Aging and knowledge depth, trust in health advice, and more scientific research

Older adults prefer to deepen their knowledge by seeking details, while younger adults prefer to explore more broadly, according to research in Psychology and Aging. Researchers asked 498 participants in Canada and the United States, ages 12 to 78, to rate their prior knowledge about one of five broad themes: mythical beasts, historical expeditions, prehistoric animals, lesser-known scientists, and lesser-known countries. After selecting a series of topics within the theme, participants were presented with short facts about each topic and chose to either learn more about the same topic or explore a new topic. Older participants opted for more facts per topic, whereas younger participants frequently switched topics. This effect was consistent with age: For each additional year of life, participants became slightly more likely to focus on their current topic instead of a new one.
DOI: 10.1037/pag0000847

People trust scientists more than governments for practical health advice, suggests a study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied. Researchers presented 4,561 individuals in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Malaysia, and Taiwan with COVID-19 prevention advice (e.g., washing hands and social distancing) as coming from a government or scientific source and manipulated how effective the source said each piece of advice was. Participants found the advice more trustworthy when the stated source was science rather than government. Political orientation influenced this effect in all countries except Canada, where conservatives trusted government more and liberals trusted science more. Religiosity influenced the effect in the United States, with less religious participants trusting science more.
DOI: 10.1037/xap0000500

Research in Psychological Bulletin suggests that parents significantly influence whether their children are motivated by goals that are intrinsic (i.e., for personal growth, close relationships, community connections, and physical health) or extrinsic (i.e., for wealth, image, and status). Researchers analyzed 49 previous studies examining the link between parents’ characteristics and their children’s intrinsic and extrinsic goals. Their analysis revealed that children pursued intrinsic goals when their parents valued and encouraged intrinsic principles, while children pursued extrinsic goals when their parents emphasized extrinsic values or actively undermined their children’s basic psychological needs.
DOI: 10.1037/bul0000448

During treatment for depression, people’s mood and thought processes start to improve around the same time, according to research in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. Their positive behavioral changes come later, after they begin to feel better. Researchers asked 32 U.S. participants with diagnosed depression to complete ecological momentary assessments about their emotions (e.g., sad or happy mood), behaviors (e.g., social interaction, number of activities), and cognitive variables (e.g., worrying, negative self-thoughts). They did this five times per day during a 4-month period of undergoing psychotherapy for depression. Participants’ first emotional gains came before their behavioral improvements 70% of the time, compared with behavioral gains leading only 8% of the time. This may be because participants achieved fewer behavioral gains overall. Their cognitive and emotional improvements typically aligned, occurring in the same week 58% of the time versus only 18% before or 24% after emotional gains.
DOI: 10.1037/ccp0000890

Subtle photo filters can increase how much people “like” a face but not its perceived trustworthiness finds research in the Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science. Exaggerated filters (those distorting facial features) have no impact. Researchers asked 218 Colombian university students to rapidly rate, within a simulated dating app, how much they liked and trusted 12 male and 12 female faces, each presented in three versions: unfiltered, subtly filtered (e.g., smoothed-out skin), and exaggeratedly filtered (e.g., enlarged eyes). Overall, participants rated attractive faces as more trustworthy and liked them more than unattractive ones. They found unattractive male faces significantly less trustworthy than unattractive female faces. Participants higher in self-reported sociosexuality—openness to casual sexual relationships—were more likely to dislike unattractive faces yet trust all faces, regardless of the filter.
DOI: 10.1037/cbs0000423

Self-centered people turn to social media not to boost their egos but to reduce their feelings of exclusion, suggests research in the Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science. In the first of three studies, 199 U.S. adults were surveyed about their levels of self-centeredness, fear of missing out (FOMO), and social media use. The results showed that self-centered participants used social media more frequently, driven by FOMO. A second study with 241 participants showed that when people were made to feel self-centered, they experienced more FOMO, which led to increased social media use. In the third study, 102 participants were primed to experience FOMO. Those low in self-centeredness increased their social media use compared with a control condition. Those high in self-centeredness used social media equally in both FOMO and control conditions.
DOI: 10.1037/cbs0000382

An artificial intelligence (AI) tool can help reduce a cognitive bias known as the featural justification effect, according to research in the Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition. In this effect, detailed eyewitness descriptions of suspects’ features are more likely to raise doubts about accuracy than general recognition statements. In the study, 1,010 U.S. participants read eyewitnesses’ justifications for their confidence in identifying suspects. The eyewitnesses provided a detail that was either about a specific physical feature (“I remember his eyes”) or a general recognition (“I remember him”). Some of the participants then rated their perception of the accuracy of the eyewitnesses’ identification. Other participants were presented with an AI tool’s prediction, from 0% to 100%, of the accuracy of the eyewitness identification. Participants influenced by the AI tool were not biased by the featural justification effect, compared with their own perceptions—as long as they also regarded the AI as very useful.
DOI: 10.1037/mac0000192

Life satisfaction and purpose in life are both positive predictors of physical health and longevity, but purpose has a bigger impact, especially as people age, suggests research in Psychology and Aging. Researchers analyzed data from a 23-year follow-up study with 5,993 participants in the United States. Life satisfaction and purpose both predicted mortality when considered separately. But when these variables were considered simultaneously with self-rated health, lack of purpose was a significantly bigger predictor of mortality.
DOI: 10.1037/pag0000802

Adults with more robust social networks tend to perform better cognitively, indicates a study in Neuropsychology. Researchers evaluated the social networks of 2,525 adults in India 45 and older, measuring size, diversity, and embeddedness (a measure of active engagement with different groups). They also assessed participants’ cognitive performance on tasks related to narrative recall, attention, and various aspects of visuospatial ability and language. They found that social network diversity was associated with better narrative recall, spatial recognition, reading comprehension, semantic association, and attention. Participants with larger social networks performed better in verbal fluency and semantic association, while greater engagement was associated with better visuospatial span and verbal fluency.
DOI: 10.1037/neu0000971

Loneliness is associated with greater odds of developing dementia, finds a meta-analysis published in Nature Mental Health. Researchers analyzed data from 21 studies examining the association between loneliness and dementia and data from 16 studies assessing the association between loneliness and cognitive impairment. The studies involved more than 600,000 individuals. The analysis found that loneliness was linked with a 31% increase in a person’s likeliness of developing any form of dementia. Loneliness was also linked with greater risk of Alzheimer’s disease (39% increase), vascular dementia (73% increase), and cognitive impairment (15% increase). The associations persisted after controlling for depression, social isolation, or other modifiable risk factors for dementia.
DOI: 10.1038/s44220-024-00328-9opens in new window

Men with higher IQs tend to be less aggressive and more committed in romantic relationships, according to research in Personality and Individual Differences. Researchers assessed the general intelligence of 202 heterosexual men in the United States who had been in romantic relationships for at least 6 months. They also interviewed the men (average age 25) about partner-directed insults, desire for power in intimate relationships, and erectile dysfunction. They found that men with higher general intelligence were less likely to use partner-directed insults or sexual coercion, to engage in damaging mate-retention tactics and casual sex, and to experience erectile dysfunction. The researchers also found a positive association between men’s general intelligence and their self-reported relationship investment.
DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2024.112902opens in new window

Spanking’s adverse effects may have been previously overstated, suggests a study in Marriage & Family Review. Researchers analyzed data from 47 studies of corporal punishment with 12,727 children ranging in age from 18 months to 11 years. They focused on four key child outcomes: externalizing problems (e.g., aggression and defiance), internalizing problems (e.g., anxiety and depression), cognitive performance, and social competence. After controlling for the children’s baseline behavior scores, the researchers found that spanking explained less than 1% of the variation in their outcomes. Yet spanking’s effectiveness varied with a child’s age, producing slightly better outcomes for children ages 2 to 6. Spanking was less effective and linked to marginally worse outcomes for children ages 8 to 11.
DOI: 10.1080/01494929.2024.2392672opens in new window

People with severe mental illness are more than twice as likely to die from infectious diseases and more than 3 times as likely to die from respiratory infections compared with the general population, finds research in eClinicalMedicine. Researchers performed a meta-analysis of 29 studies assessing the impact of bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders, and other psychoses on the risk of mortality from infectious disease excluding COVID-19. They found that people with severe mental illness had a 2.7-fold increased risk of dying from infectious diseases. This risk was 3.3 times higher for respiratory infections and 4.15 times higher for pneumonia specifically.
DOI: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2024.102867opens in new window

Short-term spikes in ambient air pollution, especially sustained increases lasting for several days, may trigger schizophrenic episodes regardless of longer-term air pollution levels, according to a study in JAMA Network Open. Researchers examined the hospitalization records of 817,296 people in 259 Chinese cities and linked schizophrenia hospitalizations to daily air pollution levels. After adjusting for the absolute concentrations of different air pollutants, short-term increases in six different pollutants were associated with schizophrenia hospitalization increases between 2.02% and 4.61%. Sustained pollution spikes lasting 4 or more days posed the highest risks of schizophrenia hospitalizations.
DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.36915opens in new window

People taking high doses of a prescription amphetamine like Adderall are 5 times more likely to develop psychosis or mania, according to a study in The American Journal of Psychiatry. Researchers reviewed electronic health records of patient encounters in the United States between 2005 and 2019, focusing on adults between 16 and 35 years old, the typical age range of onset for psychosis and schizophrenia. They identified 1,374 cases of individuals presenting with first-episode psychosis or mania and 2,748 control patients hospitalized for depression or anxiety. Patients who used a prescription amphetamine in the past month were 2.68 times more likely than nonusers to experience a psychotic or manic episode. That greater likelihood jumped to 5.28 with a dose of 30 mg or more of dextroamphetamine or 40 mg or more of Adderall. Use of methylphenidate (Ritalin) in the past month did not increase the odds of experiencing psychosis or mania.
DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.20230329opens in new window

Childhood food fussiness may largely be explained by genetics, according to research in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. Researchers surveyed 2,402 parents of identical or nonidentical twins in the United Kingdom about their children’s fussy eating at the ages of 16 months and 3, 5, 7, and 13 years, when participation dropped to 970 children. Food fussiness was relatively stable across these ages, peaking around age 7 and declining slightly afterward. Genetics influenced food fussiness by 60% for toddlers and by at least 74% between the ages of 3 and 13. Pairs of identical twins’ fussy eating increasingly diverged from each other as they got older, indicating an increase in the role of unique environmental factors with age, such as having different friends.
DOI: 10.1111/jcpp.14053opens in new window

The greater the burden of a medical disability, the higher the risk of suicide, according to a study in JAMA Psychiatry. Researchers analyzed the health records of more than 6.6 million people in Denmark between 2000 and 2020, including 12,876 who died by suicide. They identified nine categories of medical conditions, including 31 specific illnesses, as having a significantly higher suicide risk, with the highest risk associated with cancer and gastrointestinal and hematological conditions. Among those without a previous hospital-treated mental disorder, the higher the burden of disability, the higher the risk of suicide. The risk was highest in the first 6 months following diagnosis but declined over time, although some medical conditions kept the risk elevated for up to 15 years.
DOI: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2024.2561opens in new window