Psychology news

• Global Warming Could Trigger the Next Ice Age

  22-12-2025 17:55 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: Science Daily - Top NewsScientists have uncovered a gap in Earth's carbon cycle that could cause global warming to overshoot into an ice age. As the planet warms, nutrient-rich runoff could fuel plankton growth that buries huge amounts of carbon in the ocean. In low-oxygen conditions, this process can spiral out of control, cooling Earth far beyond its original state. While this cooling won't save us from modern climate change, it may explain Earth's most extreme...
  
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• Spouses Share Psychiatric Diagnoses Above Chance Levels, Study Finds

  25-12-2025 06:51 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: PsyPostThe concept of romantic partners sharing a psychiatric diagnosis is not new. Indeed, between 1964 and 1985 several studies that explored the role of psychiatric diagnoses in romantic choices. However, large cross-cultural investigations have been noticeable absent. Now, a study of more than 6 million people in three countries, published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, has found robust evidence of spouses sharing the same psychiatric...
  
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• How Much of Project 2025 Has the White House Achieved This Year?

  25-12-2025 06:51 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: PBS News HourBefore he was elected president in 2024, Donald Trump said that he had nothing to do with Project 2025, a Christian-nationalist blueprint to remake the U.S. federal government. As this year draws to a close, advocacy organizations, labor unions, and a crowd-sourced effort estimate that his administration has implemented roughly half of the goals laid out in the document's 920 pages, including many related to race, gender, equity, and diversity.
  
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• Revisited: is curiosity the key to ageing well? – podcast

  25-12-2025 06:00
  Psychologists have typically believed that we become less curious as we age, but recent research has shown curiosity actually becomes more targeted and specific in our later years. In this episode from September, Madeleine Finlay hears from Dr Mary Whatley, an assistant professor of psychology at Western Carolina University, and Dr Matthias Gruber of Cardiff University’s Brain Research Imaging Centre to find out why we change in this way, and how maintaining broad curiosity into older age
  
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• Why the Holidays Can Be a Dangerous Time for Victims of Partner Violence

  24-12-2025 09:52 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: Canadian Broadcasting Company - Top Stories NewsThe holiday season can be joyous and foster togetherness, but it can also be difficult for anyone experiencing intimate partner violence, say experts. "Just because it's the holidays doesn't mean that every single person is OK," explains Jennifer Dunn, director of the London Abused Women's Centre. During the holidays, more people are home with free time, which can increase monitoring and control behaviors, leading to more opportunities for.
  
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• Cruise Passengers Face New Climate Change Tax After Court Ruling

  24-12-2025 09:52 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: CBS News - U.S. NewsA federal judge's ruling clears the way for Hawaii to include cruise ship passengers in a new tourist tax to help pay for the impacts of climate change, set to begin at the start of 2026. In the nation's first such levy to help cope with a warming planet, Hawaii Governor Josh Green signed legislation in May that is estimated to generate nearly $100 million annually to deal with eroding shorelines, wildfires, and other climate problems.
  
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• Seven Mysterious Languages That Have Yet to Be Deciphered

  24-12-2025 09:51 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: DW- top storiesDo you enjoy solving puzzles? What would you do if given a foreign code to decipher but no dictionary or guide to grammar? That is exactly the problem faced by archeologists and linguists with regard to a number of ancient writing systems that remain a mystery to this day. Nor has artificial intelligence been able to crack these codes, because AI usually requires large amounts of data for pattern recognition.
  
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• U.N. Experts Call U.S. Blockade of Venezuela "Illegal Armed Aggression"

  24-12-2025 09:45 via socialpsychology.org
  Source:Al JazeeraFour United Nations human rights experts have condemned the partial naval blockade of Venezuela by the United States, describing it as illegal and asking the U.S. Congress to intervene. "There is no right to enforce unilateral sanctions through an armed blockade," the U.N. experts said in a joint statement on Wednesday. "It is also expressly recognized as illegal armed aggression under the General Assembly's 1974 Definition of Aggression," they...
  
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• Are They Really Listening? Watch Their Blinks

  23-12-2025 16:52 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: Science Daily - Top SocietyYour eyes may reveal when your brain is working overtime. Researchers found that people blink less when trying to understand speech in noisy environments, especially during the most important moments. The effect stayed the same in bright or dark rooms, suggesting that it's driven by mental effort, not light. A drop in blinking, it turns out, is a facial marker of focused listening. The findings were published in the journal Trends in Hearing.
  
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• Trans NSA Employee Sues Trump Administration Over Executive Order

  23-12-2025 16:51 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: PBS News HourA transgender employee of the U.S. National Security Agency is suing the Trump administration to block a presidential executive order that the employee says violate federal civil rights law. Sarah O'Neill, an NSA data scientist, disputes the legality of President Trump's January order requiring the federal government to recognize only two "immutable" sexes: male and female. Her lawsuit, filed Monday, says the order denies "Ms. O'Neill's very...
  
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• Belgium Joins South Africa’s Genocide Case Against Israel at IJC

  23-12-2025 16:51 via socialpsychology.org
  Source:Al JazeeraBelgium has formally joined the case launched by South Africa at the International Court of Justice, alleging that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. On Tuesday, the ICJ—the highest court of the United Nations—said Belgium had filed a declaration of intervention in the case. Other countries, including Brazil, Colombia, Ireland, Mexico, Spain, and Turkey, have already joined the proceedings, which South Africa initiated in December of 2023.
  
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• Not All Psychopathic Traits Are Equal When It Comes to Sexual Aggression

  22-12-2025 17:56 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: PsyPostA new study provides a comprehensive look at the link between psychopathy and sexual aggression. By aggregating data from over 100 separate samples, the researchers found that psychopathy is generally associated with sexually aggressive behavior, but the connection varies depending on the type of aggression and personality traits involved. These findings help clarify which aspects of the psychopathic personality are most dangerous regarding...
  
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• AI Chatbots Can Influence Some Voters to Change Their Mind

  22-12-2025 17:56 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: Canadian Broadcasting Company - Canadian NewsTalking with an AI chatbot can convince people to change their votes and could affect the outcome of future elections, according to a new study. The study, which included 1,530 Canadians, also found that the chatbots had more success convincing Canadians to switch their votes than it did with Americans. Generative AI is "more persuasive than traditional forms of political persuasion," said Cornell professor Gordon Pennycook, one of the study's
  
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• How Systemic Failures Turn U.S. State Mental Hospitals Into Prisons

  22-12-2025 17:55 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: NPRTyeesha Ferguson fears her 28-year-old son will kill or be killed. "That's what I'm trying to avoid," said Ferguson, who still calls him her baby. She remembers a boy who dressed himself in three-piece suits, donated his allowance, and graduated high school at 16 with an academic scholarship and plans to join the military or start a business. Instead, Ferguson watched as her once bright-eyed, handsome son sank into disheveled psychosis.
  
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• Insurer Agrees to Cover IVF Treatments for Same-Sex Couples

  22-12-2025 09:23 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: CBS News - U.S. NewsLike many young girls, Mara Berton and June Higginbotham both knew from an early age they wanted families and to become mothers. But as lesbians, they were excluded from receiving the same fertility treatment insurance benefits offered to heterosexual peers. Instead, like many other same-sex couples, they had to pay $45,000 out of pocket while heterosexual colleagues with the same insurance plan had many of those costs covered. Now, that's about...
  
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• Confusing Questionnaires Lead to Misleading Responses From Patients

  22-12-2025 09:22 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: United Press International - Health NewsEver felt your eyes glazing over as you fill out the questionnaire you've been given by a doctor's receptionist, trying to make sense of it before your appointment? You're not alone, a new study finds. Confusion over symptom questionnaires is common and likely hampers efforts to diagnose and treat physical and mental illnesses, JAMA Psychiatry reported Wednesday. The study focused on the Patient Health Questionnaire, widely used mental health...
  
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• Christmas burnout: why stressed parents find it ‘harder to be emotionally honest with children’

  21-12-2025 15:33
  A study finds that as pressure increases, UK parents are more likely to put on a brave face – risking family wellbeingAdvent calendars, check. Tree and decorations, check. Teachers’ presents, nativity costumes and a whole new ticketing system for the PTA’s Santa’s grotto, check. But the Christmas cards remain unwritten, the to-do list keeps growing, and that Labubu doll your child desperately wants appears to have vanished from the face of the earth.If you’re feelin
  
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• Study Finds Sex Differences in Psychological Well-Being

  21-12-2025 10:29 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: PsyPostA new analysis of global data reveals that while men score higher on a majority of specific well-being metrics, women tend to report higher overall life satisfaction. These findings, based on nearly 400,000 people across 142 countries, suggest that females often fare better on social relationship indicators, which appear to carry significant weight in subjective assessments of a good life. The results were published in The Journal of Positive...
  
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• Can Santa Claus Survive in a Melting World?

  21-12-2025 10:29 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: DW- top storiesThe link between snow and Christmas has spread around the world, helped by colonialism and capitalism. Even in places like New Zealand, where the holiday falls in the summer and is often celebrated with barbecues on the beach, homes are festooned with fake Christmas trees, inflatable plastic snowmen, and reindeer. As climate change warms the planet, however, and snowy winters become less common in Europe and elsewhere, Santa is facing new...
  
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• AI May Upend Online Studies Critical to Behavioral Science

  21-12-2025 10:29 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: ScienceThe development of artificial intelligence may spell the end of a tool social scientists have come to rely on: online studies. Researchers who use surveys, games, and other online methods to gather data from large numbers of people have spent years refining methods to weed out unwanted responses, but recent studies have shown that AI agents can evade detection by intentionally making errors, feigning ignorance, and using humanlike mouse...
  
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• Outrage at Single Acts of Racism May Lower Support for Systemic Change

  21-12-2025 10:28 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: PsyPostRecent research suggests that for some White Americans, expressing anger at individual acts of racism may decrease their motivation to support broader systemic change. The study indicates that voicing outrage at a specific bigot may alleviate feelings of guilt associated with racial privilege, thereby reducing the drive to take further reparative action. These findings were published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
  
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• Trump Administration Seeks to Ban Gender-Affirming Care for Trans Youth

  21-12-2025 10:27 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: PBS News HourThe U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday unveiled a series of actions designed to block access to gender-affirming care for minors. The proposals—the most sweeping moves the Trump administration has taken so far to restrict the use of hormone therapy and surgical interventions to help transgender children—include cutting off federal Medicaid and Medicare funding from hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to children.
  
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• In Maps and Charts: How Climate Change Imperils Global Food Supply

  21-12-2025 10:27 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: The Guardian - Climate CrisisExperts have warned that the world's ability to feed itself is under threat from extreme weather caused by climate change. Although crop yields have increased enormously over the past few decades, crop yield rates are flattening, prompting warnings of efficiency hitting its limits. Even worse, more than 600 million people worldwide are projected to face food insecurity by 2030. For a global view of the problem, see these maps and charts.
  
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• Helping Others for a Few Hours a Week May Slow Brain Aging

  21-12-2025 10:06 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: Science Daily - Top HealthSpending a few hours a week helping others may slow the aging of the brain, according to a study that followed more than 30,000 U.S. adults for two decades. Researchers found that cognitive decline was reduced by both formal volunteering and informal acts, such as helping neighbors or relatives. The benefits were cumulative over time with sustained engagement, and were significant even after controlling for wealth, physical and mental health,...
  
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• Are Psychological Scientists Overvaluing Significance? 

  21-12-2025 10:06 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: Association for Psychological SciencePublish or perish. This phrase is often cited by scientists as their motivation to submit a steady flow of papers to academic journals. But how valuable is research if the findings are not significant? And what effect will those papers have on the reputation of their authors? Even though studies with nonsignificant findings are often welcomed by journal editors, scientists are often hesitant to submit them, which can lead to serious publication...
  
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• When attacks unfold, what makes a person run towards danger?

  19-12-2025 18:12
  Neuroscientists, psychologists and ‘have-a-go heroes’ themselves explain why it is about more than just instinctAs a knife-wielding terrorist wearing a fake suicide belt caused panic on London Bridge in 2019, Darryn Frost remembers entering a state of intense focus.Having grabbed a decorative narwhal tusk from the wall of Fishmongers’ Hall, the formerly shy civil servant zoned in on the danger and ran towards it, helping pin the attacker to the ground. Continue reading...
  
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• Sure, Christmas isn’t all about presents – for those lucky enough to afford their own treats | Letter

  19-12-2025 18:10
  Those who suggest ‘not doing presents this year’ tend to be people who already have all the socks and candles they need, writes one readerThere’s a very particular phrase that circulates as Christmas approaches, usually delivered over a glass of wine: “Shall we just not do presents this year?”This is almost always suggested by people who already own everything. The sort of people who, if they fancy a new coffee Thermos at 8:42am, simply buy one. Socks? Ordered. Pyja
  
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• Pope Leo appoints social justice campaigner as new Archbishop of Westminster

  19-12-2025 06:00 via cnn.com
  Bishop Richard Moth regularly speaks out on social concerns such as prisons.
  
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• Trump Administration to Dismantle Key Climate Research Center

  18-12-2025 16:09 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: PBS News HourThe Trump administration is breaking up a research center praised as a "crown jewel" of climate research after accusing it of spreading "alarmism" about climate change. Russell Vought, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, described the National Center for Atmospheric Research as "one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country" in a social media post, consistent with President Trump's references to climate change as a...
  
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• Iran Curbs Women's Rights by Changing Dowry Law

  18-12-2025 16:08 via socialpsychology.org
  Source: DW- top storiesIn Iran, a groom or his family usually pays a dowry, or "Mehrieh," to his wife, often in gold coins—a sum that can be claimed by the wife at any time during a marriage or when getting divorced. Now, however, the Iranian parliament has lowered the amount a man must pay his wife in the event of divorce to avoid imprisonment—from 110 gold coins to just 14. The dowry had been the only legal tool to provide a modicum of security to divorced women...
  
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