Social Psychology News

April 18, 2024

Top Headlines

Everyday Social Interactions Predict Language Development in Infants

Apr. 8, 2024 — Researchers found that when the adult talked and played socially with a 5-month-old baby, the baby's brain activity particularly increased in regions responsible for attention -- and the level of this type of activity predicted enhanced language ...

Prairie Voles Display Signs of Human-Like Depression

Apr. 4, 2024 — Researchers make the case that prairie voles, small rodents that are found throughout the central United States and Canada, can be effectively used as animal models to further the study of clinical ...

Large Language Models Respond Differently Based on User's Motivation

Apr. 3, 2024 — A new study reveals how large language models (LLMs) respond to different motivational states. In their evaluation of three LLM-based generative conversational agents (GAs)--ChatGPT, Google Bard, and Llama 2, scientists found that while GAs are able ...

Developmental Psychology: Concern for Others Emerges During Second Year of Life

Mar. 27, 2024 — An empirical longitudinal study tracked the emergence of empathic concern in ...

Latest Headlines

updated 7:18pm EDT

Social, Environmental Factors May Raise Risk of Developing Heart Disease and Stroke

Mar. 27, 2024 — Neighborhoods with more adversity have up to twice the increased risk of heart disease and stroke, according to a new ...

Mar. 27, 2024 — The couple that drinks together might live longer together, too, says a University of Michigan ...

2 in 3 Parents Say Their Adolescent or Teen Worries About How Sick Days May Impact Grades

Mar. 25, 2024 — Many parents recognize increasing mental health concerns among children, reflected by the 1 in 5 who say they're open to allowing a child to take a ...

Less Social With Age

Mar. 15, 2024 — Scientists tested several hypotheses on the drivers of social aging in free-living Assamese macaques in Thailand. The researchers collected data on the social behavior of females for eight years and ...

Lonely 12 Year-Olds Less Likely to Gain Employment in Adulthood

Mar. 14, 2024 — New research has found that there is a direct socioeconomic impact of loneliness in early adolescence. The research found that lonely young adults are more likely to be out of education, employment, ...

Researchers Identify Distinct Sleep Types and Their Impact on Long-Term Health

Mar. 12, 2024 — Poor sleep habits are strongly associated with long-term chronic health conditions, according to decades of research. To better understand this ...

Older Adults Want to Express Themselves With Emojis, They Just Don't Understand How to

Mar. 6, 2024 — A new study is providing insight into how different generations are interpreting the use of emojis in their communications, with older adults unsure ...

A Holistic Framework for Studying Social Emotions

Feb. 29, 2024 — The crucial role of social emotions in our lives and in society cannot be overstated. Empathy, guilt, embarrassment, pride and other feelings we experience in the context of other people govern and ...

What Math Tells Us About Social Dilemmas

Feb. 26, 2024 — Human coexistence depends on cooperation. Individuals have different motivations and reasons to collaborate, resulting in social dilemmas, such as the well-known prisoner's dilemma. Scientists now ...

Addressing Societal Concerns of Genetic Determinism of Human Behavior by Linking Environmental Influences and Genetic Research

Feb. 27, 2024 — In a new perspective article, researchers underscore the importance of integrating environmental effects into genetic research. The authors discuss ...

Economic Wealth May Be Linked With Happiness in China -- If Inequality Is Low

Apr. 10, 2024 — A country's economic prosperity is linked with improved well-being in its residents, according to a new ...

Talking Politics With Strangers Isn't as Awful as You'd Expect, Research Suggests

Apr. 3, 2024 — Individuals underestimate the social connection they can make with a stranger who disagrees with them on contentious issues, a new research paper ...

Exploring the Effect of the Presence of Familiar People in Interpersonal Space

Apr. 3, 2024 — Researchers investigate the influence of social relationships on our bodily responses to the presence of other persons in the interpersonal ...

While Social Media Changes Over Decades, Conversation Dynamics Stay the Same, New Study Suggests

Mar. 20, 2024 — A new study has identified recurring, 'toxic' human conversation patterns on social media, which are common to users irrespective of the platform used, the topic of discussion, and the ...

Social Bonding Gets People on the Same Wavelength

Mar. 20, 2024 — When small hierarchical groups bond, neural activity between leaders and followers aligns, promoting quicker and more frequent communication, according to a new ...

Study Tracks Shifts in Student Mental Health During College

Mar. 14, 2024 — Dartmouth researchers tracked more than 200 undergraduates for all four years of college to capture the most in-depth data yet on how students' self-esteem and mental health fluctuates during ...

No, an Anti-Racist Program in Schools Didn't Stress out Kids, Study Finds

Mar. 11, 2024 — A new study of how high school students respond to a program designed to increase the frequency and quality of conversations about race in school finds that the anti-racist intervention did not cause ...

Peer Pressure Susceptibility Lasts Into Adulthood

Mar. 6, 2024 — While 'peer pressure' is often linked to experiences of children or teenagers, researchers say young adults continue to succumb to similar pressures of social conformity in everyday ...

Parents, Wealth, Race Drive Girls' Chances to Play Sports

Feb. 29, 2024 — The likelihood that a girl will participate in high school sports in the United States is driven not so much by individual choice, new research suggests. Instead, decisions made by parents, the ...

Climate Change Linked to Rise in Mental Distress Among Teens, According to Drexel Study

Feb. 22, 2024 — Worsening human-induced climate change may have effects beyond the widely reported rising sea levels, higher temperatures, and impacts on food supply and migration -- and may also extend to ...

Combination of Group Competition and Repeated Interactions Promotes Cooperation

Feb. 22, 2024 — How did cooperative behavior prevail in human evolution? Researchers have challenged two prevailing explanations -- repeated interactions on the one hand or group competition on the other. Instead, ...

Living in Violent Neighborhoods Affects Children's Brain Development

Feb. 22, 2024 — Living in neighborhoods with high levels of violence can affect children's development by changing the way that a part of the brain detects and responds to potential threats, potentially leading ...

Unravelling the Genetic and Environmental Influences on Trust

Feb. 20, 2024 — Trust, a cornerstone of human interaction, has a significant genetic component, according to new ...

Smiling Is the Secret to Seeing Happiness, New Research Reveals

Feb. 20, 2024 — Smiling for just a split second makes people more likely to see happiness in expressionless faces, new research has revealed. The study shows that even a brief weak grin makes faces appear more ...

Live from the Brain: Visual Cues Inform Decision to Cooperate

Feb. 14, 2024 — By combining behavioral and wireless eye tracking and neural monitoring, a team of scientists studied how pairs of freely moving macaques interacting in a naturalistic setting use visual cues to ...

Reported Marital Harmony -- Or Conflict -- Accounts for Nearly Ten Percent of the Variation in Mental Health Self-Assessments in a Broad Study of Australian Adults

Feb. 14, 2024 — Australian adults who report a good relationship that meets their original expectations tend to score higher in mental health, while adults who report loving their spouse but wished they had never ...

Great Apes Playfully Tease Each Other

Feb. 13, 2024 — Babies playfully tease others as young as eight months of age. Since language is not required for this behavior, similar kinds of playful teasing might be present in non-human animals. Now cognitive ...

Low Voice Pitch Increases Standing Among Strangers

Feb. 8, 2024 — If you're looking for a long-term relationship or to boost your social status, lower your pitch, according to researchers studying the effects of voice pitch on social perceptions. They found ...

How a City Is Organized Can Create Less-Biased Citizens

Feb. 6, 2024 — A new study presents data and a mathematical model to explain why there is more unconscious, or implicit, racial bias in some cities than others. The study, which brings together the math of cities ...

Hiring the Most Qualified Candidate Might Be Unfair

Feb. 1, 2024 — Both liberals and conservatives are more likely to believe that merit-based hiring is unfair after learning about the impacts of socioeconomic disparities, according to a new ...