Probing the protective effects of purpose
Having a sense of purpose in life may help preserve cognitive function as we age, according to a study in The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. Using data from the longitudinal U.S. Health and Retirement Study, researchers focused on 13,765 participants ages 45 and older who had normal cognitive functioning at baseline. Over the course of the study, 1,820 (13%) developed cognitive impairment. Participants who had reported higher levels of purpose in life were less likely to develop cognitive impairment, even after accounting for sex, baseline age, level of education, depression symptoms, and genetic risk for Alzheimer’s dementia (measured by APOE E4 allele count). Participants with higher purpose in life also developed cognitive impairment at later ages compared with participants who had lower levels of purpose in life. The findings suggest that fostering a sense of purpose may act as a protective factor for cognition in midlife and beyond, even among people who have an increased genetic risk for dementia.
DOI: 10.1016/j.jagp.2025.05.009 opens in new window
The benefits of different kinds of kindness
Considerable evidence shows that engaging in kindness toward others can boost well-being. Does self-kindness confer similar benefits? In a 2-week experiment during the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers assigned 777 participants to one of three groups: kindness toward others, kindness toward the self, or control. Those who performed three acts of kindness toward others each week reported lower levels of depression, anxiety, and loneliness at the end of the study; increased feelings of social connection mediated each of these improvements. Participants who performed acts of kindness toward themselves also reported lower depression, mediated by an increase in positive feelings. The findings, published in Emotion, suggest that while self-kindness may boost one aspect of well-being, prosocial kindness is likely to have broader, and potentially more durable, effects. The study showed the benefits of kindness during particularly challenging times, but additional research is needed to determine whether the effects persist beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
DOI: 10.1037/emo0001577
Mental health information in the AI era
Mental health professionals are trained to handle suicide-related conversations with a sensitivity toward risk, but popular chatbots have difficulty making these risk-related distinctions, suggests a study in Psychiatric Services. Researchers asked 13 trained clinicians to categorize 30 suicide-related questions according to level of risk. They then posed each question 100 times to three chatbots: Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini. In response to the highest-risk questions, such as those about suicide methods, all three chatbots either declined to answer or referred the user to a helpline, in line with clinicians’ expert judgment. However, the chatbots provided more variable responses to questions with intermediate levels of risk. The researchers suggest that refining the large language models underlying these chatbots can help ensure they provide mental health information more safely.
DOI: 10.1176/appi.ps.20250086opens in new window
Does science produce the evidence clinicians want?
Although most clinical psychologists view scientific evidence as foundational to their practice, they may not be getting the kind they find most helpful, according to a study in American Psychologist. An examination of research in six prominent psychology journals revealed mainly between-person analyses that focused on differences between groups of people. However, a survey of 164 practicing psychologists showed that they valued within-person analyses—such as information about a person’s change over time—just as much, if not more. This informational mismatch may hamper clinicians’ ability to integrate science and practice. The authors note that existing research incentives tend to prioritize generalizability, thereby favoring between-person research questions. Establishing when group-level analyses are most helpful to clinical practice and when individual-level models may be more useful could facilitate an evidence base that clinicians can apply to their practice, the authors suggest.
DOI: 10.1037/amp0001538
Worldview shapes whether bosses are jerks or justified
People who view the social world through a competitive lens are more likely to interpret leaders’ forceful or harsh behavior as a sign of competence, according to research in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Results from seven online studies with a combined sample of 2,065 participants showed that people with a more competitive worldview considered antagonistic behavior to be more beneficial to leaders and were more likely to see leaders’ antagonistic behavior as a signal of competence and effectiveness. They also attributed more antagonistic behavior to actual successful CEOs. Although people with a more competitive worldview do not necessarily embrace or prefer antagonistic behavior, the findings suggest they see this behavior as more permissible and tolerable in their leaders. Future research can clarify how these worldviews shape workplace behaviors, practices, and culture in real-world contexts.
DOI: 10.1037/pspa0000456
Examining the broader benefits of ADHD medication
People with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may be less likely to experience certain negative outcomes—including suicidal behaviors, substance misuse, and accidental injuries—when taking ADHD medication, according to a study in The BMJ. Using Swedish national registers from 2007 to 2018, researchers examined data from 148,581 people ages 6 to 64 years who had a new diagnosis of ADHD. About 57% of people started medication treatment within 3 months of diagnosis. Starting ADHD medication was linked with decreased rates of first-occurrence suicidal behaviors, substance misuse, transport accidents, and criminal convictions over a 2-year follow-up; the decreases were even greater among people who had previous adverse experiences. While the effects of medication were smaller than those reported in some observational studies, the study’s emulated trial design represented the full patient population and approximated the effects expected in a randomized controlled trial. The findings suggest that medication treatment may benefit important clinical outcomes beyond the core symptoms of ADHD.
DOI: 10.1136/bmj-2024-083658opens in new window
Observing optimism in the brain
An optimistic outlook seems to influence our thinking in ways that boost well-being, but the specific brain mechanisms underlying this relationship are unclear. A study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals convergent patterns of brain processing that shape how optimistic people represent future events. In two fMRI studies, participants imagined themselves in a series of emotionally positive, negative, and neutral scenarios while undergoing functional neuroimaging. Optimistic participants showed convergent patterns of activation in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), reflecting shared patterns of thinking about future events, while less optimistic participants had more variable representations in the mPFC. At a granular level, more optimistic participants also showed greater differentiation in the neural representation of positive and negative future events. This convergent processing may help optimistic people imagine more vivid and concrete positive outcomes, lending greater significance to those outcomes.
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2511101122 opens in new window
Shorter workweeks, healthier employees?
Working a few hours less each week for the same pay may boost employees’ job satisfaction and their overall well-being, according to findings published in Nature Human Behaviour. A total of 141 companies in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia participated in a 6-month reduced workweek trial. The companies improved internal efficiency and collaboration before launching the trial, during which employees would work 80% of their hours for 100% of their pay. Self-report data from 2,896 employees showed they worked about 5 hours less per week, on average. They experienced the greatest improvements in burnout and job satisfaction, followed by improved mental and physical health. These improvements were partly explained by an increase in perceived work ability and decreased sleep problems and fatigue. Employees at comparison companies who did not reduce work hours showed no changes in well-being. The results suggest that reduced hours may prompt employees to adjust how they work, improving their perceived ability to perform their jobs. Future randomized trials can illuminate whether these findings extend beyond self-selecting companies in high-income countries.
DOI: 10.1038/s41562-025-02259-6 opens in new window
Evoking memories through music
Why do some songs instantly transport us to a specific place and time? It may come down to the interplay between auditory qualities of the song and aspects of the memory, according to research in PLOS One. In the study, 233 participants ages 18 to 76 identified a song they associated with a personal memory, describing the memory and its emotional qualities. They also listened to popular songs from their youth, describing any memories that arose. Statistical analysis revealed an “acousticness-energeticness” dimension that linked songs’ auditory features with aspects of memory. Quieter, acoustic songs with less dynamic range tended to evoke memories related to emotions of aesthetic appreciation, adoration, calmness, romance, and sadness. Participants described these memories as less social but more vivid and important; they also tended to retrieve these memories more slowly. Higher energy, nonacoustic songs evoked memories related to emotions of energy, amusement, and excitement. The results suggest a nuanced picture of the relationship between music, memory, and emotion that goes beyond emotional valence and arousal.
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0329072 opens in new window
Where are people likely to seek support in a mental health crisis?
A study in Health Affairs suggests that people cluster into one of five groups based on where they are most likely to seek help in a mental health crisis. Researchers conducted a nationally representative survey of 5,006 U.S. adults in the summer of 2023, 1 year after the national launch of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Respondents rated the likelihood that they would reach out to different sources of support if they or a loved one were in crisis. Latent class analysis indicated that people who had experienced psychological distress in the past 30 days tended to prefer seeking help from friends and family and not crisis services. Those who had not heard of the 988 Lifeline were more likely to prefer seeking no help at all or seeking help from friends and family and not crisis services. Although awareness and preferences may have changed since 2023, the findings highlight the importance of understanding audience characteristics and preferences as part of efforts to increase uptake of crisis services.
DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.2024.01163 opens in new window
Do questions set the stage for learning?
Answering questions about course material before watching a lecture on that material may boost later test performance but only for some students, according to research in the Journal of Educational Psychology. The study included 1,571 students across 30 classes, ranging from sixth-grade Spanish to college-level business statistics. Class instructors created two brief video lectures and four multiple-choice “prequestions” for each video. The students watched the videos as part of a class assignment and saw a set of prequestions before one of the videos (randomly determined by an online learning platform). In a test taken several days later, students who saw prequestions performed better than those who did not see prequestions, although they tended to skip the video or watch less of it. These findings suggest that, rather than increasing attention to the subsequent materials, prequestions might activate relevant mental models, enhancing recall for students who already have some knowledge of the material. This ManyClasses study shows how testing a known phenomenon in real-world contexts can add critical insight to our scientific understanding.
DOI: 10.1037/edu0000978
Untangling oxytocin
Oxytocin’s effects on prosocial behavior may depend on preexisting social context, according to research in The Journal of Neuroscience. Researchers studied prosocial behavior in adult male rhesus macaques before and after infusion of either oxytocin or saline. They found that infusing oxytocin in the basolateral amygdala, a brain area involved in processing social salience and emotion, sustained macaques’ prosocial choices over the testing session, compared with a decline in prosocial behavior following saline infusion. Critically, this sustaining effect of oxytocin occurred only when the macaques had already shown an inclination toward prosocial behavior before infusion. Simultaneous neural recordings provided complementary evidence: Oxytocin infusion enhanced prosocial-related activity in the basolateral amygdala and the anterior cingulate cortex, a brain region involved in social decision-making, but only when baseline prosocial behavior was high. The results suggest that oxytocin enhances communication between the two brain areas, guiding social decision-making in ways that reinforce existing prosocial preferences and motivations.
DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2416-24.2025opens in new window
Mapping the age-related nuances of navigation
While some research has suggested that older adults’ navigation difficulties stem from deficits in landmark-based wayfinding strategies, a study in Psychology and Aging provides a more nuanced picture. In the study, 44 young adults (ages 18 to 31) and 44 older adults (ages 63 to 80) learned to navigate a virtual reality environment to find a target object. In the desktop condition, they navigated via mouse and keyboard; in the immersive condition, they could walk around the virtual environment. Young and older adults showed some similarities in their use of landmark-based, or allocentric, strategy: Both groups performed worse when learning to navigate from a new starting point, and they showed a similar reliance on far-off landmarks on test trials. Whereas older adults often repeated paths they had taken before in both the immersive and desktop conditions, indicating a less efficient self-based, or egocentric, strategy, young adults tended to repeat familiar paths only in the immersive condition, especially when the environment included a boundary wall. These results suggest that older adults do not show overarching deficits in landmark-based wayfinding relative to younger adults. Rather, age-related differences in wayfinding are likely because of a complex interplay of signals, systems, and strategies.
DOI: 10.1037/pag0000927
Validating lived experience may aid coping
Responding to someone’s personal experiences of racism with validation may help create a supportive shared reality, according to a study in Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology. In two studies, a total of 1,082 Canadian university students, all people of color, recalled a personal experience of racism and imagined disclosing that experience to a confidant. They rated confidants’ responses as more helpful when the response validated their experience as opposed to reframing it, especially when the imagined confidant was White. Anticipating validation led participants to report more positive emotion, less negative emotion, less rumination, and more coping self-efficacy. They saw the validation approach as more responsive and conducive to a racial shared reality than reframing. The more participants attributed their negative experience to race, the more psychological benefit they reported from validation, especially from White confidants. The findings suggest that supportive responses to disclosures of discrimination depend on the characteristics of the people involved, the type of support offered, and the broader experiential context.
DOI: 10.1037/cdp0000762
Seeing the difference between solid “things” and flexible “stuff”
Research published in Current Biology suggests the brain makes a visual distinction between solid objects and more flexible, nonsolid objects, processing the two types of items in distinct ways. Participants watched brief animated videos of what the researchers defined as things (rigid and nonrigid objects) versus stuff (liquid and granular substances) while undergoing fMRI scans. Both things and stuff engaged the frontoparietal network (FPN) and lateral occipital complex (LOC), brain areas known to play a role in visual processing of object interactions and properties. Importantly, both the FPN and LOC had at least one subregion that responded preferentially to things and one subregion that responded preferentially to stuff, suggesting a functional dissociation in both the dorsal and ventral visual streams. Clarifying how this dissociation influences our ability to interpret the properties and interactive qualities of objects can help us understand how the brain represents the world.
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2025.07.027opens in new window
Class biases in the classroom
Early education settings offer children opportunities to learn and develop critical skills, but these opportunities are not always equal. Research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that children’s social class may be one factor that influences opportunities for classroom participation. Researchers recorded classroom interactions in 63 French preschools, documenting preschoolers’ attempts to participate and the responses they received from their teachers. They defined each student’s social class using parental occupation as a proxy. Analyses showed that teachers accepted participation attempts less often from children from a low social class background compared with children from middle and high social class backgrounds. This discrepancy held regardless of the type of bid (raising a hand versus calling out) or the child’s language ability. Although the data do not shed light on potential causes of this discrepancy, the researchers emphasize that these early differences matter, especially if they create a reinforcing cycle that leads children to become less engaged in school. Identifying and addressing these disparities early could help create more equal opportunities for all students.
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2515833122 opens in new window
How emotional stimuli can warp time
Our emotional states can speed up or slow down our perceptions of time, partly through changes in heart rate, according to research in Frontiers in Psychology. In the study, 38 participants watched a series of video clips containing emotionally negative, neutral, or positive stimuli and estimated the length of each clip. Throughout the experiment, researchers recorded participants’ heart rates using ECG. In general, people tended to underestimate the length of negative and neutral clips, and this was partly mediated by slower heart rates. In contrast with previous studies, there was no link between participants’ interoceptive accuracy—their ability to estimate their heart rate correctly—and their perception of time. Internally focused attention did not interact with heart rate and emotional valence, suggesting these effects may be because of unconscious mechanisms. The study sheds light on how both emotions and internal signals may contribute to our sense of time, suggesting avenues to explore the role of individual differences and unconscious influences.
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1610347opens in new window
