Heroes expected to accept low-paying, selfless jobs
Research in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggests that labeling military veterans as heroes may inadvertently steer them into low-paying careers centered around selflessly serving others. Across 11 online experiments with 6,584 participants, researchers examined why veterans earn less than their nonveteran counterparts. The first two studies confirmed that Americans think of military personnel and veterans as selfless heroes. Participants in the next seven studies were more likely to say that selfless careers, such as teaching, and altruistic organizations, such as the American Red Cross, would be more appealing and better suited to veterans’ skills than careers and organizations ranked high in selfishness, such as real estate or banking. The 10th study extended the findings of the previous studies to members of other groups perceived as heroic: former firefighters and paramedics. The final study indicated that the more heroic a group is perceived to be, the more people presume they would donate their bonus pay to charity. DOI: 10.1037/pspa0000336opens in new window
Workplace stress crosses over to spouses
Spouses of workers exposed to traumatic stress in the workplace may also suffer significant distress, suggests research in the Journal of Applied Psychology. Researchers’ meta-analysis of 276 studies of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) associated with the workplace indicated that workers’ trauma may extend to their partners, despite the latter’s lack of firsthand experience with the traumatic events (which include death, physical danger, severe illness, aggression, and harassment). While people with military occupations suffered more PTSD than workers in other jobs involving traumatic stress, the extent to which distress crossed over to spouses did not depend on occupation or the particular type of stressors the workers encountered. This suggests it’s not the workers’ specific traumatic experience per se that puts these partners at risk but instead other factors such as unmet emotional needs, lack of reciprocity in the relationship, and helplessness felt by the partner. Also, while partners’ knowledge of the workers’ stress put them in danger of secondary PTSD, partners’ empathy was protective for the worker by creating a sense of social connectedness and by bolstering the couple’s relationship. DOI: 10.1037/apl0001069opens in new window
Bullied are prone to conspiracies
According to research in Social Psychology, individuals who are bullied in the workplace become more vulnerable to conspiracy theories. Researchers asked 273 online participants to complete two questionnaires: one to gauge their experience with workplace bullying and the other to measure their level of paranoia, anxiety, and hypervigilance and their attitudes toward conspiracy theories. They found that bullying experiences were associated with increased paranoia, which in turn was associated with a higher endorsement of conspiracy beliefs. In a second study, 206 participants in the United Kingdom were asked to imagine they had started a new job and to read several scenarios about what to expect. Half of the participants read a scenario describing harassment and bullying. Those exposed to the bullying scenario then scored higher on belief in conspiracy theories than those not exposed to the scenario, though paranoia did not play a role in increased openness to conspiracies. DOI: 10.1027/1864-9335/a000492opens in new window
Psychophysiology studies lack diversity
A lack of diversity among participants in psychophysiology studies may make their results less applicable across different communities and cultures, suggests research in Clinical Psychological Science. Researchers analyzed 1,489 articles in three leading psychophysiology journals across three time periods between 1997 and 2020. They found that only 282 of these articles (19%) included demographic information, and among these, fewer than 14% of participants were identified as Black, while Hispanic, Asian, and Indigenous participants accounted for no more than 5% each. To help remedy this disparity, the researchers suggested the development of electroencephalogram (EEG) and other equipment designed specifically for people with Black skin and hair types. DOI: 10.1177/21677026221112117opens in new window
Habitual social media use alters brain development
Adolescents’ habitual checking of social media may alter brain development, making them more sensitive to reward and punishment, according to research in JAMA Pediatrics. Researchers tracked 169 12- and 13-year-olds in the United States over 3 years. At the beginning of the study, participants reported how often they checked Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. Their answers ranged from less than once a day to more than 20 times a day. Participants underwent yearly fMRI brain imaging sessions, which measured brain activity while participants actively anticipated social feedback from peers. Brain activity in participants who engaged in habitual checking behaviors—checking 15 times or more daily—became more sensitive to social feedback over time. Habitual checkers also showed distinct decreases in the volumes of brain regions, including the amygdala and prefrontal cortex, comprising motivational and cognitive control networks in response to anticipating social rewards and punishments, compared with nonhabitual checkers. DOI: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2022.4924opens in new window
Food and drug craving neuromarker
A study in Nature Neuroscience suggests that food and drug cravings are associated with a particular brain activity pattern, or neuromarker, that may facilitate diagnosis. Researchers used fMRI to study the brain activity of 99 U.S. participants—who identified as drug users or nondrug users—while they viewed images of drugs and highly palatable food. The participants then rated how strongly they craved the items they saw. The researchers used the craving assessments and fMRI data to train a machine-learning algorithm to predict drug and food craving intensity from fMRI images alone. The pattern the algorithm identified—dubbed the Neurobiological Craving Signature—included activity in several brain areas previously linked to substance use and craving as well as a new level of detail explaining the link between cravings, and brain activity in particular subregions. The researchers hope the neuromarker may one day be used to identify those at risk of substance use disorders and weight gain and to predict treatment response. DOI: 10.1038/s41593-022-01228-wopens in new window
Same-sex attraction and income
A study in Evolutionary Psychology indicates that the highest levels of same-sex attraction are found in the adult offspring of parents in the lowest and highest income groups. Researchers analyzed data from an online survey of 255,116 adult participants primarily in the United States and United Kingdom who all answered roughly 200 questions regarding demographics, personality, sexual behavior, and physical characteristics. Among the physical characteristics measured was the 2D:4D ratio, which compares the lengths of the index and ring fingers, which is considered a proxy for prenatal sex hormones. Both low and high levels of parental income were associated with elevated levels of same-sex attraction. Furthermore, index finger to ring finger ratios indicative of high fetal estrogen, which may be associated with submissive sexual roles, were linked to same-sex attraction in children of low-income parents. Conversely, index finger to ring finger ratios indicative of high fetal testosterone, which may be associated with assertive sexual roles, were linked to same-sex attraction in children of high-income parents. DOI: 10.1177/14747049221142858opens in new window
Joker redeemable, Batman infallible
Adults and children are both more likely to believe that fictional villains are inwardly good than that heroes are secretly bad, suggests research in Cognition. Researchers conducted three studies with 434 children (ages 4 to 12) and 277 adults to determine how individuals make sense of antisocial acts committed by fictional villains in movies and books. The first study established that children viewed villains’ actions and emotions as overwhelmingly negative. The second and third studies assessed children’s and adults’ beliefs regarding heroes’ and villains’ moral character and true selves. Both children and adults consistently perceived villains’ true selves to be overwhelmingly evil and much more negative than those of the heroes. At the same time, researchers also detected an asymmetry in the judgments, wherein villains were perceived as a little less evil than they outwardly seem while heroes were seen as good guys inside and out. DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105357opens in new window
Vitamin D may protect against dementia
Vitamin D may stave off cognitive decline in older adults, though traces of the molecule were not associated with postmortem neuropathology, indicates research in Alzheimer’s & Dementia. Researchers analyzed irregularities in brain tissue samples from 290 participants in the United States who had been enrolled in a memory and aging study beginning in 1997. The participants had no signs of cognitive impairment at study onset. Researchers looked for vitamin D in four brain regions—two associated with changes linked to Alzheimer’s disease (AD), one associated with forms of dementia linked to blood flow, and one region not related to cognitive decline or vascular disease. They found high vitamin D levels in all four regions of the brain were correlated with better cognitive function. However, postmortem analysis showed that vitamin D levels were not related to any physiological markers typically associated with AD, including amyloid plaque buildup, Lewy body dementia, and evidence of chronic or microscopic strokes. DOI: 10.1002/alz.12836opens in new window
Mania skews sense of smell
According to a study in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, people experiencing a manic episode may have difficulty identifying some odors. Researchers split 96 participants in France into three groups: active bipolar mania, bipolar in remission for at least 3 months, and healthy controls. They then evaluated participants’ abilities to detect and identify odors and had them rate the pleasantness and intensity of several odors. Compared with those in remission and healthy controls, manic participants were less able to identify positive smells and rated the emotions associated with positive smells as weaker. Conversely, manic participants rated negative smells as stronger. All three groups were equally adept at identifying negative smells. Healthy controls had better overall odor identification than both bipolar groups. The researchers suggest the disturbed sense of smell among those experiencing mania may be related to bipolar’s disruption of the amygdala, which also happens to play a role in odor processing. They also indicate that odor assessments may help predict the onset of manic episodes. DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2022.10.038opens in new window
I am beautiful, so my life has meaning
The more attractive you believe yourself to be, the more likely you are to feel your life has meaning, suggests research in The Journal of Positive Psychology. In the first of three studies, researchers asked 320 undergraduate students in the United States to rate their own attractiveness as well as how meaningful they find their lives. Participants who rated themselves as attractive were more likely to find meaning in their lives. This result was replicated in an online study with 598 older adults (with an average age of 37). In addition, these participants rated people in a series of eight photographs in terms of their attractiveness and how meaningful they likely find their lives. Individuals in the photos rated as attractive were also rated as more likely to have meaningful lives. A third study with 97 participants replicated the findings of the first two studies and additionally indicated that self-reported attractiveness has a much stronger relationship with well-being than observer-rated attractiveness. DOI: 10.1080/17439760.2022.2155222opens in new window
Antidepressant blunts emotions
According to a study in Neuropsychopharmacology, widely used antidepressants can cause emotional blunting—being less responsive to both positive and negative feedback. Researchers randomly assigned 66 healthy participants in Denmark to take either the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) drug escitalopram or a placebo for at least 21 days. Participants also completed a comprehensive set of self-report questionnaires and were given a series of tests to assess cognitive functions, such as learning, inhibition, executive function, reinforcement behavior, and decision-making. The researchers found no differences between the groups when it came to cognition functions involving attention and memory and, for the most part, emotions. However, they did find that participants taking escitalopram were less likely to use the positive and negative feedback to guide their learning in reward-based tasks compared with participants in the placebo group, suggesting that the drug affects sensitivity to reward. Participants taking escitalopram also reported having more trouble reaching orgasm when having sex. DOI: 10.1038/s41386-022-01523-xopens in new window
Caffeine withdrawal? Have some decaf
A study in the Journal of Psychopharmacology indicates that decaffeinated coffee reduces symptoms of caffeine withdrawal even when people know it’s decaf. Researchers asked 61 heavy coffee drinkers (defined as having three cups per day, on average) in Australia who had undergone a 24-hour-long abstinence to rate their caffeine withdrawal symptoms. They then split the participants into three groups: given decaf but told it was caffeinated; given decaf and told it was decaf; and given water. After 45 minutes, the researchers measured caffeine withdrawal again. As expected, the water drinkers experienced similar levels of withdrawal before and after drinking. Those who thought they had caffeinated coffee, however, reported less severe withdrawal symptoms. Most surprisingly, participants who knew they had drunk decaf coffee still experienced a decrease in withdrawal symptoms, though the effect was not as strong as in the group led to believe they received caffeine. Expectations could not explain the extent of withdrawal symptom reduction. Instead, the researchers suggest the effect is the result of conditioning tied to the experience of drinking coffee—the smell of the beans, the warmth of the cup, etc.—soon being followed by the physiological effects from ingesting caffeine, including a reduction in withdrawal symptoms. DOI: 10.1177/02698811221147152opens in new window
Catfisher profile
According to research in Computers in Human Behavior, people with higher levels of psychopathy, sadism, and narcissism were more likely to perpetrate catfishing, a form of online deception where someone tricks another into forming an online relationship, often with the goal of financial exploitation. Researchers used an online survey to assess socially desirable responses, psychopathy, sadism, narcissism, Machiavellianism, and catfishing behavior in 664 English speakers, mostly in Australia, Canada, and the United States. They found that men scored somewhat higher than women on sadism, Machiavellianism, narcissism, and catfishing, but there were no differences between genders in psychopathy or socially desirable responding. Self-reported catfishing behavior had strong positive associations with psychopathy, sadism, and narcissism, with the association with sadism being by far the strongest. DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2022.107599opens in new window
