Category: Psychology

A new study shows that both chimpanzees and young children are drawn to watching social interactions—sometimes even at a cost. When given a choice between viewing videos of social behavior or solo individuals, both species consistently chose the social scenes.

A study analyzing over 300,000 births in Sweden found that babies born to mothers over 40—especially those aged 45 and older—face higher risks of complications at birth. These include stillbirth, premature delivery, low birth weight for gestational age, and neonatal low blood sugar.

Displaced aggression—redirecting frustration onto an uninvolved target—has now been studied in mice, revealing that identity and social history play key roles in shaping aggressive behavior. Male mice primed by seeing a rival behind a barrier showed increased aggression only when the rival was unfamiliar or lacked a clear social hierarchy.

A new study has examined brains affected by PTSD at the single-cell level, uncovering distinct genetic alterations that may drive the disorder. Researchers focused on the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a brain region tied to emotional regulation, analyzing individual cell nuclei to map communication differences across PTSD, major depression, and control brains. They found impaired signaling […]

New research reveals that some individuals may experience selective difficulty recognizing faces from racial groups different from their own, a phenomenon known as category-selective face blindness. While general face blindness (prosopagnosia) is well-documented, this study shows that many people perform well with own-race faces but poorly with others.

New research shows that facial expressions can reveal internal cognitive states, accurately predicting task performance across both macaques and mice. By analyzing facial features during a foraging task in a virtual reality setup, researchers identified patterns linked to motivation, focus, and responsiveness.

A new 16-year study of over 10,000 adults finds that higher wellbeing is linked to better memory performance in middle age. Researchers tracked participants’ psychological wellbeing and memory recall, finding that those with higher life satisfaction were more likely to retain stronger cognitive function over time.

A first-of-its-kind clinical trial shows that ketamine treatment for severe, treatment-resistant depression is significantly more effective when paired with psychotherapy and supportive environments. Patients who underwent this combined treatment reported a 30% drop in depression symptoms, with reduced anxiety and suicidal thoughts lasting at least eight weeks.

Hope isn’t just about wishful thinking—it’s a unique emotional experience that may be more essential to well-being than happiness or gratitude. A new study shows that hope stands out among positive emotions as the most consistent predictor of a meaningful life.

Researchers have developed an AI tool called EmoSync that boosts empathy by tailoring emotional analogies to each user’s personality and life experiences. Unlike traditional empathy tech that assumes uniform emotional responses, EmoSync uses a large language model (LLM) to map personal traits and generate custom scenarios that resonate more deeply. In a study of over […]