Gen Z more out to parents
Half or more of gay and bisexual Generation Z teenage boys report being out to their parents, according to a study in Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity. Researchers examined data collected between 2018 and 2020 from an online HIV-prevention study of 1,194 13- to 18-year-old sexually active boys in the United States, all of whom identified as gay or bisexual. They found that 66% of those surveyed were out to their mothers or female parental figures and 49% were out to their fathers or male parental figures. Those percentages had increased by more than 50% since the 1990s, when an estimated 40% of teen boys were out to their mothers and less than 30% were out to their fathers. Among the other findings were that White (vs. Black), gay (vs. bisexual), and nonreligious (vs. religious) teen participants were more likely to be out to a parent. DOI: 10.1037/sgd0000484opens in new window
Zoom fatigue
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many employees who worked at home regularly experienced videoconference fatigue, suggests research in the Journal of Applied Psychology. In September 2020, researchers asked 55 employees in a variety of industries in the United States who were working remotely how they felt about videoconferencing. Earlier, in May 2020, they had asked the employees to complete hourly surveys for 5 consecutive workdays about how they used videoconferencing software and their feelings following videoconferences. In September, nearly 93% of participants reported experiencing videoconference fatigue, with peak fatigue coming after late-afternoon meetings. Results from responses about 279 videoconference meetings suggest that muting one’s own microphone and having higher feelings of group belongingness were related to lower post-videoconference fatigue. Watching oneself on a webcam or turning the webcam off had no impact on post-meeting fatigue. DOI: 10.1037/apl0000906opens in new window
Feeling younger buffers against stress
Feeling younger than one’s chronological age buffers middle-aged and older adults against the damaging effects of stress, indicates research in Psychology and Aging. Researchers analyzed data from 5,039 participants in a longitudinal survey of German residents age 40 and older, spanning 2014 to 2017. The survey included questions about the amount of stress in the participants’ lives, their functional health (e.g., how well they could complete everyday activities), and their subjective age (“How old do you feel?”). The researchers found that participants who reported more stress experienced steeper declines in functional health over the 3 years. This link between stress and health decline was greatest for chronologically older participants. Among people who felt subjectively younger than their actual age, the link between stress and poor health was reduced. That protective effect of feeling younger was strongest among the oldest participants. DOI: 10.1037/pag0000608opens in new window
Precision medicine for mood disorders
According to a study in Molecular Psychiatry, a new blood test can indicate the severity of a patient’s depression and predict the likelihood they will develop severe depression or bipolar disorder in the future. Researchers followed 44 participants in the United States over 18 to 36 months and recorded fluctuations in blood levels of candidate RNA biomarkers along with measures of high and low moods. They then validated the top 26 candidate biomarkers in an independent group of 47 participants from previous studies with clinically severe depression or mania. Finally, the researchers tested the biomarkers in an additional 586 participants and found that six biomarkers were most accurate for tracking and predicting both depression and bipolar mood disorders. The researchers note that these findings might be used to match patients to existing medications that are known to affect levels of the biomarkers as well as to guide development of new medications. DOI: 10.1038/s41380-021-01061-wopens in new window
Quick guesses
According to research in Cognition, quick estimations of the relative numbers of men and women in a large group typically result in overestimating the smaller group and underestimating the larger group. In one study, researchers presented 48 participants in the United States with grids of 12 faces for 1 second each and asked them to estimate the number of men and women in each grid. When the grid contained all men or all women, participants’ estimates were accurate. But if a grid contained fewer women, for example, participants overestimated the number of women present (the same patterns held when there were fewer men). Tracking participants’ eye movements revealed that participants looked more often at members of whichever group was in the minority. In a second study, participants showed the same tendency to overestimate the smaller group in snap judgments of collections of other kinds of images, such as indoor versus out- door scenes. DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104756opens in new window
MDMA may be effective for PTSD
MDMA-assisted therapy may be an effective, low-cost treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to a study in Nature Medicine. In the first phase 3 clinical trial of a psychedelic-assisted therapy, 90 participants in the United States, Canada, and Israel with severe, chronic PTSD received psychotherapy plus either MDMA or a placebo. Two thirds of the group who received MDMA-assisted therapy no longer qualified for a PTSD diagnosis after three treatment sessions, compared with one third of the group who received the placebo-assisted therapy. In addition, 88% of the MDMA group experienced a clinically significant reduction in symptoms, compared with 60% of the placebo group. Finally, MDMA did not increase the risk of suicidal thoughts or behaviors, adverse cardiovascular events, or abuse potential compared with the placebo. DOI: 10.1038/s41591-021-01336-3opens in new window
By my bootstraps. Really.
When confronted with evidence of societal inequality, privileged people may make exaggerated claims of having gotten ahead by overcoming adversity or pulling themselves up by their bootstraps, suggests research in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. In the first of six studies, researchers showed that when 425 participants in the United States were provided evidence of their own class privilege, they claimed to have suffered more personal life hardships. A second study with 202 participants suggested these claims were driven in part by threats to self-regard, while a third study with 434 participants found that when given the chance to first safeguard their sense of personal merit, those benefiting from privilege no longer claimed hardships in response to evidence of their privilege. Two additional studies with 889 participants indicated that only evidence of personal privilege evoked defensive responses and that thinking about personal strengths reduced claims of hardships more than making statements about societal strengths. Finally, a sixth study with 226 participants suggested that people claim hardships because they believe such experiences imply their own personal merit. DOI: 10.1037/pspi0000240opens in new window
Mood boost minus the mind bending
Even when its psychedelic effects are blocked, psilocybin—the active chemical in “magic mushrooms”—has antidepressant-like benefits, according to a mouse study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers stressed a group of mice for several hours per day over 2 to 3 days. (Typically, in this mouse model of depression, mice fail to work for pleasurable rewards.) The researchers then administered psilocybin to a subset of these mice, and within 24 hours the mice again worked for pleasurable rewards. Finally, the researchers administered to another subset of the stressed mice both psilocybin and ketanserin—a drug that blocks the serotonin receptor thought to mediate psilocybin’s psychedelic effects—and found that 24 hours later these mice were also back to working for pleasurable rewards. The findings suggest the possibility that the fast-acting antidepressant effects of psilocybin could be achieved in humans without leading to hallucinations and the need to manage them. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2022489118opens in new window
People rarely think less is more
When people confront an object or situation that requires improvement, their solutions almost always involve adding something rather than removing something, suggests research in Nature. Researchers asked 2,330 participants in the United States to solve eight problems where adding or removing elements led to equally valid solutions (e.g., erasing or shading in squares in a grid to make a symmetric image). Across all types of problems, the vast majority of participants chose addition over subtraction, even when the researchers provided incentives to solve the problem by removing something. Practice, however, nudged participants to think of subtraction solutions. Participants who had three practice trials in which subtraction yielded the superior solution were more likely, for example, to erase squares in the actual task than participants who did not participate in practice trials. The researchers also found that overloading participants with extraneous information led to fewer solutions involving subtraction. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03380-yopens in new window
Autism develops differently
Research in Brain points to differences between girls and boys in the neural and genetic underpinnings of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Researchers used fMRI to examine the brain activity of 184 young people in the United States ages 8 to 17. They found that the differences in brain activation patterns between girls with and without ASD were not the same as the differences between boys with and without ASD. Among the brain regions showing reduced activation in girls with ASD was the striatum, which is involved in interpreting social interaction and language. Further, genetic analyses with an additional 250 people suggest that girls with ASD have larger numbers of rare variants of genes that are active during the early development of the striatum than do boys with ASD. As the researchers note, these findings indicate that results from studies of ASD may not generalize across girls and boys. DOI: 10.1093/brain/awab064opens in new window
Better sex. Better self-care
When people with epilepsy are more sexually satisfied, they may manage their conditions better, according to a study in Epilepsy & Behavior. Researchers asked 88 participants with epilepsy in the United States about their intimate relationships and their self-management practices. They found that greater relationship and sexual satisfaction was linked with better self-management on measures of 7 of 11 factors: health communication, coping skills, social support, seizure tracking, seizure response, stress management, and wellness. No association was found with factors related to treatment, safety, medical adherence, and proactivity. These results held across variations in age, gender, social support, and presence of comorbidities. DOI: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2021.107937opens in new window
Video-based therapy is effective
Online, video-based therapy may be as effective as traditional, in-person forms of therapy, according to a meta-analysis in Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy. Researchers analyzed 103 studies with 5,245 participants, and the results showed that video-based therapy participants saw significant improvements compared with control participants who had experienced no therapy. Additionally, participants engaging in either video-based or in-person therapy showed essentially identical outcomes. A breakdown of the data by therapy type and condition being treated indicated that video-based therapy was most efficacious for cognitive behavioral therapy being used to treat anxiety, depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder. DOI: 10.1002/cpp.2594opens in new window
Physical activity enables higher grades
Physical activity is linked to self-regulation in childhood, which in turn predicts higher academic achievement, suggests research in PLOS ONE. Researchers analyzed data from a longitudinal study of 4,043 children in the United Kingdom in which parents and teachers assessed the emotional and behavioral components of the children’s self-regulation skills at ages 7, 11, and 14. They also quantified the children’s physical activity. The researchers found that increased physical activity was linked to greater emotional regulation across all three ages. For 7-year-olds, emotional regulation also mediated an association between physical activity and academic achievement throughout early primary school. In addition, for 11-year-olds, physical activity led to greater behavioral regulation, which in turn led to higher academic achievement. These effects interacted in complex ways with socioeconomic status but overall indicate that early and sustained physical activity can enhance children’s self-regulatory and academic development. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0250984opens in new window
Just following orders
People following orders feel more culpable for resulting negative outcomes than those whose own decisions led to the undesired consequences, suggests research in Psychological Science. Across five experiments, researchers asked a total of 1,490 online participants to imagine themselves either making consequential decisions (e.g., programming a self-driving car to save the driver at all costs or setting physical distancing policies during the COVID-19 pandemic) or being told by their superior how to act. After learning that a tragic outcome occurred because of their actions, participants felt more to blame when they followed their superior’s orders than when it was a result of their own decision. In contrast, participants acting as third-party observers blamed superiors more than those who followed their orders. The researchers suggest that those who follow orders feel more culpable because of regret at not pushing back against directives that violated their own moral standards. DOI: 10.1177/09567976211002821opens in new window
Harms of mindfulness meditation
Mindfulness meditation may have adverse effects at a rate similar to that of other psychological treatments, suggests a study in Clinical Psychological Science. Researchers divided 96 participants in the United States into three groups, with each group assigned to a particular version of an 8-week mindfulness-based cognitive therapy program. After completing the programs, participants rated the emotional tone of 44 meditation-related experiences and the impact the experiences had on their life and functioning. Across the three groups, 58% of participants reported at least one short-term meditation-related adverse effect, including hypersensitivity, nightmares, and traumatic reexperiencing. Thirty-seven percent reported short-term negative impacts on their functioning, while 6% to 14% reported impairments in functioning—primarily associated with hyperarousal and dissociation—lasting more than 1 month. DOI: 10.1177/2167702621996340opens in new window
Make me feel something
While online starred ratings of products and services tend to be inflated and unreliable predictors of their commercial success, higher emotionality expressed in narrative reviews for the products or services is associated with higher sales, according to research in Nature Human Behaviour. Researchers analyzed tweets about Super Bowl ads in 2016 and 2017, 13 years of movie reviews on Metacritic.com, hundreds of Yelp reviews of Chicago restaurants, and reviews of books sold on Amazon from 1995 to 2005. The vast majority of these ratings were highly positive, though ultimately not predictive of economic success. The researchers then analyzed the word content of the narrative reviews with a tool called the Evaluative Lexicon, which captures a review’s emotionality—how much an attitude is rooted in emotion rather than how positive or negative it is. Overall, ads, movies, restaurants, and books that evoked more emotional language in consumers’ reviews ended up being more commercially successful. DOI: 10.1038/s41562-021-01098-5opens in new window
