Female CEOs under threat
When women step into leadership roles such as CEO, it turns out they hold the position for less time if their organizations trumpet their past achievements, according to research in the Journal of Applied Psychology. Researchers examined the succession of 91 women into the role of CEO at major U.S. companies from 1995 to 2012. They found an association between public endorsements (e.g., press releases and website bios) focusing on the women’s prior successes and a shorter time subsequently spent as CEO. Exceptions were observed in cases in which the female CEO was an internal candidate or the organization already had a high number of female executives. No such association was found for a matched sample of male CEOs. Interviews with a separate set of 31 female executives suggest that such endorsements can result in them experiencing stereotype threat—having others doubt female executives’ competence—which may lead to anxiety and exhaustion. DOI: 10.1037/apl0000871opens in new window
Learning to let go
Parents who are overly directive with their children when they are already appropriately focused on activities can hamper their children’s development, suggests research in the Journal of Family Psychology. Researchers analyzed interactions between 102 parents in the United States and their kindergarten-age children as the children played. They found that children whose parents spent more time providing instructions or corrections while the child was actively engaged in a task showed lower levels of executive function and regulation of behavior and emotions during a separate observation period. The amount of parental direction had no effect when children were passively engaged in a task. DOI: 10.1037/fam0000838opens in new window
Microbreaks improve performance
Tired employees who take microbreaks bounce back to work productively over the rest of their workday, according to research in the Journal of Applied Psychology. Researchers asked 98 office workers in the United States to fill out two surveys per day for 10 straight workdays regarding fatigue level, work engagement, and workday experiences. Employees who were already fatigued in the morning tended to take more microbreaks—having a snack, taking a short walk, chatting with a colleague—and these respites resulted in higher engagement in work and less fatigue during the rest of the workday. A second study with 222 workers in South Korea over 5 days replicated the findings and additionally indicated that people were more likely to take microbreaks if they felt their company cared about the well-being of its employees. DOI: 10.1037/apl0000891opens in new window
Income boosts self-regard
Research in Emotion suggests that making more money is tied to greater pride and self-confidence, but it is not tied to feelings of compassion or love toward others. Researchers analyzed five studies surveying more than 1.6 million people in 162 countries and found that higher income was associated with emotions reflecting positive self-regard, including confidence, pride, and determination. Lower income was linked to emotions reflecting negative self-regard, such as sadness, fear, and shame. Unlike emotions related to self-regard, the studies failed to find a consistent link between income level and how people felt about others. The findings were similar in both higher- and lower-income countries. Additionally, one of the studies indicated that links between income and self-regard emotions persisted for at least a decade and that a sense of control mediated these links. DOI: 10.1037/emo0000933opens in new window
Moral outrage attracts mates
Actions based on moral outrage are attractive to people seeking long-term relationships, according to research in Emotion. In the first of four studies, researchers had 251 participants in the United States view a dating app and rate the desirability of potential opposite-sex partners for long-term relationships. The participants rated as more desirable those potential partners who described themselves as being engaged in activism that signaled they were morally outraged by an injustice. Similarly, in a second study, 194 participants rated potential same-sex individuals describing such activism as more suitable for long-term relationships. A third study with 176 participants indicated that people who signal moral outrage are perceived as more extraverted, conscientious, and open to experience. And a fourth study with 223 participants found that mere expression of outrage, without taking action, did not serve to boost the attractiveness of a prospective long-term mate. DOI: 10.1037/emo0000955opens in new window
Equality isn’t always equal
People seeking social equality for women and non-Caucasians tend to harbor more prejudice toward older adults, according to research in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Across nine studies with 3,277 online participants, researchers demonstrated that advocates of social justice are less prejudiced toward women and non-Caucasians but more prejudiced toward, and show less advocacy for, older individuals. In addition, the more that participants endorsed egalitarian ideals, the more likely they were to allocate funds for enhancing diversity to women and non-Caucasians but not to older adults. This bias against older adults is linked to a belief that older adults’ unwillingness to retire from jobs and other roles prevents women and non-Caucasians from getting ahead. DOI: 10.1037/pspi0000262opens in new window
Warm tone influences help-seeking
A warm, friendly tone in a college course syllabus can encourage students to reach out to their professor when they are struggling more than a statement about mental health can, suggests a study in Teaching of Psychology. Researchers presented 257 undergraduate students in the United States with one of four syllabi (a combination of either warm or cold tones and either the inclusion or not of a destigmatizing statement about mental health resources). The students then rated their likelihood of approaching the instructor for help in five situations: with an assignment, a personal issue, a medical issue, when they felt down, or when they had a question about campus resources. Students who read a warm-toned syllabus were more likely to ask for help in three of the five situations (with an assignment, feeling down, question about campus resources), but those who read a syllabus with the mental health statement were more likely to ask for help in only one of the situations (involving a personal issue). DOI: 10.1177/0098628321994632opens in new window
First time riskier for teens
Those who try cannabis or misuse prescription drugs for the first time as adolescents are more likely to develop a corresponding substance use disorder than those who first try them as young adults, according to a study in JAMA Pediatrics. Researchers analyzed data from a nationally representative survey of adolescents (ages 12 to 17) and young adults (ages 18 to 25) in the United States. They found that cannabis use disorders and prescription drug use disorders (involving opioids, stimulants, or tranquilizers) were about twice as prevalent among adolescents as young adults within 1 year of first use of the drug. No such greater risk for adolescents than young adults upon first use was found for alcohol or tobacco use disorders. DOI: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.6981opens in new window
Heart attacks and severe mental illness
Patients with a severe mental illness are at increased risk for mortality after a heart attack compared with those without a severe mental illness, according to a study in BMC Medicine. Researchers conducted a national retrospective study of adults in Scotland who were hospitalized with a heart attack between 1991 and 2014. Among the 235,310 people who had suffered a heart attack, 923 (0.4%) had schizophrenia, 642 (0.3%) had bipolar disorder, and 6,239 (2.7%) had major depression. Having a severe mental illness was associated with higher likelihood of death both immediately and over the following 5 years, as well as greater risk of further heart attacks and strokes. Those with serious mental illness were also less likely to receive revascularization procedures (widening of blocked coronary arteries), which may be a factor contributing to the differences in outcomes. DOI: 10.1186/s12916-021-01937-2opens in new window
Pandemic disruptions drive depression
A study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciencesindicates that college students’ risk of clinical depression nearly doubled at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and may be attributable to disruptions in students’ lifestyles. Researchers examined data from separate cohorts of U.S. college students (682 total) during three semesters: spring 2019, fall 2019, and spring 2020. The students responded to surveys about their mental health and wore activity trackers. Comparing the spring 2019 cohort with the spring 2020 cohort (following onset of the pandemic in March 2020), average daily steps declined from 10,000 to 4,600, nonsedentary physical activity dropped from 4.4 to 2.9 hours per day, sleep increased 30 minutes per night, time spent socializing declined from about 90 minutes to 30 minutes per day, and recreational screen time doubled to 5 hours per day. Scores on depression assessments showed that the proportion of students at risk for clinical depression in April 2020 was 61%, nearly double the proportion at risk at earlier times in 2020. Upon onset of the pandemic, lifestyle disruptions—especially related to physical activity—emerged as the primary risk factors for depression among students. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2016632118opens in new window
Looking for likes
The strategies people use in the pursuit of social media “likes” can be explained by the same principles that govern the behavior of animals seeking food rewards, suggests research in Nature Communications. Researchers analyzed more than one million social media posts from 4,166 users on Instagram and other sites. They found that people maximize how many likes they receive on average by posting more frequently in response to a high rate of likes and less frequently in response to fewer likes, following patterns that closely fit the predictions of reinforcement learning theory. Further evidence for the role of reinforcement learning was obtained in an online experiment in which investigators manipulated the rate of likes that 176 participants received on an Instagram-style platform. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-19607-xopens in new window
Less booze, less sex
Fewer young men and women in the United States are having casual sex, due in part to a decrease in alcohol consumption, suggests a study in Socius. Men living with their parents and playing more video games are also contributing to the decline. Researchers examined data from a nationally representative sample of 1,985 adults. They found that between 2007 and 2017, the percentage of 18- to 23-year-old men who reported having had casual sex (i.e., outside of a committed relationship) in the past month dropped from 38% to 24%. For women in the same age range, the percentage dipped from 31% to 22%. The most important factor associated with these declines was a decrease in drinking, which by itself explained 33% of the drop for men and 24% of the decline for women. An increase in video gaming accounted for 25% of the decline in casual sex frequency among young men, while an increase in living with their parents explained just over 10% of the shift. No other factors examined in this study were identified as contributing to the decline in casual sex among women. DOI: 10.1177/2378023121996854opens in new window
Small talk
Only 1 in 50 conversations ends when both parties want it to, suggests research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In the first of two studies, researchers asked 806 online participants how long their most recent conversation was and when they had wanted it to end. In the second study, the researchers invited 176 pairs of strangers in the United States to hold conversations in the lab for as long as they wanted, up to 45 minutes. They asked each participant afterward at what point they wished the conversation had ended and at what point they thought their partner wished it had ended. Across both studies, only about 2% of conversations ended when both sides wanted, and only about 30% ended when one party wanted. On average, participants’ estimates of when their partner had wanted to stop talking were off by 68% of the total conversation time. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2011809118opens in new window
Picture a haunted house
People with aphantasia—an inability to visualize mental images—are harder to scare with spooky stories, according to a study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Researchers used skin conductivity to measure the fear responses of 46 participants in Australia (22 of whom had aphantasia) while they read scary stories on a screen in a darkened room. Skin conductivity levels increased sharply for participants who could visualize the stories but did not change for participants with aphantasia. When participants viewed a series of frightening pictures, however, skin conductivity levels increased in both groups. The results indicate that visualization, either through perception or mental imagery, plays an important role in enhancing emotional responses. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.0267opens in new window
Head injury and dementia
A single head injury could lead to dementia later in life, and the risk increases with additional blows, according to research in Alzheimer’s & Dementia. Researchers tracked the incidence of head injuries of 14,376 adults (average age of 54 at the study’s start) in the United States for 25 years. They found a single prior head injury was associated with a 1.25 times increased risk of dementia, and a history of two or more head injuries was associated with more than twice the risk. Overall, 9.5% of all dementia cases in the study population could be attributed to at least one prior head injury. The researchers found stronger links between head injury and risk of dementia among women compared with men and among White compared with Black populations. DOI: 10.1002/alz.12315opens in new window
Happiness or fear?
Although people can generally identify the emotions underlying a scream, they may interpret a scream of happiness as arising from fear when it is heard without context, indicates a study in PeerJ. Researchers asked 182 participants in the United States to listen over headphones to 30 screams excerpted from movies and rate, on a 5-point scale, how much each scream was associated with each of six emotions—anger, frustration, pain, surprise, fear, and happiness. They found that participants tended to match screams associated with the first five emotions to their correct emotions. Surprisingly, however, screams of happiness were more often attributed to fear than to happiness. DOI: 10.7717/peerj.10990opens in new window
