Roots of fanaticism
Discordant knowing, or support for ideas most people oppose, underlies fanaticism, indicates research in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Across nine studies, researchers experimentally manipulated the views of a total of 3,277 online participants to provoke them to support fringe ideas. They found that doing so heightened indicators of fanaticism in participants, including aggression, determined ignorance, and wanting to join extreme groups in the service of the discordant view. Additional analyses found that this effect shares mechanisms of threat response, depends on the potency of opposition presented, extends to mental representations of the self, and was shown to be different from extremism. The researchers also found that asking participants to carefully examine and reinterpret their perceptions can prevent fanaticism. The researchers then generalized their findings to real-world contexts, including examining beliefs about the 2020 U.S. presidential election, abortion, vaccines, and religion. DOI: 10.1037/xge0001219opens in new window
Lucid dreams loosen grip of fears
Research in Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice suggests that lucid dreaming may help people overcome irrational fears. Researchers asked 55 online participants about an object of fear and how afraid of it they were. They then instructed participants to confront the fear object within a lucid dream. About 70% of participants reported strong fear before lucid dreaming. Of these, 62% reported decreased fear after waking up. Of those who reported low or average fear before the dream, only 25% reported decreased fear after awakening. Participants’ change in fear was not associated with their level of fear during the dream, their gender, their experience with lucid dreaming, or their method of inducing the lucid dream. DOI: 10.1037/cns0000331opens in new window
Those lacking autonomy prefer strict cultures
Research in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology indicates that people who feel a lack of autonomy in their lives are more likely to prefer cultures that impose strict order. In a study with 5,717 participants in the United States, researchers found that those reporting less perceived personal control were more likely to prefer to live in states that scored higher in societal strictness based on criteria such as strength of punishment, permissiveness, diversity, and sturdiness of institutions. In another study with 225 participants in China, the researchers found that those who felt less in control over their lives were more likely to prefer inflexible organizational structures. In another study with 96 online participants, low personal control was associated with the desire to reward prosocial behavior and punish selfish behavior. A final study showed that 98 online participants asked to imagine working for a company with an oppressive culture perceived significantly less autonomy than those asked to imagine working for a company with a more permissive culture. DOI: 10.1037/pspa0000327opens in new window
Covid-19 altered personalities
Worldwide stressful events, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, may slightly alter the trajectory of people’s personalities, especially younger adults, suggests a study in PLOS ONE. Researchers longitudinally assessed the big five personality traits—neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness—of 7,109 participants in the United States during prepandemic (May 2014 to February 2020), early pandemic (March 2020 to December 2020), and late pandemic (2021 and 2022) times. Replicating two previous studies, they found that neuroticism declined very slightly in early pandemic times. However, comparing late pandemic with prepandemic levels, no changes were seen in neuroticism, but there were significant small declines in extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. The changes were about one-tenth of a standard deviation—equivalent to about a decade of typical personality change. These changes depended on age, with participants under the age of 30 showing larger increases in neuroticism and decreases in agreeableness and conscientiousness. Neither race nor education impacted the results. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0274542opens in new window
Designer psychedelics, minus hallucinations
According to a study in Nature, computationally designed compounds that activate the same brain receptor as psychedelic drugs like lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and magic mushrooms produced powerful antidepressant and antianxiety effects in mice, without the accompanying hallucinations. Researchers built a virtual library of 75 million compounds molecularly related to psychedelic substances. They then ran computational simulations of the interactions between each of the compounds and the primary brain receptor that gets activated by psychedelic drugs. This approach yielded 15 promising molecules, two of which showed antidepressant-like properties in mice without the hallucinations typically brought on by psychedelics. The researchers will now optimize the compounds for human clinical trials. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05258-zopens in new window
The cons of an ADHD diagnosis
A study in JAMA Network Open indicates that getting an attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnosis in childhood did not appear to improve quality of life in adolescence and was linked with a greater risk of self-harm. For eight years, researchers followed 393 6- and 7-year-olds in Australia diagnosed with ADHD and 393 children of the same age with similar levels of hyperactive and inattentive behaviors but no ADHD diagnosis. They found that, at the end of the study, the children with an ADHD diagnosis reported similar quality of life overall and on three subdomains (general health, happiness, and peer trust) but significantly worse on five subdomains (sense of school membership, academic self-concept, self-efficacy, negative social behaviors, propensity for self-harm) compared with the matched adolescents without an ADHD diagnosis. The researchers noted that while a diagnosis is necessary for treatment, their assessment was that the benefits of treatment did not outweigh the negative effects of the diagnosis. DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.36364opens in new window
Safer than previously thought
Antidepressant use in pregnancy does not increase the risk for neurodevelopmental disorders in children, according to a study in JAMA Internal Medicine. Using insurance data, researchers examined the association between antidepressant use in gestational week 19 until delivery and neurodevelopmental outcomes in children. Children were followed from birth for a maximum of 14 years. Data were included for 145,702 antidepressantexposed and 3,032,745 unexposed pregnancies in the United States from 2000 to 2015. Antidepressant exposure during pregnancy was not associated with increased incidence of autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, specific learning disorders, developmental speech or language disorders, developmental coordination disorders, intellectual disabilities, and behavioral disorders. DOI: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2022.4268opens in new window
Postnatal impact of natural disasters
A study in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry indicates that prenatal exposure to a natural disaster may result in the early development of psychiatric disorders in preschool-age children. Researchers evaluated 163 children in the United States for the emergence of psychopathology at ages 2, 3, 4, and 5. Sixty-six of the children were exposed to 2012’s Superstorm Sandy in utero, and 97 of the children were not. Children whose mothers were exposed to the natural disaster showed an increase in depression, anxiety, and attention-deficit/disruptive behavioral disorders (such as ADHD), compared with those whose mothers did not live through a major weather-related disaster. Males exposed to the natural disaster in utero had an elevated risk of ADHD, oppositional defiant disorder, and conduct disorder, while exposed females were at higher risk for depression, anxiety, and phobias. DOI: 10.1111/jcpp.13698opens in new window
Parents pushed to the right
Becoming a parent may make people more likely to become conservative, according to a study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Researchers surveyed 2,610 people in 10 countries about divisive issues, including abortion, immigration, and sexual behaviors. They found that people who were already parents or who had a greater desire to care for children scored higher in social conservatism. Age was not a direct factor, as older childless participants were found to be no more conservative than younger participants. The association between parenting and conservatism was supported by a second study using archival data from 426,444 participants in 88 countries. The link held across countries with differing income levels, cultures, and dominant religions. A final study with 376 participants in the United States revealed that participants who were asked to write about positive interactions with children subsequently reported greater social conservatism than those asked to write about other types of social interactions. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2022.0978opens in new window
Different diseases?
According to a new study in NPJ Parkinson’s Disease, epigenetic changes linked to Parkinson’s disease (PD) may be different in men and women, suggesting PD may really be more than one disease. Researchers performed postmortem analyses of the brains of 50 people who had Parkinson’s and 50 who had no sign of the disease. They found 434 genes with different epigenetic changes related to Parkinson’s—in this case, methylated DNA—in diseased and healthy brains. However, in those afflicted with Parkinson’s, the affected genes—which included those involved in developmental pathways, neurotransmitter packaging and release, and axon and neuron projection guidance—were almost entirely different in men and women. This result indicates either that PD affects the genes of men and women quite differently or that PD symptoms are caused by different, but related, diseases in the two genders. DOI: 10.1038/s41531-022-00355-2opens in new window
Are vegetarians more depressed?
A study in the Journal of Affective Disorders found that vegetarians have more than twice as many depressive episodes as meat eaters. Researchers surveyed 14,216 participants in Brazil about their diet and depressive episodes. They found that vegetarians have 2.37 times more depressive episodes than nonvegetarians, even when adjusting for sociodemographic parameters, smoking, alcohol intake, physical activity, several clinical variables, self-assessed health status, body mass index, micronutrient intake, protein intake, food processing level, daily calorie intake, and changes in diet in the preceding six months. DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2022.09.059opens in new window
Scared straight by future self
A study in Discover Mental Health suggests that meeting one’s future self in virtual reality (VR) may help people recover from substance use disorders. Researchers asked 21 adults in the United States who were in substance use disorder recovery for under a year to interact with two versions of themselves age-progressed 15 years: a substance use disorder future self and an in-recovery future self. The future selves’ interactive monologues included personalized details and voice for a more realistic representation. Interviews right after the VR intervention indicated that it engaged participants emotionally, reduced cravings, and increased future self-continuity as well as delayed reward preference. Following the intervention, daily images of the in-recovery future self were sent to participants’ smartphones for 30 days, after which time 18 of the participants remained abstinent. Those who abstained were higher-sensation seekers than those who relapsed, raising the possibility that the VR intervention may serve to satisfy cravings for high-intensity experiences. DOI: 10.1007/s44192-022-00022-1opens in new window
Singles enjoy “me time”
According to research in Evolutionary Psychological Science, single people say the primary benefit of not being in a relationship is having more time to themselves. Researchers asked 269 participants in Greece to list the advantages of being single. Two independent researchers then analyzed these responses and identified 84 distinct benefits, which were then rated by another 612 participants, resulting in 10 broad factors. The top three factors were “more time for myself,” “focus on my goals,” and “no one dictates my actions.” Additionally, men rated the factor “freedom to flirt around” as more important than women did. Conversely, women gave higher ratings to “no tension and fights” and “focus on my goals” than did men. There were also age effects—older respondents rated “more time for myself” and “not do things I dislike” as more important than younger respondents did. Finally, participants who reported less success in forming relationships identified the advantages of being single as more important than those with more mating success did. DOI: 10.1007/s40806-022-00340-1opens in new window
Drug boosts brain “stim” impact
Administering an antibiotic boosted the effectiveness of a new form of brain stimulation to treat major depressive disorder (MDD), according to a study in JAMA Psychiatry. Researchers in Canada administered 20 sessions of theta-burst stimulation (TBS)—a new form of transcranial magnetic stimulation—over the course of four weeks to 50 participants with MDD. During the first two weeks of the TBS intervention, half of the participants received the antibiotic D-cycloserine before the TBS session and the other half received a placebo. Those who had TBS after receiving the antibiotic showed greater improvements in depression and anxiety symptoms than the participants who received TBS with only a placebo. Furthermore, the improvements at four weeks were higher than those at two weeks. However, the TBS-plusantibiotic group had a higher remission rate than the control group (39.1% versus 4.2%) suggesting that the antibiotic may be facilitating TBS’s efforts at boosting synaptic plasticity, a process that is hindered in MDD. DOI: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2022.3255opens in new window
Stress accentuates partner’s negatives
A study in Social Psychological and Personality Science suggests that when feeling stressed, a person is more likely to notice and reflect upon their partner’s negative behaviors than their positive behaviors. Researchers asked 79 heterosexual newlywed couples in the United States to document both their own and their partner’s behavior each night for 10 days. Before beginning this portion of the study, participants completed a questionnaire in which they shared details regarding stressful events in their life. The researchers found that recently stressed participants were especially attuned to day-to-day fluctuations in their partner’s negative behaviors, but not their partner’s positive behaviors. DOI: 10.1177/19485506221125411opens in new window
Beta blocker restores spotless mind
Disrupting memory reconsolidation may help people get over a romantic betrayal, according to research in the Journal of Affective Disorders. Researchers asked 55 participants in Canada diagnosed with adjustment disorder resulting from a romantic betrayal such as infidelity or abandonment to write first-person narratives of the most emotionally troubling aspects of the betrayal event. During treatment sessions, the participants ingested the beta blocker propranolol, known to disrupt memory consolidation, one hour before reading their narrative out loud. All participants completed at least one treatment session, while 48 completed five weekly sessions. The researchers observed a large drop in adjustment disorder symptoms immediately following the first treatment. The declines continued over the course of treatment. A follow-up survey indicated that 35 of the participants experienced improvements in symptoms for up to four months. DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2022.08.082opens in new window
Mental illness and mass shootings
According to the largest-ever study of mass school shootings, published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, most mass school shooters do not suffer from severe mental illness. Researchers analyzed 14,785 murders worldwide perpetrated between 1900 and 2019. They identified 82 mass murders committed at least in part at schools, colleges, and universities and categorized them by location and whether firearms were used. They found that nearly half (47.6%) of the mass murders and most of those that involved firearms (63.2%) were based in the United States. Furthermore, perpetrators of mass shootings involving academic settings were primarily White (66.7%) and male (100%) with a mean age of 28, and nearly half (45.6%) ended the shooting by committing suicide. Finally, a diagnosis of severe mental illness (e.g., psychosis) was absent in most mass school shooters. When it was present, the means of murder was usually not a firearm. DOI: 10.1111/1556-4029.15161opens in new window
Beautifying behaviors are universal
A study in Evolution and Human Behavior suggests that beauty-enhancing behaviors are universal. Researchers surveying 93,158 participants in 93 countries found that 99% spent at least 10 minutes per day engaged in behaviors such as applying makeup or other cosmetics, hair grooming, choosing clothing style, caring for body hygiene, and exercising or dieting to improve physical attractiveness. More time was spent by women (nearly four hours per day, on average) than by men (3.6 hours per day), by the youngest and oldest participants, by those with history of severe infectious diseases, and by participants currently dating compared with those in established relationships. The strongest predictor of attractiveness-enhancing behaviors was social media usage, followed by adhering to traditional gender roles, residing in countries with less gender equality, considering oneself as highly attractive or highly unattractive, TV watching time, higher socioeconomic status, right-wing political beliefs, lower education levels, and personal individualistic attitudes. DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2022.08.003opens in new window
