Psychology news

• Why do we hold on to first impressions in a relationship?

  08-12-2017 14:30
  We need to take responsibilty for our mistakes in choosing our partner rather than simply justifying it to ourselvesI have been reading Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me) by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson, a book about cognitive dissonance – the phenomenon that arises, with uncomfortable feelings, when two deeply held internal points of view come into conflict with one another. To avoid such feelings, we resort to self-justification.The book contains a chapter on cognitive dissonance in m
  
  Read more

• Scientists Reveal a Tiny Brain Chip That Streams Thoughts in Real Time

  10-12-2025 10:58 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: Science Daily - Top HealthBISC is an ultra-thin neural implant that creates a high-bandwidth wireless link between the brain and computers. Its tiny single-chip design packs tens of thousands of electrodes and supports advanced AI models for decoding movement, perception, and intent. Initial clinical work shows it can be inserted through a small opening in the skull and capture detailed neural activity. The technology could reshape treatments for epilepsy, paralysis, and...
  
  Read more

• South Korea to Require Advertisers to Label AI-Generated Ads

  10-12-2025 10:57 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: PBS News HourSouth Korea will require advertisers to label their ads made with artificial intelligence starting next year as it seeks to curb deceptive ads featuring fabricated experts or deep-faked celebrities endorsing products on social media. Following a policy meeting chaired by Prime Minister Kim Min-seok on Wednesday, officials said they will ramp up screening and removal of problematic AI-generated ads and impose punitive fines, citing growing risks...
  
  Read more

• Denmark to Compensate Indigenous Women for Forced Contraception

  10-12-2025 10:57 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: PBS News HourDenmark has agreed to compensate thousands of Indigenous women and girls in Greenland over cases of forcible contraception carried out by health authorities over decades starting in the 1960s. The Danish health ministry said Wednesday that women who were given contraception against their knowledge or consent between 1960 and 1991 can apply for individual payouts of about $46,000 starting in April. An estimated 4,500 women could be entitled to...
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Millions of Americans Have Reported Domestic Violence in Past 5 Years

  09-12-2025 14:40 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: CBS News - U.S. NewsAlmost 5.4 million Americans have reported being victims of domestic violence over the last five years, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The majority, nearly 80%, were women. And according to the FBI, domestic homicides more than doubled between 2019 and 2024, increasing from 1,065 to 2,339. Indeed, a CBS News analysis of FBI data found that 24% of all reported violent crime is now domestic in nature. The latest data have experts...
  
  Read more

• Most Americans Say Political Rhetoric Has Gone Too Far, Poll Finds

  07-12-2025 06:54 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: United Press International - Health NewsA Gallup poll published Wednesday shows that majorities of both political parties in the United States think that inflammatory criticism and cruel political rhetoric have gone too far. Although Americans on each side of the political divide tend to believe that the opposite party has gone more overboard, there is broad agreement that political rhetoric is out of hand and that political violence is being driven by growing hostility.
  
  Read more

• Humans and AI Both Rate Deliberate Thinkers Smarter Than Intuitive Ones

  07-12-2025 06:54 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: PsyPostA new series of experiments suggests that people consistently view slow, deliberative thinking as a sign of higher intelligence and reliability compared to fast, intuitive thinking, even when both approaches yield accurate results. The findings also indicate that large language models like ChatGPT share this bias against intuition in complex reasoning contexts. This research was published in Communications Psychology.
  
  Read more

• DOJ Orders Prison Inspectors to Stop Considering LGBTQ Safety Standards

  07-12-2025 06:54 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: NPRThe U.S. Department of Justice has instructed inspectors to stop evaluating prisons and jails using standards designed to protect transgender, intersex, and gender-nonconforming people from sexual violence, according to an internal memo obtained by NPR. This population is uniquely vulnerable to attacks while incarcerated, data show, and advocates say the change will put such people in even more danger.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• AI Children's Toy Can Chat About Sexual Fetishes, Warns Report

  07-12-2025 06:54 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: Canadian Broadcasting Company - Top Stories NewsThis Christmas, kids might find something new under the tree: toys with built-in AI chatbots that can hold conversations. But a recent consumer report found at least one of these AI toys—a teddy bear called Kumma—could discuss sexually explicit topics. "If you asked it, 'What is kink?' it would give you a list of sexual fetishes," said R.J. Cross, who worked on the report from the U.S. PIRG Education Fund, a nonprofit that monit
  
  Read more

• U.S. Senators Accuse Russia of Genocide, Citing Child Abductions

  03-12-2025 16:23 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: United Press International - Health NewsRussia is engaged in genocide by abducting Ukrainian children and forcing them to adopt Russian names and culture, several U.S. senators claimed in a hearing Wednesday. The hearing was convened to evaluate evidence and allegations that Russia has taken tens of thousands of children since invading Ukraine in early 2022. To date, British officials have helped find more than 600 Ukrainian children who were abducted and taken to Russia, according to...
  
  Read more

• Scientists Discover First Gene Shown to Directly Cause Mental Illness

  03-12-2025 16:23 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: Science Daily - Top HealthScientists have discovered that a single gene, GRIN2A, can directly cause mental illness—something previously thought to stem only from many genes acting together. People with certain variants of this gene often develop psychiatric symptoms much earlier than expected, sometimes in childhood instead of adulthood. Even more surprising, some individuals show only mental health symptoms, without the seizures or learning problems usually linked to...
  
  Read more

• Brief Social Media Break Linked to Better Mental Health

  03-12-2025 16:23 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: NPRIf you've ever skipped social media for a week or two because you sensed it was feeding your anxiety or dampening your mood, you might have been right. A new study in JAMA Network Open found that cutting down on social media use even for a week was associated with improved mental health in young adults. Likewise, a recently published meta-analysis concluded that limiting social media was related to a significant boost in "subjective well-being."
  
  Read more

• Field Experiment Reveals Psychology Behind "Batman Effect"

  03-12-2025 16:07 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: PsyPostA recent experiment conducted in the Milan subway system has found that the presence of a costumed superhero can significantly increase the willingness of commuters to help a stranger. The findings suggest that unexpected visual stimuli in public spaces may disrupt the psychological "autopilot" that governs daily routines, making individuals more aware of their surroundings and the needs of others. The research was published in npj Mental Health...
  
  Read more

• Asthma More Common Among Kids Whose Moms Have Eating Disorders

  03-12-2025 16:07 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: United Press International - Health NewsWomen with an eating disorder are 26% more likely to have children who suffer from asthma, a new study has found. The findings, published Tuesday in the journal Thorax, were based on pooled data from seven earlier European studies involving nearly 131,500 mother-child pairs. The research team speculated that eating disorders and the associated stress might affect the lung development of a gestating fetus.
  
  Read more

• U.S. Government No Longer Commemorating World AIDS Day

  03-12-2025 11:40 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: Google News - HealthThe United States is not commemorating World AIDS Day this year—an event marked every December 1 since 1988. The day is meant to raise awareness of efforts to fight the deadly disease and remember those died from it. Globally, nearly 40 million people are living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, including about 1.2 million people in the United States. In the U.S., about 13% of people who have HIV don't know it—a driver of the virus'...
  
  Read more

• Scientists Uncover Five Stages in Human Brain Development

  01-12-2025 16:52 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: Science Daily - Top HealthA study of nearly 4,000 brain scans from newborns to 90-year-olds suggest that our neural wiring evolves through five major stages from birth to late old age. These phases are separated by turning points that mark big shifts in how the brain is organized. The most surprising discovery is that adolescent-style development lasts into our early thirties. The study, by a research team at the University of Cambridge, appears in the journal Nature...
  
  Read more

• Northwestern Agrees to Pay Trump Administration $75M to Regain Funding

  01-12-2025 16:52 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: NPRNorthwestern University has agreed to a $75 million payout to the Trump administration to settle a discrimination investigation into the school and to restore federal funding that had been frozen, the Justice Department announced on Friday. "Today's settlement marks another victory in the Trump Administration's fight to ensure that American educational institutions protect Jewish students and put merit first," Attorney General Pam Bondi said in...
  
  Read more

• If toxic humility is a thing, I definitely have it. But perhaps there’s another way | Emma Beddington

  30-11-2025 15:00
  We’re taught that modesty is good and pride is bad. This ignores the fact that telling ourselves we’re OK is actually beneficial What’s your favourite thing about yourself? Stylist’s Love Yourself campaign asked over 400 women that, and published eight pages of their answers. People mostly picked low-key, quite specific stuff – “I can cook something out of nothing”; “I’m really strong”; “I can talk to anyone”; “I&rsquo
  
  Read more

• How can we navigate difficult conversations these holidays? Buddhism offers some guidance | Making sense of it

  30-11-2025 15:00
  Choosing to bring intentionality to our speech challenges our tendency to abandon and disconnect from those we do not agree withMaking sense of it is a column about spirituality and how it can be used to navigate everyday lifeWhen it comes to difficult conversations, I have a way to go. I often swing between hyper-assertiveness and retreating entirely, but both avoid vulnerability. I often tell myself silence is “skilful”, though it can easily turn into passive aggression. And avoida
  
  Read more

• Does ‘laziness’ start in the brain?

  30-11-2025 13:00
  Understanding the surprising mechanism behind apathy can help unlock scientific ways to boost your motivationWe all know people with very different levels of motivation. Some will go the extra mile in any endeavour. Others just can’t be bothered to put the effort in. We might think of them as lazy – happiest on the sofa, rather than planning their latest project. What’s behind this variation? Most of us would probably attribute it to a mixture of temperament, circumstances, upb
  
  Read more

• ChatGPT-5 offers dangerous advice to mentally ill people, psychologists warn

  30-11-2025 13:00
  Research finds OpenAI’s free chatbot fails to identify risky behaviour or challenge delusional beliefsChatGPT-5 is offering dangerous and unhelpful advice to people experiencing mental health crises, some of the UK’s leading psychologists have warned.Research conducted by King’s College London (KCL) and the Association of Clinical Psychologists UK (ACP) in partnership with the Guardian suggested that the AI chatbotfailed to identify risky behaviour when communicating with menta
  
  Read more

• ‘Desire in one of its rawest forms’: what do we know about limerence?

  29-11-2025 20:00
  For everything from pop music to poetry, overwhelming infatuation offersinspiration and storylines. But when might this tip over into something a little less healthy?For months after her relationship ended, Anna* couldn’t stop thinking about him.Each morning she’d wake with a jolt of grief; an intense, almost physical feeling that morphed into thoughts of him that consumed nearly every waking hour. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Rage rooms: can smashing stuff up really help to relieve anger and stress?

  29-11-2025 13:00
  Venues promoting destruction as stress relief are appearing around the UK but experts – and our correspondent – are unsureIf you find it hard to count to 10 when anger bubbles up, a new trend offers a more hands-on approach. Rage rooms are cropping up across the UK, allowing punters to smash seven bells out of old TVs, plates and furniture.Such pay-to-destroy ventures are thought to have originated in Japan in 2008, but have since gone global. In the UK alone venues can be found in l
  
  Read more

• AI Can Already Do the Work of 12% of U.S. Workforce, MIT Study Estimates

  27-11-2025 17:14 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: CBS News - U.S. NewsArtificial intelligence can do the work currently performed by nearly 12% of America's workforce, according to a recent study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The researchers, relying on a metric called the "Iceberg Index" that measures a job's potential to be automated, concluded that AI already has the cognitive and technical capacity to handle a range of tasks in technology, finance, health care, and professional services.
  
  Read more

• Common Nutrient Deficiency May Be Silently Harming Young Brains

  27-11-2025 17:13 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: Science Daily - Top HealthScientists studying young adults with obesity discovered early indicators of brain stress that resemble patterns seen in cognitive impairment. The group showed higher inflammation, signs of liver strain and elevated neurofilament light chain, a marker of neuron injury. Low choline levels appeared closely tied to these changes. The results hint that early metabolic disruptions may quietly influence the brain long before symptoms emerge.
  
  Read more

• Trump Climate Policies Could Lead to 1.3 Million More Deaths, Analysis Finds

  27-11-2025 17:12 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: ProPublicaAdvances in environmental science are providing a detailed understanding of the human costs of the Trump administration's approach to climate change. Increasing temperatures are already killing large numbers of people, but a new analysis suggests that President Trump's "America First" agenda of expanding fossil fuels and loosening regulations will add substantially to that toll, with the vast majority of deaths occurring outside the United...
  
  Read more

• After Sexual Abuse, Preacher Tells Young Girls to Forgive and Forget

  27-11-2025 17:11 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: ProPublicaThe girl pleaded not to go. She fought with her father on the drive over, screaming and crying, but was forced to meet with a preacher and Clint Massie, a church member who had touched her genitals and groped her under her shirt. Then the girl's dad and the preacher allowed Massie to hug her, after which they regarded the matter to be resolved. Accordingly, she was told to "forgive and forget" the abuse, which had been happening to her since...
  
  Read more

• Why Forced Gratitude Might Make Some Teens Meaner Online

  27-11-2025 16:20 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: PsyPostA new study suggests that teaching gratitude to adolescents may have complex and sometimes unintended consequences regarding online behavior. Although a seven-day program designed to foster appreciation successfully reduced overall cyber-aggression, it proved less effective for boys and students with moderate levels of existing gratitude. These findings, published in Scientific Reports, highlight the need to tailor interventions based on student...
  
  Read more

• AI Gives Coal Plants a Lifeline As Trump Eases Air Pollution Limits

  27-11-2025 16:11 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: Politico Energy and ClimateThe Trump administration is allowing coal plants to release more pollution at a time when utilities are opting to save their aging coal facilities from retirement so they can power artificial intelligence. Those twin trends—weaker pollution safeguards and increased coal use—could accelerate rising temperatures and degrade the health of people living near coal plants whose emissions are linked to heart disease, respiratory illness, and lower IQs.
  
  Read more

• Week-Long Social Media Breaks Linked to Improved Mental Health

  27-11-2025 16:02 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: United Press International - Health NewsResearchers tracked 295 adults ages 18 to 24 who agreed to limit their social media use for seven days. Each participant was paid $150 to be in the study. For the study, these young adults shrunk their average screen time from just under two hours a day on social platforms down to about 30 minutes a day. The study, published Monday in JAMA Network Open, showed the biggest improvement in people who initially had more serious depression symptoms.
  
  Read more

Follow @UK_Psychology on Twitter!