual alcohol use appears to be detrimentally associated with inflammation even when accounting for diet quality in humans: findings from an observational intensive longitudinal study</a>,” was authored by Kailyn Lowder and Jimikaye Beck Courtney.</p></p>
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<p><strong>Forwarded by:<br />
Michael Reeder LCPC<br />
Baltimore, MD</strong></p>
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