Social Psychology News

April 24, 2024

Top Headlines

Don't Be a Stranger -- Study Finds Rekindling Old Friendships as Scary as Making New Ones

Apr. 23, 2024 — Psychologists have found that people are as hesitant to reach out to an old friend as they are to strike up a conversation with a stranger, even when they had the capacity and desire to do ...

Infected: Understanding the Spread of Behavior

Apr. 23, 2024 — A team of researchers found that long-tie connections accelerate the speed of social ...

Exploring Brain Synchronization Patterns During Social Interactions

Apr. 23, 2024 — Social interactions synchronize brain activity within individuals and between individuals. In a new study, researchers compared brain synchronization between pairs of people with relatively strong social ties (acquaintance pairs) and pairs with ...

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 ...

Latest Headlines

updated 8:48am EDT

Marginalized Communities Developed 'Disaster Subculture' When Living Through Extreme Climate Events

Apr. 23, 2024 — An assistant professor conducted a study in which he lived among one of the poorest, most marginalized communities in Seoul, South Korea. In the ...

Study Reveals How Humanity Could Unite to Address Global Challenges

Apr. 16, 2024 — New research has found that perceptions of globally shared life experiences and globally shared biology can strengthen psychological bonding with humanity at large, which can motivate prosocial ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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, ...

Life Goals and Their Changes Drive Success

Apr. 22, 2024 — Though life goals change over time, a study of teen goals indicates that goals of education and high prestige can drive ...

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 ...

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 relationship, a team identified four distinct patterns ...

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 ...

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 of how to use them as frequently as younger adults ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 how failure to do so can perpetuate deterministic ...

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 ...

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 ...